Boxing Legend Max Schmeling Dies at 99

The legendary German boxer Max Schmeling, whose two fights against the American Joe Louis in the 1930s set off a notorious propaganda war between Nazi Germany and the United States, has died at the age of 99.

The former world heavyweight champion, one of Germany's biggest sports idols, died on Wednesday at his home in Hollenstadt after slipping into a coma, it was announced yesterday.

The German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, led tributes to the boxer yesterday, praising him for his fairness, and describing him as an idol for generations. "He was a star, but he didn't let fame go to his head," said Mr Schröder.

Born in 1905 to humble origins, Schmeling won the world heavyweight title in June 1930 when he beat Jack Sharkey in New York after the American was disqualified. But he lost his title to Sharkey two years later.

He was pitted against Joe Louis on June 19 1936, and spectacularly knocked him out in the 12th round. It was an encounter he was expected to lose and the Nazis swiftly hailed his victory against a black opponent as proof of "Aryan supremacy". In the rematch two years later, however, Louis knocked Schmeling out in the first round.

Despite being feted by Hitler, the self-effacing boxer was never a Nazi. He consistently refused to join the Nazi party or sack his American Jewish manager.

In 1938, during the Kristallnacht pogrom, he hid two Jewish boys in his Berlin hotel room. The Nazis responded by drafting Schmeling into the army and he was wounded several times during the war.