Walther von Mumm

Who is Walther von Mumm?

Baron Walther von Mumm was a German bobsledder who competed in the early 1930s. He finished seventh and last in the four-man event at the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.

Von Mumm was also a German Baron who was the one-time "champagne king" of Rheims in France.

The Baron was an aviation pioneer who went to the United States in 1910 as a pilot of the French entry in the Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race. While in the U.S., he met Frances Scoville, the daughter of a Seneca, Kansas banker; they were married three years later at St George's, Hanover Square, in London. She died in 1920 leaving one daughter, Mary, who was educated at a school at Aiken, South Carolina. Mary later died in an automobile accident with her aunt, Louise Scoville Treadwell.

Between meeting and marrying Miss Scoville, Baron von Mumm became involved with and survived after being shot by Mrs. Marie Van Rensimer Barnes, in 1912 in her Paris apartment. Society barrister Oliver Bodington represented Mrs. Barnes.