Robert Fein

{{Short description|Austrian weightlifter (1907–1975)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}} {{Infobox sportsperson | honorific_prefix = | name = Robert Fein | honorific_suffix = | image = File:FeinRobert1936.JPG | image_size =  | alt = | caption = In Austrian team uniform, 1936 | headercolor = | textcolor =  | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name =  | full_name =  | nickname = | nationality =  | national_team = {{AUT}} | citizenship = | birth_date = {{birth date|1907|12|9|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Vienna]], [[Austria-Hungary]] | death_date ={{death date and age|1975|1|2|1907|12|9|df=y}} | death_place = Vienna, [[Austria]] | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | monuments = | hometown = Vienna, Austria | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = | years_active = | employer = | agent = | height =  | weight =  | spouse = | life_partner = | children = | parents =  | relatives = | other_interests = | website =  | module =  | country = Austria | sport = weightlifting | position = | weight_class = lightweight | weight_class_type = | rank = | event = | event_type = | universityteam = | collegeteam = | league = | league_type = | club = | team = | turnedpro = | turnedpro_type = | coach = | retired = | coaching = | module2 =  | worlds = | regionals = European Weightlifting Championships: *1929 [[gold medal]] *1930 [[bronze medal]] *1934 gold medal *1935 [[silver medal]] | nationals = | olympics = | paralympics = | commonwealth = | highestranking = 23 world records | pb =  | show-medals = | medaltemplates = | medaltemplates-title = | module3 = }} {{MedalTop}} {{MedalCountry|{{AUT}}}} {{MedalSport|Men's [[Weightlifting at the Summer Olympics|Weightlifting]]}} {{MedalCompetition|[[Weightlifting at the Summer Olympics|Olympic Games]]}} {{MedalGold|[[1936 Summer Olympics|1936 Berlin]] | [[Weightlifting at the 1936 Summer Olympics - Men's 67.5 kg|-67.5 kg]]}} {{MedalCompetition|[[World Weightlifting Championships]]}} {{MedalSilver|[[1937 World Weightlifting Championships|1937 Paris]] |-67.5 kg}} {{MedalBottom}}

'''Robert Fein''' (9 December 1907 – 2 January 1975) was an Austrian [[Olympic Champion]] [[Olympic weightlifting|weightlifter]], winning the [[gold medal]] in the lightweight class at the [[1936 Summer Olympics]]. The following year, he won the [[silver medal]] at the [[1937 World Weightlifting Championships]], and set his 23rd world record that year. One year later, he was barred from competing in weightlifting, because he was Jewish, and he never competed again.

==Biography==

Fein was born in [[Vienna, Austria]] on 9 December 1907, and was [[History of the Jews in Austria|Jewish]].<ref name="auto2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.olympia.at/museum/main.asp?VID=1&kat1=13&kat2=142&kat3=&MBIOPID=268&MBIOTID=359|title=Österreichisches Olympisches Comité - Österreichisches Olympiamuseum|website=www.olympia.at}}</ref> He broke world [[weightlifting]] records 23 times in total, from 1931 to 1937, when his weightlifting career was abruptly ended by the Austrian authorities.<ref name="auto">[https://olympics.com/en/athletes/robert-fein "Robert Fein,"] olympics.com.</ref><ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.chidlovski.net/liftup/l_athleteResult.asp?a_id=62 |title=Robert Fein, Top Olympic Lifters of the 20th Century|website=chidlovski.net}}</ref>

At the 1929 European weightlifting championships in Vienna, Fein won the [[gold medal]].<ref name="auto"/> At the 1930 European weightlifting championships in Munich, he won a [[bronze medal]].<ref name="auto"/>

At the 1934 European weightlifting championships in Genoa Fein again won a gold medal, which he shared with 1932 Olympic champion [[René Duverger]].<ref name="auto"/> At the 1935 European weightlifting championships in Paris, he won a [[silver medal]].<ref name="auto"/>

===1936 Olympic gold medal=== In the event for which he was likely best known, Fein competed in weightlifting at the [[1936 Summer Olympics]] in Berlin, Germany.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/2000/08/09/Olympic-History-Weightlifting/2258965793600/|title=Olympic History -- Weightlifting|website=UPI}}</ref> He won the gold medal in the lightweight class with a world record lift of 342.5 kilograms (755 pounds), with splits of 105+100+137.5, sharing the win with [[Anwar Mesbah]], with whom his match had ended in a tie. Sixteen weightlifters from twelve nations competed. Fein became one of only thirteen Jewish Olympians to medal in the games which were held during Adolph Hitler's Nazi government, and following the imposition of the anti-Semitic Nuremberg laws. The Nuremberg Laws, passed in the fall of 1935, stripped German Jews of citizenship, opportunities to receive a public education, and access to many professions and public facilities. Jewish businesses had been boycotted and Jews could not serve in the legal profession, the civil service, teach in secondary schools or universities or vote or hold public office.<ref>Stan Greenberg, Norris McWhirter (1991). [https://books.google.com/books?id=6uEqWNrTWZMC&q=Robert+Fein+weightlifter ''Guinness Book of Olympic Records; Complete Roll of Olympic Medal Winners (1896-1988, Including 1906) for the Sports (7 Winter and 25 Summer) Contested in the 1992 Celebrations and Other Useful Information)'']</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.olympiandatabase.com/index.php?id=39245&L=1|title=Robert Fein - Olympic Facts and Results|website=www.olympiandatabase.com}}</ref><ref name="auto"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ushmm.org/exhibition/olympics/?content=jewish_athletes_medals&lang=en |title=The Nazi Olympics (Berlin 1936)—Jewish Athletes; Olympic Medalists |publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] |date= |accessdate=July 16, 2015}}</ref><ref name="Anti-Jewish Legislation">{{cite web|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/anti-jewish-legislation-in-prewar-germany |title=Anti-Jewish Legislation in Pre-War Germany|publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] |date= |accessdate=July 16, 2022}}</ref>

===Taking Silver in World Championship=== The Weightlifting World Championships were restored with the [[1937 World Weightlifting Championships]] in Paris, France, the first time they were held since 1923.<ref name="auto"/> Fein won a silver medal behind [[Tony Terlazzo]], lifting 355 kilograms (with splits of 107.5+107.5+140), 2.5 kilograms behind Terlazzo.<ref name="auto"/><ref name="auto1"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.chidlovski.net/liftup/l_worldResult.asp?wname=Lightweight&wyear=1937|title=World Championships from 1891 to Today|website=chidlovski.net}}</ref>

In 1937, Fein set a world record of 360 kilograms, his last world record before the Austrians banned him from competing.<ref name="auto1"/>

In 1937 Fein was decorated with the [[Grand Decoration of Honour|Gold Medal for Service to the Republic of Austria]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.oeoc.at/museum/statistik.asp?STPID=268&Back=1&TextID=359 |title= Robert Fein setzt mit einer Goldmedaille die österreichische Gewichthebertradition fort|work= Österreichs Athleten bei den Olympischen Spielen |language= German|publisher= [[Austrian Olympic Committee]]| accessdate= January 20, 2009}}</ref>

===Barred from competition=== With the Austrian ''[[Anschluß]]'' in 1938, Fein was barred from further competition because he was Jewish.<ref name="auto"/><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=htTHDwAAQBAJ&dq=Robert+Fein+weightlifter&pg=PT472 ''Routledge Handbook of Global Sport,''] 2020.</ref> He was persecuted during the [[Austria under National Socialism|Austrian Nazi regime]].<ref name="auto2"/>

Dr. George Eisen of [[Nazareth College (New York)|Nazareth College]] included Fein on his list of Jewish Olympic Medalists, and an account of Fein's overcoming an early deficit to earn a tie for the gold medal with Egyptian weightlifter Mesbah is included in ''Jews and the Olympic Games: the clash between sport and politics: with a complete review of Jewish Olympic medallists''.<ref>Eisen, George. [http://www.jewishsports.net/medalists.htm "Jewish Olympic Medalists"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414152706/http://www.jewishsports.net/medalists.htm |date=14 April 2019 }}, [[International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame]]. Accessed February 2, 2011.</ref><ref>Taylor, Paul. [https://books.google.com/books?id=tGcPDXOjxMoC&pg=PA95 ''Jews and the Olympic Games: the clash between sport and politics : with a complete review of Jewish Olympic medallists''], p. 95. Sussex Academic Press, 2004. {{ISBN|1-903900-87-5}}. Accessed February 3, 2011.</ref>

Fein died at 67 years of age in Vienna, Austria, after a long illness.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ciYKAAAAIAAJ&q=Robert+Fein+weightlifter ''Olympic Review''], Issues 89-96 (1975).</ref>

==See also== *[[List of Jews in sports#Weightlifting|List of select Jewish weightlifters]] *[[List of Olympic medalists in weightlifting]]

== Notes and references == {{reflist}}

==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20200418002408/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/fe/robert-fein-1.html Profile] *[http://www.oeoc.at/museum/main.asp?VID=1&kat1=13&kat2=142&kat3=&MBIOPID=268&MBIOTID=359 Bio with image] {{in lang|de}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fein, Robert}} [[Category:1907 births]] [[Category:1975 deaths]] [[Category:Austrian male weightlifters]] [[Category:20th-century Austrian Jews]] [[Category:Jewish weightlifters]] [[Category:Olympic gold medalists for Austria]] [[Category:Olympic weightlifters for Austria]] [[Category:Olympic medalists in weightlifting]] [[Category:Weightlifters at the 1936 Summer Olympics]] [[Category:World record setters in weightlifting]] [[Category:Weightlifters from Vienna]] [[Category:Recipients of the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria]] [[Category:Medalists at the 1936 Summer Olympics]] [[Category:20th-century Austrian sportsmen]] {{Austria-Olympic-medalist-stub}} {{Austria-weightlifting-bio-stub}}