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General First nameLudwig Albrecht Constantin Maria Count von
LastnameSalm Hoogstraeten
GenderMale
CountryAustria
Date of birth1885-02-24
Place of birthBad Homburg vor der Höhe, Hessen, Germany
Date of death1944-07-23
Place of deathBudapest, Hungary

About

Adapted from Wikipedia, at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_von_Salm-Hoogstraeten

Count Ludwig von Salm was born on 24 February 1885 in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe to Count Alfred von Salm-Hoogstraeten, a Prussian Cavalry officer in the Franco-Prussian War, and Baroness Adolphine von Erlanger. Ludwig had three younger brothers: Alfred, Otto and Alexander. The latter two brothers were also tennis players and sometimes played together in the men’s doubles event at tournaments; they also competed at the U.S. Indoor Championships in 1914. The family owned an estate at Reichenau; as the oldest child Ludwig was the first in line to inherit it.

Ludwig von Salm was particularly successful in doubles competitions. Before World War One, he reached the mixed doubles final at the Les Avants tournament in Switzerland with a Miss Turner; they lost the match to Eric Pockley and Mildred Brooksmith. In April 1911, von Salm won the men’s doubles event in San Remo together with Anthony Wilding; in the final they defeated Curt Bergmann and Friedrich Rahe.

In 1912, von Salm was runner-up to Friedrich Wilhelm Rahe in the men’s singles event at the Biarritz Golf Club tournament in Biarritz. In the same year von Salm won the men’s doubles event at the Russian Championships with Mikhail Sumarokov-Elston. In 1913, von Salm reached the semi-finals of the men’s doubles event in Monaco with Max Decugis, where they were beaten by Heinrich Kleinschroth and Rahe in a straight two-set match.

Although he only reached the second round of the men’s singles event at Wimbledon in 1913, von Salm did better in the All England Plate, a consolation event for players who had lost in the earliest rounds of the main men’s singles event. The Austrian was eliminated in the fourth round of the consolation event by Horace Rice.

In 1914, von Salm and Wilding, won the men’s doubles title in Cannes, beating Decugis and Gordon Lowe in the final. In the same year, together with William Laurentz, von Salm also reached the challenge round of the men’s doubles event at the French National Championships in Paris, where they were beaten by the defending champions, Decugis and and Maurice Germot. The Austrian also reached the all-comers’ final in the men’s singles event at the same tournament, where he had to retire against Jean Samazeuilh in the fifth set due to fatigue.

In 1914, von Salm also reached the final of the men’s singles event at the World Championships, where he was beaten in straight sets by Wilding. Together with Suzanne Lenglen, von Salm also reached the final of the mixed doubles event at the World Hard Court Championships, where they were easily beaten by Elizabeth Ryan and Max Decugis.

After World War One, von Salm returned to competition in 1920, at the German International Tennis Championships in Hamburg, where he won the men’s doubles title with Oscar Kreuzer.

Poor sportsmanship caused von Salm to have several run-ins with the authorities during his tennis career. In 1924, the tennis clubs on the French Riviera refused him entry to their championships for his lack of sportsmanship. In 1925, his playing license was indefinitely suspended by the Austrian Lawn Tennis Federation because he failed to show up at an international match in Breslau (this ban was lifted a couple of years later.

During the tennis season of 1925, von Salm also violated the code of behaviour on several occasions. In a mixed doubles match in Vienna, he insulted his partner Suzanne Lenglen to the point that she dropped her racquet and left the court. During a Davis Cup tie, he also provoked the Irish player Charles Scroope by constantly questioning the umpire’s decisions.

In 1926, together with Béla von Kehrling, the 41-year-old von Salm reached the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles event at the French International Championship in Paris; they were defeated by the eventual champions, Howard Kinsey and Vincent Richards.

In 1926, von Salm won the men’s singles title at the Rot-Weiss club in Berlin, a victory which caused a major scandal. During one match, von Salm verbally abused his 18-old opponent Hermann Wetzel, who walked off the court in the second set after having enough. The judges awarded the match to von Salm, reasoning that Wetzel had voluntarily left the court. It was the second time within a year that von Salm’s misbehaviour had caused international controversy and, as a result, an official ban was requested in order to deny the Austrian access to tournaments.

On another occasion, in 1928, while he was taking part in the mixed doubles event at a tournament in Cannes, von Salm drew attention to himself when he walked off the court in outrage during a match after a ball flew in from another court, distracting him so that he lost the point. He came back when he heard the laughter of the spectators. His partner, Blanche Gladys Duddell, wife of Edward Murray Colston, 2nd Baron Roundway, was also upset by the count’s actions and her husband officially protested during this interruption to ensure that the rules prevented the count from leaving the court again.

Also in 1928, at the New Courts Club tournament in Cannes, von Salm partnered with fellow Austria Hermann von Artens to win the men’s doubles event without losing a set. In 1929, the same pair reached the semi-finals of the South of France Championships in, where they were stopped by René Gallèpe and Charles Aeschlimann.

In 1930, partnering Bill Tilden, von Salm won the men’s doubles title at the Austrian International Championships. The Austrian was also runner-up in the same event in Ostend, Venice, and Merano with three different partners. In 1931, he earned second place in the veterans’ men’s singles event at the French Championships, where he lost in straight sets to Francis Leighton-Crawford.

During World War One, von Salm had served as a dragoon officer in the Austrian Army and as a military aide to the Governor of Vienna. After the war he settled in Vienna, where he lost much of his fortune and properties during card games held at the Jockey Club.

Count Ludwig von Salm married his first wife, Anne-Marie von Kramsta, on 30 June 1909. His second marriage, on 8 January 1924, was to the American heiress Millicent Rogers. The marriage produced one child, a son called Peter, but the couple had divorced before he was born on 27 September 1925.

Apart from playing tennis, von Salm occasionally acted in movies thanks to his friend Count Alexander Kolowrat, who was a film producer and owner of Sascha Films. His director, Mihály Kertész, encouraged Kolowrat to offer von Salm roles in moves. He was cast in three feature films alongside Lucy Doraine, including Masters of the Sea and A Vanished World, both in 1922.

In 1929, a book by von Salm was published; dedicated to his son, Peter, it was entitled “Mein lieber Peter… Beichte eines Vaters”/“My dear Peter… A Father’s Confession”. While still living in Austria, he gave private lessons on tennis etiquette and fair play to children in Vienna.

After his financial setback von Salm moved to Budapest and started a wine business. He rented and lived in a second-story room in the Hotel Dunapalota-Ritz. On 23 July 1944, he jumped off the hotel balcony onto the Danube Promenade, dying instantly. According to the Winona Daily News, he killed himself because the Nazis had arrived to arrest him because of his Jewish ancestry.

According to von Salm’s friend Sidney Wood, the root cause behind his suicide was that the Nazi regime pressured him to engage in espionage, which he refused to do and thus the SS wanted to hunt him down. However, according to the Jewish Criterion, von Salm was a Nazi collaborator and avid anti-Semite, and chose to end his life in fear of post-war reprisals. He was buried on 28 July 1944; his funeral was a big social affair.

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