German Reich Committee for Physical Exercise

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The title spelling of this Wikipedia article does not follow the rules of the new German spelling , as it is a historical term or title, a proper name or a technical term .

The German Reich Committee for Physical Exercise ( DRA , DRAfL ) was the umbrella organization for sport in Germany during the Weimar Republic .

history

The DRA emerged in 1917 from the German Reich Committee for the Olympic Games ( DRA , DRAfOS ). As a result of the First World War and its aftermath, Germany was excluded from the Olympic Games : it was unable to host the games planned for Berlin in 1916 , nor was it invited to those of 1920 and 1924 . The name change also expressed a departure from the Olympic idea. For the German athletes excluded from the Olympic Games, the Reich Committee established the German Fighting Games , which were held every four years from 1922 and comprised a program similar to the Olympic Games. To them also were abroad German (z. B. from Austria, Alsace and the Sudetenland) admitted.

In 1925 the national umbrella organization and the Olympic Committee separated: the newly founded German Olympic Committee promoted the re-approval of Germany, while the Reich Committee for Physical Exercise saw itself as the umbrella organization for sport in Germany. But it did not include all associations and sports. In particular, the clubs and associations of workers' sports stayed away from him. As early as 1912 you had founded your own umbrella organization, the Central Commission for Sport and Personal Care .

The Reich Committee for Physical Exercise was unlawfully dissolved on May 5th, 1933 (official announcement May 10th) - without the necessary resolution of the general meeting according to the statutes - and thus handed over organized civil sport to the National Socialists' urge to shape without resistance. After a transitional period, it was replaced in the following year by the German Reich Association for Physical Exercise (DRL), to which all sports associations and clubs that had not been banned until then were incorporated into a specialist office structure or were affiliated as associated member associations.

Predecessor institutions of the DRA

Surname Period
Committee for the participation of Germany in the Olympic Games in Athens 1895-1896
Committee for the participation of Germany in the Olympic Games in Paris 1899-1900
German Committee for the Olympic Games in St. Louis 1904 1903-1904
German Reich Committee for the Olympic Games 1904-1917

President of the DRA and its predecessor institutions

Surname Term of office
Philipp Ernst zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst 1895-1896
Aribert von Anhalt 1899-1900
Eduard Max Vollrath Friedrich zu Salm-Horstmar 1903-1905
Egbert Hoyer from Asseburg 1905-1909
Victor von Podbielski 1909-1916
Ulrich von Oertzen 1916-1919
Theodor Lewald 1919-1934

guide

The board had (1931) 27 members:

  • 3 chairmen
  • 3 vice chairmen
  • 2 secretaries
  • 2 treasurers
  • 16 assessors
  • the Secretary General

According to § 8 of the statutes, the minimum number was 16 people, of which at least 10 had to be members in the narrower sense (see below).

Leading functionaries of the DRA were Theodor Lewald (first chairman) and Carl Diem (general secretary), who actively pursued the instrumentalization of physical exercises in order to create the conditions for state funding.

Members

In 1932 it belonged to 47 associations, of which 36 were physical exercises and 11 were encouraging . In addition, 26 government, state and local authorities, 27 universities and 91 personal members were represented.

Members in the strict sense

As members in the narrower sense, the associations that drive physical exercises were considered . Their number of votes in the general assembly was based on their number of members.

Members in the broader sense

As members in the broader sense

  • Associations promoting physical exercise
  • Reich, state and municipal authorities that have agreed to support the DRA
  • People who have made an outstanding contribution to physical exercise and who are willing to cooperate

They only had an advisory vote at the general meeting.

  • Federation of the German State Railroad Gymnastics and Sports Associations in the Reich Association of Railway Associations (founded in 1926 / joined in 1931)
  • Working Group of German Post Sports Clubs (1924/1931)
  • German Association of Doctors (1873/1920)
  • German Gymnastics Association (1925/1926)
  • Young Germany Federation (1911/1913)
  • General German Teachers' Association (1890/1926)
  • German Association of Philologists (1904/1924)
  • Association of German Sports Teachers (1918/1920)
  • German gymnastics teacher association (1893/1919)
  • Association of German Universities (? / 1928)
  • German Society for Samaritan and Rescue Services (1909/1928)
  • 26 Reich, state and local authorities
  • 27 universities and colleges
  • 91 Personal Members

Membership Statistics

The number of members of the affiliated associations in 1931 was:

Members in the strict sense
Surname societies Members
German and Austrian Alpine Club S: 438 195,000
German Reich Association for Amateur Boxing 390 48,000
German Athletic Sports Association from 1891 860 121.151
General German Automobile Club 1st floor: 1,400 133,000
Automobile Club of Germany - approx. 25,000
German Bobsleigh Association 15th approx. 900
"Oak Cross" (in the Protestant young men 's associations ) 7,252 228.785
German Ice Skating Association 145 16,000
German Fencing Federation 49 1,720
German Football Association 7,277 935.923
German Golf Association 33 5,300
German Hockey Association 499 33,099
Reich Association for Jiu Jitsu 20th 500
German youth force 5,987 699.870
German Canoe Association 550 20,000
German bowling association O / K: 833 95,587
German Aviation Association 524 44,773
German motorcycle association 749 31,000
Association of German Cyclists 2,500 75,000
German "Concordia" cycling and motorist association 1,074 29,424
Reich Association for German Warmbloods 345 210,000
German Toboggan Association 35 1,500
German Rowing Association 1,055 116,719
German Rugby Football Association 65 20,000
Imperial community for small-bore shooting sports
0 0German Rifle Federation (KK) k. A. k. A.
0 0German Cartel for hunting and sport shooting (KK) 1.010 96,000
0 0Reich Association of German KK Rifle Associations 6,054 304,000
Association of German Shooting Associations
0 0Association of shooting clubs German hunters 24 16,082
0 0German Schützenbund (without small bore shooting) 1,930 63,389
0 0German cartel for hunting and sport shooting 70 15,000
German Swimming Association 885 128,000
German Sailing Association 152 22,000
German Sailing Association 122 6.002
German Ski Association 1,335 104,767
German sports authority for athletics 5,358 618.520
German Tennis Federation 1,017 97,749
German gymnastics club 12,764 1,609,963
General German Gymnastics Federation 400 40,000
Gymnastics Guild in the DHV 265 55,000
Reich Association f. Women's gymnastics in cath. Unite 4.120 260,000

S = sections - OG = local groups - O / K = 480 local clubs + 353 clubs - k. A. = no information (at the German Rifle Federation, the figures for small-bore and the remaining categories were not shown separately. The figures below are the total figures).

Members in the broader sense
Surname societies Members
Federation of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-TSV 254 44,500
AG German Post Sports Clubs 80 41,000
German Association of Doctors 617 41,100
German Gymnastics Association - 1,200
Federation of Young Germany - ?
General German Teachers' Association - approx. 40,000
German Association of Philologists 30th 30,000
Association of German Sports Teachers - 727
German gymnastics teachers association 10 2,789
Association of German Universities - ?
German Ges. F. Samaritan u. Rescue services K: 1,500 47,000

K = colleges

Significant non-members

With the exception of the workers' sports associations, it was almost only numerically small sports associations that did not belong to the DRA. The following are more important exceptions (as of 1931):

  • Reich Association of German Mountain and Hiking Associations (founded in 1883, 63 associations, 240,000 members)
  • Deutscher Turnerbund (founded in 1919, 816 clubs, 114,176 members). Not to be confused with today's German Gymnastics Federation (DTB), which sees itself as the successor to the German Gymnastics Association.
  • Association of German Cycling Associations (merger in 1924, 1,420 clubs, 80,372 members)
  • Association of rural riding and driving clubs in Germany (founded in 1922, 2,000 clubs, 60,000 members)
  • German Anglers' Association (founded in 1900, 16,000 members)
  • German Table Tennis Association (founded in 1925, 107 clubs, 10,000 members)

The sports badge

In 1912, the co-founder of the German University for Physical Education Carl Diem brought the idea of ​​a sports badge from Stockholm to Germany. Such a badge was intended to demonstrate the activities and achievements of athletes by means of a publicly wearable symbol awarded by the sports association. As later showed, he rightly hoped that such a badge could promote the idea of ​​mass sport in society.

In the same year, the Reich Committee for the Olympic Games decided to award an "award for versatile achievements in the field of physical exercise". This award was initially only available to men, until after the First World War the name was changed to German gymnastics and sports badges and was now also available for women. The German Reich Committee for Physical Exercise is responsible for this. In 1925 the Reich Youth Badge was introduced for boys and in 1927 for girls up to the age of 18 .

As the German Reich Sports Badge , the sports badge was adopted by the German Reich Association for Physical Exercise after the National Socialists came to power and then recognized as a state badge of honor in 1935, for which the Reich Sports Office is now responsible.

With the badge in its temporal modifications owed to the political developments in the German Reich, a public recognition for versatile achievements in the field of physical exercise was to be expressed. According to the foundation documents, which in principle remained unchanged over time, the German Reich Sports Badge demanded "a five-fold good performance, it is a performance test for heart and lung strength, for elasticity, for the possession of physical dexterity, speed and endurance".

The purpose of the German Reich Sports Badge was to provide an incentive

  • to achieve the high level of general physical education necessary for the “people's strength” and
  • to preserve this physical ability into old age.
DRA sports badge in gold

The German Reich Sports Badge was awarded in three classes, in bronze, in silver (silvered) and in gold (gold-plated).

The sports badge consisted of a metal badge with a high oval wreath of oak leaves, which was tied with a ribbon at the bottom. The badge could be attached to clothing with a pin attached to the rear (for male wearers) or brooching (for female wearers). Inside the wreath were the ornate initials of the donor (sponsoring) organization in chronological order:

  • DRA
  • DRL from 1935 with a swastika on the top placed on the ribbon bow.

In contrast to this, the Reichsjugendabzeichen / Reichssportjugendabzeichen had the shape of a round wreath of oak leaves, with the ornate initials “RJA” on the inside, and from 1935 with a swastika on the bottom.

Non-ferrous metal (bronze) was used as the material for the badge, which was silver-plated or gold-plated depending on the level.

From 1935 the German Reichs-Sport-Badge was in a not clearly expressed competition to the SA-Sport-Badge (from 1938 SA-Wehrabzeichen), which was created under the sponsorship of the SA to combine the idea of ​​military ability with the exercise of sport.

Until the end of the award in 1944, the number of acquisitions was around 1.5 million athletes. After the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, after some activities in individual federal states, the German sports badge was re-created in 1952 on the initiative of the German Sports Confederation .

Events

The German Reich Committee for Physical Exercise carried out the German fighting games from 1922 to 1930 :

German fighting games (summer)

German fighting games (winter)

literature

  • Carl Diem (Ed.): Yearbook of physical exercises 1931. Yearbook for popular and youth games . (Weidmannsche Buchhandlung), Berlin 1931
  • Carl Diem (Hrsg.): Yearbook of physical exercises 1932. Yearbook for popular and youth games . (Weidmannsche Buchhandlung), Berlin 1932

Web links

Commons : German Reich Committee for Physical Exercise  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Arnd Krüger , Rolf Pfeiffer: Theodor Lewald and the instrumentalization of physical exercises and sport . In: Uwe Wick, Andreas Höfer (Ed.): Willibald Gebhardt and his successors (= series of publications by the Willibald Gebhardt Institute, Volume 14). Meyer & Meyer, Aachen 2012, pp. 120–145, ISBN 978-3-89899-723-2 .
  2. ↑ Roland Naul: National Olympic and German fighting games . In: Manfred Lämmer (Hrsg.): Germany in the Olympic movement. An interim balance . NOK for Germany, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-87064-110-X , pp. 25-35.