Xenophobia and Antisemitism in Austrian Sports between the World Wars ? A Contribution to Social History
Sprache des Vortragstitels:
Englisch
Original Tagungtitel:
International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sports Congress 2015
Sprache des Tagungstitel:
Englisch
Original Kurzfassung:
In 1918/19 several new states came into being in the area that had been ruled by the Habsburg monarchy. Above all, Austria, the former center, was marked by an ongoing economic and political crisis during the 1920s and 1930s. In this situation xenophobia and especially antisemitism developed into a mass phenomenon and took on a noticeably more aggressive form. The antisemitism of the Austrian-German nationalists was augmented by that of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the non-German-speaking regions of the monarchy. In addition to the antisemitism of the middle classes, there were as well many workers, who viewed the class struggle from an antisemitic perspective. All of this manifested itself in the sporting life of the times. This address aims to examine the appearance of aggressive forms of xenophobia and antisemitism on the basis of some exemplary cases. The focus is on competitive team sports, especially on football (soccer) whereby fencing has been included as well. Many relevant incidents occured in this type of sport inside and outside the sports halls. Since the 1920s, the spotlight of public attention had been focused intensely on the Viennese Jewish sports club Hakoah. The soccer team had won the Austrian national championship, and there was a fencing section of the club, too. Antisemitism is one aspect, national (Austrian-German) chauvinism including antislavic sentiments on the sports ground another one. We know that identification wih a sports team can be an interesting measure for identity. This does not only touch the field of positive identification and integration but as well antagonism and hostility. During the 1930s several incidents on an upper level of attention (Olympic Games 1936; several Mitropa cup matches; international caps) led to scandals and even to irritations of high politics. The presentation is based on archival material, memoirs and interviews with elderly interviewees.,
Sprache der Kurzfassung:
Englisch
Englischer Vortragstitel:
Xenophobia and Antisemitism in Austrian Sports between the World Wars ? A Contribution to Social History
Forschungs-