Heydrich Was Made into Athlete by His Parents

As a child of slender and relatively small stature with a weak constitution and a susceptibility to illness, Reinhard was encouraged by his parents to take up every kind of physical exercise from an early age: swimming, running, football, sailing, horse-riding and fencing. Heydrich’s life-long passion for sport began there.

Ultimately, he became an accomplished athlete in pentathlon – he competed in it in the 1920s as a member of the Reichsmarine team and was considered a very good all-around athlete. But he particularly excelled in fencing… not to qualify for the 1936 Olympics (at 32, he was probably already too old for that) but close.

He promoted the sport within the Nazi hierarchy though and actively recruited accomplished fencers into the SS, allowing the SS fencing club to win the German championship in 1940 for all three weapons. Heydrich himself was at least good enough to serve as a last-minute substitute for the German team in an international meet against Hungary in 1941.

Heydrich’s physical fitness actually made him stand apart from other elites of the Third Reich who were far from the ideal physical specimens of the Aryan ideal. As head of RSHA, Heydrich introduced physical fitness requirements and encouraged (to put it mildly) his subordinates to participate in sports.

RSHA main office had its own exercise facilities and male members had to attend classes at least twice a week. Female employees had to attend additional fitness classes. Sport was mandatory for RSHA members from 1941 onwards – they had to choose from fencing, handball, swimming, boxing, and football.

In late 1930’s, Heydrich got involved in entirely different sport: flying (at the time, it required a lot of physical stamina). He not only qualified as a civilian pilot, but after completing Luftwaffe flight school, became a fighter pilot.  Ultimately, he flew over 100 combat missions.

However, it was about much more than just sports. The by-product of his athletic achievements were the key ingredients of success in any endeavor: burning desire, unwavering determination, iron discipline, dare to do seemingly impossible and unshakable faith in himself and his ultimate success.

And, of course, a firm commitment to be the best he can be; to excel in any endeavor; to live his life to the fullest… which he did. It did not make him a “Model Nazi” (as it had nothing to do with any ideology) … just a well-balanced individual with a perfect synergy between mental and physical activities and accomplishments.