From Vesterbro to Hamburg. Bech-Olsen was born on December 7, 1866, in the Copenhagen district of Vesterbro. His family later moved to Køge. After training as a bricklayer, he went to Germany as a journeyman and settled in Hamburg in the 1880s as a master bricklayer. On May 14, 1888, he married Oline Vilhelmine Agnes Gerdes there.
Wrestling training in Sankt Pauli. In Hamburg, he learned to wrestle from Carl Abs at the Roland Wrestling Club in Sankt Pauli. That encounter connects his craft background with his later life as a professional athlete. In Germany, he became known by the nickname Der unüberwindbare Däne, the Invincible Dane.
Back in Copenhagen Bech-Olsen bought a café on Helgolandsgade in Vesterbro, which he named Café Bech-Olsen. His Danish matches took place at various venues. In 1896, he defeated John Pohl and Memisch Effendi at the entertainment venue Sankt Thomas on Frederiksberg Allé. The wrestling mat thus stood at the center of a broader world of public sport and entertainment.
The title bout with Antonio Pierri. In 1897, Bech-Olsen met Antonio Pierri at the Ordrup cycling track. Pierri presented himself as the world champion in Greco-Roman wrestling. The victory over Pierri and their subsequent meeting form a central chapter in Bech-Olsen's reputation. This professional title bout belongs to a different competitive tradition from the later world championship tournaments and Olympic Games.
Racetracks and international opponentsThe Charlottenlund racetrack became a recurring setting for his appearances. In the years after the Pierri bouts, he met, among others, Tom Bradley, Leon Masson, Charles Green and Paul Pons there. He also travelled to the United States. In New York, he faced Ernest Roeber in 1900, in a match billed as a meeting between European and American champions.
The End of the Major MatchesBech-Olsen continued to perform at the beginning of the twentieth century, but lost to Jess Pedersen in 1903 and again in 1904. The 1904 meeting at Østerbro Stadium was his last major wrestling match. After that, his career increasingly shifted from athletic performance to organizing public entertainment.
Circus Bech-Olsen was founded in Frederikshavn on 20 April 1908. In 1910, Bech-Olsen opened a large circus building on Aaboulevarden in Copenhagen. When the circus later began touring the country, the building was given a new purpose as a cinema under the name Kæmpe Biografen. It was sold and demolished in 1919.
A Name That Endured Outside the RingFrom 1917, Bech-Olsen lived with his family at Christinesminde near Nørresundby. He died on 19 February 1932. His son Eitel Vilhelm, known as Manne, continued the circus for three more seasons; the final performance took place in Rødding in 1934. A song by Julius Strandberg and matchboxes bearing his portrait also kept his name visible outside the wrestling world.
Denmark
Place of birth
Copenhagen