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Journal of Contemporary History
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David A. Steinberg
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234 Journal of Contemporary History
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Steinberg: The Workers' Sport Internationals 1920-28 235
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236 Journal of Contemporary History
Our International Association for Sport and Physical Culture differs from the
political and trade union internationals in that it brings its members together to
action. ... In our sporting events we must face each other eye to eye and get to
know that none of the others is an enemy, but rather that all men are
brothers. . . . We have the most powerful interest that the great world-wide lies
spread by capitalism finally be destroyed, that the people learn that they are a
thousand times more unified than divided.9
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Steinberg: The Workers' Sport Internationals 1920-28 237
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238 Journal of Contemporary History
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Steinberg: The Workers' Sport Internationals 1920-28 239
sport clubs as well as hiking clubs, singing clubs, chess clubs and
other such groups was rejected on the grounds that it would create a
third force in the workers' movement that might weaken the political
and trade union organizations. Cultural organizations were not to be
encouraged; they were remnants of petty bourgeois society which
communists should capture and liquidate. But the RSI, Podvoisky
explained, was an organization 'which has to work on a special field
of the labour movement, that of physical culture'; it had nothing to
do with cultural organizations.21
A major objective of communist workers' sport organizations was
to counteract the effect of bourgeois sport organizations. By point-
ing out the true nature of the bourgeois clubs and their pose of politi-
cal neutrality and by stressing the welfare of the working class rather
than the quality of sport facilities, the communists undertook to per-
suade workers to join workers' sport clubs. Where no workers' sport
clubs existed, the communists proposed to form them, either by
inducing 'class-conscious' workers to start separate clubs or by
winning large numbers of supporters in bourgeois organizations and
then splitting those organizations.22
A problem as difficult as destroying the bourgeois sports clubs was
rescuing the workers' sport organizations from 'reformist' leader-
ship and the doctrine of 'the neutrality of physical culture' which,
communists believed, had caused the sport movement to abandon
political and economic goals. Communists were to emphasize the
class character of sport, supporting opposition groups in the
workers' sport movement, engaging in educational work, pointing
out the impossibility of any cooperation with the bourgeoisie, and
opposing all declarations of neutrality. The key to communist work
on behalf of the RSI in the workers' sport organizations was the
formation of factions, which would operate democratically,
convincing majorities in the sport organizations to affiliate with the
RSI. Even non-communist workers were welcome in the RSI, since
its aim was to 'revive' the principle of the class struggle in the
workers' sport movement, rather than create an exclusively
communist sport movement. While insisting that the unity of the
workers' sport movement be preserved (in spite of the creation of
factions), communists in the sport movement were to participate in
all actions of the 'reformist officials' and the LSI without losing
sight of the goal of adapting the activities of the LSI to the 'militant
tasks of the proletariat'. To create a united front, communists were
to demand that all communist sport organizations be permitted to
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240 Journal of Contemporary History
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Steinberg: The Workers' Sport Internationals 1920-28 241
The RSI did little to promote unity during the first years of its
existence. Its second congress, which was not attended by Russian
delegates, issued a manifesto declaring that the LSI worked 'for class
reconciliation, for the cooperation of the workers with the capi-
talists, and therefore for the interests of the bourgeoisie', and that it
embodied 'the contradictions of the imperialists fighting for war
booty, the victors, and the vanquished.'26 In 1923 the RSI enjoyed its
greatest success. When the national congress of the French
Federation Sportive du Travail met on August 4 in Montreuil the
delegates, in a rejection of the LSI policy of neutrality, voted by a
narrow margin to leave the LSI and to apply for admission in the
RSI. Failing to reverse their defeat the socialists, led by Anton
Guillevic, a member of the LSI International Bureau, walked out of
the congress and formed a new organization which, they hoped,
would some day regain control of the FST.27 Thus for the second
time in two years a major workers' sport organization had been
divided; this time the socialists took the initiative towards a split.
Communist tactics operated on two levels. Within national and
local workers' sport groups communists organized factions which
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242 Journal of Contemporary History
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Steinberg: The Workers' Sport Internationals 1920-28 243
further meetings took place, however, and the secretaries of the two
internationals, Devlieger and Lieske, tried to resolve differences
through correspondence. Devlieger maintained that the problem of
unity would be resolved if the member organizations of the RSI
joined the LSI, whereupon they would be accorded all rights of LSI
membership including the right to participate in the olympiad and all
other LSI activities. This proposal, which he felt would satisfy both
sides, was rejected by Lieske.33
If the communists' unwillingness to accept Devlieger's proposal
did not convince the LSI leadership that RSI sections should not be
present at Frankfurt, RSI actions in the summer of 1924 gave them
ample reason to exclude the RSI from the olympiad. At the Karlsbad
festival of the German workers' sport association in Czechoslovakia,
communists protesting at the government's refusal to allow twelve
Soviet sportsmen into the country carried signs in the festival parade
denouncing the social democrats. This led to an altercation and
during the welcoming speeches they vehemently condemned the
Czechoslovak social democrats.34 The turmoil of the Karlsbad
festival certainly indicated to the LSI that it could not trust the RSI
not to disrupt its festivals, and the conduct of Bruno Lieske raised
grave doubts about the communists' desire for cooperation with the
social democrats. At the Kassel Bundestag of the ATSB in June,
Lieske launched a series of attacks on both Cornelius Gellert, the
chairman of the ATSB and a member of the LSI International
Bureau, and Fritz Wildung. Failing to persuade the Bundestag either
to schedule a referendum on joining the RSI or to order the national
board to enter into joint actions with the RSI, Lieske called on
communist sport factions to take part in a 'week of struggle'
organized by the KPD in July, and directed communists to denounce
social democrats at various meetings of workers' sport organizations
in late summer.35 This divisive conduct, as well as Lieske's role as
leader of the communist group at the Karlsbad festival, convinced
the leadership of the ATSB that it could no longer have anything to
do with Lieske.36
Having witnessed the communist disruption in Czechoslovakia
and Germany in the summer, the members of the International
Bureau, meeting in Vienna on 14 September, confirmed that the
Frankfurt Olympiad would be open only to clubs that were members
of the LSI. Communists would still be able to attend, for, as
individuals, communist members of LSI organizations would be
welcome at Frankfurt; the International Bureau hoped, however,
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244 Journal of Contemporary History
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Steinberg: The Workers' Sport Internationals 1920-28 245
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246 Journal of Contemporary History
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Steinberg: The Workers' Sport Internationals 1920-28 247
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248 Journal of Contemporary History
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Steinberg: The Workers' Sport Internationals 1920-28 249
Notes
1. Arbeiter- Turnzeitung (A TZ), 30, 16 (9 August 1922), 170-71. Wildung was the
leader of the German Zentralkommission fur Arbeitersport und Korperpflege and a
member of the International Bureau of the Lucerne Sport International.
2. Ibid.
3. Comite Sportif International du Travail, 50 ans de sport ouvrier in
(Brussels 1963), 3-4.
4. ATZ, 32, 23 (12 November 1924), 276. See also: Arbeiter-Turn- und
Sportbund, Protokoll uber die Verhandlungen des Ersten Arbeiter-Sport-Kongresses
abgehalten am 15. und 16. Januar 1921 zu Jena (Leipzig 1921), 46-51 and Arbeiter-
Turn- und Sportbund, Protokoll der Verhandlungen des 13. Bundestages abgehalten
zu Munchen vom 10. bis 13. Mai 1921 (Leipzig 1921), 97-101.
5. ATZ, 32, 9 (30 April 1924), 104.
6. Protokoll, Erster A rbeiter-Sport-Kongress, 46.
7. ATZ, 31, 20 (3 October 1923), 212.
8. Ibid., 32, 9 (30 April 1924), 104.
9. Ibid., 30, 16 (9 August 1922), 170.
10. Fritz Wildung, Arbeitersport (Berlin 1929), 56-57.
11. ATZ, 27, 8 (13 April 1919), 48.
12. Ibid., 30, 17 (23 August 1922), 179.
13. I.T. Chubinov, 'Nachalo razvitiia sovetskoi fizicheskoi kul'tury v pervye gody
sovetskoi vlasti (1917-1920gg.)' in F.I. Samoukov, Istoriia fizicheskoi kul'tury
(Moscow 1964), 251-57.
14. Protokoll, Erster Arbeiter-Sport-Kongress, 48.
15. Heinz Timmermann, Geschichte und Struktur der Arbeitersportbewegung
(Marburg/Lahn 1969), 102-03.
16. ATZ, 29, 18 (7 September 1921), 192-93.
17. Arbeiter Turnerbund, Protokoll der Verhandlungen des 12. Bundesturntages
abgehalten in Leipzig zu Pfingsten, 1919 (Leipzig 1919), 40.
18. Protokoll, Erster Arbeiter-Sport-Kongress, 29.
19. ATZ, 29, 6 (23 March 1921), 61-62.
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250 Journal of Contemporary History
20. Executive Committee of the Y.C.I., The Minutes of the Third Congress of the
Y.C.I., held in Moscow, December 4th-6th, 1922 (Berlin 1923), 130.
21. Ibid., 137.
22. Young Communist International, Bureau, Resolutions and Theses of the
Fourth Bureau Session (Berlin 1923), 84-86.
23. Ibid., 89-95.
24. Sekretariat des EKKI, Bericht der Exekutive der Kommunistischen Inter-
nationale 15. Dezember 1922 - 15. Mai, 1923 (Moscow 1923), 17.
25. ATZ, 30, 17 (23 August 1922), 179.
26. Internationale Jugendkorrespondenz, 3, 15 (15 November 1922), 2.
27. ATZ, 31, 18 (5 September 1923), 200. Not all communist sport factions could
be accused of engaging in divisive tactics. After a communist proposal to affiliate with
the RSI was defeated by a 2-1 margin at a congress of the Sudeten German workers'
sport organization in October, 1922, in Teplitz, the communists pledged their
continued support of the organization and actually kept this promise for more than a
year. Internationale Jugendkorrespondenz, 4, special number (March 1923), 2.
28. Internationale Jugendkorrespondenz, 4, 7 (July 1923), 22.
29. ATZ, 30, 22 (1 November 1922), 222.
30. Ibid., 31, 15 (25 July 1923), 174. LSI officials considered the RSI a Russian
organization. Consequently they believed that if Soviet delegations were admitted to
LSI activities, other RSI sections would rejoin the LSI.
31. Ibid., 32, 10 (14 May 1924), 109-10.
32. Ibid. Communist reports of the conference made no mention of the LSI desire
for further discussions. They claimed that the LSI did not invite the RSI to the
conference, but that a delegation appeared anyway, and that the International Bureau
decided not to invite the RSI to the olympiad even though 1.7 million members of the
LSI favoured an invitation. International Presse-Korrespondenz (Inprekorr), 4, 45 (15
April 1924), 533, and 4, 54 (27 May 1924) 712-13.
33. Letter from J. Devlieger to author, 26 June 1974.
34. ATZ, 32, 17 (20 August 1924), 199.
35. Arbeiter-Turn- und Sportbund, Protokoll des Verhandlungen des 14.
Bundesturntages abgehalten zu Pfingsten, 1924 (7. bis 10. Juni) in Cassel (Leipzig
1924), 9-26. See also ATZ, 32, 18 (3 September 1924), 209-10.
36. ATZ, 32, 18 (3 September 1924), 210. For his activities Lieske was expelled
from the ATSB by the national board on 28 September 1924. The members of the
Turnverein Fichte and the first Kreis, of which Lieske was an elected representative,
were ordered to remove him from all positions or they, too, would be expelled. (Ibid.,
32, 20 [1 October 1924], 237.) As a result of this decision there was a virtual state of
war between the Berlin communists and the national board, which resulted in many
explusions and much recrimination before the national board finally prevailed in early
1925. Lieske's glory in the RSI was short-lived. A Trotskyite and a former supporter of
Ruth Fischer, he lost his power and position in the RSI in 1925. (H. Dass, Die
sportpolitischen und politischen Zusammenhange der deutschen Arbeitersport-
bewegung am Beispiel des Arbeiter-Turn- und Sportbundes [manuscript, n.d.], 31. In
the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn, Germany).
37. ATZ, 32, 20 (1 October 1924), 233-34.
38. Ibid., 32, 23 (12 November 1924), 277.
39. Inprekorr, 4, 139 (24 October 1924), 1,848.
40. Ibid., 4, 151 (21 November 1924), 2,047.
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Steinberg: The Workers' Sport Internationals 1920-28 251
41. Ibid., 5, 102 (30 June 1925), 1,398. See also ATZ, 33, 14(8 July 1925), 162-63.
42. ATZ, 33, 17 (19 August 1925), 197-99.
43. For a discussion of the cultural aspects of the First Workers' Olympiad, see
Horst Ueberhorst, Frisch, Frei, Stark und Treu: Die Arbeitersportbewegung in
Deutschland 1893-1933 (Dusseldorf 1974), 152-55.
44. Internationaler Verband fur Arbeitersport und Korperkultur, Bericht iiber den
I. Kongress zu Paris-Pantin, 31. Oktober. 1. und 2. November 1925 (Leipzig 1925),
13-21.
45. Arbeiter-Turn- und Sportbund, Die Fussballspiele der Landermannschaft der
Union der Sozialistischen Sowjet-Republiken in Deutschland, Juli 1927 (Die
Russenspiele) (Leipzig 1927), 55-56.
46. ATZ, 35, 21 (12 October 1927), 243.
47. Ibid., 34, 12 (9 June 1926) 134.
48. Cornelius Gellert, Der Kampf um den Bund (Leipzig 1928), 15-18.
49. Internationaler Sozialistischer Verband fur Arbeitersport und Korperkultur,
Bericht uber den IV. Kongress zu Helsingfors, 5.-8. August 1927(Leipzig 1927), 51-52.
50. Inprekorr, 8, 2 (6 January 1928), 46.
51. Timmermann, Geschichte und Struktur, 127.
52. Cornelius Gellert, Kampf um die Bundeseinheit (Leipzig 1929), 26.
53. Kommunistische Jugend-lnternationale, Protokoll des 5. Weltkongresses der
KJI, 20. August bis 18. Septekber 1928 in Moskau (Berlin 1929), 372.
Dovid A. Steinberg
a graduate student in modern European history
at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is
currently completing a study of European
workers' sport movements in the interwar
period.
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