ss that plagued him with continual
colds even to the last few weeks of his life. While still only a
youth, he fought this weakness by practising long-distance running,
and in 1913 he won second prize in the Army Marathon at Frankfurt.
Aside from this, he was perfectly healthy and was always exercising to
keep himself so. In his boyhood he learned how to swim while resting
on the hands of his father, who was holding him in the waters of the
Mulde River. In a few moments, to the amazement of the spectators, he
was paddling around in the water like a duck. This is an example of
his courage and self-confidence. In the same way he rapidly developed
into a skilled, fearless mountain climber under the tuition of his
father, when, as a seventeen-year-old boy, he was first taken on such
trips. In the Tux district trips were taken from Lauersbach, and the
more difficult the climb the more it pleased Oswald. Only when there
was real danger was there any joy for him. His mother will never
forget the time she witnessed his climbing of the Hoellenstein. She was
on the lower Krieralpe watching. When it was time to descend he,
taking huge strides, fairly ran down the slope covered with loose
slabs of stone and waited, standing on his head, for his more cautious
father and his brother Martin.

His principal, Dr. Wiehmann, said in the words he spoke at Oswald's
burial: "He had no mind for books or things studious; in him there
burned the desire for action. He was energetic, dynamic, and needed to
use his bodily vigor. Rowing, swimming, diving (in which he won prizes
as a schoolboy), ball games of all kinds, and gymnastics, he choose
as his favorite occupations before he entered his profession as a
soldier." He might also have added skating and dancing, for he was a
very graceful dancer. His favorite studies were History, Mathematics
and Physics. Treitschke's Works and the reports of the General Staff
were the books he said he liked best to read. So he was attracted by
the military life while still young. Before even his eldest brother
thought of it, Oswald wrote him that he yearned to become an officer.
In order to fulfil this desire, he decided while still in the third
year of school to write to His Majesty the Kaiser that he would like
to be an officer, and ask for admission to a cadet school. His parents
did not learn of this till his wish was granted, and though putting no
obstacles in his path, decided it was better that he finish h