Abstracts

Andreas Luh, Die politische Bedeutung der Gladiatur in der späten Römischen Republik und im Prinzipat
Stadion, Bd. 45, 2/2021, S. 189–228, DOI: 10.5771/0172-4029-2021-2-189
Ancient gladiatorial fights provided entertainment and tension in the social life of the Romans for centuries, and in a cinematic perspective, these fights are still present to this day. The publicly accessible struggle for life and death delighted the crowds in Rome itself and the entire Roman Empire at over two hundred arenas from Spain to the Middle East and from Britain to North Africa. In the Amphitheatrum Flavium, the so-called Colosseum, over 300,000 people died between 70 AD and the end of the fighting in 438 AD. As a result, the gigantic building complex is one of the bloodiest places in world history, a fixed part of the cultural memory of humankind today.
Based on diverging assessments of the gladiatorial fights both by ancient authors and in historiography, this article asks whether these battles caused a depoliticization of the Roman citizenry, or vice versa, whether they contributed to active political participation. In this context, the various dimensions of the political and public significance of the gladiatorial fights in the late Roman Republic and in the ruling system of the Principate should be considered. The Roman amphitheatre became a place of political communication, a place of representation of social unity and hierarchy, and a place of Roman identity formation.
This study is based on authoritative publications and on ancient sources such as Cicero, Augustus, Martial, Juvenal, Tacitus, Pliny, Suetonius, Fronto, Cassius Dio, Tertullian and Maurus Servius Honoratus. – Keywords: Roman Republic; gladiator; principate; social history; body history; Augustus.

Peter Tauber, „Badehosenzwang war meistens abgeschafft.“ Schwimmen, Baden und Sport im Ersten Weltkrieg
Stadion, Bd. 45, 2/2021, S. 229–265, DOI: 10.5771/0172-4029-2021-2-229
The Great War was an impulse to discuss the necessity and usefulness of sport for German society. It was claimed that gymnastics and sport were suitable forms of self-assurance for society, and sports behind the trenches and in the prisoner-of-war camps gave a boost to the distribution of sports in post-war German society.
Sports sponsorship by the military and sports officials during the war contrasted with the simple enthusiasm for sports of the soldiers, who saw playing football and swimming as an opportunity to spend their free time. The turn to sport and the sporting experience became a positive experience, especially in contrast to everyday war life. The fact that sport in its effect and structure met the expectations of the soldiers and also served the goals of the sports officials and officers is a further reason for the rapid increase of sporting activities in German society and the army after the end of the war.
Swimming sports could not benefit from this development to the same extent as football. The reasons for this are obvious: For regular swim training either natural conditions or civil facilities were considered. But the advance of sport and also swimming as an instrument of education, as part of mass culture, could no longer be stopped. One proof here is the paradigm shift in military training, of which sports became an essential part after the Great War. – Keywords: Sports; enthusiasm; World War I; military; sports officials; society; mass culture; paradigm shift; training.

Berno Bahro und Hans Joachim Teichler, Die vergessenen Winterolympiaden des Arbeitersports
Stadion, Bd. 45, 2/2021, S. 266–313, DOI: 10.5771/0172-4029-2021-2-266
This article examines the Winter Olympics (Winterolympiaden) of the Socialist Workers’ Sports International (Sozialistische Arbeitersport-Internationale, SASI) in Schreiberhau 1925, Mürzzuschlag 1931 and Johannisbad 1937. While Mürzzuschlag can be considered well researched, Schreiberhau 1925 and Johannisbad 1937 are underexplored areas of research. By analysing new source material, such as the social-democratic press in Wrocław and Berlin for Schreiberhau and the reports in the Swiss Satus-Sport and the national and local German-language press in the CSR for Johannisbad, a direct picture of the sporting, organisational and cultural activities could be traced. While in Schreiberhau, Central European skiers participating in the workers’ branch of the sport, which was in its infancy, met the Finnish competitive athletes. The subsequent events show an increasing convergence of the European workers’ sports movement and the idea of competitive performance. Johannisbad in the CSR, surrounded by authoritarian states, became the most political of the three Winter Olympics, supported by the entire workers’ cultural movement in North-East Bohemia. – Keywords: Socialist Workers’ Sports International (SASI); sportification; social democracy; European workers’ sports movement; Winter Olympics; skiing; snow sports.

Andreas Praher, Austrian Skiing and National Socialism: Participation Patterns and Fields of Action
Stadion, Bd. 45, 2/2021, S. 314–337, DOI: 10.5771/0172-4029-2021-2-314
The topic of this article is the history of National Socialist Skiing in Austria, as of 1938 called „Ostmark“. Following lines are based on a dissertation which was written and defended at the University of Salzburg in April 2020 and published in November 2021.
The history of National Socialist skiing in Austria does not begin with the Anschluss in March 1938. Even before that, large parts of organized skiing were oriented towards the Nazi state. An increasing ideologization of sport led to a policy of exclusion in the Austrian Skiing Federation (Österreichischer Skiverband, ÖSV) in the early 1920s, which was reflected in the radicalism of National Socialism.
Austrian ski sport officials and activists played an important role in the Nazi regime. Their diverse participation only becomes apparent when their biographies are not only viewed in the context of sporting achievements. The article examines the power structures and scope for action of Austrian skiing before and during the Nazi dictatorship and investigates the extent to which this could become the carrier of the National Socialist injustice system. A specific focus of the article will be on actors, especially on athletes who served in the SA and SS. The analysis focuses on individual patterns of action, participation and interpretation. The individual stories of athletes are intended to illustrate the functioning of the Nazi regime in skiing from a bottom-up-perspective. – Keywords: Skiing; Austria; National Socialism; Skiing History.

Reviews

Michael Krüger, ed., Deutsche Sportgeschichte in 100 Objekten, Neulingen: J. S. Klotz Verlagshaus, 2020 (Karin Rase)
Stadion, Bd. 45, 2/2021, S. 338–340, DOI: 10.5771/0172-4029-2021-2-338