Nelly Neppach
| Country (sports) |
.svg.png){kind=small} Germany |
|---|---|
| Born |
1898 Frankfurt am Main, Germany |
| Died |
7 May 1933 (aged 34) Berlin, Germany |
| Singles | |
| Grand Slam Singles results | |
| French Open | 3R (1927) |
| Doubles | |
| Grand Slam Doubles results | |
| French Open | 2R (1927) |
Nelly Neppach (née Bamberger; German pronunciation: [ˈnɛli] ˈnɛpaːχ]; 1898 – 7 May 1933) was a German female tennis player.
Biography
Neppach was born at Frankfurt am Main in 1898. She began playing tennis in her early youth and won her first title in 1910, aged 12.[1]
After World War I, Neppach married film architect and producer Robert Neppach and moved to Berlin where she joined the sports club Tennis Borussia Berlin.[2]
In 1925, Neppach reached her greatest success by beating Ilse Friedleben in the final of the German championships at Hamburg.[3] In 1926, she was invited by Suzanne Lenglen to play international tournaments at the French Riviera, at a time German players were still banned from international tournaments as a consequence of World War I. Neppach travelled to France and played matches against Lenglen as well as US legend Helen Wills. However, the German tennis federation became angry about her unauthorized trip and eventually forced her to abort it and return to Germany.[2]
At her only appearance on a major tournament at the 1927 French Championships, she reached the third round where she lost to Eileen Bennett in three sets.[4] During the following years, Neppach's and Ilse Friedleben's place at the top of German women's tennis was taken over by younger and more successful players like Cilly Aussem and Hilde Krahwinkel. Still Neppach was ranked ninth nationwide in 1932.[2]
On 11 April 1933, a few months after the Nazi Party had seized power in German in January, Neppach who was of Jewish faith quit her membership at Tennis Borussia.[1] Even though the circumstances of this decision are not known in detail, she was almost certainly forced to do so, as most German tennis clubs at that time expelled their Jewish members.[5] In the same month, the German tennis federation announced that Jewish player were no longer allowed to play international tournaments.
On the night of 7/8 May 1933, Neppach, obviously in despair because of the increasing discrimination and prosecution of Jewish people in Germany and her isolation from tennis in particular, took her life in her flat at Berlin using Barbital and town gas.[2] She was the first German female tennis player who had gained international appreciation.[1]
References
- 1 2 3 "Eine mutige Frau" [A courageous lady]. www.tebe.de (in German). Tennis Borussia Berlin. 2 May 2010. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
- 1 2 3 4 Eichler, Christian. "Ein Schicksal". In Deutscher Tennis Bund. Tennis in Deutschland. Von den Anfängen bis 2002. [Tennis in Germany. From the beginnings to 2002.] (in German). Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 122–123. ISBN 3-428-10846-9.
- ↑ "Internationale Tennismeisterschaften von Deutschland in Hamburg". Hamburger Nachrichten (in German). 17 August 1925. p. 10 – via The European Library.
- ↑ Albiero, Alessandro; Carta, Andrea (2011). The Grand Slam Record Book Vol. 2. Monte Porzio Catone: Effepi Libri. p. 200. ISBN 978-88-6002-0239.
- ↑ Kopfe, Christoph (2013). Treß, Werner, ed. Der Tag von Potsdam [The day of Potsdam.] (in German). Berlin/Boston: De Gryter. p. 203. ISBN 978-3-11-030549-4.