German-Polish Relationships in the Field Of Sport – From the Long Century to the Present Day – an Overview

Authors

  • Diethelm Blecking University of Freiburg, Institut für Sport und Sportwissenschaft

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29038/2220-7481-2019-04-09-13

Keywords:

sport, football match, sports game, sports club, Germany, Poland

Abstract

Topicality. The development of sports and physical education have become one of the important instruments for the economic modernization and development of civil society in Poland and Germany. Sport discourse between Germans and Poles before World War I is a discourse of alienation and national conflict between the сountries. Despite the difficulties of post-war formation, countries were able to develop and intensify sports activities, which became key in establishing cultural and social relations, integrating them into the European space. The aim of the research is to determine the international nature and specificity of German-Polish sports relations through a historical and legal analysis of their origin and formation on the European continent. The following research methods were used in the paper: analysis of literary sources in sports and physical education, methods of comparative analysis, systematic approach, historical method. The results of the research. A retrospective analysis of sports, in particular the football experience of Germany and Poland in the post-war period and to the present, showed its importance in the development of international relations of both countries, as evidenced by a sufficient number of sports games, competitions, football matches, and as a result – reaching mutual understanding between peoples and successful bilateral cooperation. Conclusions. In the postwar period, the factors that led to an increase the role of sports and physical culture in society were preserved in Germany and Poland. At the same time, the tendency to intensify the intervention of state structures, political parties, public and regional organizations in spreading physical culture and using it for their own interests, including as a means of ideological influence, was clearly manifested. Physical education developed in close dependence on the political and economic conditions of these countries. At the same time, democratic transformations in Eastern Europe have led to the emergence of new trends in physical education and sport.

References

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Witold, Jakóbczyk. (1967). Studia nad dziejami Wielkopolski III, Poznań: Nakład Poznańskiego, p. 4.

Blecking D. (ed.) (1991). Przemysław Matusik, Der polnische Sokół zur Zeit der Teilungen und in der II. Polnischen Republik. Die slawische Sokolbewegung: Beiträge zur Geschichte von Sport und Nationalismus in Osteuropa, Dortmund: Forschungsstelle Ostmitteleuropa, 104–135.

See also Marek Szczerbiński (1976). Sokolstwo Polskie w Niemczech w latach 1889–1918. Wychowanie fizyczne i sport, 1, 85–107.

See recently Diethelm Blecking. (2015). Integration through Sports? Polish Migrants in the Ruhr, Germany. International Review for Social History 60, Special Issue, 275–293. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859015000401

Wolfgang, Kessler, Ethnische Minderheiten, in: Lawaty A., Orłowski H. (eds.) (2003). Deutsche und Polen: Geschichte, Kultur und Politik, München: Beck, 450–455.

For the history of football in the Polish part of divided Silesia see Thomas Urban. (2011). Schwarze Adler-Weiße Adler: Deutsche und polnische Fußballer im Räderwerk der Politik, Göttingen: Die Werkstatt, 13–27.

Blecking, D., Peiffer, L., Traba, R. (eds) (2012). Diethelm Blecking, Ernest Ezi Wil(l)imowski: Der Spieler. Vom Konflikt zur Konkurrenz: Deutsch-polnisch-ukrainische Fußballgeschichte, Göttingen: Die Werkstatt, 71–88, here 72–74.

Krause, S., Lübke, C., Suckow, D. (eds.) (2018). See recently also Diethelm Blecking, Ernst Willimowski – ein moderner Athlet in unübersichtlichen Zeiten. Der Osten ist eine Kugel, Fußball in Kultur und Geschichte des östlichen Europa,Göttingen: Die Werkstatt, 277–289.

Dahlmann, D., Kotowski, A. S., Karpus, Z. (eds.) (2005). See Britta Lenz, Polen deutsche Fußballmeister? – Polnischsprachige Einwanderer im Ruhrgebietsfußball der Zwischenkriegszeit. Schimanski, Kuzorra und andere: Polnische Einwanderer im Ruhrgebiet zwischen der Reichsgründung und dem Zweiten Weltkrieg, Klartext: Essen, 237–250.

See Ulrich Herbert. (1995). Arbeit, Volkstum, Weltanschauung: Über Fremde und Deutsche im 20. Jahrhundert, Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 218.

For the history of these asthonishing matches see Dietrich Hertz-Eichenrode, Sport und Politik in den deutsch-polnischen Beziehungen von 1933-1939. (2012). Sport Zeiten, no. 3, 7–36.

Ibid., 8–10.

Ibid., 20.

Hahn, H. H., Traba, R. (eds.). (2012). For a comparison between Bern and Wembley see Diethelm Blecking. Das Wunder von Bern und Wembley 1973. Ein Spiel schreibt Nationalgeschichte. Deutsch-Polnische Erinnerungsorte, t.3, Parallelen, Paderborn: Schöningh, 415–29.

For the “water battle” see Urban, 118–133.

For an overview about Polish-German relations in the field of sport, scientific research of sport and sport history see Diethelm Blecking, Sport w komunikacji polsko-niemieckiej: od konfliktu do konkurencji. (2015). Interakcje: Leksykon komunikowania polsko-niemieckiego, t. 2 (Wrocław: Wrocławskie Wydawnictwo Oświatowe, 305–315.

Fort the conference proceedings see note 9, Blecking, Peiffer and Traba (eds.).

Blecking D., Peiffer, L. (eds.) 92012). Sportler im “Jahrhundert der Lager”: Profiteure, Widerständler und Opfer, Göttingen: Die Werkstatt.

See Przegląd Sportowy. 25 April 2013. http://www.przegladsportowy.pl/pilka-nozna/europuchary,liga-mistrzow-borussia-dortmund-r eal-madryt-4-1,artykul,168048,1,832.html (last accessed 13 December 2015).

Quoted in Süddeutsche Zeitung. (2014). 15 July, 2.

For the biography of Willimowski see note 9.

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Published

2019-12-30

Issue

Section

Historical, philosophical, juristic and organizational problems of physical culture

How to Cite

German-Polish Relationships in the Field Of Sport – From the Long Century to the Present Day – an Overview. (2019). Physical Education, Sport and Health Culture in Modern Society, 4(48), 9-13. https://doi.org/10.29038/2220-7481-2019-04-09-13