Cut n' paste the link below into your web browser to watch Holger compete at MHP's Kings of the Bench II (2007 Olympia Expo.)

"Holger Kuttroff died today while performing squats. He was surrounded by his strength team.

He was capable of a 4 inch below parallel Olympic style, raw squat, belt only of 840-850 lbs at age 40. Working 40-55 hours of heavy labor during night shift as a butcher. I don`t know of anyone in strength history with such an immense workschedule who could do that. He is remembered and deeply missed by countless brothers in iron whose life he touched. People loved this jovial giant. Many in Germany will cry when they get knowledge of his passing.

I never ever met a man with a more genuine friendliness than Holger. Despite his oxstrength (raw paused bench of 600 as a nonbench specialist on several occasions) he treated people with respect, warmth and care. He never spoke a bad word about anyone and helped in establishing many powerlifting careers by coaching anybody that showed true interest-regardless of talent. Those whom you met will remember you.

You made a huge impact in your short life. We will miss you, Holger." - Wolfgang Hasenmaier

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This morning I sent Holger's family an email, informing them that he was pictured in this month's Powerlifting USA for winning MHP's Clash of the Titans. He was our overall champion via his 550 raw bench and 750 raw deadlift. You can imagine my shock when his mother-in-law wrote me back, informing me that Holger had died that same day while training in the gym.

His mother-in-law wrote me back again tonight, saying that she spoke with Holger's wife and that the message she'd like to share with me and with others in the USA is:

"He loved America very much and was very fond of his American sport friends. He died of an heart attack whilst he was doing his workout at the gym yesterday afternoon. He loved the sport so very much.
Because his son Marco (6 years old) is also interested in sports sport, playing football, ice hockey and winning at BMX races, Holger started to train with Marco BMX and was his biggest supporter.

Love to you all from Martina and her family and friends." - Brigitte Schultheiss, Holger's mother-in-law

I had the priviledge of getting to see Holger compete on a few occasions. When he lifted in the WPO and when he came over from Germany to compete in our 2007 Kings of the Bench (where he took the silver in the heavyweight division) and finally when he returned to our show this year to win the push/pull, becoming our Clash of the Titans overall champion. It was a very cool experience to get to introduce him to the audience on more than one occasion. It was my chance to show respect and to give props to this top, elite lifter and I'm grateful that I had the opportunities to do so.

Holger was one of the nicest, warmest, most jovial people you'd ever meet. He always gave me the impression that he was having a good time and that he was soaking up all the fun and joy that his life and powerlifting had to offer. Though he spoke limited English, through the help of his wife and English/German speaking friends, he conveyed to me how much he truly loved to lift (most of all, to squat big) and it made me very happy and proud to have him as our federation's champion.

What we lift in life echoes through eternity and Holger will forever be remembered as a true champion. From my recollection, he won over a dozen German national titles, a WPC Worlds title, he was a WPO pro, he competed against the top Europeans and Russians in raw meets across the Atlantic, (as stated above) he was our bench and deadlift champion and he was a winning coach. It's my hope that he's already signed up in the gym in Valhalla and that he will lift like a champion every time he wants to train, for all enternity.

Thanks for being my friend Holger,
Sean
HardcorePowerlifting.com

Holger Kuttroff is the 2010 MHP Pro Raw Powerlifting Overall Champion via his 550 pound raw bench and a 750 pound raw deadlift at MHP's Clash of the Titans III, which took place at The Ronnie Coleman Classic Expo.

JULY, 2010 INTERVIEW OF JUSTIN LOVELL