By Thomas Zawadzki* 1
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by Thomas Zawadzki* 1. Literature of Germany after World War Two, far more inter- ntil now only a few attempts at research esting is the study of the time before the founding have been made to analyse the biography of of the German Empire as LEWALD was born 12 years UTheodor LEWALD. The first one to be mentioned is after the Revolution of 1848. Further viewpoints to Arnd KRÜGER who in 1975 issued the work Theodor be taken into consideration are LEWALD'S activities Lewald. Sportführer ins Dritte Reich [Sports Leader in German Sports (Con-) Federations, in interna- into the Third Reich]. It was published as the third tional umbrella organisations, and especially his volume of the series entitled 'Turn und Sportfuhrer efforts for the genesis of the Olympic Movement. im Dritten Reich" [Gymnastics and Sports Leaders For this purpose LEWALD'S official functions in the in the Third Reich] which was published by the IOC have to be studied, starting with his election German publishing house Bartels & Wernitz from into the IOC by postal vote in 1924 and his "with- 1970 till 1976. On 144 pages KRÜGER described drawal" after the Olympic Games of Berlin. the familiar life and career of the half-Jew. Other All this research leads to the inclusion of several personalities treated in this series are Edmund aspects, namely sports, politics, culture, media and NEUENDORFF1, Youth Leader of the Deutsche society, in combination with the name of Theodor Turnerschaft, Hans von TSCHAMMER und OSTEN2, LEWALD. The last point to mention but one of the 3 "Reichssportführer", Carl KRÜMMEL , President of first to study are the networks created and used by the Reichsakademie für Leibesübungen, and Guido LEWALD, maybe one of the most important ones: the 4 von MENGDEN , publicist and spokesman of the close collaboration and relation with Carl DIEM.9 Reichssportfuhrer.5 KRÜGER up-dated some of the results of the research together with Rolf PFEIFFER 2.2. Literature Analysis 6 and re-published them in 1995. It seems reasonable to start by studying the litera- At the German Sport University a diploma thesis ture on German history. This facilitates an objec- was delivered in 1984 by Thomas KESEBERG entitled tive access to the personality Theodor LEWALD in Die Lebensarbeit Theodor Lewalds in Dokumenten. On his time. It is impossible to analyse a person who 42 pages the author depicted LEWALD'S life's work lived over half a century ago by contemporary and added another 270 pages of documents to his benchmarks and norms. In connection with this lit- thesis. The consultants to this thesis were Liselott erature on foreign politics especially German poli- DIEM and Karl LENNARTZ.7 tics in the East (today territory of the Polish state) The first of these three works may be regarded in which Theodor LEWALD was involved has to be as the fundamental work on LEWALD, although it pre-processed. As he also had very good connec- seems that KRUGER did not have full access to the tions with the USA, the relationship between the records which were stored in the Central Archives German Empire and the Weimar Republic, respec- in Potsdam. tively, and the United States has to be analysed.10 One important aspect of research here is LEWALD'S 2. Fundamental methodological aspects involvement in the World's Fairs 1900 in Paris and 11 2.1. Biographical methods8 1904 in St. Louis. The aim of the research is to study Theodor Finally works by LEWALD have to be collected LEWALD'S life under certain standpoints as it has and studied in order to form a picture of his work become usual in the modern genre of biography- in politics and sport.12 writing (Biographik). This means that an analysis of LEWALD'S childhood and schooldays, his further 2.3. Archival Research education and professional career as well as his oth- Dealing with the networks which Theodor LEWALD er activities, has to be included. Special periods of maintained it will also be necessary to analyse the German history also have to be treated: the German letters he wrote to colleagues and other officials, es- Empire (1871-1918), the Weimar Republic (1919- pecially in and about sports. Important addresses 1933) and the National Socialist Third Reich (1933- to visit are here the Carl and Liselott Diem Archives 1945). Due to the fact that LEWALD died in 1947 it situated in Cologne which store the correspondence seems not necessary to analyse the founding period between Carl DIEM and Theodor LEWALD13, and the 58 JOURNAL OF OLYMPIC HISTORY 14(MARCH 2006)1 IOC Archives in Lausanne which possess copies of the letters written by IOC members and officials to LEWALD. Further Archives to visit are the (German) Federal Archives in Potsdam where material on LEWALD was collected. Furthermore private collec- tors have already been asked for support.14 3. B i o g r a p h y In the official publication of the Deutsche Olympische Gesellschaft [German Olympic Society]15 which bears the (labelling) title Olympisches Feuer [Olympic Fire]16 Carl DIEM published a commemorative arti- cle on Theodor LEWALD.17 This article owns a special power and a lot of information on the life and work of Theodor LEWALD18, which is why in the follow- ing an English translation of it is presented, which contains some annotations by the author. "Theodor Lewald - in commemoration 18 August 1860 - 15 April 1947 During the preparations of the celebration of the VI modern Olympiad conferred on Berlin (1916) the Reichsamt des Innern [the Reich's Department of the Theodor Lewald (from: Amtlicher Interior] provided the budget of the year 1915 with Bericht1936) a first rate of 40,000 Goldmark. To everyone's sur- prise the budget commission rejected the sum due area of responsibility and became an umbrella or- to political annoyance at something distant. Then ganisation for Turnen23 and Sport under the name the Ministerialdirektor [head of the ministry de- of "DRA für Leibesübungen" [German Reich's partment] and deputy commissioner of the Federal Committee for Physical Exercise], and LEWALD be- Council, LEWALD, gave reasons for this attempt to came its first President in 1919 after the adoption support physical exercise out of the Reich's budget of the constitution. At that time he was Secretary in front of the Parliament on February 14th, 1914 in of State in the Reich's Ministry of the Interior, an thrilling address which was characterized by his worked on the Weimar Constitution, headed the belief in the cultural values of sports and the power negotiations about the Rhineland statutes with the of the Olympic Idea, thus the sum was approved Allies and strove to add the sound traditions of the by an overwhelming majority in the plenum. Reich's administration to the construction of the In 1900 in Paris and in 1904 in St. Louis LEWALD new Reich which was still in the turmoil of political had been commissioner of the Reich's Cabinet at overthrow. the German department of the respective World's Still he had time for his new task. He accept- Fair and become familiar with the Olympic ed and executed it in a superior way. He tackled Games.19 Little as these events may have displayed the idea of the Playground Law24; he spoke on the the Olympic Idea, LEWALD'S historical education public-playground advertising day in front of the and his being aware of what was culturally funda- Reichstag building at the Bismarck monument, he 20 mental were strong enough to disclose the true led the negotiations on the founding of the Deutsche kernel in a poor shell: He supported the German Hochschule für Leibesübungen25, a private institu- participation and was a sophisticated assistant to tion, and gained the approval of the University 21 the team on the spot. of Berlin, of the Prussian Ministry of Culture, Thus people's confidence in him grew. The and of the Reich's Cabinet. He overcame the re- Deutscher Reichsausschuß für Olympische Spiele sistance to "Reichsjugendkampfe" [Reich's Youth [German Reichs Commission for Olympic Games] Competitions] (today Bundesjugendspiele [Federal asked the high-ranking official who had been ap- Youth Games])26 and inaugurated the Deutsche pointed to Sub-secretary of State in 1917 and soon Kampfspiele [All-German Championships] in 1922, to a Wirklich Geheimer Rat [Privy Councillor] namely the National Olympic Games for Germans with the title Excellency to succeed General von all over the world!27 PODBIELSKI22 in his presidency. In the meantime re- Meanwhile he had retired from the Ministry of forms had been prepared. The Reich's Committee the Interior after thirty years of duty in the Reich which had arisen with the Olympics extended its and led as the plenipotentiary the negotiations JOURNAL OF OLYMPIC HISTORY 14(MARCH 2006)1 59 All these activities were connected with his Olympic Activity. Courage was necessary to bring the All-German Championships into being in the post-war turmoil, as well as the National Olympia demanded in vain by so many men ever since the times of the Zentral-Ausschuß für Volks und Jugendspiele [Central Commission for People's and Youth' Games]. And superior humaneness was needed to pull the Turnerschaft and other Sports Federations out of their offside position, for the Turnerschaft was worried about its Turnfeste [Gymnastics Celebrations] and - some of the federa- tions - about their other sources of income. Nobody really wanted to do anything about it, and yet - and LEWALD knew this - it was only through such a joint challenge that the feeling of one united cultural movement, absolutely necessary for the participa- tion in the international Olympia [sic!], could arise.