Sport und die Ambivalenz von Besatzungserfahrungen in Warschau und Ostoberschlesien im Zweiten Weltkrieg
Warsaw and Beyond: Sport and the ambivalence of experience during the German occupation of Poland in World War II

Summary/Abstract: This article explores the potentials of sports history for research on the German occupation in World War II beyond the national paradigm. Its starting point is the juxtaposition of two legendary Polish athletes: the acclaimed reporter and former Armia Krajowa fighter Bohdan Tomaszewski and the controversial soccer star Ernst Willimowski, who played for both Polish and German national teams. In a theoretical introduction, the study rejects the dominant interpretation of human behavior under occupation as a sheer expression of one’s attitude towards the occupation. It outlines sports history as a tool to make historical ambivalence visible. This approach gains it strength through the analytical category of Eigen-Sinn that German historian Alf Lüdtke introduced some forty years ago. Lüdtke argues, that practices of appropriating one’s life reality are rather inconsistent and ambiguous than clear-cut as master narratives suggest. The empirical part rereads cases from sport in occupied Warsaw and annexed East Upper Silesia through the lense of this understanding of Eigen-Sinn. It argues that challenging established narratives of unambiguity broadens understanding of the complexity of everyday life under German occupation.

• Details
• Contents