Abstracts

Moshe Zimmermann
Der „Muskeljude“ und israelische Fußballmythen
STADION, Bd. 43, 1/2019, S. 4–17, DOI: 10.5771/0172-4029-2019-1-4
Only few Israeli football-players have reached the status of a football myth. The two undisputable examples, Yaakov Chodorov, the goalkeeper, and Yehoshua Glaser, the striker, are representative of the early years of the state of Israel: They became football myths because of the role they played in the process of nation-building and because they epitomize the basic idea of Zionism, Israel’s state ideology. – Keywords. Myth; sports myth; football (soccer); Israel; Zionism; nationalism.

Markwart Herzog
Der FC Bayern München im „Dritten Reich“. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichtspolitik des deutschen Rekordmeisters
STADION, Bd. 43, 1/2019, S. 18–57, DOI: 10.5771/0172-4029-2019-1-18
Since 1945, FC Bayern Munich has presented its role in the Third Reich as that of a victim of the National Socialist dictatorship. In contrast to many other football clubs, the club claims to have resisted the regime’s numerous expectations. Because of this allegedly courageous behavior, FC Bayern purports to have been “systematically discriminated against”. But since May 2016 have considerable doubts arisen. There is now evidence that FC Bayern’s self-image is a historical football myth that cannot withstand critical scrutiny. – What is still missing, however, is a detailed description and critical analysis of the individual components of the historical myth. It is precisely this task that this article undertakes. Beginning with a brief historical overview of the current state of research on football clubs in the Third Reich, it then focuses on the various stages of the emergence of the historical myth from 1945 to the present day. It covers the arguments with which FC Bayern justified its alleged victim role. The most comprehensive section then goes through previously unknown archive sources, which prove that FC Bayern did not play the role of victim or even hero under the dictatorship. The penultimate section classifies FC Bayern’s history policy, insofar as it relates to the Nazi era, in the changing periods of the German culture of remembrance. The final section shows FC Bayern’s self-image in the Third Reich as a historical-political anachronism, and it also identifies future directions for research. – Keywords. FC Bayern Munich; football (soccer); National Socialism; culture of remembrance; myth; football myth; Aryanisation.

Alan McDougall
“Tanked up Yobs” and “Self-Pity City”. Deconstructing the Myths of the Hillsborough Disaster
STADION, Bd. 43, 1/2019, S. 58–75, DOI: 10.5771/0172-4029-2019-1-58
On 15 April 1989, Liverpool FC played Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semifinal at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield in northern England. Catastrophic errors by the police and other organisations led to the deaths of 96 Liverpool supporters, crushed against the perimeter fences on the Leppings Lane terrace. Though the horrific facts of the disaster were quickly and widely known, they were lost beneath another narrative, promoted by the police, numerous politicians, and large sections of the media. This narrative blamed the disaster on “tanked up yobs”: drunk and aggressive Liverpool supporters, who turned up late and forced their way into the ground. Over the subsequent years and decades, as Hillsborough campaigners vainly sought justice for the disaster’s victims in a series of trials and inquests, the destructive allegation remained in the public realm. It was reinforced by establishment dismissal of Liverpool as a “self-pity city”, home to a community incapable of accepting official verdicts or of leaving the past in the past. – This essay uncovers the history of the myths of the Hillsborough disaster. It first shows how these myths were established – how false narratives, with powerful backers, shifted responsibility for the disaster from the police to supporters, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It then examines how these myths were embedded in public discourse – how Liverpool was demonised as an aggressively sentimental city where people refused to admit to “killing their own”. It finally analyses how these myths were overturned through research, media mobilisation, and grassroots activism, a process that culminated in the 2016 inquest verdict, which ruled that the 96 Hillsborough victims were unlawfully killed. In doing so, the essay shows how Hillsborough became a key event in modern British history, influencing everything from stadium design to government legislation. – Keywords. Hillsborough disaster; football (soccer); Liverpool FC; myth; policing.

Alexander Brand & Arne Niemann
Die UEFA Champions League als politischer Mythos. Einigung Europas oder Entfremdung der Fans?
STADION, Bd. 43, 1/2019, S. 76–98, DOI: 10.5771/0172-4029-2019-1-76
The article seeks to describe and discuss the UEFA Champions League as an eventually emerging political myth. This continent-wide competition in top-level European club football has been rendered both an “integration engine” (contributing to a further amalgamation of societies of supporters and interested Europeans in a lifeworldy sphere) as well a “grave digger” of football (due, for instance, to its detrimental effects on some national competitions across Europe). Following from that, we distinguish between two countervailing narrative strands, with several motives and sub-narratives in both, that have the potential to either cement or to undermine the mythological nature of the Champions League. Whereas the positive narrative hints at politically relevant forms of societal integration through the presence of a continent-wide, de facto league of top football clubs, the negative counterpart suggests that the Champions League is a driver for (over-)commercialisation and a threat for the integrity of “true”/traditional football. We argue that these two Champions League narratives do not seem to (completely) neutralise each other. While fans may be alienated by the commercialisation triggered through the Champions League, at the same time the Champions League may have a unifying effect by widening perspectives, fostering a common continental communicative space, or constituting an engine of lived integration. In the remainder we seek to outline possible avenues of future research into how football fans – not so much elite commentators such as politicians, club and association officers, scholars and journalists – indeed perceive of the Champions League and hence link up to the two broader narratives identified. – Keywords. UEFA Champions League, political myth, football (soccer), fans, Europe, integration.

Udi Carmi
The McDonaldization of Fencing. The Tauberbischofsheim Coaching Method as a Turning Point in the History of Fencing
STADION, Bd. 43, 1/2019, S. 99–114, DOI: 10.5771/0172-4029-2019-1-99
In the early 1970s, the German fencing coach Emil Beck invented a new training model that deviated from the traditional French and Italian schools. Beck’s model, named for the fencing club he established, Tauberbischofsheim, revolutionized the way fencing was taught. It was a rational, formal system based on McDonaldization – the economic consumption paradigm developed by sociologist George Ritzer. This article studies the Tauberbischofsheim training model as a turning point in the history of fencing. It analyzes the core principles of the system and the revolution it brought about. The McDonaldization paradigm applied to fencing undermined the basic tenets of fencing instruction, introducing a rational coaching plan and individualized lessons chosen from a pre-set menu. The coach became more of a guide than a trainer. For the first time, it was possible to teach fencing without being a consummate professional or an expert in the traditional instruction methods. The success of Beck’s students has been unprecedented in the world of fencing. – Keywords. McDonaldization; Fencing; Tauberbischofsheim (T.B.B.) coaching system.

Michael Krüger
Die deutsche Sportmedizin seit 1945 zwischen Prävention und Leistungssport
STADION, Bd. 43, 1/2019, S. 115–140, DOI: 10.5771/0172-4029-2019-1-115
This article presents the design, structure and methodology of a research project for the critical analysis of the history of German sports medicine. The project was supported for three years from 2015 to 2018 by the German Institute of Sports Science (BISp). Its results have already been published in part. This article deals with the mainly unpublished results. It includes the history of sports medicine in East Germany (former GDR), in which sports physicians were included in the state-ordered doping system; a critical analysis of German sports medicine between prevention and competitive sports; and the role and significance of doping and anti-doping for sports medicine in East, West and unified Germany. – Keywords. Sports medicine; sports history; history of medicine; cold war; German reunification.

Andreas Luh
Gesundheit und Bewegung bei den Maya, im christlichen Denken des frühen Mittelalters und im alten China – der Blick auf vormoderne Kulturen
STADION, Bd. 43, 1/2019, S. 141–180, DOI: 10.5771/0172-4029-2019-1-141
The topic of health and physical activity is an important subject of research and teaching in sport scholarship. The present article focuses on the concepts of health and disease of the Mesoamerican Maya, Christians in the late antiquity and the early medieval period, and traditional Chinese medicine. This cultural-historical approach is based on the social history and particular living conditions which formed the Maya, the Christian and the Chinese people. Key sources include the holy book of the Maya, Popol Vuh, the Lorscher Arzneibuch, and the Chinese Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor. Although the concepts of health and physical activity differ greatly, they combined the same element: they always include a theory of life as a whole; they are always a contemporary construction based on the particular living conditions, thinking and belief; and they are always a means of stabilizing authority and social order. – Keywords. Health; pre-modern era; early Middle Ages; China; Maya.