Champion athlete Karl Hein was born on June 11, 1908 in Hamburg, Germany. Despite having decided to end his active athletic career in the wake of getting married in the early 1930's, Hein was nonetheless inspired to resume training and continue participating in athletic competitions after seeing a film about the 1932 Olympics held in Los Angeles, California. Karl won the gold medal in the men's hammer throw at the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin, Germany. Hein not only went on to win another gold medal in the same event in the 1938 European Championships in Paris, France, but also won the German Championships in the years 1936, 1937, 1938 (he also set two new world records in the hammer throw in this particular year), 1946, and 1947. Moreover, Karl was still active until the end of the 1950's and even placed second in the nationals in 1956. Hein was awarded the Rudolf-Harbig-Gedachtnispreis Memorial Award in 1962. Karl died from a stroke at age 74 on July 10, 1982 in his native Hamburg. Hein's son Karl-Peter followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a successful weight and hammer thrower at the national level.