He won the four-hill tour
German ski jumping pioneer died at the age of 92
04/30/2025 – 05:28 a.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Max Bolkart died at the age of 92. The Oberstdorfer was the oldest still living winner of the legendary four -hill tour.
The German ski jumping pioneer Max Bolkart died at the age of 92. The Oberstdorfer was the oldest still living winner of the four -hill tour. In the winter of 1959/60, Molkart was the first West German jumper to win the ride over the four ski jumps – only in 1990 the second followed in Dieter Thoma.
“It was now a redemption for him,” said his daughter Margret Bolkart-Fetz of the Allgäuer Zeitung. Her father recently suffered from severe dementia.
Bolkart even stood in 1960 to Siegen in Oberstdorf, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Innsbruck shortly before the Grand Slam. Because it “only” ranked fifth at the final in Bischofshofen, this feat only made Sven Hannawald 42 years later.
“It is a nice feeling when your name appears in the winning statistics every year,” Bolkart once told the newspaper “Welt”. His trademark was the white gloves. Max Bolkart jumped into the hearts of ski jumping fans in the 1950s.
At that time he also had a bread profession in addition to ski jumping, repairing the electricity works as a machinist. Among other things, he repaired the loudspeakers at the Heini Klopfer-Skiflugschanze in his home town of Oberstdorf during the 1959/60 Vierchanzentorunee. During the breaks, he then put on his ski jumps and made his training jumps. In between he still had time to make New Year’s Eve music as a member of the Oberstdorf Stadtkapelle. Despite little sleep, he finished second on the tour.
The pioneer flew to further successes with chesthoses, poodle hat and the white mottels. He became a tour of the tour of the Olympics in 1956 in Cortina d’Ampezzo ungrateful fourth, 1960 in Squaw Valley sixth.
Many of his trophies are exhibited today in the Freiberg family hotel. There is also the pressure cooker that the ski jumping pioneer received in 1960 after his near-grand slam.