He trained Karate in the gym in the Dorotheenstraße, and basked in the Usinger stone pond Hatt. Elvis Presley, who would have turned 80 years old, was also in the high-Taunus-present.
The Hoch-Taunus.
He was the “King of Rock’n’Roll”, the White with the black soul, they called him “Elvis the pelvis”. He conquered the Olympus, was one of the first global stars, and sank ultimately in his obsession with drugs – all of which is well known. Most Fans also know that Elvis Aaron Presley did his military service from 1958 to 1960 in the Ray Barracks in Friedberg, and during this time in Bad Nauheim lived. But what only few know is that Elvis was in this time, always in Bad Homburg and in the Spa town of Karate learned and trained.
The now deceased Usinger Jürgen Seydel was founded in the spring of 1957, the first German karate club in the resort town. One of his coaches Dietmar Biemel. The native of seven citizens, whose family had settled in 1950 in Bad Homburg, had previously visited in 1952, also from Seydel founded the Judo school. Although Biemel had to restrict his Karate ambitions with a heavy heart (“I had a choice: Karate or Abitur”), held him Seydel. And so the then 18-Year-old in the autumn of 1959 was one of the first that Elvis Presley would come to the gym in the dorotheenstraße, to train Karate. “And I was at the first Training,” recalls the 74-Year-old, living since 1969 in France.
The K. o. Kick
In front of the gym at the time was parked in a large American sedan, in addition to the Biemel his bike turned off. “Elvis had already put on his Karate Gi, and seemed to me to be slightly offended. Without having to search long for a handkerchief, he found a simpler solution with the right Hand, which he stripped, then carefully to his Karate-Gi, before he stretched it to me and then spontaneously welcome. This gesture was for me a surprising, but nevertheless not bad to take.“ After initial problems of language (“I could start with his American accent, almost nothing”), met the 24-Year-old and the Homburger students better acquainted and trained on a regular basis. “We met on a Saturday in the Dorothy street. Once we practiced the defence of a Fußangriffs on the chest. Elvis was not right and both of his hands were widely spaced. To demonstrate this, I sat in a Fußangriff and met Elvis in the middle in the solar plexus. He immediately fell to the ground and gasped for air. Perplexed, we stood next to it, without being able to help him. After a few minutes, Elvis stood up, took a deep breath, and without any accusation ,he said, ‘ Let’s go on!‘ After that, we were able to determine that Elvis covered very well.“ In January 1960 traveled Seydel and Elvis to Paris, to attend a private seminar with karate master Tetsuji Murakami. Biemel: “On 16. January 1960 sent to me by Jürgen Seydel, a postcard from Paris – among others, with the signatures of Elvis Presley, and Murakami. After his return we met a few times in Bad Homburg.“
The Giant Ice Cream
And so can remember Biemel also still vividly remember how he met with Elvis, an ice cream shop in the Louis street, opposite the Kurhaus a visit. “I have never eaten in my life ever again so great a Portion of ice cream with whipped cream. Elvis will stay with me always as a very humble, open and very friendly person remembered, the well was able to listen to, but a little was lost,“ said Biemel today – 56 years after the karate training with Elvis.
On the edge: Who is the Name Dietmar Biemel says something is so wrong. Only in the past year, this newspaper reported about the former Bad Homburg. He is, in fact, with a really extraordinary history in the recent volume “From the archive of the city” represented. In 1969, he had left Bad Homburg, together with his wife, a Frenchwoman, “to four, work five years on the construction of a maximum-work in Paris – for more than 45 years, have become now.” And in France, Biemel came across traces of the Blancs, the founder of the Homburg casino . .