Responsibility of sport in coming to terms with the Nazi era

The “Golden Sports Pyramid” honors people for their success or commitment to sport and inducts them as members of the “Hall of Fame” of German sport. (picture-alliance / dpa / Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert) According to research by the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, there are more members in the “Hall of Fame” of German sports who belonged to the NSDAP during the Nazi era than previously announced: 15 instead of five, including the five-time Olympic equestrian champion Hans Günter Winkler, the swimmer Erich Rademacher and the gymnast Helmut Bantz. The German Sports Aid has announced that it will work on this.

The Fame Forum, initiated in 2006 by the German Sports Aid Foundation, honors outstanding athletes and sports personalities – even posthumously. Now the question arises as to how carefully the Nazi past in German sport should be dealt with. Research into this is actually quite simple, reminds Lorenz Peiffer, an expert in sports history: He emphasizes that it has been possible to check the NSDAP membership of athletes since the 1970s.

Blind spot in German sport

The sports historian criticizes the failure of Deutsche Sporthilfe and other organizations in German sport for not taking advantage of these research opportunities. According to Peiffer, this blind spot in German sport is a failure to come to terms with the dark chapters of the Nazi era. “After 45, people didn’t even think about where Hitler’s sports officials were in German sport; they simply ignored it.”

However, Peiffer also highlights the efforts of some sports associations and football clubs such as FC Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, SC Freiburg and Werder Bremen, which are actively addressing their role during the Nazi era and have commissioned studies to investigate this. “There are huge deficits that need to be addressed.” Especially in this day and age, it is more than urgently necessary for this to be pushed further.

Don’t trivialize NSDAP membership

Peiffer also speaks out against the inclusion of athletes who were members of the NSDAP in the German Sports Hall of Fame. He emphasizes that these memberships were part of a larger responsibility for the crimes of the Nazi regime.

In his opinion, people with such a past belong to the wider circle of perpetrators. “All of these people who became members of the party, SA, SS, ultimately contributed to the fact that this National Socialist system was able to come to power, to consolidate its power, to establish itself.”

The former national soccer coach Sepp Herberger was also a member of the NSDAP. The party membership of other Hall of Fame members was apparently not known. (IMAGO / Apress)

He therefore supports the decision of Deutsche Sporthilfe to revise and, if necessary, re-evaluate texts and portraits of affected members, based on the findings from the “SZ” research.

Finally, Peiffer calls for a more thorough investigation and involvement of historians in the selection and evaluation of future members of the German sports hall of fame. This is the only way to ensure that life paths are viewed objectively and those who can truly serve as role models are honored.

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