Willibald Gebhardt

Willibald Gebhardt

Karl August Willibald Gebhardt (born January 17, 1861 in Berlin ; † April 30, 1921 there ) was a German scientist who made a significant contribution to its development with research and theories on light therapy . However, he achieved his historical fame as the founder of the Olympic movement in Germany and as a promoter of the modern Olympic Games .

Professional background

Willibald Gebhardt attended the Friedrich Realgymnasium in Berlin as the son of a master printer . After graduating there in 1879, he studied chemistry - three semesters in Marburg and seven in Berlin. With his dissertation About amides substituted carbonic thiocarbonic doctorate he 1885 Dr. phil. , because the Institute for Chemistry was part of the Philosophical Faculty of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin . In the course of his life and even thereafter, Gebhardt was often referred to as a medic and doctor, which he always resisted. Contributing to this misunderstanding was the fact that Gebhardt attended medical lectures and studied hygiene and physiological chemistry after completing his doctorate .

Since 1885 Willibald Gebhardt worked in the family business that his brother had taken over after the death of his father. In 1890 he had his inheritance paid off and moved to the USA . Here, too, he paid particular attention to the subject of hygiene, which was much noticed at the end of the 19th century, under which not only cleanliness, but health as a complex whole was understood. Due to the strong connection between physical activity and health in the USA, Gebhardt came to appreciate the value of sport. As a fencer he was not averse to the sport anyway.

Gebhardt's commitment to the Olympic Games

First Olympic activities

Gebhardt's unsuccessful attempts as an entrepreneur made him return to Germany at the beginning of 1895. Only a few weeks after his return he learned from the Greek envoy in Berlin, Kléon Rangavis , that the Olympic Games were being held in Athens in 1896 and that Germany was not interested in participating. Gebhardt quickly recognized the reason for the rivalry within the gymnastics and sports movement in Germany, and he immediately took the initiative. According to his ideas, the advancing split could only be stopped by a superordinate association. As early as April 1895, Gebhardt published a call for an exhibition for sports, games and gymnastics , in which he was able to bring together the individual organizations of the gymnastics and sports movement with skill and empathy. The exhibition, which took place in the old Reichstag building in Berlin from June 1 to August 31, 1895 , was the first Olympic activity in Germany.

Gebhardt took the generally positive response and support in parts of the gymnastics community as an opportunity to proclaim the German Association for Sports, Games and Gymnastics as early as September 1895 , and he took over as deputy chairman. His further endeavors to convince the federal government to participate in the Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 failed, however, in the first meetings due to the resistance in particular from the representatives of the German Gymnastics Association (DT) and the Central Committee for the Promotion of the Youth and Popular Games , their opinion after participation would contradict national self-esteem. All attempts to convince Gebhardt failed, so that on November 18, 1895 he gave up his deputy chairmanship and resigned from the federation, which was now dominated by the gymnastics community .

Formation of an Olympic Committee for Germany

The exit illustrates the consistency with which Gebhardt pursued his primary goal, the participation of Germany in the Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. Only days later he wrote an advertising pamphlet for the purpose of forming a committee for Germany's participation in the Athens Olympic Games . On December 13, 1895, 40 people met in the Berlin Hotel Zu den vier Jahreszeiten , all of whom belonged to Gebhardt's extended circle of friends. With Kléon Rangavis he had invited a speaker who was finally able to impressively convince all those present that the first Olympic Games in Greece should not take place without German participation, after all, the Germans, unlike the French, would be welcome guests.

The relationship between the two countries, which was still heavily burdened by the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), was largely responsible for the fact that large parts of the sports movement in Germany took a negative stance against the Olympic idea revived by a Frenchman, Pierre de Coubertin . Coubertin either could not or would not contribute to the relaxation. The international sports congress at the Sorbonne in Paris in June 1894, which would later go down in history as the first Olympic congress , took place without German participation.

The meeting called by Gebhardt ended amicably with the decision to found the committee for the participation of Germany in the Olympic Games in Athens . Historically, this committee is the first National Olympic Committee for Germany. With the support of Rangavis, who, thanks to his office as Greek envoy, praised the good relationship between Germany and Greece at the highest level, Gebhardt succeeded in appointing Hereditary Prince Philipp Ernst zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst , son of the then Chancellor and Prime Minister of Prussia , as President of the committee , and to win Prince Albert of Schleswig-Holstein as vice-chairman of the committee. Gebhardt himself took over the office of secretary.

Efforts to get Germany to participate in the Olympic Games in Athens in 1896

Memorial plaque by Paul Brandenburg at the Schöneberg sports center in Berlin, Sachsendamm 11

Memorial plaque at the Olympic Stadium Berlin , in Berlin-Westend

Only a few days after the founding of the committee , the Central Committee for Popular and Youth Games gave the Greek Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games in Athens a rejection of the invitation received in June 1895. The main reason for this were statements directed against Germany in the French press, in which Coubertin had allegedly also participated. It was also complained that no German member was appointed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) founded by Coubertin in 1894 .

The gymnasts, who were badly affected in their national self-image, were in any case opposed to the Olympic idea with their internationally oriented goals from the start, which culminated in the demand for a national Olympics . A fundamental dispute between Gebhardt's committee and the central committee together with the German gymnastics association seemed inevitable. Nevertheless, Gebhardt, who was keen on unity, tried to smooth things over by trying on the one hand to convince the gymnasts to participate and on the other hand to urge Coubertin to provide clarification.

At the end of December 1895, Gebhardt first contacted Coubertin by writing him a letter in which he presented the newly established committee . At the same time he asked him to comment on the press reports in France. However, this was very reserved, especially when it came to the question of a German representative in the IOC. Gebhardt immediately turned to the Greek Demetrius Vikelas , the then President of the IOC, and presented his request to him. Germany should please also be represented by a member in the IOC when participating in the Olympic Games in Athens. Vikelas was very open to this request and in January 1896 offered Gebhardt to name a candidate for him.

Gebhardt initially held back on this question, because his endeavors were also to get the gymnasts on board to Athens, after all, with the offer of a German member of the IOC, the gymnasts had an argument for not taking part in the Olympic Games Playing dissolved in thin air. He even offered the gymnasts to nominate a possible IOC member from their ranks. Finally, at the end of February 1896, he even published a brochure entitled: Should Germany Participate in the Olympic Games? A reminder to the German gymnasts and sportsmen . The central committee's response , however, was still negative. The aversion to Gebhardt's committee and its representatives from the high nobility was meanwhile irreconcilable.

Meanwhile Gebhardt was not inactive. On the one hand, he tried to postpone the Olympic Games so that he could gain more time for preparations, after all, it was only a few weeks until the opening day of the Games, April 6, 1896. On the other hand, he had already established contacts with representatives of various sports associations, so that he was able to invite active athletes to a meeting at the beginning of February. Gebhardt had also committed himself to the financing by publishing an appeal for donations.

Despite all the dissatisfaction with the German gymnastics association , whose disguised ideological stance Gebhardt almost exclusively blamed on his functionaries, he wanted the gymnasts to participate in Athens so much that he had already contacted individual gymnasts in person weeks beforehand in order to get them off to convince them to participate in the Olympic Games. After this became known, the gymnastics community undertook a public campaign against these gymnasts in order to devalue their reputation. Amazingly, the clubs to which the gymnasts belonged resolutely opposed this, which led to a kind of rehabilitation.

In mid-March 1896, exactly 24 days before the opening of the Olympic Games in Athens, the team for Athens, 21 athletes and 8 supervisors , was appointed at one of the last meetings of the Committee for Germany's Participation in the Athens Olympic Games . Willibald Gebhardt was in charge of the management. The most important decision of this meeting, however, was the appointment of Gebhardt as a provisional German member for the IOC.

Membership in the IOC and contact with Pierre de Coubertin

IOC members in Athens in 1896
v. l. No.
above: Gebhardt, Guth-Jarkovsky, Kemeny, Balck
at the table: Coubertin, Vikelas, Boutowsky

Gebhardt's official admission to the IOC was rather casual. Actually, in the early years of the IOC Coubertins, it was a privilege to appoint its members. The difficulties he had with naming a German member were well known. Thanks to the advocacy of Vikelas and the fact that Gebhardt traveled to Athens as head of the German delegation and as the official German candidate for the IOC, Coubertin could not avoid attending the IOC meetings that took place in Athens during the Olympic Games to let. Gebhardt was hereby confirmed as an IOC member by Coubertin and from then on appeared on the list of members.

When he first took part in a meeting on April 6, 1896, the opening day of the Games, Gebhardt left no doubt about his determination and determination. He immediately submitted the proposal to organize the 1904 Olympic Games in Berlin. He also asked for a new Olympic Congress so that some resolutions could be revised or supplemented. Finally, he also took on the task of writing a report on the 1896 Games.

This drive was characteristic of Gebhardt's nature, which made him Coubertin's most competent and active, but also most critical companion in the IOC. His suggestions and ideas were trend-setting for the Olympic movement, albeit sometimes far ahead of their time. B. the demand for national Olympic bodies or the establishment of an international jury. The modern sport of that time still lacked the level and the necessary structures for this.

With his tireless way of enhancing Germany's role in the Olympic movement, Gebhardt encountered restraint and distance with Coubertin and his difficult relationship with Germany. The relationship deteriorated noticeably when Gebhardt reprimanded the poor organization of the second Olympic Games in Paris in 1900 in general and the unpleasant incidents against Germany in particular. This culminated in a request officially made by Gebhardt at an IOC meeting in 1901 to host the Games every two years in Athens and in another large city, claiming that Germany would host the Games in Berlin in 1908. Historically, this was the first official application for the Olympic Games on German soil.

After the third Olympic Games in St. Louis in 1904 were viewed as a failure, Coubertin came under pressure to succeed. Gebhardt did not hold back with his undoubtedly justified criticism, as he and Ferenc Kemény , with whom he had become friends, represented the IOC alone in St. Louis and could report from his own experiences. He therefore emphatically advocated the hosting of the 1906 Olympic Games, again in Athens, which went down in Olympic history as interim games .

During these Games in 1906, resolutions were passed at an IOC meeting which Coubertin was unable to attend because he generally rejected the Games, which approached a fundamental reform of the IOC. One of the operators of these resolutions was Willibald Gebhardt. With this he fell into the role of a rebel with Coubertin. After Coubertin was quickly certain of his appreciation in the IOC, Gebhardt had a difficult time, especially since the other "rebels" had quickly left the IOC.

His resignation from the IOC in 1909 was both a consequence of the controversy with Coubertin and a disenchantment with his unrealizable goals. In addition, since he left the German Reich Committee for the Olympic Games (DRAfOS) in 1906, he was under pressure to vacate the IOC for a member of DRAfOS. Last but not least, Gebhardt also had financial problems at that time, so that he could no longer afford the expense of traveling to various events and meetings himself. Even if the exact reason for his departure remains unclear, the interplay of circumstances makes his move at least understandable.

Efforts in Germany for the Olympic Games in 1900, 1904 and 1906

After the Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, the committee founded by Gebhardt for German participation was dissolved. The aim of founding a superordinate association for all sports was not feasible. His efforts to make the Olympic Movement better known in Germany through a sports day also failed.

Gebhardt, who was connected to the sport of fencing, was able to achieve success at least in these circles by participating in the founding of the German Fencing Association , which later renamed the German and Austrian Fencing Association , in March 1897 and was elected 1st chairman held this position until November 1898.

In preparation for the second Olympic Games in Paris in 1900, he built on his experiences from preparing for the Games in Athens. In addition to founding a new committee for Germany's participation in the Olympic Games in Paris in 1899 , he even succeeded in receiving a grant of 10,000 marks from the Reich Commissioner's Fund for World Exhibitions . Gebhardt, who again took over the leadership of the delegation for Paris, was able to lead the third largest foreign team to the games in Paris.

This committee also disbanded after the games. For Gebhardt, the need for a permanent national body that would be responsible for the interests of Germany's participation in the Olympic Games was indispensable, especially after he submitted an application to the IOC in 1901 for the 1908 Olympic Games in Berlin. The path initially led again through the establishment of a German committee for the Olympic Games in St. Louis in 1904 . Gebhardt was aware, however, that the realization of the Olympic Games in Berlin required a pooling of forces. As before the Games in 1896, he made the attempt to convince the German Gymnastics Association and the Central Committee for Popular and Youth Games to participate in the committee . While the German gymnastics association stubbornly stuck to its negative attitude towards the international Olympic Games for 8 years now, the central committee was interested. By clever tactics, Gebhardt managed to convince the divided top management of the central committee to join. As a concession, the name of the committee was changed during a meeting in December 1903 to the German Reich Committee for the Olympic Games (DRAfOS). So the Central Committee could find itself in the term Reich Committee . Gebhardt was elected to the position of managing director and first secretary.

Again Gebhardt took over the leadership of the delegation for St. Louis. As in Paris, he was also very disappointed with the games in St Louis. After he had previously been robbed of the illusion of the Olympic Games in Berlin, Gebhardt's goals had become a long way off. In addition , Count Egbert Hoyer von der Asseburg , who was elected president of DRAfOS in 1905, became a competitor who had his own concepts and ideas.

Gebhardt was no longer responsible for the Olympic Intermediate Games in Athens in 1906. His participation was under the supervision of DRAfOS and its president, Graf von der Asseburg, who, together with Gebhardt, also accompanied the delegation to Athens.

After the 1906 Games, Gebhardt found it difficult to work with “his” President. The Count von der Asseburg, a member of the high military with contacts at the highest level, knew the tricks of discrediting an unpopular adversary. At least the fact is documented that Gebhardt no longer ran for the board at a meeting of the DRAfOS in October 1906, whereupon Count von der Asseburg told Coubertin that Gebhardt had resigned from the IOC. Gebhardt vigorously opposed this claim, but saw the basis of trust destroyed and in a letter dated November 28, 1908, announced his final exit from the DRAfOS .

Under state surveillance

The exhibition for sports, games and gymnastics organized by Gebhardt in the summer of 1895 took place in the provisional Reichstag building, the Prussian mansion , at Leipziger Strasse No. 4 in Berlin. The shameful condition of the building prompted Gebhardt to complain in a letter to the Ministry of the Interior. This was an unheard-of process for the era that justified filing a file with the secret police .

The police investigations did not reveal any anti-subversive findings about him, but Gebhardt's various international contacts seemed to trigger a certain unease among the official authorities, in particular his constant advocacy of friendship between peoples and his efforts to promote the Olympic ideals. After all, the file was not closed until 1913.

Gebhardt, the researcher and inventor

In addition to his relentless commitment to the Olympic idea, Gebhardt persistently researched in the field of physiological chemistry. In the field of light therapy, Gebhardt proved to be a pioneer in Germany. He was the first to bring electric light baths, which he got to know during a visit to the world exhibition in Chicago in 1893 , to Europe and introduced them as a healing method in his spa facility in Karlsbad on Potsdamer Strasse in Berlin , which he founded in 1895 . This institution, which was later converted into a physical sanatorium , which Gebhardt headed as managing director until 1902, served him as a place where he could examine his scientific research in the field of phototherapy in a practical manner. He published the results of his scientific work in 1898 in his book Die Heilkraft des Lichts . During this time Gebhardt also developed numerous healing methods with the necessary aids, which he registered with the patent office as utility models or patents.

Meanwhile intensively active as a sports functionary, Gebhardt hoped in 1903 to be able to use his medical and health-oriented work for sports. He made efforts to establish a sports science research institute. In a private small laboratory he carried out practical tests on physical measurements, e.g. B. to determine the specific weight , lung capacity or muscle strength in humans. However, his plan could not be realized due to a lack of interest from the responsible authorities.

In February 1908, Gebhardt married Katharina Zurkalowski, a woman with scientific interests that influenced Gebhardt. In the same year he surprised everyone with a patent specification, completely untypical for him, on a device for making coffee and similar extracts with a cooking vessel that could be inverted . Automatic coffee machines already existed at that time, but their functionality still offered plenty of development potential.

Late life

After 1909, when Gebhardt had already retired from his posts as a sports functionary, there was also no professional success, which led to not insignificant financial difficulties.

In 1910 only the name of Gebhardt's wife appeared in the patent applications. His personal work in the subsequent period is largely unknown. His views on Germany's attitude towards the Olympic movement before, during and shortly after the First World War , however, are documented. Despite the war, he stood up for the 1916 Summer Olympics , which, unfortunately too late for Gebhardt, were taken to Berlin. In 1917 he wrote a protest letter in which he spoke out against the renaming of DRAfOS in German Reich Committee for Physical Exercise (DRAfL). The associated turning away from the Olympic idea and the orientation towards national ideals was unbearable for Gebhardt.

In 1918 and 1919 Gebhardt lived temporarily in the Netherlands , but returned to Berlin for health reasons.

In 1920 he finally made one last attempt to implement his ideal of the Olympic movement. He vehemently complained about the exclusion from the 1920 Olympic Games for the states that had to bear the responsibility of the war. In Gebhardt's sense, the Olympic Games were ultimately an instrument for international understanding. For this reason he called for the establishment of a League of Nations for the Olympic Games . To his great disappointment, he was denied the necessary support for such a project in Germany. His ideal of the Olympic Games was completely broken. Gebhardt died in 1921 as a result of an unexplained and puzzling traffic accident.

Honors and historical commemoration

During his lifetime Gebhardt received an honor from the Greek King Georg I in 1896 and 1906 for his services to the Olympic movement . In 1908 he was awarded the Royal Prussian Crown Order IV class.

For a long time after his death, the name Willibald Gebhardt was largely unknown. A commemorative plaque on the Berlin Olympic Stadium and the name of a sports field in the adjacent Olympic Park Berlin were the only public references to the first German member of the IOC. The south bank of Lake Olympiapark and the adjacent path in Munich's Olympic Park have been named in honor of Willibald Gebhardt ("Willi-Gebhardt-Ufer") since 1971 .

In 1992 the Willibald Gebhardt Institute (WGI) was founded in Essen , a research institute for sport and society, the aim of which is to promote humane sport with its social and ethical-moral values. Since 2003 the sports center Berlin-Schöneberg has been named after Willibald Gebhardt (Willibald Gebhardt Sports Center Schöneberg) . In 2005, the Willibald Gebhardt Foundation was set up to promote sport for children and young people.

In 2014 Gebhardt was inducted into the Hall of Fame of German Sports .

literature

• Roland Naul, Manfred Lämmer (Ed.): Willibald Gebhardt. Pioneer of the Olympic movement . Meyer and Meyer, Aachen et al. 1999, ISBN 3-89124-261-1 , ( series of publications by the Willibald Gebhardt Institute 3).
• Arnd Krüger : Neo-Olympism between nationalism and internationalism. In: Horst Ueberhorst (Ed.): History of physical exercises. Volume 3/1, Bartels & Wernitz, Berlin 1980, pp. 522-568.

Web links

Commons : Willibald Gebhardt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Willibald Gebhardt in the catalog of the German National Library
• Portrait, dates and biography of Willibald Gebhardt in the Hall of Fame of German Sports