Essen celebrates Jewish sports legends: traveling exhibition opens!

Essen celebrates Jewish sports legends: traveling exhibition opens!

The traveling exhibition “Between Success and Persecution – Jewish Stars in German Sports up to 1933 and after” will be presented in Grugapark Essen from July 21st to 26th, 2025. The opening took place today in the presence of Sylvia Löhrmann, Commissioner for Anti-Semitism, and Andrea Milz, State Secretary for Sport and Volunteering. This exhibition impressively addresses the lives of Jewish athletes who both celebrated success in German sport and were subjected to severe persecution. The aim is to remember the athletes who were excluded because of their Jewish faith and thus to send a clear signal against anti-Semitism and exclusion, as [land.nrw] reports.

The exhibition will be presented as part of the FISU World University Games 2025 in Essen and builds a bridge from the past to the present. Jewish sport in Germany has a long, albeit tragic, history; Many Jewish athletes were discriminated against and persecuted during the Nazi regime. It is all the more important to recognize their contribution to the development of modern sport in Germany. The initiative is supported by the Center for German Sports History. V. in collaboration with partner institutions and the DFB, the German Olympic Sports Confederation and the Federal Government for Culture and Media.

The Jewish sports pioneers

The exhibition presents numerous biographies of Jewish sports pioneers. These include greats such as Walther Bensemann, a soccer pioneer, Lilli Henoch, ten-time German athletics champion, and Julius Hirsch, a national soccer player. Ralph Klein, the Israeli and later German national basketball coach, and Helene Mayer, an Olympic fencing champion, are also honored. These athletes are known not only for their athletic achievements, but also for their fight against the discrimination they faced. “The exhibition creates a connection to the present,” says [juedische-sportstars.de], which underlines the importance of these topics.

The Jewish athletes not only achieved victories, but also set an example for Jewish identity in sport. Jewish athletes such as Emanuel Lasker, world chess champion, and Nelly Neppach, German tennis champion, had a major influence on international sport. Nevertheless, they often remained disadvantaged, such as Gretel Bergmann, who set a German record four weeks before the 1936 Olympic Games but was not allowed to take part. Such stories illustrate the serious impact of anti-Semitism in German sport.

Anti-Semitism in sport – then and now

Anti-Semitism in sports is not a new phenomenon. As early as the 19th century, when many Jewish people were active in German sports clubs, anti-Semitic tendencies began to have an influence. These developments not only led to discrimination against Jewish members, but also to many Jewish athletes being excluded from their clubs. The Aryan paragraph, which was introduced in Austrian gymnastics clubs in 1901, is an example of how systematic exclusion worked. Historical anti-Semitic prejudices have left their mark on sport to this day, as numerous current incidents show. An example is the sporting withdrawals of Fethi Nourine and Mohamed Abdalrasool from the 2021 Olympic Games to avoid encounters with Israeli athletes. Such incidents emphasize the relevance of the exhibition, which not only looks at the historical context but also highlights the challenges of the present.

The traveling exhibition is a step in the right direction to combat anti-Semitism and exclusion. In a further focus, it will also shed light on the employment relationships of Jewish athletes in Germany and contribute to raising awareness. However, the success of these efforts depends on the willingness of sports associations to address this issue.

This is not only a look back at forgotten successes, but also a call to actively combat discrimination and promote an inclusive sports culture.