PEITZ, ANNE (name not spelled “Pietz”)
Germany
Born 07 August 1906 in Benrath
Married Schneider circa 1929 or 1930
Information below copied from Newmark's post at:
http://www.tennisforum.com/showpost.php?p=25553530&postcount=143
From “Der Tennissport”, 15 February 1939:
Anne Schneider-Peitz erzählt/Anne Schneider-Peitz writes the following:
“I was born on 7 August 1906 in Benrath near Dusseldorf, attended school in both places and lived in my parents’ house from the time I took my final examinations at secondary school until my marriage. Since 1 January 1933, I have been running my household in Berlin, where I devote most of my time to bringing up my children.
“The sport with the ‘flying ball’, which I now most like to play with my children, has excited me since my early years. When I first took a tennis racket in my hand, at the age of 16, I was following the example set by my five siblings and some fellow schoolgirls.
“At the age of 18 I was allowed to join the Benrath Tennis Club and, after taking my final examinations at secondary school, Dr Haas brought me over to the Rochus Club. In 1926, at the age of almost 20, I played in my first tournament and won my first prize, a modest one, in the women’s doubles event.
“From the beginning I have always enjoyed the doubles game more than singles, at which I have – when it became a purely personal matter – often lacked a will to win and to go the last mile. The team competitions, which Dr Marcotty managed so well, and in which the four players from the Rhineland, Cilly Aussem, Hilde Krahwinkel (Sperling), Irmgard Rost and I, formed an almost invincible team, were really very much to my liking, and I have not enjoyed anything more than being a part of that winning team.
“In the same year – 1927 – I took part in tournaments outside of Dusseldorf for the first time. At the first tournament, I was able to beat Frl Rost in the final. In the second year after playing my first ever tournament I was included in the German ranking list for the first time. In my third year of playing tournaments the top German players had to take me seriously. In 1928, in the German Covered Court Championships tournament in Bremen, Nelly Neppach beat me only in three sets; in Dusseldorf I took Cilly Aussem to three sets; in Cologne I beat Ellen Hoffmann; and in Essen I also lost in three sets to Hilde Krahwinkel (who, since that time, has shown me often enough what’s what!).
“In 1929, I took part in the matches against a team from Paris, and in 1930-33 and 1935, I was chosen to represent Germany against England. The most important overseas tournaments I have taken part in are Paris (1929-32), Wimbledon (1930-31), Budapest (1930), Stockholm and Copenhagen (both 1932), Cracow (1934) and Noordwijk (1936).
“Some of the well-known players I have beaten are Jadwiga Jedrzejowska, Eileen Bennett, Paula von Reznicek, Else Hollis, Carolin Babcock and Bobbie Heine-Miller. I am very proud of being the only female player to have won the women’s singles event at the Army Championships [editor’s note: at that time, in the Army Championships, a women’s singles event and a mixed doubles event were included for relatives of officers in the Reich Army.] I won that title in 1928.
“I have had my greatest successes in women’s doubles events. For example, Hilde Krahwinkel and I won the German Covered Court Championships title together three times (1930-32). In 1932, we broke the winning streak of the English players at the German Championships in Hamburg; I won the same event – the women’s doubles at the German Championships – again in 1936, with Magdalene Rollin-Couquerque.
“My nicest win was... a defeat. I was playing against one of the most famous of the top players in the world. She made me wait half an hour before the match could begin and, when I kept up a one game lead in the first set, furiously threw her racket all over the court so that it ended up hanging from the net, where I happened to be standing at the time. When I was leading 5-4, she interrupted the match by going to get some ‘refreshments’ as cool as you please. I won the first set 6-4. In the second set, which she won 6-2, everything went smoothly. However, after I had led 3-0 in the third set and she had then pulled up to 4-4, when she again left me waiting for a long time in order to go for more ‘refreshments’ and to get some good advice, and this not even during the changeover, I would have preferred simply to stop and leave the court. The exhaustion that began to creep over me as I waited for my opponent to return strengthened this desire. But I fought against this exhaustion and conquered it. However, the self-control I needed to exert for this victory cost me so much in concentration that I lost the next two games without winning another point.
“Since I have been living in Berlin I have been a member of the Blau-Weiss Club. My greatest joy is that, since 1934, our women’s team has always been able to win the League Championship. In 1933, I rested my racket for the first time [to have her first child]. However, although I had not played for one-and-a-half years, I was better than ever at singles play at the beginning of 1936. In 1937, I took another break from tennis [to have her second child]. I hope that my newest daughter, Friederike, has as good an effect on my tennis as my first child, Lieselein. In any case, for a wife and mother who takes her duties seriously and knows how to properly divide her time, there is enough time for healthy sporting activity pursued in a sensible manner.”
[Thanks to Mark Ryan for translating from German the above article on Anne Schneider-Peitz]
The world top ten player Anne refers to above might be Simone Mathieu (known for her temper at times), but this is purely speculation at this point.
