For more than three years, historian Gregor Hofmann from the Institute for Contemporary History has been studying the history of record-breaking German soccer champions FC Bayern Munich. He pored over files, notes and enjoyed old, archived sports magazines, which he could read in the Munich State Library.
“FC Bayern and National Socialism” is the title of Hofmann’s doctoral thesis, and he published a first eleven-page summary this week (it can be read here). In an interview with BR24 Sport, he looks back on his research. One of the most important findings: “In any case, it turned out that the club was more similar to other clubs during the Nazi era than was previously assumed.” In short: Jews had a hard time at FC Bayern from 1933 and were later no longer allowed to play, NSDAP members gained influence.
FC Bayern commissioned the study itself
It was FCB itself that approached the Institute for Contemporary History in November 2017. The club commissioned the institute, which deals with the history of the 20th and 21st centuries, to research its club life under National Socialism. “With research projects like this, we want to live up to our social responsibility. With this study, we are making a further contribution to the culture of remembrance – and to ensuring that history does not repeat itself,” says President Herbert Hainer.
“The term ‘Jewish Club’ is problematic from my point of view. As my research has shown, it is probably less due to the fact that FC Bayern had many Jewish members. Rather, it was a widespread enemy of clubs that had Jewish connotations attributes” Gregor Hofmann
The early years of FC Bayern, the roots of the club are shaped by the memory of the Jewish President Kurt Landauer. Landauer is now the honorary president of the club, he was the president from 1913 to 1914, from 1919 to 1933 after he resigned after the National Socialists seized power, and again from 1947 to 1951. In retrospect, the “Jews Club” is mentioned again and again.
Kurt Landauer “deleted from the list of members”
To date, however, little was known about the Nazi era, when Jews were banned from the clubs. Hofmann evaluated about 15,000 file scans, files and notes from almost 60 archives in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, France, Israel and the USA and also came across “a source from the pen of Kurt Landauer that was evaluated for the first time “. This indicates “that the deserving president did not leave the association of his own accord, but ‘was deleted from the list of members’, as he wrote.” It was also about a denazification process. According to the author, Landauer issues a “clean bill” to a former club mate.
10 percent Jewish members not a unique selling point
“From my perspective, the term ‘Jewish Club’ is problematic,” Hofmann told BR. “Because, as my research has shown, it is probably less due to the fact that FC Bayern had many Jewish members. Rather, it was a widespread enemy of clubs that were ascribed characteristics with Jewish connotations.” That means: That a club was from the city center or from a certain, rich part of the city.
The proportion of Jewish members was very high at 10 percent, summarizes Hofmann. That was certainly more of an exception among German sports clubs, but “with a view to Eintracht Frankfurt or 1. FC Nuremberg” it wasn’t a completely unique selling point either.