‘Schiebung!’ or sensationalism? The 1. FC Katowice-Wisła Kraków scandal in the Polish Football League’s Inaugural Season (1927)

ABSTRACT

Following the conclusion of the First World War, a number of new states arose from the ruins of Central Europe’s empires such as the Second Polish Republic. The state was designed to correspond to ethnically Polish interests, despite forging postwar borders that saw the inheritance of national minorities. This article follows the rise of the Polish Football League’s (PLPN) inaugural season which concluded under a shroud of scandal, after a controversial match where the ’Polish’ Wisła Kraków defeated the ‘German’ 1. FC Katowice. It examines the press coverage of both teams leading up to and in the wake of the match’s final whistle. Taking the Interwar period’s geopolitical climate into account, the infamous match reveals the inherent politicization of football by nationalizing tools such as newspapers and their framing of the popular culture form of sport in ethnic rhetoric for purposes of differentiation, legitimacy, and or even nation-state building.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. It should be noted that due to the fluidity of national identification based on different dialects that may not have corresponded to a specific ethnicity (ex. Polish-speaking Germans, or Ukrainian-speaking Poles), these statistics vary, but are generally accepted between 60–70 percent Poles and 30–40 percent national minorities. Blanke, Orphans of Versailles, 32; and Polonsky, Politics in Independent, 35.

2. Kuhn, Soccer vs. The State, 51.

3. Steuer, Ruch Sportowy, 141. Along with Steuer’s monography, one should consult Pończek ‘Początki i rozwój polskiej kultury fizycznej’. for a discussion on the nationalization of sports in the context of a German-Polish ethnic rivalry in the contested borderland of Upper Silesia.

4. Matuszewski, ‘Sport jako’, 3.

5. ‘Na boiskach całej Polski’, 5; ‘Porażka Wisły w Katowicach’, 6; and ‘Nowiny z za kulis P.Z.P.N-u’, 6.

6. ‘Świetne zwycięstwo’, 4.

7. Ibid, 4.

8. ‘Wisła-I. F.C.’, 4.

9. ‘Przed zawodami’, 6.

10. ‘Wisla Krakau-1. F.C. Kattowitz’, 9.

11. ‘Sonntag Wisla-Krakau–1. F.C.’, 9.

12. ‘I. F.C. Katowice-Wisła Kraków’, 8.

13. ‘Wer wird siegen?’ 9.

14. ‘Wisła bije I. F.C. 3:0 (0:0)’, 2; and ‘Wisła-I. F.C. 2:0ʹ, 3.

15. ‘Wisła-I. F.C. 3:0 (0:0)’, 6; and ‘Wisła bije’, 2.

16. ‘I F.C. – Wisła-Kraków’, 5.

17. Ibid, 5.

18. While Der Oberschlesier Kurier corroborates Polonia’s citing of Jończyk, Przegląd Sportowy cites 1. FC’s Artur Geisler as the goal scorer, while the Kattowitzer Zeitung produces a third possible scorer with Ernest Joschke.

19. ‘I F.C. – Wisła-Kraków’, 5.

20. ‘Wisła-I. F.C. 2:0. Katowiczanie’, 3; Polska Zachodnia similarly concludes the match, but omits the first whistle that prematurely ended the match after the disallowed 1. FC goal. Additionally, Wisła’s captain Henryk Reyman describes the handball as not a mistake, but 1. FC defender Kurt Pohl catching a shot from Reyman’s teammate, Mieczysław Balcer. Pierzchała, Z białą gwiazdą w sercu, 114.

21. ‘Wisla Krakau-1. F.C. Kattowitz’, 9; ‘Wisła bije I. F.C. 3:0 (0:0)’, 2; and ‘Wyniki niedzielnych’, 2.

22. Racinowski, ‘Początki piłki nożnej w Polsce’.

23. Chomicki and Śledziona, Rozgrywki piłkarskie w galicji, 9, 25.

24. Jarosław Owsiański has argued that because germanization policies in Prussian Poland prohibited Polish clubs from recording their histories and activities in their native tongue, it is not completely accurate that no Polish football club existed prior to 1912. Owsiański, Rozgrywki piłkarskie w wielkopolsce, 41.

25. Konieczny, Krawczyk, and Gorzelany, Piłka jest okrągła, 14. This was the case in other Prussian Poland areas. Owsiański, 37–39.

26. ‘Historia PZPN’.

27. Ibid.

28. ‘Największy związek sportowy’, 3.

29. The PZPN had defended their anti-league stance by stating it would hurt lower tier clubs. Szatkowski, ‘Kraków o lidze piłkarskiej’, 3.

30. ‘Liga piłkarska-faktem!’ 1.

31. Rosenstock, ‘Liga grozi’, 5.

32. ‘Sezon piłkarski rozpoczęty’, 1; and ‘Historia polskiej ekstraklasy’.

33. ‘Historia PZPN’.

34. Podlacha, ‘Krakowski Park Zabaw’; and Chomicki and Śledziona, 21.

35. ‘Birth of Wisła’.

36. ‘Tadeusz Łopuszański i początki Wisły’.

37. For an overview of the Austro-Hungarian empire’s liberalization, consult chapters 5 and 6 in Judson, The Habsburg Empire, and for a focus on the Poles of Galicia, Wandycz, The Lands of Partitioned Poland.

38. ‘Birth of Wisła’.

39. Ibid.

40. Konieczny, Krawcyzk, and Gorzelany, 9; and Steuer, Sport na Górnym Śląsku, 12.

41. Polak-Springer, Recovered Territory, 11.

42. Ibid, 31.

43. Konieczny, Krawczyk, and Gorzelany, 14. Owsiański cites the first Polish club in Silesia as being organized by a Sokol chapter in 1912 (Naprzód 1912 Załęże). Owsiański, 39.

44. With the addition of a portion of Upper Silesia, about 330,000 ‘subjective’ Germans were added to Poland’s overall German minority population total. Blanke, 31.

45. Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed, 4–5.

46. Urban, Czarny orzeł, biały orzeł, 26.

47. ‘Śląskie kluby piłkarskie – Anfänge’.

48. ‘Okręg górnośląski’, 13–14.

49. ‘Okręg górnośląski’, 13–14; ‘Pierwsze rozgrywki o mistrzostwo Polski’, 12–13; and ‘Okręg górnośląski’, September 1, 1922, 12.

50. ‘Śląskie kluby piłkarskie’. Konieczny, Krawczyk, and Gorzelany, 27. Although Polish authorities chose differentialist policies instead of assimilation for its German minority due to the latter’s high level of national consciousness and organization (which would entail marginalizing its organization and functioning abilities within the state), in the case of GOZPN and a multilingual borderland with no set ethnic identity, assimilation through the adoption of Polish club names rather than outright disbandment was perhaps a minimalist compromise for the local population to freely practice its cultural institutes while satisfying the Polish state’s nationalizing policies. Brubaker, 88, 89.

51. Brubaker, 5.

52. Kossakowski, Nosal, and Wozniak, Politics, Ideology and Football Fandom, 70–71.

53. Blanke, 63.

54. Urban, Czarny orzeł, 26.

55. Ibid, 26.

56. ‘Wisła bije I. F.C. 3:0 (0:0)’, 2.

57. ‘I F.C. – Wisła-Kraków’, 5.

58. ‘Das Trauerspiel’, 9.

59. ‘“Schiebung, Schiebung, Schiebung!!!”’, 5. As Benedict Anderson has pointed to the power of languages through poetry or national anthems for contemporaneous communities, ‘No matter how banal the words and mediocre the tunes [in reference to national anthems], there is in the singing an experience of simultaneity. At precisely such moments, people wholly unknow to each other utter the same verses to the same melody. The image: unisonance.’ Anderson, Imagined Communities, 145.

60. ‘“Schiebung, Schiebung, Schiebung!!!”’, 5.

61. Ibid, 5.

62. ‘“Mecz niedzielny’, 7.

63. ‘Wisła-I. F.C. 3:0 (0:0)’, 6.

64. ‘Z niedzielnego matchu’, 7.

65. ‘Wisła-I. F.C. 2:0. Katowiczanie’, 3. The best explanation of the term may simply be to ‘hype-up’ a match by attaching historical and or religious connotations to underline its importance, one that is closely held in high regards by a team’s supporters in their hopes of their hated rival being defeated. The origin of the term has yet to be thoroughly researched and presented. The crosstown rivalry matches between Wisła and Cracovia have traditionally been dubbed this way, particularly by interwar Cracovia’s Ludwik Gintel. But the origins are pinpointed to two Jewish teams in Kraków squaring off. Kossakowski, Nosal, and Wozniak, 75–76. Matoga, ‘Cracovia czy Wisła?’

66. ‘Wisła-I. F.C. 2:0. Katowiczanie’, 3.

67. Brubaker, 58.

68. Konieczny, Krawcyzk, and Gorzelany, 26.

69. While Polish historians have emphasized 1. FC’s backing this is not something extraordinary, as Germans dominated large sectors of Upper Silesia’s economy and thus possessed great influence over political and cultural movements. Pierzchała, 112; and Steuer, Sport, 13.

70. Fonfara, Vereinschronik, 15.

71. Steuer, Sport, 12. Steuer, Ruch Sportowy, 141. ‘Hakatist’ was a stereotypical name for the nationalistic German Eastern Marches Society which had sought to Germanize Polish lands in the late 19^th century, that Polish nationalists appropriated to express anti-German sentiments or as a way to underline the threat behind a German cause or action.

72. Kossakowski, Nosal, and Wozniak, 70.

73. Urban, Czarny orzeł, 30.

74. Urban, ‘Der 1. FC Kattowitz als Modell,’ in: Vom Konflikt zur Konkurrenz, 62. Czado, ‘1. FC Katowice’.

75. Consult Przegląd Sportowy’s November 27, December 18, and 25 December 1926 issues for a greater discussion on government involvement in making sports associations (aside from the military) responsible for the promotion of youth physical fitness. Steuer, Ruch Sportowy, 135.

76. Pończek, 75.

77. Polonsky, 139, 143–144 (for a specific elaboration on the German minority).

78. Antony Polonsky has suggested that the lack of investing in harmonious relations with national minorities stemmed from the Polish mindset being stuck in a pre-1914 phase of maintain Polish national survival. Polonsky, 508, 510. Władysław Kulesza specifically points to the Marshal’s ‘anachronistic’ governing that was solely based on authority, while dually fending off that state’s transformation into liberal parliamentarianism or totalitarianism. Kulesza, Koncepcje ideowo-polityczne, 287–289. For an overview of minority policy, consult pp. 82–85.

79. Chu, The German Minority, 67; and Polonsky, 139, 464.

80. Urban, ‘Der 1. FC Kattowitz’, 60.

81. Blanke, 97; and Urban, ‘Der 1. FC Kattowitz’, 62.

82. The city’s population could be estimated being between 65–75 percent ‘German.’ Polak-Springer, 31, 33.

83. Urban, Czarny orzeł, 30.

84. Fonfara, Vereinschronik, 16.

85. Urban, ‘Der 1. FC Kattowitz’, 65. Polonsky has cited that with Polish foreign policy seeking to accommodate cordial relations with Nazi Germany, both sides promised to respect each other’s minority rights even after the expiration of the 1922 Geneva Convention on Upper Silesia. However, he underlines that minority treatment was still largely in the hands of local officials who continued their pursuit of de-Germanizing Polish territory. It was not until March 1939 that Warsaw began to carry out a crackdown on the German minority upon realization that Nazi Germany posed an immediate threat to Poland’s interests. Polonsky, 464–465.

86. Chu, 26. Only three complete biographies exist on Michał Grażyński. For a thorough study, one should consult Musialik, Michał Tadeusz Grażyński 1890–1965.

87. Pończek, 76, 80.

88. ‘Das Trauerspiel’, 9.

89. Chronik Kattowitz, 3,8.

90. ‘Wisła-I. F.C. 2:0ʹ, 3. Its counterpart, Stadjon, refrained from any labeling in its September 27 issue. Reyman’s biographer Paweł Pierzchała emphasizes the fact that prior to the match, Przegląd Sportowy had reported on a multitude of occasions where threats of lynching opposing players and referees were made by 1. FC supporters. Pierzchała, 111.

91. ‘Mecz niedzielny’, 7.

92. ‘Wisła-I. F.C. 3:0 (0:0)’, 6.

93. ‘Dzień ważnych rozgrywek’, 7.

94. ‘Kronika sportowa’, 3.

95. ‘Wisła-I. F.C. 3:0 (0:0)’, 6.

96. ‘Wspaniały sukces Wisły’, 5.

97. ‘Zwycięstwo Wisły’, 3.

98. ‘Wisła bije I. F.C. 3:0 (0:0)’, 2.

99. ‘Po meczu Wisła – I. F.C.’, 5.

100. Ibid, 5.

101. ‘Wyniki niedzielnych’, 2.

102. Smolorz, ‘Górny Śląsk – piłka nożna i polityka,’ in Górnoślązacy w polskiej i niemieckiej reprezentacji, 6, 7.

103. Kossakowski, Nosal, and Wozniak, 76; and Urban, ‘Der 1. FC Kattowitz’, 60.

104. Goldblatt, The Ball is Round, 214.

105. Pierzchała 115, 117.

106. Goldblatt, 253.

107. This citation of Reyman should be approached carefully, as the Wisła captain was an ardent patriot. He not only maintained his army post during the Interwar period (often leaving for training drills in between matches), but he also took part on behalf of the Polish cause in the Second Silesian Uprising. Pierzchała, 112.

108. Anderson, 77, 134; and Gellner, 126-127

109. Nowak’s interview was based on the stories his grandfather, Franz Nowak, had told him as a boy. The elder Nowak was a 1. FC player in the 1930s. Melon, ‘1. FC Katowice – klub Śląski, nie niemiecki’.

110. There are far too many works to list, but the term ‘national indifference’ has been particularly examined in its historical and historiographical background in Zahra ‘Imagined Noncommunities’.

111. For the Polish Upper Silesia case, see Polak-Springer, and for German Upper Silesia, consult Karch, Nation and Loyalty.

112. Gellner, Nations and Nationalism, 127; and Anderson, 134.

113. Matuszewski, 3.