History of the Workers' Sports Movement

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As Arbeitersport one is socialist embossed sports movement referred to in Germany existed from 1893 to 1933. The oldest workers ' sports movement emerged in Switzerland ( SATUS ) in 1874. The first international workers' sports organization was founded in Ghent in 1913, and re-established in 1920 and 1946 after the World Wars. From 1921 to 1937, in addition to this social democratic organization, the Red Sports International also existed as a communist umbrella organization for international workers' sports. In 1931, over 2 million people participated in various European workers' sports associations.

Emergence

One of the most important prerequisites for the development of the workers' sports movement is the economic development in the 19th century. The work performance and the related productivity was not improved by an extension of working hours, but by certain rationalization measures that affected the production methods in the various companies. This simplification of work increased the free time of the workers and made it possible to establish workers' gymnastics and sports associations. The first workers' sports organization came into being in Switzerland in 1874. However, it was shaped even more by craftsmen than workers . In the course of the socialist laws passed by Bismarck , the attitude of the German gymnastics club was radicalized , from which many social democratic athletes were now excluded for political reasons. As a result, these people were forced to create their own framework in which to organize their sport. As an alternative, joining the sports clubs, which were usually still exclusive at this time, was not possible, as the athletes set themselves apart socially from the workers, for example through high admission fees, expensive sportswear and equipment and a guarantee system for admission. However, the possibility of founding their own clubs and organizations was only possible for the socialists with the fall of the socialist laws in 1890. In 1893 the Workers' Gymnastics Federation ( ATB ) was founded in Gera .

Due to the increasing intensity and pace of work, the workers developed a certain health awareness, which also expressed the need for physical culture. Furthermore, the increasing mechanization of work led to a need for balance, which was satisfied in gymnastics, sports and hiking clubs. Many workers went outdoors under the motto "escape into nature". However, the workers also had doubts because they feared that sport would neglect their political and social responsibilities.

The workers gymnastics movement in the Wilhelmine Empire

With the establishment of the ATB and the numerous smaller associations that followed, the gymnastics movement was initially criticized by the social democratic parties. The members of the workers' sports clubs were encouraged to concentrate more on politics . Furthermore, the workers' sports movement was ignored by the socialist parties because it was held responsible for splitting up the social democrats among themselves. Karl Frey complained about this in his "pamphlet" in 1907, so that afterwards the SPD dealt more with workers' sport. Furthermore, the "pamphlet" moved the SPD to take the position that socialists could not be members of the DT, which should persuade people to join the ATB. Nevertheless, until the First World War, one cannot speak of an organized cooperation between the SPD and the workers' sports organizations.

The development of the workers 'sports movement in the Wilhelmine Empire was primarily shaped by state repression against workers' sports. From the beginning, the Wilhelmine Justice treated the movement as a socialist organization. Provoked by reports of numerous changes in membership from the DT to the ATB, the DT undertook administrative measures and denounced socialist activities in the workers' sports clubs. This led to club dissolutions, police surveillance, requesting membership lists for workers 'sports clubs and a ban on minors' membership in these, so that some clubs lost half of their members. The youth gymnastics was particularly often attacked in the context of these oppressive measures, because one feared the influence of the socialist politics on the children and young people. In 1908 the Reich Association Law was passed, which banned young people under the age of 18 from belonging to political associations throughout the Reich. As a reaction to the passing of the Reich Association Law, Fritz Wildung , the former editor of the Arbeiter-Turn-Zeitung, reported himself to the court, whereupon he won a court judgment, which the workers gymnastics movement no longer saw as political.

In 1912, more extensive repression measures were introduced against the workers 'sports movement in response to the great political success of the Social Democrats and the increasing number of workers' gymnastics and sports clubs. As a result of this new wave of repression, socialist youth and sports clubs were viewed as political, youth committee events were monitored by the police, and gatherings were violently broken up. The workers 'sports movement was particularly hard hit by the repression, as the socialists, with the organization of sports in workers' sports clubs, advanced into an area that was otherwise always dominated by the conservative state representatives. Nevertheless, the number of members in the workers' sports clubs rose steadily, but never to the same extent as that of the bourgeois sports movement, to which the suppressive measures of the Wilhelmine state played a significant part. In the same year, the workers 'gymnastics and sports federations also merged to form the Central Commission for Sport and Personal Care , which was supposed to represent workers' sport to the state authorities. The organization did not develop to its full size until the Weimar Republic .

Although the workers 'sports movement was often seen as a countercurrent to the fatherland and therefore could not count on financial support from the state, with the beginning of the First World War the workers' athletes also campaigned for the defense of the German fatherland. In summary, it can be said of the development of workers' sport in the Wilhelmine era that the movement often had to act from a defensive position due to the extensive repressive measures. Furthermore, the workers' sports movement did not strive for revolutionary measures, but rather for adaptation and equality.

The split in workers' sport in the Weimar Republic

Willibald Krain : Poster for the 1st International Workers' Olympiad in Frankfurt am Main in 1925.
Georg Benedix at the opening of the 1st International Workers' Olympiad 24. – 28. July 1925 in Frankfurt am Main.
Karl Bühren : The medicine ball in the Arbeiter-Turn-Verlag 1928

The history of the workers' sports movement at the time of the Weimar Republic was largely shaped by internal differences and tendencies towards division. First of all, between 1918 and 1919, the change from the ATB to the Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Association (ATSB) took place. With the renaming of the institution, games and thus also competitions were added to gymnastics . Of course, after the First World War , developments in the workers' sports movement were also shaped by the question of the future form of government in Germany . The board of directors of the ATSB initially took the view not to act actively yet, as the question of the future form of government had not yet been clarified. Thus a party political neutrality should be maintained, which should contribute to a unity of the workers' sports movement. In contrast to this, trends developed in workers 'sport that advocated active and revolutionary action by the entire workers' sport movement. The main focus of this revolutionary movement was in Berlin . The main driving force was the TV Fichte association , which only awarded higher positions in the association to members of the KPD and USPD . This represented a clear contrast to the party-political neutrality demanded by the ATSB, which indirectly called the unity of the ATSB into question. Based on these opposing efforts, an ideological split into a revolutionary-communist and a reformist-social-democratic camp has arisen. At the Bundestag of the ATSB in Leipzig in 1919, the latter acknowledged the primary goals of class struggle and socialism , but the way in which these goals should be achieved was highly controversial. This resulted from the different understanding of socialism. While the revolutionary opposition called for a proletarian dictatorship , the majority in the ATSB opted for party political neutrality, which, in the opinion of the revolutionaries, contributed nothing to socialism. In addition to the contrasts, there were also conference points where there was unity in the workers' sports movement. This included the re-emerging fight against civil sport and the strengthening of children's and youth sports.

The inflationary development in the Weimar Republic and the increase in the importance of the KPD intensified, among other things, the tendency to split in the workers' sports movement. On January 15 and 16, 1921, a congress of the Central Commission for Sport and Body Care took place in Jena . The position of the workers' sports movement in relation to state institutions was also discussed. The majority accepted the parliamentary-democratic government and wanted to participate in state institutions. Nevertheless, there was an aggressive climate between the opposing camps at the Jena Congress and the revolutionary opposition received more support than before. At the subsequent Munich Congress of the ATSB the ideological struggles had calmed down a little, but the discussion about the right way to socialism continued. The Federal Festival of the ATSB, held in 1922, represented the first high point in the history of the workers' sports movement and was a great success. In the following years, the ATSB had to struggle with the economic situation in Germany and inflation made it difficult to create, so that the association had to record a loss of 100,000 members.

The 1st Workers' Olympiad in Frankfurt , held from July 24th to 28th, 1925, was a great success for the German workers' sports movement. Workers' athletes from England , Finland , Czechoslovakia , Switzerland , Latvia , Austria , Belgium , Palestine , Poland , France and Germany for sporting competitions in the disciplines of athletics , football , swimming , heavy athletics , cycling , gymnastics , gymnastics games, rowing and shooting . The program was supplemented by physical exercises. In the end, the German workers ' sports movement succeeded in combining culture , science and sport in an excellent way , as well as integrating children and women into the workers' sports Olympiad. Furthermore, the demonstration of international solidarity in the workers ' sports movement can be highlighted, which ensured more self-confidence among German workers' athletes.

In the years 1925–1927 there was more intensive cooperation between the two ideological currents in the workers' sports movement. At the Bundestag of the ATSB in Hamburg in 1926 the resolution was passed that every worker sportsman should be a member of the KPD or SPD . This amounts to a formal approximation of the two parties within the working class and for a short time reduced the potential for conflict. However, the developments in the international traffic of the workers' sports movements let the old conflicts flare up again quickly. With the breaking off of sporting relations between the ATSB and the Soviet Union in the summer of 1927 and the commitment of the Lucerne Superinternational (LSI) to social democracy , the disputes continued and each other was accused of having the split in the workers' sport movement in mind. The 16th Bundestag of the ATSB in Leipzig, from June 23 to 26, 1928, was all about the impending split. Ultimately, the following resolutions were passed that sealed this:

  1. Prohibition of participation in sporting events of the Soviet Union
  2. Break of relations with the KPD and its institutions
  3. Authorization of the federal board of the ATSB to carry out exclusions on its own responsibility.

The last point of the resolutions in particular was exploited by the ATSB's federal executive committee. The Central Commission for Sport and Personal Care followed the decisions, which led to the split in other workers' sports organizations.

After the split in the German workers 'sports movement, the excluded members and associations founded the "Interest Group for the Restoration of Unity in Workers' Sports" (IG) on May 26, 1929, which was supposed to maintain the sports activities of the communist members. In December 1930 this was renamed " Kampfgemeinschaft für rote Sporteinheit " (KG). This organization, which is strongly linked to the KPD, joined the Red Sport International (RSI) and took on the organization of the 2nd International Spartakiade of the RSI in Berlin in 1931. With the KG, however, the opposition wing did not succeed in taking power in German workers' sport, as the proportion of communist members was too small compared to the social democrats. Nevertheless, the revolutionaries had a number of goals that they pursued with the KG. These included, among other things, the disruption of the social democratic and civic sports movement, the strengthening of one's own organization, the fight against the works sports clubs and the creation of a Germany-wide red workers' newspaper. Furthermore, the KG was preparing for the Sparkiade, which was planned for July 4 to 12, 1931 in Berlin. This was an international sports festival of the Rote Sportinternationale (RSI). The Sparkiade should strengthen the positions of the RSI and the KG and represent a competitive sports festival for the Workers 'Olympics in Vienna, which also took place in 1931 and introduced the long-banned idea of ​​competition into workers' sport. However, the Sparkiade was banned by the social democratic Berlin police president. This prompted the KG and KPD to intensify the fight against the social democratic wing of the workers' sports movement. At the end of the Weimar Republic , the attacks by the National Socialists on communist workers' athletes increased sharply, but they did not recognize the National Socialists as their enemies, but believed that they could contain fascism by fighting the Social Democrats.

The social-democratic side of the workers 'sports movement was satisfied that the SPD had accepted it, since the communist members had largely disappeared from the ATSB with the split in the workers' sports movement. With the establishment of the " Iron Front ", which the social democratic sports associations founded to protect against National Socialist attacks, the workers' sports organization was placed on the same level as other social democratic associations. When the Social Democratic government was replaced by Chancellor Franz von Papen in 1932 , the National Socialists began to monitor the Social Democratic workers' sports clubs.

Destruction of the workers' sports movement

With the seizure of power by Hitler and the National Socialists, the ATSB was forced to dissolve itself, as the association saw an imminent breakup due to the Enabling Act of March 23, 1933. As a result of the self-dissolution, the workers 'sports clubs turned to the DRA, which was supposed to accept the member associations of workers' sports. This was rejected by the DRA, however, as the organization feared that this measure would pollute its ideology . The consequences of these developments became apparent in the exclusion of socialist wandering groups and the ban on taking over socialist associations in other associations. This ban was issued by the German Gymnastics Association (DT). Furthermore, it was stipulated that former socialist individual members must unconditionally recognize the statutes of the German Gymnastics Association when switching to civil sport .

Since the bourgeois associations acted to the satisfaction of the Reich Sports Commissioner, there was initially no need to intervene in the dissolution of workers' sports. The dissolution of the workers' sports associations was the task of the SA , the political police and the Reich Minister of the Interior . On June 27, 1933, however, a circular was issued to the state governments that included the exclusion of class sports associations from the National Socialist club landscape. The assets of the broken associations were confiscated and from October 14, 1933, they were to be used for sporting activities.

Furthermore, from October 1, 1933, there were strict regulations for the admission of Marxists as individual members in the bourgeois sports associations. A police clearance certificate and an affidavit had to be presented. In addition, two members of the national sports federation should provide a guarantee for the new member. In return, former communists offered resistance within the associations, but had to relocate them abroad because of access by the secret police. Workers' sport developed here. After the Second World War , the International Workers 'Sport Organization was rebuilt , but from Germany only the Solidarity Cycling and Motorists' Association took part .

Ideology of workers' sport

Workers' sport showed forms and conceptions of proletarian sport in the context of the development of the socialist class movement. The development of the workers' sport movement is thus related to the development of the socialist proletariat .

Educational tasks of workers' sport

The Socialist Workers 'Sport International (SASI) formulated the following educational tasks for workers' sport in 1929:

  1. The workers gymnastics and sports movement is part of the general workers movement and aims to free the working class from capitalist rule and to establish a new social and economic order with the help of socialism.
  2. Workers-gymnasts and athletes have to belong to the political, union and cooperative labor movement. This represents the prerequisite and basis for the workers' sports movement.
  3. The aim of the workers' sport movement is the physical, mental and moral advancement of the workers as well as the participation in socialist culture, the maintenance of international socialism and the promotion of the readiness to fight against international reactions.
  4. These goals are to be achieved through physical and mental education . The human being is viewed as an individual , whereby the physical and mental education cannot be separated.
  5. Physical education aims to repair physical health damage caused by capitalism and become the health sport of the masses. The associated increase in physical mobility , performance , aims at the beauty of the figure.
  6. Physical training should also be linked to socialist thinking, feeling and acting. Furthermore, an education about class feeling, solidarity , discipline and willingness to make sacrifices should be carried out.

Conflicts between workers' sport and civil sport

An inevitable conflict developed between the workers' sports association and its bourgeois counterpart , which resulted primarily from the different political and sporting views. The workers gymnastics and sports movement consisted of class-conscious workers and was supported by socialist values. This included, for example, the class struggle to build a socialist society as well as concrete thoughts about solidarity . Based on these characteristics of the workers' sports movement, it can be described as a political gymnastics and sports movement. In contrast to this, members of all classes came together in civic sports associations and did sports there, so that overall more workers were organized in civic sports clubs than in those of the workers' sports movement. Furthermore, the civil sport represented a political neutrality to the outside and fought against a differentiation of people into classes. Civil sport benefited from the fact that it maintained good relations with politics, so that the chances of state funding were far higher than for the workers' sports association.

These ideological contradictions led to allegations against bourgeois sport on the part of the workers' sports movement that the bourgeois sports associations merely hid class differences behind the sporting business. Furthermore, the workers should be deterred from their class struggle. For the workers' sport movement, capitalism was clearly reflected in civil sport in the form of competitions and the pursuit of top performance and records. Modern, competition-oriented sport and its values ​​were vehemently condemned. Factors criticized included phenomena such as show and sensational sport , profitability, the individualism of bourgeois sport and the fact that sport was also affected by increasing commercialization. With a ban on double membership in civic and workers' sports clubs, workers should be encouraged to leave the civic associations.

Another significant area of ​​conflict arose between the workers' sports association and the works sports movement that was emerging in the 1920s and which arose due to the great enthusiasm for sports at that time. The works sports clubs and associations became members of the German Reich Committee for Physical Exercise (DRA) and had the aim of binding workers more closely to the company. Members were lured into the works clubs by offering them the prospect of resolving social conflicts within these sporting organizations. The Association of Workers' Athletes also saw capitalist ideas in the company sports associations, which should be combated. However, the factory sports clubs managed to legitimize themselves through a comprehensive social program. As a reaction to this, a strong resistance was sparked in the ranks of the socialist workers' sports association, which was supposed to expose the actual intentions of the factory sports associations: increasing performance and profit.

In 1927, Reichswehr Minister Otto Geßler issued a ban on members of the Reichswehr who were no longer permitted to be members of the ATSB, as it was viewed as a political organization. As a result, the Central Commission for Sport and Personal Care was also stigmatized as a political association in 1930 , which further exacerbated the conflict between civil associations and workers' sport . The establishment of the Reich Board of Trustees for Youth Enhancement in 1932 clearly shows the division between civil and workers' sport. This new body was open to all associations, including political groups, which, however, had to support the state. While the DRA and the denominational sports associations were represented in the Reich Board of Trustees for Young People, the ATSB distanced itself in addition to the political combat organizations such as the SA and the Reichsbanner.

In other countries, above all in Finland and (from 1934) in France, the political and ideological differences between workers' sport and civil sport were much less pronounced. From 1935 onwards, in the wake of the Comintern's Popular Front policy, the international communist workers' sports movement increasingly sought cooperation with civil sport.

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  • Hajo Bernett: Dealing with civic sport. In: Hans Joachim Teichler, Gerhard Hauk: Illustrated history of workers' sport. Dietz, Berlin / Bonn 1987, ISSN  0522-6880
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  • André Gounot: Les mouvements sportifs ouvriers en Europe (1893-1939). Dimensions transnationales et déclinaisons locales , Presses universitaires de Strasbourg, 2016.
  • Franz Nitsch: "We experienced how peace can be". The 1st International Workers 'Olympics 1925. In: Hans Joachim Teichler, Gerhard Hauk: Illustrated history of workers' sport. Dietz, Berlin / Bonn 1987, ISBN 3-8012-0127-9 .
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Individual evidence

  1. Arnd Krüger , James Riordan (Ed.): The Story of Worker Sport. Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL 1996, ISBN 0-87322-874-X ; André Gounot: Sport réformiste ou sport révolutionnaire? Les débuts des internationales sportives ouvrières. in Pierre Arnaud (ed.), Les origines du sport ouvrier en Europe,   L'Harmattan, Paris 1994, pp. 219–246; Halevi Olin (Ed.): Sport, Peace and Development. International Worker Sport. 1913-2013. CSIT, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-9503593-1-2 .
  2. ^ Dominique Marcel Fankhauser: The Workers' Sport Movement in Switzerland 1874–1947: Contributions and controversies on the social question in sport. LIT, Münster 2002, ISBN 3-643-80061-4 .
  3. ^ Herbert Dierker: Workers' sport in the area of ​​tension in the twenties. Sports politics and everyday experiences on an international, German and Berlin level. Essen 1990, pp. 56-57.
  4. ^ Fritz Wildung: Workers' sport . In: Hilde Barisch: Sports history at first hand. Richterdruck, Würzburg 1971, pp. 218–220.
  5. ^ Hans-Joachim Teichler: Workers' sport as a social and political phenomenon in the Wilhelmine class state. In: Horst Ueberhorst: History of physical exercises. Volume 3/1. Bartels and Wernitz, Berlin / Munich / Frankfurt am Main 1980, pp. 462–463.
  6. ^ Hans-Joachim Teichler: Workers' sport as a social and political phenomenon in the Wilhelmine class state. In: Horst Ueberhorst: History of physical exercises. Volume 3/1. Bartels and Wernitz, Berlin / Munich / Frankfurt am Main 1980, pp. 463–464.
  7. ^ Herbert Dierker: Workers' sport in the area of ​​tension in the twenties. Sports politics and everyday experiences on an international, German and Berlin level. Essen 1990, pp. 57-58.
  8. ^ Hans-Joachim Teichler: Workers' sport as a social and political phenomenon in the Wilhelmine class state. In: Horst Ueberhorst: History of physical exercises. Volume 3/1. Bartels and Wernitz, Berlin / Munich / Frankfurt am Main 1980, pp. 465–466.
  9. Diethelm Blecking: Workers' Sport in Germany 1883-1933. Documentation and analysis. Prometh Verlag, Cologne 1983, p. 10.
  10. ^ Hans-Joachim Teichler: Workers' sport as a social and political phenomenon in the Wilhelmine class state. In: Horst Ueberhorst: History of physical exercises. Volume 3/1. Bartels and Wernitz, Berlin / Munich / Frankfurt am Main 1980, pp. 466–467.
  11. Diethelm Blecking: Workers' Sport in Germany 1883-1933. Documentation and analysis. Prometh Verlag, Cologne 1983, p. 10.
  12. ^ Herbert Dierker: Workers' sport in the area of ​​tension in the twenties. Sports politics and everyday experiences on an international, German and Berlin level. Essen 1990, pp. 60-61.
  13. ^ Herbert Dierker: "Largest Red Sports Club in the World". The Berlin workers' sports club Fichte in the Weimar Republic. In: Hans Joachim Teichler, Gerhard Hauk: Illustrated history of workers' sport. JHW Dietz, Berlin / Bonn 1987, p. 94.
  14. ^ Herbert Dierker: Workers' sport in the area of ​​tension in the twenties. Sports politics and everyday experiences on an international, German and Berlin level. Essen 1990, pp. 61-65.
  15. ^ Herbert Dierker: Workers' sport in the area of ​​tension in the twenties. Sports politics and everyday experiences on an international, German and Berlin level. Essen 1990, pp. 66-74.
  16. Franz Nitsch: "We experienced how peace can be". The 1st International Workers 'Olympics 1925. In: Hans Joachim Teichler, Gerhard Hauk: Illustrated history of workers' sport. JHW Dietz, Berlin / Bonn 1987, pp. 203-206; B. Schröder: Workers 'sport, forest stadium and workers' Olympics in Frankfurt am Main. In: Archive for Frankfurt's History and Art, No. 57, 1980, pp. 209–218; Andrea Bruns / André Gounot, Critique de société et aspirations réformatrices: l'Olympiade ouvrière de Francfort 1925 face aux Jeux olympiques de Paris 1924. In: André Gounot / Denis Jallat / Benoît Caritey (eds.), Les politiques au stade. Étude comparée des manifestations sportives du XIX e au XXI e siècle , PUR Rennes, 2007. pp. 113–124.
  17. ^ Lothar Skorning : The struggle of the revolutionary workers 'athletes for the implementation of the proletarian class policy in the Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Federation (ATSB) in the first years of the period of relative stabilization of capitalism (1923/24 to 1926/27). Doctoral thesis, Leipzig, 1963
  18. ^ Herbert Dierker: Workers' sport in the area of ​​tension in the twenties. Sports politics and everyday experiences on an international, German and Berlin level. Essen 1990, pp. 76-83.
  19. ^ Herbert Dierker: "Largest Red Sports Club in the World". The Berlin workers' sports club Fichte in the Weimar Republic. In: Hans Joachim Teichler, Gerhard Hauk: Illustrated history of workers' sport. JHW Dietz, Berlin / Bonn 1987, pp. 94-96.
  20. André Gounot: The Red Sports International, 1921-1937. Communist mass politics in European workers' sport , Münster, LIT, 2002, pp. 179–187.
  21. ^ Herbert Dierker: Workers' sport in the area of ​​tension in the twenties. Sports politics and everyday experiences on an international, German and Berlin level. Essen 1990, pp. 87-93.
  22. Diethelm Blecking: Workers' Sport in Germany 1883-1933. Documentation and analysis. Prometh Verlag, Cologne 1983, p. 10.
  23. ^ Herbert Dierker: Workers' sport in the area of ​​tension in the twenties. Sports politics and everyday experiences on an international, German and Berlin level. Essen 1990, pp. 93-94.
  24. ^ Hajo Bernett: The way of sport in the National Socialist dictatorship. The emergence of the German (National Socialist) Reichsbund for physical exercises. (Contributions to teaching and research in sport, Volume 87). Schorndorf 1983, pp. 8-10.
  25. ^ Halevi Olin: Sport, Peace and Development. International Worker Sport. 1913-2013. CSIT, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-9503593-1-2 . (Review by Arnd Krüger in Sportzeiten. 13 (2013) 3, pp. 90–95)
  26. ^ Helmut Wagner: Sport and workers' sport. Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1973, p. 165.
  27. ^ Helmut Wagner: Sport and workers' sport. Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1973, pp. 170–171.
  28. Erich Beyer: Sport in the Weimar Republic. In: Horst Ueberhorst: History of physical exercises. Volume 3/2. Bartels and Wernitz, Berlin / Munich / Frankfurt am Main 1981, pp. 681–682.
  29. Erich Beyer: Sport in the Weimar Republic. In: Horst Ueberhorst: History of physical exercises. Volume 3/2. Bartels and Wernitz, Berlin / Munich / Frankfurt am Main 1981, p. 681.
  30. ^ Hajo Bernett: The confrontation with the bourgeois sport. In: Hans Joachima Teichler, Gerhard Hauk: Illustrated history of workers' sport . JHW Dietz, Berlin / Bonn 1987, p. 60.
  31. Erich Beyer: Sport in the Weimar Republic. In: Horst Ueberhorst: History of physical exercises. Volume 3/2. Bartels and Wernitz, Berlin / Munich / Frankfurt am Main 1981, p. 682.
  32. Erich Beyer: Sport in the Weimar Republic. In: Horst Ueberhorst: History of physical exercises. Volume 3/2. Bartels and Wernitz, Berlin / Munich / Frankfurt am Main 1981, p. 683.
  33. ^ Hajo Bernett: The confrontation with the bourgeois sport. In: Hans Joachim Teichler, Gerhard Hauk: Illustrated history of workers' sport. JHW Dietz, Berlin / Bonn 1987, p. 61.
  34. Erich Beyer: Sport in the Weimar Republic. In: Horst Ueberhorst: History of physical exercises. Volume 3/2. Bartels and Wernitz, Berlin / Munich / Frankfurt am Main 1981, pp. 682–683.
  35. On the different developments in Europe cf. André Gounot: Les mouvements sportifs ouvriers en Europe (1893-1939). Dimensions transnationales et déclinaisons locales , Presses universitaires de Strasbourg, 2016,