German Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Festival 1922

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Calisthenics on the large sports field

The 1st German Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Festival with around 100,000 active participants took place from July 22nd to 25th, 1922 in Leipzig . The event organized by the Arbeiter-Turn- und Sportbund (ATSB) is now officially one of the German gymnastics festivals .

History and planning

Originally, a gymnastics festival was supposed to take place as early as 1918 on the 25th anniversary of the Workers' Gymnastics Federation (ATB) founded in Gera in 1893 , which was canceled due to the war . In 1919 the ATB was renamed the Workers 'Gymnastics and Sports Association , and from then on the central seat was in Leipzig, so that the trade fair city was set as the venue for the workers' gymnastics festival that was now scheduled for 1922.

After the first inspection of the future festival area, due to the available space, it was suggested that the festival be held in the German Stadium Berlin under the responsibility of the Fichte Berlin sports club . After an objection from the Leipzig workers' gymnastics clubs and in view of the fact that the host ATSB was based in the trade fair city, Leipzig was finally chosen as the venue. Various technical committees were formed together with the city council, which guaranteed support for the project.

The extended federal gymnastics and main committee for the festival, to which a woman, Käthe Fahrenwald from Berlin, also belonged, decided on the final program in a meeting from September 10 to 12, 1921. In December 1921 the first of a total of six issues of the Festschrift appeared in magazine form . In this first issue the expiration of the already Freiübungen the gymnasts (with photographs illustrated) and the fields of the further competitions and exercises set. The Dresden composer and choir director Paul Büttner was won over to compose the music to accompany the calisthenics . The festival poster designed Erich Gruner .

In February 1922, the housing committee expected around 60,000 to 80,000 permanent participants, ultimately around 100,000 from nine countries. Mass quarters in schools as well as private accommodation were provided to accommodate the participants, and sub-committees organized the overnight stays in 21 divided housing districts in the city. In the run-up to the event, the festival's economic committee and the Leipziger Volkshaus bought all the food in order to sell it on the festival grounds at moderate prices in four large restaurants and several smaller buffet stands .

Fairground

For the fairground, the area to the south-east of Leipzig was considered, where the International Building Exhibition (IBA) took place in 1913 . Today the site includes the Wilhelm-Külz-Park and large parts of the old exhibition grounds . Ultimately, the actual sports festival facilities with an area of ​​around 450,000 square meters were located on the old fair , which was being expanded at the time and still had large open spaces to offer. Today's Carl-Hampel -Platz in Wilhelm-Külz-Park was used outside of the actual festival area for preliminary round competitions, apart from that only the disciplines in the water and football games took place independently of competitions outside the festival area. The large sports field for calisthenics and mass events with dimensions of 190 × 360 meters and six grandstands was located on today's Prager Straße between Alte Messe and Philipp-Rosenthal-Straße. The main entrance was also located here.

The command towers for the mass exercises were located on Straße des 18. Oktober , which divides the exhibition grounds , with two additional entrances; the former Lindenallee, today Straße Alte Messe, served as the festival street. In addition, exhibition halls on the site were used as a gym (106 × 58 meters), accommodation for various committees, commercial and administrative buildings , cloakroom and main restaurant (200 × 30 meters). The so-called concrete hall built for the IBA with ancillary buildings (120 × 110 meters) served as a festival hall as well as a reception and exhibition building. It also housed a so-called gymnast's kitchen , in which up to 20,000 people could be fed. Around the point where the Achilleion exhibition hall was built from 1923 onwards , there was a spacious central assembly area for the gymnasts.

Sports disciplines and competitions (selection)

Course of the festival

General

In the run-up to the sports festival, various rehearsal exercises took place on July 15 and 16, and on July 21, most of the participants arrived at Leipzig Central Station via special trains . From there, the gymnasts were directed to their neighborhoods and quarters by reception committees. In a hall on the site, the ATSB and the Arbeiter-Turnverlag, which was based in Stuttgart in 1907 and in Leipzig since 1913, presented an exhibition called Bund und Verlag , after the festival a total of 76 gymnastics trips were made to the Harz and Saxon Switzerland, among other places offered. The best participants received certificates .

22nd of July

On this first official day of the festival, the individual and all-round gymnastics competitions began , and the association championships in various sports disciplines were held on smaller places on the site. Rehearsals for calisthenics took place on the large square all day. On the morning the exhibition was opened, also were on graves of deceased board members of the ATSB wreaths laid. Football games were kicked off at 3 p.m. on 35 places in Leipzig to promote the ATSB. The gymnastics festival was officially opened in Leipzig Zoo at 4 p.m., followed by festive evenings in 36 local venues.

July 23

The previous day's competitions continued from 6 a.m., along with club gymnastics and preliminary round matches of the ATSB football championship. From 11 a.m., pageants started moving from various starting points to the fairground . After about 2000 cyclists presented mass demonstrations around noon , the pageants arrived on the main square an hour later. From around 4 p.m., gymnasts (16,000 participants) did mass exercises, and in the evening, 800 Saxon youth gymnasts and 100 Czech gymnasts presented exercises .

24th July

On the morning of the third day, among other things, club gymnastics was continued, and the decathlon competitions began. In the morning there were competitions for cyclists, wrestlers and 100-meter runners on the festival site. In addition, the competitions in the water sports disciplines began in the Auensee of the Luna Park . In the afternoon, calisthenics by German gymnastics circles as well as participants from Finland , Switzerland , Belgium and Czechoslovakia took place on the fairground. In addition, the national champions in gymnastics were chosen, in the evening the football champions.

July 25th

After the open competitions had been decided in the morning, children's and youth sports were the focus for the afternoon. Around noon, a pageant of around 3,000 school children set off on Augustusplatz , and from the afternoon onwards, the children presented apparatus and free gymnastics as well as games , dance and music performances on the fairground . On the evening of the last day there was a soccer game between the determined ATSB champions and the best foreign team, followed by a celebration with fireworks at the same location.

literature

  • First German Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Festival in Leipzig, July 1922 . Arbeiter-Turnverlag, Leipzig 1922, SWB online catalog 250228599 .
  • Festival program for the first German workers gymnastics and sports festival in Leipzig from June 22nd to 25th, 1922 . Leipziger Buchdruckerei, Leipzig 1922, DNB 57331988X .
  • Commemorative publication for the first German workers' gymnastics and sports festival from July 16 to 25, 1922 in Leipzig . Arbeiter-Turnverlag, Leipzig 1922, SWB online catalog 355931427 .
  • Volker Rodekamp (Ed.): SPORT: LOOK. German Gymnastics Festival 1860–2002 , Leipzig City History Museum, Sports Museum. Leipzig 2002, DNB 96455030X , p. 23.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Volker Rodekamp (Ed.) 2002.
  2. ^ Hermann Engst: History of gymnastics from the festival city of Leipzig . In: Festschrift 1922, p. 27.
  3. ↑ a b c d The fairground . In: Festschrift 1922, pp. 38–40.
  4. ^ Memories of the Bundestag . In: Festschrift 1922, p. 37.
  5. ↑ Festschrift 1922, pp. 3–11.
  6. ↑ Paul Büttner: About my music to the gymnasts of gymnasts . In: Festschrift 1922, p. 10.
  7. ↑ Johanna Singer: Fresh, Free, Strong, Treu. Leipzig and the workers gymnastics movement . In: Volker Rodekamp (Ed.): On the move. Milestones in the history of sports in Leipzig (topic M. 20). Leipzig 2018, ISBN 978-3-910034-80-8 , p. 41.
  8. ↑ a b The question of quarters for the federal festival . In: Festschrift 1922, p. 25.
  9. ↑ a b Festival program 1922, p. 13 f.
  10. ↑ The fairground . In: Festschrift 1922, p. 11.
  11. ↑ Festival program 1922, pp. 16–26, 37–43.
  12. ↑ Festival program 1922, p. 3.
  13. ↑ Details from the time when the Arbeiter-Turnerbund was established . In: Festschrift 1922, p. 69.
  14. ↑ Festival program 1922, p. 12.
  15. ↑ Festival program 1922, p. 19 f.
  16. ↑ Festival program 1922, p. 20 f.
  17. ↑ Festival program 1922, p. 21 f.
  18. ↑ Festival program 1922, p. 22.