30 Facts About Johann Trollmann

Johann Wilhelm "Rukeli" Trollmann was a German Sinti boxer.

Johann Trollmann's father, Wilhelm "Schnipplo" Trollmann, was an ethnic German umbrella maker and part-time musician, while his mother, Friederike "Pessy" Weiss, was of Sinti origin.

Johann Trollmann had eight siblings: his three sisters Maria, Anna, and Wilhelmine, and five brothers Wilhelm, Ferdinand, Julius, Albert, and Heinrich.

Johann Trollmann picked up boxing when he was a child and had his first amateur match at eight years old.

Johann Trollmann was called "Rukeli" by other Sinti, derived from the Romani word for tree, for his upright stance.

Johann Trollmann's father had served in Braunschweig's water police during World War I while the family of his mother had long abandoned their itinerant lifestyle.

Johann Trollmann won the regional title of Hanover district's boxing championship four times in a row and became a member of the BC Heros Eintracht in 1922, thus joining the Deutsche Reichsverband fur Amateur-Boxen.

Johann Trollmann became famous in the mid-1920s for winning the North-German amateur boxing championship.

Johann Trollmann's looks made him popular with the audience, earning him compliments by both women and men during matches and dedicated columns in newspapers in his hometown.

Johann Trollmann was well-received for his distinct boxing style, which was compared to dance for Trollmann's quick and agile moves.

Johann Trollmann sought to join the German national boxing team for the 1928 Summer Olympics, but was barred by officials, officially for "inedequate performance".

In June 1929, Johann Trollmann left the BC Heros Eintracht and joined BC Sparta Linden, primarily made up of athletes with working class backgrounds, to focus on national competitions in professional sports.

Johann Trollmann's family had been largely conservative, with Johann Trollmann's eldest brother Wilhelm joining the SA in 1933, but he was ousted the same year for being Roma.

On 9 June 1933, Johann Trollmann fought for the German light-heavyweight title against Adolf Witt, in a highly publicised match attended by Nazi officials, including VDF chairman Radamm.

Aware that Johann Trollmann was likely to win, which would call the Nazi government's professed superiority of the German "Aryans" into question, Radamm had instructed the jury to judge "no result" and although Johann Trollmann clearly led by points over the course of six rounds, the jury obeyed Radamm's instructions.

However, six days later he was stripped of the title, with a VDF letter stating that both fighters had "performed inadequately" and that Johann Trollmann had shown "unsportsmanlike behaviour" by crying tears of joy while receiving the trophy belt.

Johann Trollmann was threatened that he had to change his "dancing" style or lose his licence.

Johann Trollmann arrived the day of the match with his hair dyed blond and his face whitened with flour, the caricature of an Aryan.

Johann Trollmann took the blows of his opponent as he was asked for five rounds before he collapsed.

Between 1933 and 1935, Johann Trollmann continued to earn a living as a boxer at carnivals and other small-scale events.

Johann Trollmann resided in Berlin-Charlottenburg with his girlfriend Olga Frieda Bilda, having a daughter, Rita, in March 1935.

In July 1935, Johann Trollmann was detained at Rummelsburg workhouse following a forced sterilisation order.

In September 1938, Johann Trollmann divorced from his wife in hopes of covering for his daughter who, under the Nuremberg Laws, would be judged a Mischling for being half-Sintiza.

Johann Trollmann was stationed in occupied France, Belgium, and Poland, where he was wounded in June 1941 during the early stages of Operation Barbarossa, being returned to Germany as a result; he was officially discharged in early 1942, when Sinti and Roma were banned from serving in the military.

Johann Trollmann tried to keep a low profile, but was recognized by Schutzhaftlagerfuhrer Albert Lutkemeyer, who had been a boxing official before the war.

Johann Trollmann used Trollmann as a trainer for his troops during the nights in exchange for a slice of buttered bread for each time Trollmann was knocked out.

Johann Trollmann's family received an urn, which was buried at Anger Cemetery in Hanover.

Johann Trollmann won, Cornelius sought revenge for his humiliation and forced Johann Trollmann to work all day until he was exhausted, before attacking and killing him with a shovel.

Two of Johann Trollmann's brothers died as a result of the Romani Holocaust: his youngest brother Heinrich, who had been a communist, died in Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943, while another brother, Julius, died in 1958 from long-term health effects of his imprisonment, having been rendered paraplegic from severe beatings at a hard labour camp.

In 2022, the German television series Babylon Berlin season four, a fictional version of Johann Trollmann is portrayed by Hannes Wegener and is revealed to be the half-brother of one of the series' leads, Lotte Ritter.