How Hitler used sports to create ‘youth that will scare the world’

The paragraph also applied to sports clubs, but Reich’s leadership initially did not consistently demand its implementation in view of the 1936 Olympic Games – they did not want negative headlines and give reasons for a possible cancellation of games or boycotes. But there were criticism and boycott requests anyway, which intensified after Nuremberg’s racial laws approved in 1935, which later formed the legal basis for the persecution and extermination of the Jews.

However, many clubs and sports associations in which leadership was particularly faithful to the Nazi regime implemented the Aryan paragraph from the beginning, on their own and in early obedience. For example, the German Gymnastics Association, at the time the largest German sports association, with 1.5 million members, excluded Jews just a day after the law approved.

Other associations, such as swimming, rowing and skiing, followed the example. The German Football Federation (DFB) reacted less radically and allowed the Jews to continue playing. However, they were no longer allowed to occupy leadership positions in soccer clubs. A prominent example is Kurt Landauer, who was president of Bayern Munich for many years during Weimar and had to leave his position in 1933.

As a result of the exclusions, Jewish sports clubs grew a lot between 1933 and 1936, with new members. However, when the 1936 Olympic Games ended, the situation of Jews in Germany worsened.

“After the games, it was already possible to take the mask,” says historian Ansgar Molzberger. “With the beginning of the persecution of the Jews itself from 1938, Jewish sport was also consistently destroyed.”