Robert Fein

Robert Fein (9 December 1907 – 2 January 1975) was an Austrian Olympic Champion 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 Jewish. He broke world weightlifting records 23 times in total, from 1931 to 1937, when his weightlifting career was abruptly ended by the Austrian authorities.

At the 1929 European weightlifting championships in Vienna, Fein won the gold medal. 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 Adolf 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.

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.

In 1937, Fein set a world record of 360 kilograms, his last world record before the Austrians banned him from competing.

Barred from competition With the Austrian Anschluß in 1938, Fein was barred from further competition because he was Jewish. He was persecuted during the Austrian Nazi regime.

Fein died at 67 years of age in Vienna, Austria, after a long illness.