Kalokagathia, 2007 (45. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
2007 / 3-4. szám - Ioannis Chatzopoulos: The German nationalist sporting traditions
26 _KALOKAGATHIA, 2007. 3-4. the athletic tradition and the Nazis wanted to continue on that path which would guarantee athletic success and secure the attachment of the athlete to the nationalist values of the German sport philosophy. Any innovation in German sport philosophy would put the Nazi plans for the exploitation of sport in danger. Moreover, the promotion of team-work of the youth athletes revealed the collective character of German sport and the intention of the regime to cultivate cooperation, discipline and order in the new generation of soldiers. Nazi sport doctrine was consciously anti- intellectual. It presented a vulgar imitation of aristocratic disdain for the intellect endorsed by body-conscious thinkers like Nietzsche and Ortega y Gasset. In his speech to the German Gymnastics festival (1933) Hitler declared that “Life will not be protected by weak philosophers, but by strong men”. The Youth leader Baldur von Schirach called for “a decision between the sole and the cold intellect. Sport is a shield of protection against” one sided intellectualism. Moreover, Jahn emphasized the limitations of human understanding and it is interesting to Jahn’s disciple. Alfred Baeumler demonstrated a greater caution if only to reject the total denigration of intellectual workers (Hoberman, 1984,165). During the Nazi government, there was an effort to continue the German sport tradition by the creation of sport schools called Napolas (Nationalpolitische-erziehungscmstalten) whose aim was the production of a ruling caste. Their role was the training of an elite of young leaders. Hitler was inspired from the English public schools. Physical and political education were the two major subjects of the curriculum. Finally, there were Napolas for girls too (Dixon, 1957,144). Despite the fact that Hitler was inspired by the English public schools of Edwardian and Victorian era. The Napolas wanted to cultivate the racial superiority feeling within the German pupils whereas the English public schools transmitted the nationalist feeling without referring to the race issue. Moreover, the Napolas aimed at the formation of a racial aristocracy and not a class aristocracy. In addition, in Napolas every pupil was obliged to go because of the compulsory character of the Nazi political education while in the English public schools only the children of families which could afford the money could attend the courses. All German boys were required to participate in “military sport”. On two afternoons a week their sports schedule included training on the assault course as part of the normal facilities, throwing wooden grenades and nets, crossing imaginary chasms on ropes. Outsiders, however, found it strange that the State wanted to control the bodies and the minds of the young people in every detail. Even the Hitler Youth cub’s test, for boys under twelve included elements of political education such as the Youth Folk slogans, the Horst Wessel Song and the Hitler Youth Flag Song. To gain their first proficiency badge, they had to succeed in an exam on Hitler’s life, Germanism abroad,