The Reich in Photos – Deutsches Turn- und Sportfest in Breslau, 1938

The Deutsches Turn- und Sportfest (German Gym and Sports Celebration) was the last big sports event organized by the Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen, the Sports governing body of the Third Reich. It took place in Breslau (now Wroclaw) the most important city of Silesia, now in Poland. The venue was staged in July 1938 at the city’s Hermann Göring Stadium

 

This highly nationalistic sports event was officially commemorating the 125th anniversary of the historical German Wars of Liberation against Napoleon and the first award of the Iron Cross in the city of Breslau itself in 1813. It was staged as a grand patriotic, expansionist occasion, illustrating the clamour for a Greater Germany to the public. This event gathered German athletes brought from many different parts of the world, like Argentina, South West Africa, Italy, the US and South Africa. It also became a gathering of representatives of German ethnic minorities, mainly from Eastern Europe (Siebenbürgen, Banat) who staged processions dressed in their colourful folkloric costumes.

 

Not only sports competitions and athletes’ parades took place, but also numerous military, civil, and folklorical-costume processions in the mains streets of the city of Breslau.