Football in Berlin during the Nazi era: “Berlin football was a pillar of the system”

Thomas Schneider, you and a team of researchers have researched the history of the Berlin Football Association (BFV) during the Nazi era. How did the study come about? The association itself initiated it. The BFV is the first state or regional association to take on the topic and examine its past during the Nazi regime in detail. Even if, of course, unpleasant truths about its own history can come to light in the process. Of course, the state associations are very differently positioned in terms of their capabilities than a sports association like the DFB. Their resources are significantly more limited. The fact that the BFV nevertheless commissioned the study with full conviction and provided the financial resources deserves recognition.

What is the aim of the study? On the one hand, of course, to historically examine one's own role during this period. On the other hand, and this is a very important point, this study should also provide insights and guidance for action in the present. But one thing leads to another. With a clear and informed awareness of what once was, one can look at the present much more clearly. And many of the research topics are highly topical: anti-Semitism, marginalization, the rise of right-wing radicalism. Football is also confronted with all of these issues. And the BFV has fortunately understood that one can learn from the past in this regard.

So how did you proceed? As a regional association, the BFV is very close to its own grassroots. In addition to the volunteer executive committee, there are full-time employees in the office. Those involved in Berlin football do so on a voluntary basis and were elected to their positions, in which they now organize, for example, match operations or refereeing. And this is precisely the level that serves as the focus of our study: the micro level of Berlin football and the association's work. The BFV wanted to research the extent to which the new rules and regulations of the Nazi regime were implemented and supported by the clubs. How officials and players behaved specifically in everyday football during this time. Whether the association was a pillar of the Nazi system at that time. And based on our study, we can now say: Yes, it was, even if it "only" organized football. And it's important to note: The Berlin Football Association could have simply said: "Why a study? There's nothing to research!"

What do you mean? In fact, the Association of Brandenburg Football Clubs, as it was then called, dissolved itself in 1933 under pressure from the new system. From then on, the association was referred to as "Gau III" and incorporated into the Reichsbund für Leibesübungen (Reich Association for Physical Exercise). The BFV was not re-established until 1949. But: There was, of course, continuity in terms of the people involved and the participating clubs. So we wanted to know to what extent the people and clubs that remained active adapted to the Nazi system. We wanted to know how these players reacted to the increasingly strict regulations of the regime. In order to be able to document as precisely as possible how Berlin football behaved during this time.

How did you go about it? We quickly realized that this study needed a special structure. We didn't want to commission a scientist who would then tinker in a quiet room and present their findings at some point. Instead, we adapted the structure to our research purpose – examining the micro level. We didn't want to just focus on the association as an active organizational structure, but formulated sub-topics and commissioned scientists – in one case a tandem – to work on them. We asked ourselves: What role did the clubs play? They ultimately had to implement the guidelines of the association or the sports leadership in the Nazi state, such as the introduction of the Aryan paragraph. But did they actually do that? What role did the individual people within the clubs play? Who were they, and what were their beliefs? And how did the victims fare – that is, their Jewish fellow citizens? The people who were excluded from club life during this time. How did they react? Today we know: During the early days of the Nazi regime, several Jewish football clubs were briefly founded and self-managed to set up proper competitions with a league system and tournaments. This was despite major hurdles, as by this time, our Jewish fellow citizens had long since been banned from playing sports on all pitches. If the background weren't so sad, one could almost say that Jewish football in Berlin experienced a heyday during this period. We also now know that before the 1936 Olympic Games, so-called "matches" even took place between Jewish and Aryan teams. In this way, the regime wanted to maintain the appearance of a supposedly open society shortly before the Olympic Games.

What else did you discover? An example that concerns the BFV itself: Firstly, we wanted to find out the backgrounds of the people involved. Had they been Nazis for a long time? Did they become Nazis over time? And above all: How actively did they enforce the regime's guidelines and thus ultimately support it? In doing so, we came across a specific case of a Gauführer (regional leader) who, at the time, was demonstrably very actively involved in implementing the Nazi sports leadership's adjustments in Berlin football. Later, after the BFV was re-founded in 1945, he remained active in Berlin football for a long time and was highly respected. We recently presented these findings to the BFV executive committee, and I am pleased that this uncomfortable truth has been well received by the association. That this new insight has raised awareness of the fact that an association official whom, with our current knowledge, we can call a Nazi, is still honored by the association today. How the BFV now deals with this knowledge is a decision it alone must make. Deciding or evaluating this is not the job of us historians. Our task is to provide the necessary knowledge for decision-making.

How rich were the sources for this work? Phew, difficult! Because the clubs weren't required to keep archives. They didn't have to keep any club magazines either. Accordingly, the first challenge was to identify the clubs from this period. And the second was to see whether any documents existed at all about the clubs' activities during this time. In many cases, this wasn't the case. We had to get creative in the teams that worked on the individual aspects of the study. Julian Rieck, who dealt with the topic of clubs, for example, came up with the idea of ​​querying the police archives. During the Nazi era, clubs had to report virtually everything they changed or adapted. The regime wanted to be precisely informed about what was going on in the clubs so that they could determine which of the clubs were truly on their side.

How should one imagine the changes in practical terms? At that time, players were required to give the Hitler salute before and after matches. But there were also players who defied this. And who were subsequently banned from playing or even expelled from their clubs. Another question is how quickly club leaders introduced the Aryan paragraph, for example – and whether they nevertheless continued to befriend Jewish people or perhaps even helped them. Such contradictory cases paint a more nuanced picture of this era. Because they allow us to move away from thinking in categories like: This one was a follower, this one was a system operative. Instead, we were able to highlight much more clearly that Berlin football was also ambivalent at that time. But we also discovered obscure personalities within the association itself.

Who, for example? When the football association was dissolved in 1933 and replaced by Gau III, a so-called Gau leader had to be installed. This was Oskar Glöckler, a staunch Nazi with a Nazi past. He brought two other people on board to support him in the leadership. So we asked ourselves: Did Glöcker bring on the two other leaders because they were also Nazis? This was demonstrably true; both were old acquaintances or party comrades. However, one of them soon left the association, and the other was charged with embezzlement and forgery. And Glöckler himself committed suicide in 1938 at the age of 44 – he was exposed as an imposter. He used a fictitious title of professor and claimed to have been awarded an Iron Cross in the First World War, which was untrue. And from our point of view, this also reveals the kind of people who were sometimes able to assume key positions in the Nazi regime. The people who were already there and had the sporting expertise kept the association running. On a purely technical level, which involves the day-to-day organization of game operations, there was a great deal of personnel continuity.