Body, Sport and Society in Norden Essays in Cultural History
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Niels Kayser Nielsen Body, Sport and Society in Norden Essays in Cultural History Aarhus University Press body, sport and society in norden essays in cultural history body, sport and society in norden essays in cultural history By Niels Kayser Nielsen AARHUS UNIVERSITY PRESS Copyright: The Author and Aarhus University Press 2005 Cover design: Jørgen Sparre Cover Illustration: Eugène Jansson’s painting Flottans Badhus 1907 ISBN 87 7934 895 5 AARHUS UNIVERSITY PRESS Langelandsgade 177 DK-8200 Aarhus N Fax (+45) 89 42 53 80 www.unipress.dk 73 Lime Walk Headington, Oxford OX3 7AD Fax (+44) 1865 750 079 Box 511 Oakville, CT 06779 Fax (+1) 860 945 9468 Contents Acknowledgements 7 Introduction 9 Body and Enlightenment in late 18th Century Denmark 15 Discipline And Nationalism: Body, Sport and Culture in 19th Century Denmark 35 Decadence and Vitality: Sport and the Collective Mentality around 1900 50 Painting the New Body: Four Nordic Artists 1900-1914 64 The “Sunshine Olympics”: Stockholm 1912 83 Nordic Track and Field in the Interwar Years: A Comparison 90 Handball in Rural Denmark in the 1930s 106 Sport at the Front: Football and Nation in Finland during the Second World War 120 Sport and Space in the Nordic World 135 Lutherans, Conformists, Social Democrats – and Athletes 154 References 170 acknowledgements I am pleased to take this opportunity to thank several people who directly, or indirectly, have contributed to the production of this book. The generous financial support provided by Kulturministeriets Udvalg for Idrætsforskning is much appreciated. The stimulus for starting the project came in the 1990s with the inspiration of many researchers. These included: In Denmark, my former colleagues at the Institute for Sport and Physical Education at the University of Southern Denmark at Odense; in Finland, Soile Veijola, Esa Sironen and, especially, Henrik Meinander who many years ago invited me to co-edit an anthology on Nordic sport – a joint project which unfortunately never came to fruition for vari- ous reasons. Also the good people at the Renvall Institute, Helsinki University: Henrik Stenius and Lars-Folke Landgren. Special thanks to Henrik Stenius, for not only opening academic, but also social, intellectual and even gastronomic doors in Helsinki, Stockholm and Tallinn. I enjoyed immensely the good discussions with the Gothenburg researchers Lennart K. Persson (Gothenburg University) and Olof Moen (Municiplan). I appreciated very much Olof’s academic and practical knowledge in track and field, as well as his research in Swedish stadiums and his congenial arranging of seminars. Lennart’s good advice, professorial good humour, and profound knowledge of sport in Sweden – and especially Gothenburg – were also highly appreciated. The same goes without saying for the Nestor of Swedish sports history, Jan Lindroth, who has done so much throughout the years to ‘connect’ the Nordic sports historians in whose research he has shown a keen interest. Among Danish historians I am indebted to John T. Lauridsen, Head of the Research Department at the Royal Library in Copenha- gen. He has been an ever-encouraging and energetic friend who, on numerous occasions, has been prepared to discuss issues of cultural history with me. Special thanks to Professor John Bale (University of Keele and University of Aarhus) for being an undying source of knowledge in British as well as Nordic sport, among many other things. I have 8 body, sport and society in norden enjoyed his undogmatic inspiration, congeniality and encouragement during more than 15 years of friendship, and our visits to places like Fønsborg on Funen, Joensuu, Jyväskylä, Exeter, Goodison Park and Anfield Road, not to mention Manchester City’s fabulous old sta- dium on Maine Road. Thanks also to John for invitations to various seminars in both Denmark and the UK. Aarhus University Press and director Claes Hvidbak deserve thanks for an open-minded attitude to what might have seemed a “one off” project. Thanks also to Mary Lund and Stacey Cozart (Aarhus) and Alan Crozier (Södra Sandby) for their effective trans- lations into English. Last, but far from least, I wish to thank my wife Brita Engelholm for her support and encouragement over the years. She has not only tolerated my enthusiasm for writing about sport and history, but has also tolerated my frequent absence as a spectator at live football matches in Aarhus and handball matches in Hvide Sande. Finally, I want to thank our two sons, Troels and Thue, for being extremely talented football players as children, and for having stopped playing the game when the time was right! In acknowledging the help of so many, it must also be said that any errors of fact or judgement are my own. Niels Kayser Nielsen Aarhus, May 2005 introduction This book comprises a number of cultural-historical and ethno- graphic studies of the history of sport in Scandinavia. The studies examine the contribution made by sport to the development of Scandinavian nationalism in the nineteenth century, and analyze the ways in which sport became interwoven with the social life of citizens in the various Scandinavian countries in the twentieth century. The main focus of this volume, therefore, is not on the organizational history of sport, nor is it on society vis-á-vis sport – i.e., sport as a reflection of a certain societal constellation. Rather, what is of inter- est is sport in society, and therefore the book aims to illustrate the ways in which sport has been used and has served to help explain and understand Scandinavian society types. This endeavour is also related to the history of the social classes. In the nineteenth century, while both sport and nationalism were primarily of importance to the bourgeoisie and – in part – the aristocracy, in the twentieth century both sport and nationalism became a matter for wage-earners and salaried employees. It could be expressed as follows: Nationalism – the strongest “ism” of all the political “isms” in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries – succeeded, through the medium of sport, in reaching all levels of Scandinavian society in the twentieth century. Sport was at the ser- vice of nationalism, but the opposite was also true. Sport also made its own contribution to nationalism: It peacefully and symbolically played a significant role in helping to close the gaps that existed between the social classes in Scandinavia, with working class and peasant being able – through sport – to demonstrate their equality with the other classes in society. In this way, it can be said that sport has also contributed to democratizing the Scandinavian nations. On the whole, Scandinavian countries were stable and solid societies in the twentieth century. This was, above all, due to the circumstance that they were all characterized by a strong demo- cratic tradition that resulted in part from a sympathetic reform monarchy, and in part from the “association autocracy” that was created in the second half of the nineteenth century. Here people were schooled from childhood in democratic leadership principles, whereby – thanks to the elastic membrane of dialogue and practical 10 body, sport and society in norden problems that had to be solved – much potential dissatisfaction and rebellion were directed into politico-cultural channels, where people had a sense of influence and joint responsibility. Secondly, in all Scandinavian countries – in both city and coun- tryside – peasants and workers cooperated to a certain extent in forming the so-called “red-soil alliance” (rød-muldsalliance). In Den- mark, a coalition government existed between the Social Democrats and the Radical Left since 1929, the latter being a consensus-based middle-class party that also represented certain agricultural circles. In Sweden, the Social Democratic Party governed together with the Peasant Party since 1932. In Norway, the same thing happened in 1935, when the Workers’ Party sacrificed its traditionally distinctive working-class politics and became a paternal, “nationally respons- ible” government party. In Finland, the Social Democrats were given a place in the “red-soil” government that Aimo Cajander formed in 1937, a time when the governments were otherwise dominated by aca demics, peasants and the business community. This consensus form of politics was epitomized by the Swedish concept of Folkhem- met, which, with an apparent Scandinavian prototype in P.A. Jensen’s textbook from 1863, had been elaborated already around the year 1900 by the socially conservative professor and right-wing politi- cian Rudolf Kjellén, but which in the 1920s was reinterpreted in the direction of a national social democracy. It did not leave much room for radical solutions for either the right or left wing and formed the basis for a nationalism which, as “welfare nationalism”, stood in sharp contrast to the fascists’ and Nazis’ “war nationalism”. Sport and the culture of the body played an essential role in this Scandinavian form of democratic and nationalistic “welfare nationalism”, but with regard to sport this support was directed more towards the national aspect than towards democracy as such. It would be hasty, therefore, to credit sports activists – and perhaps even the implementation of the culture of the body in outdoor life – with having played the most important role in democracy. Alone they could not have made this achievement possible, but they did help in the creation of a solid foundation. More important for de- mocracy was the organizational framework of the sports activists. In this respect it must be presumed that the association activities – which also included the sports organizations – and the culture of introduction 11 the body in Scandinavian sports, contributed actively to this – if by nothing else than by weighting equality, mutual dependency and consensus as a form of communication. Within research into nationalism and democracy a distinction is often made between two paths: a West European and a German- East European path (cf.