Paul
Rauch
Male
Germany
1895-05-03
Kniegnitz, Kreis Liegnitz, Silesia, Germany
1977-03-21
Emden, West-Germany
Paul Rauch was a German sports teacher and one of the first professional tennis players in Germany. Because his parents belonged to a free religious movement, he was not baptized and was not registered in the church register. His later birth certificate lists Grunau (Hirschberg) in the Giant Mountains, the birthplace of his wife.
Rauch initially grew up on a farm in Silesia. His parents were paid off by the farm's heir and moved to Berlin, where they opened a dairy in the Tempelhof district. Paul Rauch first encountered tennis as a schoolboy and, along with the later highly successful Roman Najuch, was encouraged to play tennis after the two boys' talent was recognized.
Even before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, he received his first position at the court of the Norwegian King Haakon VII in the then Norwegian capital Christiania (now Oslo) through the mediation of the Crown Prince couple Cecilie of Mecklenburg and Wilhelm of Prussia (1882–1951). From August 1914 he was deployed as a soldier in Russia and France until he was wounded in 1917.
In 1918 he returned to Berlin. There, while dancing, he met an employee of the Reich Debt Administration, who also came from Silesia. After their marriage, the couple moved to Magdeburg in 1921, where their first daughter was born in 1922. He then became coach of the German national tennis team and a teacher at the tennis club of the Swedish King Gustav V (Sweden). In 1924 he became responsible for the Central German region of the Association of German Tennis Teachers (VDT), based in Magdeburg.
From 1930 he worked as a tennis teacher in Mannheim. When, after the Nazis came to power in 1933 in Germany, all "non-Aryan" members - mostly Jews - were excluded from tennis clubs and these members left the country, the clubs' financial resources dwindled very quickly. Rauch's professional career in this sport was thus over. After a period of unemployment, he found a job as a sports instructor at the SA cross-country sports school in Neustrelitz. In 1936, he went to Breslau, where he became head of the sports office.
In December 1945, he and his family fled to the West, first to Hildesheim and then to Hanover, where he was able to work as a tennis instructor again from around 1950. He was mentioned, among other things, in a daily newspaper on May 3, 1965, on the occasion of his 70th birthday. He was active in sports until he was 71. As a pensioner, he later settled with his wife in Emden, where he died in 1977.
1924 - 1960
0
24
9
Round 1
Paul Rauch 1 *
Mr. Grandchamp
6-0
6-0
Round 2
Paul Rauch 1 *
Paul Roux
6-3
3-6
6-2
Round 3
Paul Rauch 1 *
P. Boulanger
4-6
6-0
6-2
Quarterfinals
Rene Ruzic 1 *
Paul Rauch
2-6
6-0
6-3
Round 1
Roman Najuch 1 *
Paul Rauch
6-0
6-0
Quarterfinals
Walter Lehmann 1 *
Paul Rauch
6-1
6-1
Round 1
J. Leavold 1 *
Paul Rauch
w.o.
Poule
Paul Rauch 1 *
Theodor Buchholz
6-0
6-1
Poule
Paul Rauch 1 *
Ernst Abel
?
Poule
August C. Becker 1 *
Paul Rauch
2-6
6-2
6-2
Poule
Paul Rauch 1 *
Hermann Bartelt
6-4
4-6
6-4
Poule
Max Hopfenheit 1 *
Paul Rauch
6-3
6-3
6-4
Poule
Roman Najuch 1 *
Paul Rauch
6-0
6-1
6-1
Poule
Paul Rauch 1 *
Karl Becker
2-6
6-0
6-1
Poule
Hermann (Wackl) Richter 1 *
Paul Rauch
6-1
6-1
6-1
Poule
August C. Becker 1 *
Paul Rauch
6-0
6-1
6-2
Final
Max Hopfenheit 1 *
Paul Rauch
6-1
3-6
6-4
6-1
Round 2
Wilhelm (Willy) Reinknecht 1 *
Paul Rauch
6-2
6-3
Round 1
Emil Abel 1 *
Paul Rauch
6-3
6-4
Poule
Hermann (Wackl) Richter 1 *
Paul Rauch
6-0
6-3
Poule
Max Stock 1 *
Paul Rauch
0-6
6-4
11-9
Poule
Paul Rauch 1 *
Mr. Hummel
6-2
6-4
Poule
Paul Rauch 1 *
Max Hopfenheit
6-4
6-4
Poule
Hermann Bartelt 1 *
Paul Rauch
6-3
6-4