this video is one of my all time favorites. nearly brought a grown man to tears. RIP, Max and Joe. true friends.

Max Schmeling a true friend of Joe Louis and an outstanding human being

This is an excellent historical lesson as I learned man things I didn't know before. The world could use more good men like Joe Lewis and Max Schmeling. RIP

This documentary left out that Max Schmeling lived to the age of 99 and died in 2005.

The bitter irony is: Joe Louis was treated far worse by his own country than he ever was by Max including the knockout.

Max Schmeling was a good man and dear friend to Joe Louis till the end.

Two truly extraordinary men. Great documentary.

Great story, and powerful example of a friendship in contrast to narratives created about it. Absolutely a lesson for our current fractured society.

BEautiful story. Two class acts. We need more people like Joe Louis and Max Schmeling in this world.

RIP to both Joe and Max! God bless their memory!

Two soul brothers who came into this world together to help each other out and grow together. They accomplished what they came here to do in a beautiful way.

Beautiful story. It's great to hear about special bond and friendship these two boxers had.

Wow! History is incredible. More young boxing fans need to watch more of these documentaries.

Integrity is everything. Joe and Max had it in tons.

I love em both. Max and Joe showed us, there are no races, just Humans.

Humility and generosity seem present in both their characters. Little souls parade their egos in the name of greatness, but the sincerity of these two men shines through in this documentary. In their lives they almost disappear while their noble works shine brighter. Both very impressive lives. RIP good gentlemen.

What a great man Mr. Schmeling was!

Joe would be proud of Joe Louis Jr. A very intelligent and well spoken man.

Louis supposedly said that he & Schmeling had become friends after the first fight,that there was no reason to hate somebody because he beat you in a fight. Schmeling sent him a German Cuckoo Clock.

This documentary brought so much tears to my eyes. Max Schmeling was indeed an angel and great friend to Joe. I only wish they were geographically closer to savor their friendship more. May their beautiful souls rest in heavenly peace. Amen!

I met Joe. In 1980 las Vegas nv. He was in a wheelchair greeting people and cracking jokes. He was in a couple sweat suits and covered with blankets. Said he was cold.great man very nice fellow and a christian man.

both legends RIP CHAMPS

A truly heart warming story. Joe Louis was a longtime friend of a lot of his former opponents including Billy Conn, Tommy Farr and this gentleman, Max Schmeling. "Our true friend" said Mrs Joe Louis which says it all. Max Schmeling truly cared for big Joe and Joe Louis smile says he knows.

13.20 wow before he was champ.....plus 40 years after hearing about this I never knew Max ran up and picked Louis up from the canvas. Nice...

Class acts, true men/gentlemen. When fighting for the honor and glory was still important. Now we have a watered down heavyweight division of egos and nobodies.

It's crazy how many black, millionaire athletes end up broke and in debt...

A wonderful documentary about two remarkable sportsmen, congratulations to all concerned. The manner in which Joe louis was treated by the IRS was nothing short of disgraceful, lets hope this sort of treatment is never to be repeated.

Two men both used and abused by there respective countries that found friendship and love for each other despite the atmosphere of racial hatred that was everywhere.

Max was a great human being,and a true gentleman

Whole different perspective on Max. This is fascinating.

no matter the race or religion, love and respect can break all bonds. we all human. this is a good story on how we can all be better.

A wonderful production. Thanks for sharing.

I'm always amazed that Max Scmeling lived to 99. Mr Upstairs must've really liked him. Schmeling famously defied Hitler when he was told to get rid of his Jewish American manager.

Boy! What a great human interest story for the ages. Thanks Joe and Max.

Max was a very good man and stood up for his jewish friends, and a good friend to joe. Max represented the goodness in humanity, joe was a very generous man, humble.. He had a very good heart, god bless both of them for their kindness and goodwill to humanity.

So moving. Thank you so much for this.

4:56 That’s the same picture Max Schmelling was so kind to send to me autographed in the 1980’s 👍🥊

That's why I liked boxing, the structure of the true sportsmanship, humility and respect.

2 truly great men. Great representations their races. If only others were more like them

Out standing documentary, thank you

ibhof2......A beautiful documentary about two extraordinary men. Well done mate :)

Joe Louis great fighter, an a great man,one of the best

While representing USA and its so called freedoms did not let Joe Louis buy a house.? Disgusting hypocritical times.

AM SO GLAD THAT I COULD WATCH THIS , WAS GREAT ABOUT TWO GREAT MEN

The ironic thing about racism is in black and white footage you literally can't tell the difference in either of their skin colour.

Lot of love for Max in these comments, I read every single comment..rightfully so he was a very long generous man with good morals in his heart..but the slander of Louis saying he was a junkie and dirty shot Max during their second fight yall need to stop the 🧢 in addition if you weren't black during that time got no room to talk..no clue what you would have been it was incredibly hard mentally to be in such a position.

Great legendary warriors. Rest in heaven.

I still can not believe how Ali called this man Uncle Tom.

Grossartig ... 😊... Danke !

Two fine gentlemen

awesome documentary !

Beautiful tribute to both great men.

This would be an instant classic movie.

After the rematch with Louis, Schmelling won the heavyweight European Championship 1939.

Just, wow! If you are old enough to remember the legacy of Joe Louis, maybe even rlong after he died, if like me you keep reading about his being the best heavyweight of his time (the mid-1930s), and watching videos of him pulverizing larger men than he, this movie from History Channel (when they were still worth watching), will give you an education in the greatness of sport as displayed by the best of the best. In this case the man who brought out the best, and worst, in Joe Louis was his German arch-rival Max Schmeling. Though his rise in Germany as a boxer was parallel with the rise of Naziism, Schmeling never gave them any more than he had to, to avoid being condemned to an unnamed grave. Because in 1936 he was the first fighter to KO Louis in the ring and become world champion, Schmeling, a very charming and amiable man, was suddenly a superstar in Europe and lived the good life in Berlin. At the same time, Louis was going through the devastating experience of letting down Black Americans, who at that time in the Depression experienced terrible prejudice and poverty. Louis, who was some 8 years younger than Schmeling, got to work and completely transformed his boxing style. Not until Muhammad Ali did a single fighter so upgrade the sport from brutal beatings to “the sweet science.” Schmeling had no idea of Louis’s high improvements in technique until he found himself facing Joe in New York in 1938, with the Nazi propaganda machine trumpeting him as the white hope. (And not a few white Americans besides.) Despite the filming and sound limitations of the time, this documentary does an excellent job of showing before the fight how high the stakes were for both men. The film’s only weakness in this area was due to lack of footage of Joe Louis as he rebuilt himself - not a large man by heavyweight standards-into a shy-looking and unassuming man who inside was , without exaggeration, a killing machine intent on salvaging his race against the murderous atrocities of the Nazis against everything that was not white and Christian. In the most explosive physical attack by a champion-level heavyweight boxer in the sport’s history, right up to now, Louis went after Schmeling in a murderous rage, in two minutes of the first round breaking his back and rupturing one of his kidneys, causing Schmeling two spend two weeks afterward in hospital. After watching this video you might feel as I did that Louis did his best to kill Schmeling in that encounter - not due to animosity toward Schmeling as a man, but because Louis knew of the suffering of his people due to eugenics and other quack-infested interpretations of Blacks as an inferior race. And here, just before the outbreak of WWII, it all came to a head in this boxing match that had a significant effect on the future war between democracy and fascism. I leave you to watch the rest. You will not be disappointed, unless you are a wannabe Nazi. If that is your nature, it is all the more important to watch this documentary so you will get an idea of what is coming to you over the next few years as you attempt your comeback. It will not be pretty, I promise. But then maybe, upon watching this, you will get some understanding of the consequences of believing “master race” lies and see a bit of yourself in the brown-skinned guy working hard beside you at a low-paying job trying to feed his family. There IS an enemy out there who has used trickery to get you to blame “the other” whether they be Black or female or gay or old or whatever, while they siphon the hard work of all the laborers of any race to satiate the pornographic lust for wealth of the .01 percent.

I LOVE this documentary

This teared me up. Why can't we love each other like this always.? Im naive to pray and wonder at 44 years old.

@13:35- and @15:25 wow, i have great respect for Max. he really had a huge, huge heart. he had a great love for people.

Jack Johnson after being shut out of the Louis Camp gave Schmeling insight including the fact that Louis dropped his left lead after jabbing

Truly a great video! I am happy to have a well read, and good education. Thank you!

God bless Max. What a great man.

Most people forget an important fact: Germany was one of the least countries in which duelling was forbidden. The most number of any medieval and early modern fighting manuals (and printed publications as well) on fistfighting, wrestling and fencing are of german origin. it is just too bad that those gloves became mandatory...

Thanks for that documentary, it was nice to learn more about the man my grand father had become friends with, Max Schmeling.

Schmeling was horribly villified by the media at the time

Love the music🎶🎶🎧🎧🎵🎵🎼🎼 so nice and relaxing

Great documentary both max and Joe were true gentlemen.Two of a kind.r.i.p champs.

Respect to both legends

great stuff!

Definitely two outstanding men... And definitely real men!!! It was so fucked up how their countries backed them when they were on top but shit them off and fucked them both in their low spots. One thing their countries can never take from was the respect both men earned from millions world wide!!!

these guys were men.not boxing now who cry and duck other fighters.legacy lives forever.

What a couple of wonderful human beings

Max's story was somewhat tragic, but he was a good man just like Joe.

More people need to be aware of this story.

How is this not a major motion picture.

They where both great men and true gentleman.

Excellent !

I will be sure to share their story with people. Top guys.

Max Schemling was a true humanitarian who died a few months short of his 100th birthday. It's a shame that misfortune took hold in Joe Louis's life and that he never got a fair shake from the U.S. gov.

13:45 Nat Fleischer, founder and editor of our all time favorite Boxing magazine, The Ring, did the interview with Max.

Two great hero legend RIP guys u will be miss

The irony is that Schmeling lost the fight and was later because of his loss highly sucessful. Had he won the Nazis had not dumped him and he would have never gotten the Coca Cola franchise that made him rich. Louis died pennyless and Schmeling stepped in so his family could bury him as they had no money for a funeral. Schmeling lived almost until 100 while Louis never reached his 80s .

Great video.

So schmeling was a pretty good guy

Great doc

GREAT VIDEO ENJOYED AND RESPECT TO BOTH MEN

Beautiful history of triumph

Keep up the good work

Where I'm from when you're full of goodness like these two gentlemen they say that you are FULL OF ALOHA! ❤🤙❤

Nice docu 👍

When BOXING was BOXING. Now we have shit fights where fighters don't want to risk their 0 and are more concerned about their pay-check then their legacy. Such a shame for the great history of boxing!!!!

Lovin the Pittsburgh Pirates hat! Pittsburgh represent Boi!

Looking at Joe Louis in this documentary, how he looks like such a humble and gentle man, who did what he loved-boxing and because of his naivity and lack of understanding, was exploited by those that cheered for him. Max Schmeling is like that himself too, but was older and more worldly than his younger friend. Both were exploited by those that cheered only to be backstapped when they werent looking.

Fascinating documentary

All respect 💯

Two great humans

Wow a great tale of two decent men.

2 men with contrasting life arcs. Joe is consistently given credit as one of the greatest boxers to ever fight, but suffered crippling financial debt and struggled in his personal life. Schmeling, in contrast, experienced financial success, but his boxing prowess has been diminished and largely forgotten

Love this

when Schmeling beat Louis the first time, knocking him out, neither was champion.

Thank you posting this excellent documentary . It made me very emotional to see these two great gentlemen. The US authorities should be ashamed of themselves for hounding Joe Louis for filthy lucre, after he had donated so much to worthy causes. My own experience and not being black, is that when a black wins he/she is usually welcome and heralded every where, but should they not win then " Bugger off sambo we do not want you here". A total disgrace and not understanding that roles could be reversed in the next life.