Rau started competing in flat sprint and hurdles in 1908, winning several national championships and setting 20 national records over his career, often under pseudonym Richard Einsporn. After retirement he ran a sports shop, and in 1933 joined the Nazi Party, reaching the rank of SS Hauptsturmbannführer in 1938. In 1945 he was captured by the American forces and handed over to the Soviet Union. He was shot during a failed escape attempt, and moved to a prisoners camp in Vyasma, where he died in a few months.[1]
References
1. ^{{cite web |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/friv/lists.cgi?id=65 |title=Olympians Who Were Killed or Missing in Action or Died as a Result of War |accessdate=24 July 2018 |work=Sports Reference}}
{{Authority control}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Rau, Richard}}{{Germany-athletics-bio-stub}} 9 : 1889 births|1945 deaths|Sportspeople from Berlin|German male sprinters|Olympic athletes of Germany|Athletes (track and field) at the 1912 Summer Olympics|Former world record holders in athletics (track and field)|German military personnel of World War II|Waffen-SS personnel