| Description |
Martha Bachem (born Martha Musilek on June 8, 1924 in Vienna; died May 29, 2015) was a German-Austrian figure skater.
At the 1939 European Figure Skating Championships in Davos, she achieved ninth place. At the World Figure Skating Championships that same year, she competed for Germany, instead of Austria as she had at the European Championships, and achieved seventh place. During World War II, she was coached by Karl Schäfer in Austria. She participated in the German Figure Skating Championships several times. In 1939 in Krefeld and in 1940 in Munich, she placed third. In 1941, she achieved second place behind Hanne Niernberger. She became German Champion at the championships in Vienna in 1942, Hamburg in 1943, and Munich in 1944. At the end of September/beginning of October 1944, she married Hans Erich Bachem (1920–1993)[5] and subsequently lived with him and their daughter in Cologne. She did not participate in the 1947 German Figure Skating Championships in Garmisch.
After Germany was not allowed to compete in the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Bachem, who had German citizenship through her marriage and the former Anschluss of Austria, decided to reapply for her original Austrian citizenship with the Austrian Repatriation Commission in Munich. Since this was possible for all women whose certificate of origin listed Austria as their place of birth and who wished to return home without their "Reich German" husband, she was able to enter Austria with her daughter and was treated as an Austrian citizen until the final decision on her application. As a result, the Austrian National Committee admitted her to the Winter Olympics, and Bachem competed in figure skating, placing ninth. She subsequently competed for Austria at the 1948 World Figure Skating Championships in Davos, where she placed seventh, and at the 1948 European Figure Skating Championships in Prague, where she placed eleventh. Since Bachem had no interest in divorcing her husband and thus was denied Austrian citizenship, she and her daughter were placed on the deportation list and returned to Germany.
39 x 28 cms, magazine, 32 pages.
1938
|