Women's athletics in Germany until 1945

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This article deals with women's athletics in Germany until 1945 . In ancient times and up to the 19th century, athletics was mainly practiced by men. Women were mentioned only marginally in many records or books. But over time and with the emancipation of women, the attitude changed that only men were allowed to do athletics.

Beginnings

The game and sports movement made a significant contribution to the establishment of women's athletics in the second half of the 19th century. In the years 1875–1885, the gymnastics system that was prevalent in the German Empire, according to Adolf Spieß , increasingly came into conflict with the actual (movement) needs of the time. This is also due to the growing influence of modern English-style sport, which is increasingly spreading across the continent. In order to make the physical exercises characterized by gymnastics more attractive again or to draw more attention to the sport, Emil Hartwich , a district judge working in Düsseldorf , finally called for more outdoor games. In 1882, the Prussian Minister of Culture von Goßler issued the so-called “players' decree”. This called for more gymnastics and games in the open air in order to be able to offer the youth a more appropriate way of shaping their lives. Initially, however, the female youth was disregarded. Around 1891 the Central Committee for the Promotion of Popular and Youth Games (ZA) was founded, which promoted the establishment of the game movement and led to the establishment of a number of regional game associations. Ernst Strohmeyer, a member of the Nordic Play Association, tried for the first time to do popular exercises for girls and women. Thus, the ZA took an initial initiative to include girls and women. The ZA made changes not only in the clubs, but also in the schools. Since 1891, games and exercises for boys and girls have been equated in schools. In addition, the girls were now allowed to take part in more powerful, more performance-oriented lessons and in ball and running games.

Women's athletics from 1913 to the Weimar period

Workers' gymnastics and sports movement

In the worker's gymnastics and sports movement , the athletic disciplines were initially still known as “folk exercises” or “folk gymnastics ”. Over time, however, people's attitude towards life and their bodies changed after more outdoor exercises, especially among factory workers, who had to spend most of their time in rooms with little light or air. In 1910, programs of the pre-gymnastics lessons were integrated into the popular exercises and sporting exercises were anchored in the training program. In addition, the Bundestag decided in Mannheim in 1913 to be more responsive to modern sport. The federal executive board also promoted the teaching of athletics by setting up central federal courses. Nevertheless, the profiling of athletics into a relatively independent sport remained a lengthy process. Since the athletics of the working class gymnast was the sporty form of popular exercises in its beginnings, its implementation was initially integrated into typical gymnastics frameworks. The popular “three-way fight” in the form of a “sporting competition” was the essential part of the first national tournament in 1917, in which not only gymnasts but also gymnasts were invited to participate. In 1918, during the second national tournament, the choice of exercises made it clear that no distinction was made between “male” and “female” disciplines. But after the end of the First World War, this changed, because the health consequences of women participating in athletic exercises and competitions were increasingly discussed. In 1920, for example, the triple jump and the pole jump were described as the "less suitable exercises for women". The triple jump probably promotes dexterity, but is also dangerous for the female body because of the frequent foot injuries and the great vibrations when it first hits it, while the type of pole jumping does not suit the "feminine peculiarity". After 1920, the practical “Free Sports Week” finally became the organ of the workers' sports movement, which methodically conveyed the technique and training of athletics. In order to present the techniques according to the latest findings, the Arbeiter-Turnverlag continuously published “teaching tables”. At the first national festival in Leipzig in 1922, the female workers saw the first national competition in athletics. Although performance was weaker than that of bourgeois sport, the workers' sport movement produced athletic personalities such as Luise Krüger .

do gymnastics

Women's athletics found its first foundations in girls' gymnastics classes in the German Empire since the 1870s. However, the "hour of birth" is the year 1919, when the "German Sports Authority for Athletics" (DSBfA) was founded, whereupon the first German women's athletics championships in the 100-meter run, long jump, shot put and 4 times -100 meter relay have been carried out. These competitions were held annually from now on and the German gymnasts were already on the first places. In 1921, the German Gymnastics Association (DT) held its own championships, but these were indistinguishable from those of the DSBfA. It was not until 1931 that the DSBfA and the German Gymnastics Association organized joint athletics championships.

Women's athletics in National Socialist Germany

When the National Socialist German Workers' Party came to power in 1933, there was a break with the liberal democratic order of the Weimar Republic and the human, ethnic and moral ideas of that time. Above all, the surge in emancipation that women had experienced in the 1920s and their integration into public and political life was suddenly interrupted. Much more, women should be committed to their role as mother and subordinate themselves to the National Socialist “male state”.

General content and goals of women’s sport

Sport was an integral part of National Socialist politics, which received a great deal of attention and support. However, there was a misuse of sport, which should also be used as a means of state discipline and as an instrument of control over the population.

"Association of German Girls" gymnastics demonstration

Under the umbrella of the Hitler Youth (HJ) there was a youth organization for the girls, the " Bund Deutscher Mädel " (BDM). This organization made it mandatory for the girls to meet once a week in the afternoon for games and sports. In these exercise afternoons, the focus should be on running school, gymnastics / body school, athletics, games and also swimming and gymnastics. In the German Reich Association for Physical Exercise (DRL), the “Women's Committee for Physical Exercise for Women and Girls in the Reich” was responsible for women's sports together with the National Socialist Women's Association. As a result of the National Socialist changes, the sport was adapted to the ideological role of the German woman as a mother. So sport was fixated on the role of motherhood and should serve health. To this end, the aim was to achieve a “women-friendly” mass sport, which should by no means lead to “masculinization”, but rather increase and maintain performance. The contents were thus geared towards the tasks of the wife and mother, which should be realized through gymnastics, gymnastics and athletics with folk elements (running, jumping, throwing, dancing). Since the Nazi sport was to become a mass sport, they wanted to win even more women for the community. To this end, the Reich Women's Committee organized a Reich advertising week for “Healthy Women through Physical Exercise”. With this understanding of roles, as in many areas of National Socialist politics, there was a conflict of interests between different directions of the NSDAP as a people 's party , which was represented by various mass organizations and ministries. While the NS women were against competitive sports, the Propaganda Ministry was one of the promoters of competitive sports. This form of division already existed in Catholic (anti-competitive sports) and fascist Italy (= pro-positive national representation through successful women's competitive sports).

Change in women's athletics

After the National Socialists came to power and the Nazi ideology penetrated all areas of society, the question soon arose as to what place women’s competitive sport could take under the conditions of the new regime. The competitive sport of women was initially rejected because medical concerns and racial hygienists continued to prevail with their arguments. Above all, it was argued that the woman's body was not made for heavy loads, that sport contributed to masculinization and that the desire to have children could be stifled as a result. In view of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, at which the regime wanted to demonstrate “Aryan efficiency”, the total rejection of the concept of achievement was put into perspective. The women's athletics championships of July 1934 in Nuremberg were already completely under the sign of the National Socialist worldview with a "pledge of loyalty to the Führer". In the course of the "Third Reich", however, women's athletics suffered restrictions imposed from above, such as the abrupt abolition of the 800-meter run. The Reichssportführer von Tschammer und Osten did not deny the 800-meter run itself, but rather felt that the women "collapsed from exhaustion" at the finish was utter nonsense. In addition, the participation limit to only two competitions per event restricted the athletes.

Very successful Jews, such as Lilli Henoch , Martha Jacob , Helene Mayer and Gretel Bergmann , who were fully integrated into their clubs until the National Socialists came to power, were expelled or urged to resign in the course of the self-alignment of the clubs and associations.

facts and figures

Olympic Games from 1928 to 1936

In Belgium in 1920 and in Paris in 1924, women were initially denied participation, but in 1928 in Amsterdam women athletes were allowed to take part in the Olympic Games for the first time. In Amsterdam, the German athletes showed that they could not only assert themselves nationally, but also internationally. Above all, Tilly Fleischer was able to prove herself in the throwing disciplines against her opponents and made a significant contribution to the success of the German participants in 1936.

Tilly Fleischer at the 1936 Olympic Games
year place gold medal Silver medal Bronze medal 4th Place 5th place
1928 Amsterdam Lina Radke-Batschauer: 800 m (2: 16.8) / Rosa Keller, Leni Schmidt, Anni Holdmann, Leni Junker

4 × 100 m relay (49.0)

Erna Steinberg: 100 m (12.4)

Milly Reuter: Discus (35.86 m)

Grete Heublin: Discus (35.56 m)

Helma Notte: high jump (1.48 m)

1932 los Angeles / Ellen Braumüller: Speer (43.50 m) Tilly Fleischer: javelin throw 43.15 m Tilly Fleischer: Discus (36.15 m) Grete Heublin: Discus (34.67 m)
1936 Berlin Tilly Fleischer: Spear

Gisela Mauermayer: Discus

Luise Krüger: Speer (43.29 m)

Anni Steuer: 100 m

Paula Mollenhauer: Discus

Käthe Kraus: 100 m

Elfriede Kaun: high jump (1.60 m)

Dora Ratjen: high jump /

literature

  • Antje Fenner: The first German Miss Miracle. The development of women's athletics in Germany from its beginnings to 1945. Ulrike Helmer Verlag, Königsstein / Taunus 2001, ISBN 3-89741-072-9 .
  • Jutta Braun: "Female fighters" in sport before and after 1933: From emancipation to instrumentalization. In: Berno Bahro, Jutta Braun, Hans Joachim Teichler (eds.): Forgotten Records, Jewish Athletes Before and After 1933. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86650-038-9 , pp. 54– 63.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Antje Fenner: The first German Miss Miracle. 2001, pp. 51-55.
  2. ↑ Antje Fenner: The first German Miss Miracle. 2001, pp. 68-73.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Jutta Braun: "Female fighters" in sport before and after 1933: From emancipation to instrumentalization. In: Berno Bahro, Jutta Braun, Hans Joachim Teichler (eds.): Forgotten records, Jewish athletes before and after 1933. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin 2009, pp. 54–63.
  4. ↑ Antje Fenner: The first German Miss Miracle. 2001, p. 149.
  5. ↑ Antje Fenner: The first German Miss Miracle. 2001, pp. 154-157.
  6. ↑ Michaela Czech: Women and Sport in National Socialist Germany: An investigation into the reality of female sport in a patriarchal system of rule. (= Articles for Sport and Society, Volume 7). Tischler, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-922654-37-1 .
  7. ↑ Gigliola Gori: Physical education and sporting activity for women during the fascist era. Dissertation at the University of Göttingen, 2000.
  8. ^ Else Trangbæk, Arnd Krüger : Gender and Sport from European Perspectives. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 1999, ISBN 87-89361-67-9 .
  9. ↑ a b Antje Fenner: The first German Miss Miracle. 2001, p. 158.
  10. ↑ Antje Fenner: The first German Miss Miracle. 2001, pp. 126-127.
  11. ↑ Antje Fenner: The first German Miss Miracle. 2001, pp. 129-131.