Ellen Preis

{{Infobox sportsperson

|name=

|image=Elek Ilona Berlin (1936) (cropped).jpg

|image_size=100px

|caption=

|birth_date= 6 May 1912

|birth_place= Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany

|death_date=18 November 2007 (aged 95)

|death_place=Vienna, Austria

| height =

| weight =

|sport=Fencing

|club=Fechtsaal Werdnik, Wien
Union Fechtclub, Wien

|alma_mater=

| show-medals = yes

| medaltemplates =

{{MedalCountry|{{AUT}}}}

}}

Ellen Müller-Preis, née Preis, (6 May 1912 – 18 November 2007) was a German-born Austrian Olympic-champion foil fencer.{{cite web |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/mu/ellen-muller-preis-1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417230946/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/mu/ellen-muller-preis-1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=17 April 2020 |title=Ellen Preis Olympic Results |access-date=2 May 2010 |work=sports-reference.com}}

In 1949, she was named Austrian female athlete of the year.{{cite web|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/19/sports/EU-SPT-OLY-FEN-Obit-Mueller-Preis.php |title= The New York Times |publisher=International Herald Tribune |date=29 March 2009 | access-date=14 April 2010}}

Fencing career

Preis was born in Berlin, and was Jewish.[https://books.google.com/books?id=rr_qaE0a8rsC&q=Ellen+Preis&pg=PT1665 Encyclopedia of Modern Jewish Culture][https://books.google.com/books?id=UlHBGC2-FS0C&dq=Ellen+Preis+jewish&pg=PA151 Jews in the Gym: Judaism, Sports, and Athletics] She moved to Vienna at the age of 18 in 1930, and began receiving fencing instruction from her aunt.[https://web.archive.org/web/20200417230946/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/mu/ellen-muller-preis-1.html Ellen MÃ¼ller-Preis Bio, Stats, and Results | Olympics at Sports-Reference.com][https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-nov-21-me-passings21.s1-story.html "Ellen Mueller-Preis, 95; won gold, bronze medals in fencing at three Olympics" - latimes] In under two years she came in third in the European Championships in Vienna. She later married Dr. Müller and had two sons and a daughter, who died from whooping cough.

=World and National Championships=

She won three world championships (1947, 1949, and 1950){{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TyJ8ebnS1HMC&pg=RA1-PA476|author=Evangelista, Nick|title=The encyclopedia of the sword |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |date= 1995|isbn=9780313278969|access-date=14 April 2010}} and numerous national Austrian titles (17). In 1949 Müller-Preis was named the first ever "Austrian Female Athlete of the Year."

At one point, Prof. Müller-Preis was credited in the Guinness Book of World Records as the female with the longest Olympic span of any woman, competing from 1932 until 1956. The record has since been broken. Two Olympic Games were cancelled at that time due to World War II, 1940 and 1944.

=Olympics=

File:Elek Ilona Berlin (1936).jpg

As a German/Austrian dual citizen, she wanted to fence for Germany in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics but was rejected by the German Federation. She then fenced in those Olympics for Austria, beating Heather Judy Guinness of England for the gold medal. At both the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the 1948 London Olympics, she won bronze medals.

In the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Preis was one of a number of Jewish athletes who won medals.{{cite web|url=http://www.ushmm.org/exhibition/olympics/?content=jewish_athletes_medals&lang=en |title=The Nazi Olympics (Berlin 1936)—Jewish Athletes; Olympic Medalists |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |access-date=July 16, 2015}}{{cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1A1-D8T0VLP80.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140921122322/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1A1-D8T0VLP80.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 September 2014 |title=Ellen Mueller-Preis, 1932 Olympic fencing champion, dies at 95 |publisher=AP Worldstream |date= 19 November 2007|access-date=15 October 2013}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UlHBGC2-FS0C&pg=PA151|title=Jews in the Gym: Judaism, Sports, and Athletics|author=Greenspoon, Leonard |publisher=Purdue University Press |date= 2012|isbn=9781557536297}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tzp4O3gsJKwC&pg=PA60 |title=Nazis, Women and Molecular Biologie: Memoirs of a Lucky Self-hater |author=Stent, Gunther Siegmund |date= 1998|publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=9781412829472 }}{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/nazigamesolympic00larg |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/nazigamesolympic00larg/page/265 265] |title=Nazi Games: The Olympics of 1936 |author=Large, David Clay |publisher= W. W. Norton & Company |date=2007 |isbn=9780393058840 }} In the individual women's foil competition, all three medals were won by Jewish women who are counted among the greatest women fencers of the 20th century. Ilona Elek, known also as Ilona Elek-Schacherer, from Hungary won gold. Elek defeated a German with a Jewish father, Helene Mayer, gold medalist at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, one of only two Jews allowed to compete for Germany by the Nazis, who admitted her under threat of boycott by the US. Mayer caused controversy by giving the Nazi salute on the medal stand while accepting the silver medal.Mogulof, Milly (2002) Foiled, Hitler's Jewish Olympian. RDR Books. {{ISBN|157143092X}}. p. 157.

In 1956, at the age of 44, Preis reached the final round at the Melbourne Olympics and came in seventh.

Later life

After retiring from fencing, she was Professor Emeritus of the Universität für Musik and darstellende Kunst (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna) in Vienna, taught at the Max Reinhardt Seminar, and coached at the Openstudio of the Vienna Staatsoper and the Burgtheater. She worked as a consultant, ensuring that fencing performed in plays was properly done.{{cite web|url=http://www.magicflutes.net.au/pages/default.cfm?page_id=23951|title=Affiliated artists: Professor Ellen Müller-Preis|publisher=Magic Flutes International|access-date=16 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061003174422/http://www.magicflutes.net.au/pages/default.cfm?page_id=23951|archive-date=3 October 2006}}

Ellen Müller-Preis died on 18 November 2007 in Vienna of kidney failure.{{cite web|url=http://www.startribune.com/503/story/1562124.html |title=Sports briefs |publisher=Star Tribune |date=19 November 2007 |access-date=14 April 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071122010230/http://www.startribune.com/503/story/1562124.html |archive-date=22 November 2007 |df=dmy }}

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20070311043940/http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=PREISELL01 Olympic results]
[https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.oeoc.at/museum/main.asp%3FVID%3D1%26kat1%3D13%26kat2%3D142%26kat3%3D%26MBIOPID%3D935%26MBIOTID%3D357&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=43&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DEllen%2BPreis%2B%26num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-US photo]
[https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://aeiou.iicm.tugraz.at/aeiou.encyclop.m/m912101.htm&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=57&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DEllen%2BPreis%2B%26num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-US photo]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20071121045215/http://www.kurier.at/sport/weiteresportarten/121989.php Austrian newspaper about her death] {{in lang|de}}

Category:1912 births

Category:2007 deaths

Category:Austrian female foil fencers

Category:Jewish Austrian sportspeople

Category:Fencers at the 1932 Summer Olympics

Category:Fencers at the 1936 Summer Olympics

Category:Fencers at the 1948 Summer Olympics

Category:Fencers at the 1952 Summer Olympics

Category:Fencers at the 1956 Summer Olympics

Category:Jewish foil fencers

Category:Olympic gold medalists for Austria

Category:Olympic bronze medalists for Austria