“Jewish Club was a narrative to exonerate” (nd-aktuell.de)

Mr. Hofmann, before I go into the research results and content of your book: How did the idea for it come about?

Actually on the initiative of FC Bayern Munich. The association approached the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich in 2017 and took on the financing of a research project for three years. The institute then advertised the project as a doctoral position. I have successfully applied for this position.

So you can say that FC Bayern financed your doctoral thesis, from which the book was created?

Exactly. It is usual with such projects that the research results are published.

What were FC Bayern’s motives for funding the research project?

I can’t speak for FC Bayern there. But so far there has not been a comprehensive scientific review of the history of the association in the Nazi era, there have been controversial assessments.

What budget did you have available?

I was employed at the Institute for Contemporary History and had very good research conditions there. I was able to research around 60 archives and libraries. For example, I was in the Czech Republic for a week to research Bayern Munich’s so-called club leader, Josef Kellner, who was the club’s president from 1938 to 1943 and an influential Nazi. I’ve had the opportunity to dig deeper than anyone has done before.

How independently can you research and present results when it comes to delicate matters of the client?

It is actually a quite common structure of scientific work. And this is perhaps even unavoidable if, like FC Bayern, you want to know: What happened to us between 1933 and 1945? Then, in my opinion, it is legitimate to go to a scientific institution that can record this independently.

But can this be independent if it is paid for by FC Bayern?

I never had the feeling that anyone from Bayern Munich wanted to interfere with me or exert any kind of influence or hold back something, but rather that there was and is an honest interest in the club’s own history. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who was still chairman of the board during my research, also made this impression on me. FC Bayern had found gaps in its history that it could not afford to judge properly. And he wanted to change that. It would have been difficult to exert influence because the sources are not held by the association, but mainly in public archives. These sources are verifiable. This also means that I could not have presented any tendentious work.

What material did you find in the archives?

A large part were files, for example from the Munich Office for Physical Education, but also a large number of personnel files, denazification files, NSDAP correspondence about FC Bayern officials and compensation files about persecuted Jewish members. Then there were the periodicals and the daily press, from the »kicker« to the »Völkischer Beobachter«. FC Bayern itself has relatively few sources from the period between 1933 and 1945. I was allowed to look in all the cupboards in the club archive. Unfortunately, there is almost no internal tradition, for example no minutes from board meetings. The files from the period after 1945, which refer to the Nazi era, are better.

How complete is the resulting image?

I would call it complete. Of course it’s always the case that you can’t reconstruct everything because there are gaps here and there. Whether unintentionally due to war losses or intentionally because files have been destroyed. But on the basis of the data found, one can allow oneself an absolutely valid and well-founded judgment. I don’t know what the piece of the puzzle that throws everything over the top should be.

And what key findings did you ultimately come to?

Basically you can say: FC Bayern’s past is getting closer to that of other clubs. FC Bayern was more similar to other clubs than had previously been assumed. Participation was also the norm at FC Bayern during the Nazi era. An exceptional role, according to which the club would have been disadvantaged by the Nazis, cannot be determined. Nevertheless, there are specifics that set FC Bayern apart from other clubs.

In what way?

For example, that FC Bayern expelled its Jewish members in 1935. This was the case with many other clubs, for example with 1. FC Nürnberg in May 1933. FC Bayern was a latecomer in this respect. On the other hand, one finds here – and this also distinguishes the association from others – a comparatively large number of early NSDAP members. That has to do with the fact that the roots of the Nazi movement lay in Munich. At TSV 1860 Munich there were also early National Socialists. At FC Bayern in the Nazi era from 1933, however, so-called old fighters did not rise to the same extent in honorary and functional positions as at TSV 1860. Local Nazi celebrities took over positions there, but this is not the case at FC Bayern.

What is new is your knowledge that the Jewish President Kurt Landauer has been removed from the list of FC Bayern members.

Kurt Landauer resigned as first chairman after the Nazis took power in March 1933. This is a decision that he makes himself, analogous to Jewish officials of other clubs, such as the second chairman at FC Schalke 04, Paul Eichengrün, or the treasurer at Eintracht Frankfurt, Hugo Reiß. They often resign on the grounds that they want to avert damage to the club. In a denazification process, Kurt Landauer made a statement that he had been removed from the list of members. This refers to the year 1935, in which FC Bayern expelled its Jewish members in two steps by resolution of the statutes. That also affected deserving people like Kurt Landauer or Alfred Bernstein, a goalkeeper from the 1920s who became South German champion. At least until 1935, FC Bayern did not throw its Jewish members out of the club on their own initiative, as was customary elsewhere.

They describe it as problematic that the name “Jewish Club” was used for the club, especially since this term probably only appeared after the war.

After 1945, officials in the denazification process established the fact that FC Bayern had been insulted as a Jewish club before 1945 as a narrative to exonerate them. It’s likely that the Bavarians were somehow considered Jewish, because even before 1933 that was in line with anti-Semitic prejudices against a supposedly wealthy inner-city club. However, the term is not documented in the sources before 1945, nor is it suitable from today’s perspective to describe precisely what FC Bayern was and what role Jews played at FC Bayern.

Is it true that the proportion of Jewish members at FC Bayern was comparatively high?

The figures indicate that by 1933 about ten percent of the members were Jews. This proportion is well above the average population in Munich at the time and also above the percentage in other clubs. Eintracht Frankfurt and 1. FC Nürnberg could be comparable. There is no question that Jews felt comfortable at FC Bayern before 1933. Many sponsors came from the Jewish textile merchants, in which the Landauer family also had their business roots.

After the war, not only Kurt Landauer returned to FC Bayern, but also former NSDAP members who benefited from the Nazi system. What does it say about FC Bayern that the victims and perpetrators went back to the club?

This also shows that FC Bayern is getting closer to the image of other clubs, but still retains some specifics. For example, 13 Jewish members renewed their membership in FC Bayern after 1945 – some even from exile in America. Or the spectacular case of Kurt Landauer, who returned from Switzerland and took over the chairmanship of FC Bayern again for four years in 1947. But there is also the other side, that for example a National Socialist like Adolf Fischer, who profited to a large extent from so-called “Aryanization” (expropriation of Jews, ed.), is elected president in 1953. With this reintegration of Nazis, FC Bayern is no exception among German football clubs and also not in German society.

How did FC Bayern react to your findings?

The results have already caused a certain surprise, after there was previously a predominantly positive image of the club in the Nazi era. All the more reason why I think FC Bayern’s handling of the less than pleasant results is very professional. These do not in any way devalue the association’s years of work to remember the victims’ biographies.

Do you realize that your research has changed the way FC Bayern portrays itself?

You can already see it in the museum catalogue. And the exhibition is currently being revised.

Gregor Hofmann: »A fellow player in the ›national community‹. FC Bayern and National Socialism« will be published on September 28 by Wallstein-Verlag on 562 pages, hardcover, 28 euros.