Karel Fuchs

Karel Fuchs was born in Praha to Robert Fuchs and Hermine von Posner Fuchs. He played tennis at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, but the story gets complicated after that. Fuchs family took the name Robětín in about June 1919 and he was usually known thereafter as Karl Ludwig Robětín. Robětín became secretary of the Czechoslovakia Lawn Tennis Federation in 1921 and was its President from 1929-38. He was chairman of the tennis club ICLTK Stavanice in Prague and a member of the Czechoslovakia Olympic Committee. Fuchs was a paper industrialist who became chairman of the Economic Association of Paper Industry in Praha, where he was also chairman of the Technical Museum. He also served as the Belgian Consul in Praha.

Robětín later also took up ice hockey as a sport and played for several years with Praha CLTK. His son, Robert Robětín, became quite good at ice hockey and played for that club, Kladno TJ Sokol SONP, and Dynamo Karlovy Vary from 1937-58. Robětín was Jewish, but was an ethnic German. In 1938 he left Czechoslovakia for London, where he moved to avoid being arrested by the Germans. His wife and one of his sons were killed at Auschwitz in 1942. Robětín spent his time in England involved with the piano and his music.

The story gets a bit complicated when one realizes that many sources say that Robětín also played tennis at the 1920 Olympics, but under the name Karel Ardelt. Our research indicates this is not true, and that there were two different Bohemian tennis players named Karel. In fact, both were entered in the singles in 1912 at Stockholm, but Karel Ardelt did not play, and neither Ardelt nor Fuchs/ Robětín played at 1920 Antwerpen. Further, there are 1912 Olympic entry forms for both players in the Stockholm Riksarchivet.

The picture gets even messier when considering the 1908 participation Fuchs/Robětín. Most sources list this participation to David Slíva, also spelled Sláva, and our group also did this for many years. However, recent research by one member of the OlyMADMen, Connor Mah, has shown that Fuchs/Robětín and Slíva/Sláva were the same person. In 1908 several of the Bohemian tennis players played under pseudonyms and it appears that Fuchs/Robětín did so, playing as Slíva/Sláva.

Much of the confusion arises partly because the birthdates for Fuchs/ Robětín and Ardelt are very close – three days apart. Further confirmation that there were two such persons comes from Bohemian family conscription forms, which document the two different families, and some newspaper articles on the 1921 Davis Cup match against Belgium, in which Ardelt played, but the story was sent to the newspaper by Robětín, and it specifically mentions both names. We also know of the wives and descendants of both athletes and they are not the same, and we have spoken to Karel Fuchs-Robětín grandson, Petr Robětín. Sources calling Karel Ardelt and Karel Fuchs-Robětín the same person are in error.