Annexation or fertile inclusion? The origins of handball’s international organisational structures

ABSTRACT

Sport scholars have increasingly explored the institutional history of international governing bodies of sport in recent years. Some sports, however, have received little attention. Handball is one of them. Despite handball’s modern impact and its global governing body, relatively little is known about the history of its governing body, the International Handball Federation (IHF) and the attempts to govern handball internationally. The following article traces the history of the first governing body of handball, the International Amateur Handball Federation (IAHF). Dissolved following the Second World War, the story of the IAHF has previously received scant attention from international scholars. By tracing the history of the IAHF, this article argues that sport administrators, including those within Nazi Germany, manipulated the IAHF to support their personal goals.

KEYWORDS:

• Handball
• sport governance
• International Sport Federations
• Nazi Olympics

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Alexander Priebe, who has kindly provided us with some of his archival sources on the IAHF-FIBB dispute.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)

Notes

1 David Owen, ‘Exclusive: Strength of IHF Finances Enables it to Tell IOC to Direct COVID-19-Related Support Elsewhere.’ insidethegames.biz. https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1093659/ihf-tells-ioc-to-direct-help-elsewhere (accessed December 12, 2020).

2 ‘Marketing,’ ihf.info. https://www.ihf.info/marketing-homepage (accessed January 3, 2021).

3 ‘Landmark half-billion-euro deal ushers in new era for European handball,’ ehfoffice.at. https://www.ehfoffice.at/businessreport2018/LTF-Signing-of-deal-in-May-2018.html (accessed January 3, 2021).

4 See for example the recent Special Issue on ‘International Federations and National Governing Bodies’ in the Sport History Review: Jörg Krieger, Lindsay Parks Pieper and Ian Ritchie, ‘International Federations and National Governing Bodies: The Historical Development of Institutional Policies in Response to Challenging Issues in Sport,’ Sport History Review,51, no. 1, 1–6. Also see: Jean-Loup, ‘Chappelet, Emmanuel Bayle, and Josephine Clausen, ‘Governance of International Sports Federations,’ in Routledge Handbook of Sport Governance, ed. David Shilbury and Lesly Ferkins, Routledge International Handbooks (London: Routledge, 2016).

5 See, for example, Erik Eggers, Handball: Geschichte Eines Deutschen Sports (Göttingen: Verlag Die Werkstatt, 2014), 42.

6 Niels Kayser Nielsen, ed., Håndbold i 100 år - et overblik (Nyborg: Dansk Håndbold Forbund, 1997).

7 Ivar Berg-Sörensen, ‘Dänemark,’ in Horst Ueberhorst (ed.), Geschichte der Leibesübungen, Berlin, 1976, 86.

8 Gerd von der Lippe, ‘Handball, Gender and Sportification of Body-Cultures: 1900–40,’ International Review for the Sociology of Sport 29, no. 2 (1994): 211–31.

9 Eggers, Handball, 15.

10 Bernath E. Phillips, ‘Bringing Handball up to Date,’ The Journal of Health and Physical Education 9, no. 4 (1938): 222–67.

11 This was not the case in all national context. As Gerd von der Lippe argues, in Norway the sport had always been a men’s sport. See: Von der Lippe, ‘Handball, Gender and Sportification.’

12 Gertrud Pfister, ‘Handball - From a Women’s Game to a Men’s Sport,’ in Passionately Inclusive: Towards Participation and Friendship in Sport, ed. Detlef Dumon et al. (Münster: Waxmann, 2017), 175–94.

13 Ibid., 186.

14 Ibid.

15 Hajo Bernett, ‘Geschichte des Handballspiels. Vom lokalen Experiment zum Weltsport,’ in Und auch der Handball ist rund … : Beiträge zur Geschichte des Handballsports im Kreis Minden-Lübbecke, ed. Joachim Meynert (Bielefeld: Westfalen Verlag, 1995, 29).

16 Michael Krüger, ’The History of German Sports Clubs: Between Integration and Emigration,’ The International Journal of the History of Sport, 30:14 (2013): 1586-1603, DOI: 10.1080/09523367.2013.822862

17 Eggers, Handball, 42.

18 Eggers, Handball, 30.

19 Barbara J. Keys, Globalizing Sport: National Rivalry and International Community in the 1930s (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2006), 40.

20 Jörg Krieger and Stephan Wassong, ‘The composition of the IOC: origins and key turning points in the governance of the Olympic movement,’ in Routledge Handbook of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, ed. Dikaia Chatziefstathiou, Borja García and Benoit Séguin (London: Routledge, 2021), 203 - 216.

21 Jörg Krieger, Power and Politics in World Athletics: A Critical History (London/New York: Routledge, 2021).

22 John A. Lucas, ’Early Olympic antagonists: Pierre de Coubertin versus James L. Sullivan,’ Stadion 3, no. 2 (1977): 258-72.

23 Hans Bolling, The Beginning of the IAAF. A Study of its Background and Foundation (Monaco: IAAF, 2007), 8.

24 Minutes of the Second Congress of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, August 20–23, 1913, IAAF Congress and Council Minutes Collection (ICCMC), International Amateur Athletic Federation Archive (hereafter: IAAFA).

25 See for example his invitations to Diem to attend the IAAF Congress in 1921: Letter, Sigfrid Edström to Carl Diem, March 8, 1921, Correspondence 1921, J. Sigfrid Edström Collection (hereafter SEC), Riksarkivet Stockholm (hereafter RAS).

26 Minutes, IAAF Council Meeting, August 12, 1920, ICCMC, IAAFA, 3.

27 Jörg Krieger, Michele Krech & Lindsay Parks Pieper, ‘‘Our Sport’: The Fight for Control of Women’s International Athletics,’ The International Journal of the History of Sport, 37, 5–6 (2020): 451-472, DOI: 10.1080/09523367.2020.1754201

28 Minutes of the Seventh Congress of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, July 1 and 15-16, 1924, ICCMC, IAAFA.

29 Minutes of the Seventh Congress of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, July 1 and 15-16.

30 Peter Heimerzheim, Karl Ritter von Halt: Ein Lebensweg zwischen Sport und Politik (PhD diss., German Sport University Cologne, 1999), 80.

31 Heimerzheim, Karl Ritter von Halt, 101.

32 Lang was the co-owner of the private bank Ruederer & Lang and Von Halt was chief representative of Hauck & Aufhäuser.

33 Heimerzheim, Karl Ritter von Halt, 79.

34 Markwart Herzog, ‘“Die Gleichschaltung” der Turn- und Sportvereine in Kaiserslautern und der Pfalz in den Jahren 1933 bis 1939. Erfolge und Grenzen der politischen Unterwerfung, adminstrativen Zentralisierung, kulturellen Homogenisierung und gesellschaftlichen Nivellierung des Fußballsports,’ in Die “Gleichschaltung” des Fußballsports im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2016), 68.

35 Minutes of the Eighth Congress of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, August 5-8, 1926, ICCMC, IAAFA, 84.

36 Letter, Karl Ritter von Halt to Sigfrid Edström, September 23, 1927, Folder Member Correspondence 1926–1928 (hereafter MC1926), IAAFA.

37 Minutes of the Eighth Congress of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, 85.

38 Minutes of the Eighth Congress of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, 94.

39 Minutes of the Eighth Congress of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, 99.

40 Minutes of the Eighth Congress of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, 99.

41 Minutes of IAAF Council Meeting, August 13-14, 1927, ICCMC, IAAFA, 84. Also see: Drafts of Minutes of IAAF Council Meeting, August 13-14, 1927, CMC1926, IAAFA.

42 Letter, Sigfrid Edström to Henri Baillet-Latour, March 2, 1927, Folder Correspondence 1927, SEC, RAS.

43 Minutes of the Meeting of the International Amateur Athletic Federation Handball Commission, August 12, 1927, CMC1926, IAAFA.

44 Minutes of IAAF Council Meeting, August 13-14, 1927, 13.

45 Eggers, Handball.

46 Minutes of the Meeting of the International Amateur Athletic Federation Handball Commission, August 12, 1927.

47 Letter from Sigfrid Edström to Karl Ritter von Halt, December 6, 1932, Folder Member Correspondence 1931–1932 (hereafter MC1931), IAAFA.

48 Minutes of the Ninth Congress of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, August 6 and 7, 1928, ICCMC, IAAFA.

49 Minutes, Foundation Meeting of the International Amateur Handball Federation, August 4, 1928, Folder ‘PV de la Session de foundation de la International Amateur Handball Federation,’ IOCA.

50 Minutes, Foundation Meeting of the International Amateur Handball Federation, August 4, 1928.

51 Letter, Dutch Athletics Federation to Avery Brundage, Film 25, Folder 4, Avery Brundage Digital Collection (hereafter ABDC), IOCA.

52 Minutes, Foundation Meeting of the International Amateur Handball Federation, August 4, 1928.

53 Minutes, Foundation Meeting of the International Amateur Handball Federation, August 4, 1928.

54 International Handball Federation, Fascination for A Thousand Years. Handball (Basel: International Handball Federation, 2013).

55 Hajo Bernett, ‘Geschichte des Handballspiels,’, 36.

56 Yoan Grosset and Michaël Attali, ‘The French Initiative towards the Creation of an International Sports Movement 1908-1925: An Alternative to the International Olympic Committee,’ Journal of Sport History 36, no. 2 (2009): 245-62.

57 See for example: Letter, Sigfrid Edström to Frantz Reichel, December 2, 1920, Folder Correspondence 1920, JSEC, RAS.

58 Letter, Karl Ritter von Halt to Sigfrid Edström, December 29, 1932, MC1931, IAAFA.

59 Letter, Avery Brundage and Franz-Paul Lang to the IOC, May 26, 1930, Folder ‘PV de la Session de foundation de la International Amateur Handball Federation,’ IOCA.

60 Hans-Dieter Krebs, ‘Basketball’s Long Journey into the Olympic Programme,’ Journal of Olympic History 18, no. 1 (April 2010): 30–32.

61 Minutes of the Olympic Congress of Berlin 1930, 25–30 May 1930, la84.org. https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll1/id/25870/rec/10 (accessed December 1, 2020).

62 Eggers, Handball, 76.

63 The name was changed to Federation Internationale de Basketball Amateur (FIBA) in 1935. Krebs, ‘Basketball’s Long Journey.’

64 Letter from Karl Ritter von Halt to Sigfrid Edström, December, 29, 1932, MC1931, IAAFA.

65 Letter from Karl Ritter von Halt to the International Olympic Committee General Secretary, December 22, 1932, IOCA.

66 Letter from R. William Jones and Monsieur le Comte Giorgio Asinari di San Marzano to the International Olympic Committee, March 18, 1933, IOCA.

67 Letter, Sigfrid Edström to Avery Brundage, September 27, 1933, Folder Correspondence 1933, JSEC, RAS.

68 Letter, Sigfrid Edström to Karl Ritter von Halt, February 23, 1934, Folder Correspondence 1934, JSEC, RAS.

69 Letter, Bo Ekelund to Sigfrid Edström, April 6, 1934, Folder Correspondence 1934, JSEC, RAS.

70 Letter, Sigfrid Edström to Avery Brundage, October 2, 1933, Folder Correspondence 1933, JSEC, RAS. Also see: Letter, Sigfrid Edström to Henri Baillet-Latour, May 5, 1933, Folder Correspondence 1933, JSEC, RAS

71 Letter, Sigfrid Edström to Karl Ritter von Halt, April 11, 1934, Folder Correspondence 1934, JSEC, RAS.

72 Letter, Sigfrid Edström to Karl Ritter von Halt, February 23, 1934, Folder Correspondence 1934, JSEC, RAS.

73 Letter, Sigfrid Edström to Karl Ritter von Halt, April 11, 1934.

74 Letter, Sigfrid Edström to Daniel J. Ferris, April 26, 1930, Folder Correspondence 1930, JSEC, RAS.

75 Letter, Sigfrid Edström to Avery Brundage, January 31, 1931, Folder Correspondence 1931, JSEC, RAS.

76 Letter, Sigfrid Edström to Henri Baillet-Latour, August 10, 1934, Folder Correspondence 1934, JSEC, RAS

77 Maynor Brichford, ‘Olympic Personas,’ in Cultural Imperialism in Action Critiques in the Global Olympic Trust Eighth International Symposium for Olympic Research, ed. Nigel B. Crowther, Robert K. Barney, and Michael K. Heine (London, Ontario, Canada: International Centre for Olympic Studies, 2006), 240–43.

78 Krebs, ‘Basketball’s Long Journey,’ 30.

79 Letter from R. William Jones to the International Olympic Committee, September 14, 1934, IOCA.

80 Krebs, ‘Basketball’s Long Journey.’

81 Krebs, ‘Basketball’s Long Journey.’

82 Letter from Avery Brundage to the International Olympic Committee, May 26, 1930, Folder ‘PV de la Session de foundation de la International Amateur Handball Federation,’ IOCA.

83 Minutes of the Twenty-Sixth Session of the International Olympic Committee, May 1930, IOCSM, IOCA.

84 Minutes of the IOC Executive Board, Oslo, February 25, 1935, IOCA.

85 Gaetano Raiola et al., ‘The Educational Value of the Rules in Handball,’ Journal of Sport and Human Exercise 15, no. 4 (2020): 1214–23.

86 Richard D. Mandell, The Nazi Olympics (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 96.

87 ‘14 Named for Olympics,’ New York Times, June 29, 1936, 19.

88 Ken Hardman and Roland Naul, ‘Sport and Physical Education in the Two Germanies, 1945–90,’ in Sport and Physical Education in Germany, ed. Roland Naul and Ken Hardman (London: Routledge, 2002), 28–76.

89 Arnd Krüger, “Germany: The Propaganda Machine,” in The Nazi Olympics: Sports, Politics, and Appeasement in the 1930s, eds. Arnd Krüger and William Murray (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003), 30.

90 Hajo Bernett, Leichtathletik im geschichtlichen Wandel (Schorndorf: Hofmann Verlag, 1987), 122.

91 Allen Guttmann, ‘Berlin 1936: The Most Controversial Olympics,’ in National Identity and Global Sports Events: Culture, Politics, and Spectacle in the Olympics and the Football World Cup, ed. Alan Tomlinson and Christopher Young (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006), 68.

92 Leif Yttergren, ‘Questions of Propriety: J. Sigfrid Edstrom, Anti-Semitism, and the 1936 Berlin Olympics,’ Olympika: The International Journal of Olympic Studies 16 (2007): 77–92.

93 David Clay Large, Nazi Games: The Olympics of 1936 (New York: W.W. Norton, 2007), 165.

94 Eggers, Handball, 65.

95 Eggers, Handball, 67

96 Eggers, Handball, 67.

97 Berlin Olympic Games Organizing Committee, The Official Report of the Berlin Olympic Games, vol. 2, 429.

98 Berlin Olympic Games Organizing Committee, The Official Report of the Berlin Olympic Games, 434.

99 ‘Reich’s Soldiers Gave Strong Aid,’ New York Times, August 18, 1936, 23.

100 Bernett book chapter, p. 36

101 Eggers, Handball, 100.

102 Eggers, Handball, 25.

103 Günther Millermann, Geschichte des internationalen Handballs (Bern: International Handball Federation, 1960).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond.