ABSTRACT
Until today, Christl Cranz (1914–g2004) is one of the world’s most successful female downhill skiers. She competed during the Nazi period: between the years 1934–1939, she won 12 World Championships and the Olympic downhill skiing competition in 1936. After the Second World War, Cranz became Germany’s fi rst female ski instructor with an offi cial certifi cate and the fi rst woman to open a ski school. She also served on the Council of the German Ski Federation as a representative for women’s issues for some years and was an international judge for ski competitions. So far no research has been done on Cranz’s life. Cranz herself left a published and an unpublished autobiography in which she mainly focused on her career as a skier. She completely left out the political circumstances of her active time. It is known that she received many honours from the Nazis and there are photos of her shown together with the German Reichskanzler, Hitler. This neglect raises such questions as to what extent she was a showpiece athlete and used for Nazi propaganda. Did she – like other public fi gures of her time – use her fame for her own ideological or athletic goals? Sources show that she had to serve in a French camp for almost one year before she was denazifi ed.
