Sports in the ´Ostmark´ (1938-1945)

Austria has, to no small extent, constructed and expanded its identity through sports: Politics and economy delivered the premises, but decisive factors of implementation can be found in sports. Nonetheless, to this day fact that the meaning of sports transcends its terrain and develops social effects is often overlooked. Sports can be viewed as a space of shared knowledge, in which general associations are manifested, cultivated and altered. The standards and values of sports enter into society, from collective memory to "physical practices". What designates sports as a social formation is the ability to open paradigmatic spaces to the symbolic and create mythical meanings. The proposed project will transpose these deliberations onto the era of National Socialism in Vienna and Austria.. It will be necessary to re-examine Austrian sports history in the years 1938-1945 on the one hand, and on the other to illustrate the articulations of sports in the NS-context on this basis. The point of origin in this work is the fact, that in Germany, the sports history of National Socialism is a well documented area of contemporary sports history, while in Austria, the systematic critical analysis has not exceeded the initial steps. Neither sports sciences, historical studies nor ethnology have analysed this topic closely, so that neither specific results on the implementation of NS-sports ideology in the "Ostmark" nor studies on structural, personal or organisational specifics exist. Only the basis of these data will enable the analysis of the cultural meaning of sports, their interaction with political and economical premises or their resistance. Three thematic focal points result for the planned study. First, the organisational-personal level must be examined, questioning which differences took effect between the power-induced implementation and retroactive justification, and what the consequences this might have regarding both the regime and the practice of sports. The changes in the field of sports might offer insights into the structures of establishing National Socialist power. Their analysis will take place in three steps: Phase one immediately following the "Anschluss", phase two consisting of the ideological adaptation lasting until the Spring of 1939, which did not appear dictatorial from without but occurred indirectly through the establishment of new structures - supported by propaganda - without dismantling old units. Phase three examines sports in wartime conditions, under which sports assume altered functions. Secondly, the study of sports-cultures will be constructed on that basis. Documentation of not only engraved and recorded data of indoctrination and influence will be attempted, as will the representations of sports in daily life and the articulations which are created, maintained or altered between the realm of sports and other social levels. The third area of study consists of an at least rudimentary analysis of the reception and processing after 1945. The analysis of sports can bring forth utilisable results on the subject of confronting the NS-inheritance. By displaying the brutal elimination of sports practices and radical intrusions in existing structures, it can illustrate the continuation of habitual patterns and therewith contribute to a greater understanding of the NS-regime and the years 1938-1945.

Although the years of National Socialism are amongst the well researched historical periods, the extensive scientific work refers to two striking deficiencies: On the one hand profound research on the structures of Nazi power are contrasted by individual glimpses and a `history from below`, without combining this two viewpoints in sufficiently. On the other hand everyday life and the continuity of normality` even in the nazi era remain unreflected. But these two steps seem necessary to broaden the simple condemnation of the national socialistic system by aspects of empathizing with the everyday/popular cultures, which would allow to no only condemn, but also understand the situations and developments at that time. In this way the research project on sports in the `Ostmark` should reduce the (compared to Germany) enormous Austrian research deficiency of a reappraisal the sporting life, but also contribute to an increased consideration of popular cultures of National Socialism, which could be a key for a better imagination and compehension of national socialistic developments even (and especially) in Austria. Topic of the resarch was the whole sportive sphere at the territory of former Austria in the years from 1938 to 1945, including top sports and sports for all, mass and monority sports, sports in clubs, youth sports and also sports prctices of the formations of the NSDAP, focussed on three specific periods: the months after the `Anschluss`, the autumn 1939 before an after the start of the war and the last days of the Nazi regime after Stalingrad. The results of the research are not to be summarezed simply; the concrete forms of the sportive life varied concerninge the periods, the regions and the mass cultural significance of each kind of sport, but also concerning concrete organizations and even persons. But it is important to see, that on the one hand the situation in Austria - except the popular sports football and (alpine) skiing - differs very little from that in Germany and that on the other hand the prevalent thesis of unilateral exploitation is not to be maintained. Rather we should assume a primary selection of the included (i.e. the radical exclusion of jewish sports, from athletes to journalists), who found obligations to conformity and also chances for resistance. The frame of sports life were doubtlessly dictated by the regime. But the concrete ways of doing sports opened a grey area, in which the included (the `Volk`) found resp. created freedom by strategies of mutual adaptation. This freedom was used by different groups in specific ways: by the regime for instance to calm down the working class or to soothe anti-prussian resentments, by the athletes to get some privileges and by the spectators to keep a glimpse of good luck. Not instrumentalization defined sports (and similar poupular cultures) in the era of National Socialism, but a negotiation of interests, which was controlled, but not defined by the regime.