The Arbeiter-Turn- und Sportbund (ATSB or Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Federation) was a national German sports organization active between 1893-1933. The organization actively promoted leftist political views built around

class struggle Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor. The forms ...

and

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

. Sport in late 19th century

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

was centered on the development of

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...

and was highly politicized with strong nationalist overtones. A clear class divide developed and often

workers The workforce or labour force is a concept referring to the pool of human beings either in employment or in unemployment. It is generally used to describe those working for a single company or industry, but can also apply to a geographic reg ...

were not accepted within the ranks of established

sports clubs A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

. In response, separate worker's clubs emerged and in 1893 the Workers' Gymnastics Federation (ATB or Arbeiter Turnerbund) was formed in

Gera Gera is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of cit ...

. In June 1919, following

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the federation was renamed ''Arbeiter-Turn- und Sportbund'' to reflect the rise of sports other than gymnastics including

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

, and especially

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

. In the late 1920s the federation had a membership of 770,000 and fielded over 8,000 football teams throughout Germany. Between 1920-32, the ATSB staged its own national football championship separate from that of the

DFB DFB may refer to: * Deerfield Beach, Florida, a city * Decafluorobutane, a fluorocarbon gas * Dem Franchize Boyz, former hip hop group, Atlanta, Georgia * Dfb, Köppen climate classification for Humid continental climate * Distributed-feedback ...

(Deutscher Fußball Bund, en:German Football Association). It also held German Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Festival and hosted or took part in international events including the Workers' Olympiad. By 1930, the federation had a membership of 1.2 million, however, it splintered when the

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

-oriented ''Kampfgemeinschaft für Rote Sporteinheit'' (KG, en:Fighting Community for Red Sport, commonly Rotsport) was formed. Despite its popularity, the ''ATSB'' never managed to break the dominance of

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

clubs within the working class. After the rise to power of the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

in 1933, all sports associations with left-leaning or faith-based affiliations were disbanded. The memberships of these clubs were dispersed or forced into mergers with sides more ideologically palatable to the regime and the clubs' assets were expropriated. The KG was broken up in February 1933, followed by the ATSB in May.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arbeiter-Turn- Und Sportbund Defunct sports governing bodies in Germany Sports clubs banned by the Nazis Sports organizations established in 1893 Sports organizations disestablished in 1933

See also

References