Ukrainian boxer Vladimir Klitschko (top left) and other guests prepare to leave at the end of German boxer Max Schmeling?s funeral in Hamburg on Tuesday. (AFP)

Hamburg: German leaders paid tribute to Max Schmeling at a memorial ceremony on Tuesday four weeks after the former world heavyweight champion died just seven months short of his 100th birthday.

German sport minister Otto Schily called Schmeling a hero who showed a great amount of civic courage for resisting the Nazis and rejecting their demands he fire his Jewish trainer.

?After 99 rounds, Max Schmeling has left the ring with his head high and with great dignity,? Schily told the memorial service attended by 950 people, including former German soccer internationals Franz Beckenbauer and Uwe Seeler.

?A true gentlemen who never lost touch with the ?little guy? has left us,? said Schily, who added Schmeling had turned down his recent invitation to attend a sports ball. ?He said ?you won?t be able to find me a dancing partner at my age?.?

Schmeling, who fought memorable two bouts with American Joe Louis in the 1930s, died on February 2 in his home town of Hollenstedt and was buried in a quiet ceremony in the small town outside Hamburg two days later.

Former German boxing champion Henry Maske as well as World Boxing Council (WBC) champion Vladimir Klitschko, both friends of Schmeling, were also at the memorial service.

Schmeling dominated German boxing in the late 1920s just as the gloom of post-war depression was being thrown off.

He won the vacant world title when he defeated Jack Sharkey in 1930 and his knockout of Louis in 1936 confirmed his position as one of the greatest boxers of his era. Louis was undefeated in 27 fights when Schmeling beat him.

The return fight two years later, won by Louis with a first round knockout, was promoted as a battle between Nazi Germany and the United States, although Schmeling was not a Nazi.

Schmeling had no taste for politics or the Nazis. He refused their demand he fire Jewish trainer Joe Jacobs and also secretly harboured Jewish friends during the Nazi anti-Jewish pogroms.

Out of favour with Adolf Hitler, Schmeling became the only top sportsman drafted into the German army. He served as a paratrooper but was injured.