Sports history and East German national identity

Abstract

Modern sports have played a significant role in constructing identities and ideologies since their gradual emergence in the mid nineteenth century. But the political functions of sports have only really been identified in the twentieth century. It is now prudent to look back and consider how sports have influenced the rise and fall of political and social systems.

Sports in communist countries have always been a fertile ground for research, yet few Western analysts have examined them beyond the elite, international level. Crucial to any analysis of sports is a critique of the way they function within societies to produce and reproduce dominant ideologies and to garner sympathetic national support. In this way, the hegemonic role of sports can be usefully explored, without simply repeating predictable claims about sports’ role in developing international prestige.

When Western researchers have examined sports in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), they have been critical of the perceived significance of international sports there, and of the means the nation used to achieve success. Far less attention has been paid to the domestic significance of sports, and particularly to the history of sports in constructing an East German national identity.