Wally Wittmann

Wally "Gundel" Wittmann (18 September 1905, Berlin – 28 May 1990, Berlin) was a German track and field athlete and handball player who competed for SC Charlottenburg and SC Brandenburg and was successful in the late 1920s and early 1930s. She held the women's 100 meters world record in 1926, won the German javelin title in 1924, and ran on three world-record relay teams. A Berlin sports ground, the Wally-Wittmann-Sportanlage in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, is named for her.¹

Athletics career

Javelin and sprint titles. At the 1924 German athletics championships in Stettin, Wittmann won the women's javelin throw ahead of her clubmate Margarete Riewe, with a winning mark recorded as 35.61 m in the championship results; a list of German javelin champions gives the same title with a mark of 35.69 m.

The 100 meters world record. Wittmann improved the German 100 m record twice in 1926, running 12.5 s in Köln on 10 July and 12.4 s in Braunschweig in late August.⁵ The 12.4 s run entered the progression of the women's 100 m world record, where it stood between Mary Lines's 12.8 s of 1922 and Kinue Hitomi's 12.2 s of 1928. World record compilations date the run to 22 August 1926 at the German Championships in Braunschweig, while the German record list gives 24 August 1926 for the same mark and venue.^{2 • 5 • 6} The Berlin memorial plaque records her as German champion over 100 m in 1926 as well.³

Relay world records. Wittmann ran on two world-record teams over 4 × 200 m as well as the 1929 SC Brandenburg world-record team over 10 × 100 m.² The memorial plaque credits the 1926 record to the SCC relay and the 1929 record to the SC Brandenburg relay, which ran 2:05.3 min at the German Championships in Frankfurt on 20 July 1929, a performance the IAAF world record progression lists with Wittmann among the ten runners.^{1 • 7} The Berlin district's own plaque text dates the SCC relay record to 1928 rather than 1926.³ The IAAF progression also lists Wittmann as a member of SC Charlottenburg teams that set world records in the 10 × 100 m relay in 1926 (2:12 4/5 min) and 1927 (2:10 2/5 min) at the SCC stadium on the Avus.⁷

World rankings and best marks. In the world rankings of her era she reached the top ten three times: ninth over 200 m in 1924 with 27.4 s, second in the javelin in 1924 with 29.74 m, and third over 100 m in 1926 with 12.3 s.

Handball and club service

Wittmann was for a long time one of the best handball players in Berlin, and after her athletic career she stayed with SC Charlottenburg as a board member of the club's women's handball section from 1950 to 1968.¹

Memorial

On 1 September 2007 the former outer grounds of the Mommsenstadion at Waldschulallee 43–45 in Berlin-Westend were renamed the Wally-Wittmann-Sportanlage in her honor, and a large memorial plaque was unveiled by district sports councillor Reinhard Naumann in the presence of district mayor Monika Thiemen.^{1 • 4} The facility, next to the Mommsenstadion, is used today by SC Charlottenburg for field hockey, football, and other sports.^{4 • 8}

References

1. Gedenktafeln in Berlin: Wally Wittmann
2. Athletics – Progression of world records (Stephan Müller, sport-record.de)
3. Gedenktafel für Wally "Gundel" Wittmann, Bezirksamt Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
4. Mommsenstadion und Wally-Wittmann-Sportanlage, Berlin.de
5. Deutsche Rekorde – Leichtathletik (Damen), sport-komplett.de
6. 100m women World Record Progression, AthleticsLab
7. IAAF World Records Progression – 2015 Edition
8. hockey.de: Wally-Wittmann-Sportanlage, Platz 1

Topic: Encyclopedia › Sports, games, and recreation › Individual sports and outdoor recreation › Athletics, gymnastics, and strength sports › Athletes of track and field and road running

Initially written Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 25, 2026

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