Daniel Prenn – From Germany’s First Man in the Top Ten to ‘“No Nationality” Man’?

Abstract

This biographical study thematizes the life of Daniel Prenn, Germany's first male tennis player in the world's top ten ranking. Emigrating from St. Petersburg to Berlin as an adolescent, he soon developed a great talent in tennis, became Germany's number one player and represented the country in the Davis Cup before in 1933 -at the height of his success -he became a famous victim of the sport segregation by the National Socialists due to his Jewish background. Subsequently, Daniel migrated to the United Kingdom and was able to continue his tennis career. This article explores his story and contextualizes it before the historical background, as his life is connected to numerous contemporary developments of the time such as antisemitism, emigration, naturalization and more. Further, the study provides insights into the role of sports regarding processes of integration and identification. It looks at the trajectory of an early sports migrant, his motivations, experiences, obstacles and successes. So far, Daniel Prenn's story has been absent from (sports) history, and his life has not yet been studied in detail nor remembered comprehensively. This biographical account is a first attempt at changing this.On Friday June 25, 1937, the headline in the Dundee Evening Telegraph read: 'Frankie Parker meets "No Nationality" Man' . 1 As always during the summer months of June and July the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club hosted its annual lawn tennis championship at Wimbledon, London. In the fourth round Frankie Parker, the American who would later reach the tournament's final, played a man with whom he not only shared his talent for tennis but his Polish ancestry. This mysterious 'No Nationality Man' was no stranger, neither to the tennis community nor the British public. He had played Wimbledon on several occasions before. The particularity this time was that the tournament's programme for the round of the last 16 listed 'four Britishers, four Americans, two Australians, two Germans, one Czech, one New Zealander, one Belgian and one -Daniel Prenn' [emphasis added]. 2