Today marks the first anniversary of the death of boxing legend and Olympic champion Manfred Wolke. He was one of the world’s best trainers and shaped German boxing history.
May 29, 2025, marks the first anniversary of the death of boxing legend Manfred Wolke. The 1968 Olympic champion is considered one of the greatest legends in German boxing and is also one of the best trainers in history.
Wolke trained former German boxing stars Henry Maske and Axel Schulz, among others, and helped them achieve successful careers. On May 29, 2024, he passed away at the age of 81 after a long and serious illness.
Wolke: Successful boxer and trainer in the GDR
Wolke was born on January 14, 1943, in Potsdam as the youngest of ten children and grew up without his father, who was killed in World War II. A trained locomotive mechanic, he was himself a top boxer, winning gold for the GDR in the welterweight division at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City and becoming European vice-champion in 1967 and 1971. In 1972, he was the GDR’s flag bearer at the Olympics in Munich.
Even during the division of Germany, Wolke was a successful coach and produced several Olympic champions, including Maske (gold in Seoul in 1988) and Rudi Fink, featherweight champion in Moscow in 1980.
After reunification, Wolke turned professional along with Maske and signed with Wilfried Sauerland’s boxing stable, whose fame he played a decisive role in establishing.
The “philosopher” behind Henry Maske and Axel Schulz
Under Wolke, Maske became IBF light heavyweight world champion in 1993 and triggered a boxing boom in Germany – Maske’s fights regularly attracted audiences of tens of millions to television. His two East-West duels against Graciano Rocchigiani, who tragically died in 2018, were particularly legendary.
Wolke was also Axel Schulz’s trainer when he almost sensationally became heavyweight world champion against George Foreman in 1995. Wolke was also on board for Maske’s comeback in 2007, when he took revenge for his defeat against Virgil Hill.
His later protégés included former European super middleweight champion Danilo Häußler, Timo Hoffmann, Kai Kurzawa, Enad Licina, and Artur Hein.
“Without Manfred Wolke, I wouldn’t have achieved any of this,” said Maske, now 61: ”He was able to use his expertise to convince his boxers what they had to do and what they shouldn’t do.”
It was not only his talent for motivation and his example of discipline and toughness that set him apart, but also his intelligence. Wolke was “the philosopher among trainers, the intellectual,” said Maske.
Wolke was part of a generation of successful German trainers that also included Klitschko’s coach Fritz Sdunek, who died in 2014, and Ulli Wegner.
After his death, Wegner spoke to the dpa about Wolke’s legacy: “He was certainly one of the world’s best trainers. There are few athletes who are so successful and at the same time work so successfully as trainers.”
