Frankfurt gymnastics festival
The Frankfurt Gymnastics Festival took place shortly after the West German currency reform from August 19 to 23, 1948 in Frankfurt am Main . Planned as the first German gymnastics festival after the end of World War II , it was not allowed to use this name by order of the Allied occupying powers, since all-German events were forbidden, as was the use of the term "German" in the context of an event. The name Frankfurter Turnfest was therefore the official name of the event. Participation was limited to gymnasts from the bi-zone at the direction of the US military government and the British military government in Germany .
idea
The resumption of the tradition of German gymnastics festivals in 1948 was a courageous and at the same time difficult undertaking in view of the devastating destruction caused by the nights of bombing of the Second World War and after the crimes of National Socialism . At the same time, it was intended to set an example for the will to rebuild and for the will to unify Germany. The then Lord Mayor of the city, Dr. Walter Kolb (1902–1956), who two years later became chairman of the newly founded German Gymnastics Federation . He took over the overall management of the event, which many contemporaries at the time characterized as an “unheard of”, “impossible” and “bold” project.
The unifying element of Kolb's idea was the 100th anniversary of the March Revolution in 1848/49 or the first German National Assembly in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt , in which the gymnasts and Friedrich Ludwig Jahn , who was apostrophized as the "gymnastics father", played a decisive role. Before the anniversary, Walter Kolb was not only strongly committed to the timely reconstruction of the Paulskirche, which was badly damaged in the war, but also to the gymnastics festival, which for this reason should definitely be held in Frankfurt am Main. The opening of the Frankfurt Gymnastics Festival took place on August 19, 1948 in the Paulskirche. In the course of the opening speeches for the Frankfurt Gymnastics Festival in the Paulskirche, the first calls for the establishment of a German Gymnastics Federation as the successor to the German Gymnastics Federation (DT) and Workers Gymnastics Federation (ATB) were made.
procedure
Possible venues within the city were still too much affected by war damage, so that the gymnastics festival took place largely in Victory Park, the Frankfurt Waldstadion (now: Commerzbank-Arena ) known by the US military administration . However, individual events were also held on the Römerberg , i.e. in the immediate vicinity of the Paulskirche, and on the grounds of the Frankfurt Zoological Garden . The usual move through the streets of the city at other gymnastics festivals was not possible due to the rubble.
Officially, around 30,000 gymnasts from the US and British occupation zones took part; the permission to participate from the British and US military governments was only valid for residents or club members of their merged bi-zone. Unofficially, however, gymnasts from the French and Soviet zones of occupation also managed to come to Frankfurt am Main and take part in the gymnastics festival. For them, it was not only the often long journey due to the imperfect transport connections that was problematic. The participants from the Soviet occupation zone also did not have the new currency introduced in the western zones, the German mark . The gymnasts from the French and Soviet zones of occupation were forced to start under false flags for clubs from the British and US American zones, in order to disguise their actual regional or zonal origins.
Since accommodation at that time was not even guaranteed for the local population and the displaced persons and refugees who remained in Frankfurt due to the destruction, most of the gymnastics festival participants spent the night in tent camps set up by the US Army.
At the Frankfurt Gymnastics Festival, Kolb succeeded in largely overcoming the earlier discrepancies and ideologies of the organized civil and workers' gymnastics clubs and associations by emphasizing a communal spirit.
The Munich journalist Robert Lembke wrote in 1948 about the closing event of the Frankfurt Gymnastics Festival: “18,000 spectators (five for each winner) and the band had done their best to forget the autumn coolness and the threatening rain clouds on the final day. A few hours later, the big farewells began in the tent camps of the active and the overflowing bars in Frankfurt's old town, initiated by a crackling fireworks display. "
Statistically, the Frankfurt Gymnastics Festival is now the 19th German Gymnastics Festival.
Competitions
In addition to all-around competitions, gymnastics games and calisthenics, the German Gymnastics Club Championship (DTVM) was held for the first time.
Supporting program
The festival play “The Bright Call” by Hermann Grauerholz was performed as part of the supporting program for the Frankfurt Gymnastics Festival.
Further gymnastics festivals in Frankfurt am Main
Colloquially, the other German gymnastics festivals that took place in Frankfurt am Main are also considered Frankfurt gymnastic festivals, such as the 5th German Gymnastics Festival in 1880 (male participants only), the 11th German Gymnastics Festival in 1908 (male participants only), and the 22nd German Gymnastics Festival 1983 and the 41st International German Gymnastics Festival in 2009.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gymnastics festivals: 150 years of eventful history. ( Memento of the original from August 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on: dosb.de
- ↑ Steffen Haffner: 150 years of German gymnastics festivals - an eventful history. (PDF file; 28 kB)
- ↑ German gymnastics festivals since 1948. (PDF file; 47 kB) on: dtb-online.de
- ^ Herbert Neumann : Frankfurt, the gymnastics festival queen. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. May 29, 2009.
Web links
- German gymnastics festivals. on the website of the German Gymnastics Federation