Theodor Lewald

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Lewald around 1900

Theodor Lewald (born August 18, 1860 in Berlin ; † April 15, 1947 there ) was a high-ranking administrative officer of the German Reich , spokesman for the government in the German Reichstag , member of the executive committee of the International Olympic Committee , German sports official and chairman of the organizing committee of the Olympic Games 1936 .

Adolescent years

Theodor Lewald was born on August 18, 1860 in Berlin as the youngest son of the royal judiciary and lawyer Martin Heinrich Otto Lewald and Caroline Elisabeth Lewald, née Althaus. His paternal ancestors were Jews from the Königsberg area . The Lewald family converted to Protestantism. His mother came from a Protestant pastor's family. He attended the royal Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Berlin. His father died during his school days in 1873.

He began his studies in 1878 at the University of Berlin and then went on to study in Heidelberg and Leipzig. In Heidelberg Lewald became a member of the Rupertia Association . During his studies he was influenced by the teachings of Treitschke . He took his exams in Berlin and then went to the military for a year in 1883/84. In 1886 he was appointed lieutenant in the reserve .

So he went through all career stages that were considered a prerequisite for higher civil service and that Berlin society regarded as befitting. In the summer of 1885 he joined the Prussian administration and worked in the districts of Kassel, Homberg, Kirchhain and Hanau. In 1888 he passed the assessor examination, whereupon he was appointed to the high presidium of the province of Brandenburg in Potsdam . In this rather small authority he was directly subordinate to the former Prussian minister for public works Heinrich von Achenbach . Lewald also made important acquaintances in Berlin society. The fact that his aunt Fanny Lewald had a salon in Berlin was helpful .

Official in the Empire

In October 1891 Lewald temporarily moved from the Prussian Administration Office to the Reich Administration Office, where he was finally taken over to the Government Council in the Reich Office of the Interior on June 2, 1894. There he was entrusted with a variety of different administrative tasks. Due to his language skills (English, French, Italian) he was assigned to the Reich Commissioner for the World Exhibition in Chicago in 1893 . On site he supervised and dissolved the German stand. During this time he made important contacts in politics and business, which were useful to him at the other exhibitions in Paris in 1900 and in St. Louis in 1904 . Promoted to the Secret Government Council and Lecturing Council in 1897, he was deputy commissioner in charge of the German pavilion for a year in 1900. It was in Paris that he first came into contact with the Olympic Games , which, like 1904, were part of the World's Fair. In St. Louis, as Reich Commissioner, in whose area culture and sport fell, he had a German Olympic team co-financed by the German Reich, and in the following years also promoted technology, science, culture and sport. Among other things, he bought the first airship for the Reich and averted the bankruptcy of the Zeppelin shipyard. It was not until 1910, however, that he was promoted to ministerial director and at the same time he became an authorized representative at the Federal Council. There he had to deal more with daily politics. However, he was rather alien to parliamentarianism and could not really identify with his new position.

After the outbreak of war in 1914 Lewald was in the highest ministerial administration of the conquered territories in Belgium and in the Polish part of the tsarist empire. It was precisely during this time that his widespread political commitment was evident. Among his circle of friends were Walther Rathenau (later DDP ) and Philipp Scheidemann ( SPD ). However, he was also a member of the conservative Imperial Automobile Club (KAC / later AvD ), which was loyal to the emperor . In 1917 he was promoted to Undersecretary. He took over the negotiations with Austria over Poland and played a decisive role in them.

In July 1918 Lewald reached his personal career high point in the German Empire when he was promoted to the “Really Secret Council with the Predicate Excellence” and in this capacity formulated the domestic part of the abdication speech, which was read out by Prince Max von Baden .

Activities in the Weimar Republic from 1918

After the end of the imperial era, Lewald continued his political career. In the following years it became apparent that he hardly lost any political influence. In the early years of the Weimar Republic he was able to support the political leadership with his experience. He initially remained head of the civil administration in Poland and tried to help shape the reorganization of the empire. Contrary to his previous behavior, he now had to commit to a political direction and joined the right-wing liberal German People's Party (DVP). The first practical test was the Kapp Putsch on March 13, 1920. The refusal of the officials to cooperate with the putschists helped to prevent the coup. Theodor Lewald, the senior citizen, led the negotiations with the revolutionary generals. In the Ruhr uprising that followed immediately , Lewald also took on a central role within the Reich administration and was jointly responsible for its suppression.

Despite his merits, he left office on November 11, 1921. His political stance and the generation problem led to this separation, especially since he had become a member of the DVP. After his civil service career, Lewald was able to concentrate on his many honorary positions.

Sports official

In higher-level bodies

Theodor Lewald had never actively played sport himself, but he came into contact with him as part of his work as a civil servant. Even when he was employed at the world exhibitions, he advocated sending and funding a German Olympic team. For him, sport was more of a cultural object with special norms and values ​​with which he wanted to represent the empire. In his opinion, his commitment to the organization and financing of the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1916 under state leadership served the purpose of bringing an internationally recognized event to Germany. In the first sense, sport should serve the state. In 1919, politically motivated, he took over the chairmanship of the German Reich Committee for Physical Exercise from Victor von Podbielski . In his opinion, the effects of the Versailles Treaty and the associated abolition of general conscription destroyed the "school of physical strengthening, getting used to cleanliness, order and discipline" anchored in the army. From 1924 Lewald represented the Weimar Republic in the International Olympic Committee . Two years earlier, in 1922, he and Carl Diem had founded the German University for Physical Education . Since the Reich had no competencies in higher education, Lewald chose a construction analogous to the Kaiser Wilhelm Society , so that research in the field of the theory of physical exercise became a constitutive part. In order to establish Diem as head of the university, he won over the physician Prof. Dr. August Bier as rector, who in return for Carl Diem with a Dr. hc med. the Berlin University showed appreciatively. In the university, research should be carried out not only for top-class sport, but also for sport to increase productivity in the work process. Sport should fill the gap created by the lack of conscription. Therefore Lewald advocates the upgrading of physical exercises. A training facility for sports teachers was created with the University of Physical Education. With the construction of the German Stadium and the surrounding sports forum, new competition venues were created.

Olympic movement

Theodor Lewald (portrayed by Emil Stumpp , 1930)

Lewald noted that sport not only served to stand “in rank and file in the work for the reconstruction of the fatherland” after the First World War , but could also serve to restore trust in Germany. He saw the German Fighting Games initiated by Carl Diem as a preparation for the Olympic Games, from which Germany had been excluded in the course of the First World War. In the “politically neutral field of physical exercise” he wanted to help the empire achieve internal unity nationally and international recognition. Through his classical education Lewald was familiar with the idea of ​​the Olympic Games of antiquity . As already mentioned, it was at the world exhibitions that the first contact with the games of the modern era came about. Here he enjoyed the status and flair that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) surrounded. For him it had the appearance of an exclusive international club, which saw its focus more on the social-cultural than on the sporting field. Through his upbringing, career and interests, he had people of the same mind around him, so they elected him in 1924 to the IOC and 1927 to the Executive Committee. As early as 1927, Lewald began to explore the possibility of hosting the Olympic Games in Germany in order to examine the re-entry of the Reich into the international sports movement. In this position, too, he saw himself as an ambassador for the empire. It is thanks to Lewald that the German Reich was re-accepted into the international sports community in 1928 and successfully finished the games in Amsterdam in second place in the unofficial national ranking. This success brought the hoped-for international reputation, so Lewald saw the chance to apply again to host the games. On May 28, 1930, he invited the IOC to Berlin for the 28th session to submit the official application. During this meeting there were events such as lavish parties and mass demonstrations of physical exercises in order to convince the committee of the organizational efficiency of German sport. This succeeded so that at the next meeting in Barcelona in 1931 Berlin was awarded the contract to host the 11th Olympic Games. In order to achieve nationwide recognition of the Olympic idea and to prepare for sport, Theodor Lewald organized an Olympic sports festival in 1931 . Its proceeds were used to finance the German Olympic team in 1932.

Olympic Games 1936

During the discussions on the construction of the Berlin Olympic Stadium ;
From left to right: Lewald, Heinrich Sahm , Paul Schwarz and Walter March , 1933

Since the National Socialists initially did not share the Olympic idea and did not commit to the Olympic Games, Lewald founded the German Organizing Committee (OK) before Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor, leaving it as an independent e. V. to be able to withdraw to the organizing committee in the event of a conflict. Due to the fact that so far only Hindenburg was the patron of the games as Reich President, Lewald sought talks with the Reich government. On March 16, 1933, in an audience with Hitler, he got the Chancellor's consent for the Olympic Games to be held. Meanwhile, the Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels , who was also present, was interested, and he was able to convince him of the propaganda effect of the Games, so that Goebbels promised him a special Olympic Propaganda Committee. Although the DRA , headed by Lewald, professed its support for the National Socialists, after the boycott of Jews on April 1st and the associated public defamation of Lewald, Lewald resigned. In addition, the new Reich Commissioner Hans von Tschammer and Osten tried to oust Lewald from all Olympic positions. Lewald resigned from all offices in sport except IOC membership and chairing the Organizing Committee of the 1936 Summer Games. The risk of the Olympic Games being withdrawn or the international impact on this process meant that he retained his office.

The IOC's internal concerns were discussed at its annual meeting in Vienna in May 1933, when it came to questions relating to the holding of the Olympic Games. The USA , represented by its IOC executive member Charles H. Sherrill , viewed the new political orientation in Germany with skepticism and threatened to boycott the Games if the Olympic rules were not observed. In cooperation with the German embassy in Vienna and the Reich Ministry of the Interior (RMI), the German side assured that Lewald would remain president of the organizing committee, that all Olympic rules would be observed and that German Jews would not be part of the Olympic team for the XI. Olympiad are excluded. With this declaration, the indignation of the other nations subsided, because with these statements it looked as if the Olympic Charter was being observed.

Opening of the OSS in Berlin, Lewald on the right in front of Adolf Hitler

Up until this point in time, Lewald had feared that difficulties might arise in the implementation of the Games and, moreover, was not unconditionally opposed to the Games in a National Socialist Germany. However, this changed on October 5, 1933. On this day, Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler visited the Reichssportfeld , where the Olympic site with the expansion of the Grunewald Stadium and the sports forum was to be built. Until then, Hitler had been very cautious about the Games. Without prior consultation with the RMI, Hitler rejected the existing architectural plans: "No longer a modest, self-financing sports festival should be held, but a monumental event in the greatest stadium the world had seen up until then." Hitler replied: "... if you can If the whole world had been charged, something great and beautiful would have to emerge ... a few million played no role at all. ”With these statements Lewald saw his hopes and plans realized and he was at the height of his work for the German state, which determined his entire life so far would have. Lewald captured this enthusiasm for the upcoming Olympic Games, supported by the National Socialist regime , to such an extent that he abandoned his previously practiced virtues such as integrity and honesty in order to crown his career with the function of a sports official at the Olympic Games.

Lewald was particularly committed to counteracting the boycott movement in the USA. In the USA there was massive resistance to participation in the 1936 Olympic Games after no Jewish athletes had been nominated for the German Olympic team and the Nuremberg Laws (1935) had been enacted. Lewald initially tried to counteract this in a public statement. When it came to the decisive vote for the participation of the most important American professional association, the American Athletic Union (AAU), on December 8, 1935, 58 1/3 to 55 3/4 votes were voted for participation in the Berlin Games. Not least because of Lewald's friends in the IOC - the President Henri de Baillet-Latour , the President of the International Athletics Federation Sigfrid Edström and the President of AAU Avery Brundage , who was massively committed to participation, this majority came about.

The planning and implementation of the eleventh modern Olympic Games in 1936, which consisted not only of sporting competitions, but also festivities, banquets and events, and the recognition that resulted from this, went primarily to those responsible for organization and implementation, Carl Diem and Theodor Lewald .

Lewald after the Olympics

After the Games, Lewald had no “use” for the National Socialist regime. In addition, his Jewish origin was his undoing in the course of the Nuremberg Laws . Lewald himself had never emphasized his Jewish roots. Lewald was proposed by Edström as Vice President of the IOC, but had to withdraw from the committee at Hitler's insistence. He continued to live in Berlin and only moved to Baden-Baden for a short time during the bombing raids on Berlin. Even after the end of his career, he continued to have good contacts. On his advice, Walter von Reichenau and not Hans von Tschammer und Osten was appointed to the IOC as his successor. In political circles ranged nor his contacts so that he could prevent his Jewish childhood friend in the Theresienstadt concentration camp deported was. In 1940, on the occasion of his 80th birthday, he gave a lengthy dinner speech in which he summarized his life in retrospect. In doing so, he emphasized his political effectiveness overall more than his sport-political one.

Grave of Theodor Lewald in the Heerstraße cemetery in Berlin-Westend

After the war , Lewald continued to live in Berlin near Reichsstrasse, was supplied with firewood from the nearby stadium by local workers and supported by friends with food parcels.

Theodor Lewald died on April 17, 1947 at the age of 86 in Berlin. His grave is in the state-owned cemetery Heerstraße in Berlin-Westend (grave location: 7-C-20).

family

The writer Fanny Lewald was his aunt. The theologian and writer Theodor Althaus , after whom he got his first name, was his uncle. The doctor and physiologist Otto Kestner (née Cohnheim) was his nephew.

Honors

Memorial plaque at the Olympic Stadium Berlin , in Berlin-Westend

literature

Web links

Commons : Theodor Lewald  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arnd Krüger , Theodor Lewald Sportführer im Third Reich, Berlin, 1975, p. 23.
  2. ↑ Werner Conze: Polish Nation and German Politics , Cologne 1958, p. 300 ff.
  3. ↑ List of honorary positions:
  4. ^ Arnd Krüger : Theodor Lewald , p. 31 line 21.
  5. ^ Theodor Lewald: Sport, Economy, Public Health.
  6. ^ Theodor Lewald: A contribution to the economic program of the Reich government . Lecture given to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry on March 2, 1926, Berlin, 1926, p. 3.
  7. ↑ Since the Reich had no competence in the field of teacher training (and the federal government still does not have it), the graduates, qualified sports teachers were mainly employed by clubs, but not in schools, cf. Arnd Krüger (1979): Gymnastics and physical education during the Weimar Republic . Basis of today's misery in school sports? in: A. Krüger, D. Niedlich (Ed.): Causes of the misery of school sports in Germany. Konrad Paschen on his 70th birthday. London: Arena, 13-31 ISBN 0-902175-37-8 .
  8. ^ Theodor Lewald: The importance of physical exercise for our time , in: Monthly journal for gymnastics, games and sport , Berlin, 1921, p. 164.
  9. ^ Arnd: Theodor Lewald , p. 33.
  10. ^ Olympia 1932. The Olympic Games in Los Angeles 1932. Philipp Reemtsma, Oct. 1932. 140 p .; Page 1.
  11. ↑ “Negroes have no place at the Olympics… The next Olympic Games will take place in 1936 in Berlin. Hopefully the men in charge know what their duty is. The blacks must be excluded. We expect it. ”Völkischer Beobachter from August 19, 1932.
  12. ↑ Board of the DRA (signed Lewald) to Hitler, on March 25, 1933, BA R 43 II / 729 vol. 2: “The DRA will, true to its past, use all its strength to support the mighty stream of national renewal, the Today all of Germany rushes powerfully and stimulatingly, all rivers, brooks and springs are fed to the great gymnastics and sports movement to preserve German youth, strengthen national sentiments, and raise a defensive gender. "
  13. ↑ E.g. in the Völkischer Beobachter of April 1, 1933
  14. ↑ April 3, 1933, BA R 43 II / 729 vol. 1: "If I resign from my office, the holding of the Olympic Games in Germany is seriously endangered."
  15. ^ Bulletin Officiel du CIO , 8 (1933), 24, p. 13.
  16. ^ Arnd Krüger : Theodor Lewald, Sportführer ins Third Reich , Berlin, 1975, p. 42, line 28 ff.
  17. ^ Notes from Lewald, BA R 18 Rep. 320 No. 608.
  18. ↑ Amateur Athletic Union of the United States (ed.): Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the AAU , 1935, New York 1936.
  19. ↑ In 1935, Baillet-Latour called on the three IOC members William May Garland , Charles H. Sherrill and Ernest L. Jahncke to do everything possible to ensure the participation of the USA. Jahncke refused to support this company and was dismissed from the IOC in 1936, not least at Lewald's suggestion. (read in an interview by Lewald with the New York Herald Tribune on July 31, 1936)
  20. ↑ Rolf Pfeiffer, Arnd Krüger : Theodor Lewald: A career in the service of the fatherland or the futile search for the Jewish identity of a “half-Jew” , in: Menora. Yearbook for German-Jewish History , 1995, Munich: Piper, 233–265.
  21. ^ Arnd Krüger : Theodor Lewald, Sports Guide in the Third Reich , Berlin, 1975, p. 59.
  22. ↑ Only ten percent of the 20 printed pages talked about sport. See Theodor Lewald's dinner speech: on the occasion of a celebration of his eightieth birthday (August 18, 1940) in the Albert house on November 2, 1940 . Published: [Sl], 1940, 23pp.
  23. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 . P. 490.
personal data
SURNAME Lewald, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sports official and chairman of the Organizing Committee of the 1936 Olympic Games
DATE OF BIRTH August 18, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 1947
Place of death Berlin