SPORTS.CROWDS.POWER. Football under the Nazis
Together with the Sport Museum Berlin, we’ve created the exhibition “SPORTS.CROWDS.POWER. Football under the Nazis”. It invites us to confront football’s complicated history and poses the question of what significance this history has for us today – and what sports histories we need to keep alive.
SPORTS.CROWDS.POWER. Football under the Nazis is an exhibition examining football under National Socialism, presented in cooperation with the Berlin Sports Museum, was shown in Berlin from 24 May to 15 August 2024. The project was funded by the Stiftung Fussball und Kultur, along with state funding through the Landessportbund Berlin. This exhibition was part of the Sustainability Programme of the Sports Metropolis Berlin for UEFA EURO 2024. It was made in cooperation with the World Jewish Congress.
“SPORTS.CROWDS.POWER.” puts a spotlight on the playing of football in concentration camps and shows how the Nazis tried to use football as a tool for cementing their power. Especially at the site of the historic site of the 1936 Olympic Games, it’s a topic of great significance.
With the stories of Jewish football star Eddie Hamel and the Berlin track-and-field athlete Lilli Henoch, the exhibition shows that even successful athletes weren’t protected from anti-Semitism and persecution. At the same time, German football also included Nazi perpetrators like Otto “Tull” Harder, a multiple German championship team member and national team striker. As a member of the SS, he became commander of a subcamp where thousands of prisoners died under his control.
The exhibition tells of destroyed and disappeared football clubs across Europe and looks at the long shadow of National Socialism in both West and East Germany. Lines of continuity are drawn into the present as it further explores discrimination and exclusion in today’s football.
For more information, please visit www.sport-masse-macht.de or write to .ldatewrlmtus@uagesanthtse.
