Why Hitler Hated Bayern Munich

Adolf Hitler being consumed by hatred I hear you say surely not Say It Isn't So he always seemed like such a funloving laidback kind of guy well I'm afraid that it's true old Addy wasn't always as mild maned and friendly as his funny mustache and silly little hand gestures would have you believe in fact if you caught him at the wrong moment such as uh well anytime between about 1913 and 1945 the genocidal fascist dictator could actually be quite unpleasant Hitler's hatred spread far and wide from Jews and marxists to Roma cinti slaves poles Russians

black people gay people trans people disabled people trade unionists social Democrats Jehovah's Witnesses and of course the entrance examiners of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna oh boy you better believe that he really hated them another thing that Hitler and the Nazis hated you might be more surprised to discover was Bayern Munich who are now the most successful Club in Germany and among the biggest football clubs in the world I often see foreign football fans respond to or taunt by Munich supporters on social media with messages like now show us your badge between 1938 and

1945 for reference this is the Bayern Munich badge that they are referring to and I regret to inform you that isn't the Hindu symbol representing prosperity and good luck the inference when bayern's old badge gets brought up isn't particularly subtle it is supposed to be evidence of close ties between Bayern Munich and the darkest period in German history the Nazi era and all of the negative connotations that brings with it it has led to a perception at least in some quarters particularly outside of Germany that b and were the most enthusiastic Nazi Club of them

all after all other German football clubs didn't have swastikas in their logos even during World War II not only is that not true though it is a gross Distortion and a pretty offensive one at that and the reality of bayern's past and of the relationship between Nazism and German Football is far more interesting so in today's video that's what we're going to focus on Bayern Munich's relationship with Nazism the reasons behind their SW a logo and the bizarre world of German Football under the Nazis as a whole the first fact which somewhat undermines the idea

that Bayern Munich were an inherently Nazi Club at any stage prior to the Nazis taking power in 1933 is their Dee rooted Jewish Heritage Bayern were founded in 1900 during the same year as the dfb as football first began to be popularized in the German Empire the club's Founders were all members of the munch turn verine 1879 Sports Club but influential gymnasts at the club who took a dim view of the upand cominging new sport had voted against establishing a football division to join the newly formed German Football Association in response football enthusiasts at muncha

turn verine 1879 decided to split off and form their own club FC Bayern munchin of the 17 people who signed bayern's founding Charter two were Jewish including Dortmund B Bor Beno Elan who fled to Britain following the rise of the Nazis in 1933 elen became a successful sculptor in Britain with one of his most famous works being the giant manora which still stands in front of Israel's parliament building the knesset in 1901 a 17-year-old named Kurt landow from a wealthy Jewish Family joined by an but he soon departed to train as a banker in Lazar

Switzerland landal returned to Munich in 1905 though and in 19 13 he became bayern's president still aged only 29 at the time Bayern had already had two merges for financial reasons and though they had tasted some success on the local level they had struggled to establish themselves beyond that FC urberg were the Undisputed Titans not only of Bavarian but of all of German Football during the post First World War era winning five out of seven German championships to be crowned between 1920 and 1927 and earning themselves the nickname simply D club or the club in

English landow resisted calls to build a new stadium and instead focused Bayan resources on improving the playing Squad looking to compete at a higher level Landa H the Englishman William Townley as bayern's first ever professional coach a two-time FA Cup winner at Blackburn Rovers and former England International who was considered to be the leading coach in German football at the time having won the the German Championship with cars rwer in 1910 landow later appointed Richard Cohen a man who also went by the names dumby Little dumby John little Jack dumby Ricardo dumby and the Hungarian

Wonder doctor despite the fact that he was Austrian like landow dby was Jewish and in 1932 the Jewish Joo guarded by Munich to their Maiden German championship in their first ever final owing to a 2-n win against Andra Frankfurt bayern's Jewish roots were strong then but they weren't alone when the Nazis took power in 1933 and estimated 10% of German Jews totaling around 40,000 people held official roles within local sports clubs it is hard to imagine a better illustration of Jewish integration into German Society but nonetheless having two Jews in such key leadership positions singled

by and out as having especially strong Jewish ties an undesirable reputation having just been crowned as national champions on the eve of a rabidly anti-semitic party and Chancellor taking power Bayan winck named uden Club literally Jew club by the Nazis a derogatory and anti-semitic term which the Nazis also used to describe Austra Vienna following the 1938 unas another club who had decidedly Jewish roots dby departed as soon as the mood shifted in 1933 returning to Barcelona before settling in the Netherlands where he played a key role during three separate stints in establishing Feen ORD as

a super team landow also resigned in 1933 but in 1938 he was arrested and sent to daau concentration camp having fought valiantly for the Germans during the first world war Landa was given a reprieve and a release from daa after 33 days the rest of his family were less fortunate his siblings Paul Gabriel France and Leo were all murdered by the Nazis meanwhile his sister Gabriella was officially deported but disappeared never to be found Landa's other sister Henny who fled to Palestine in 1934 was the only other member of his family to survive Landa exiled

himself to Switzerland after being released from daau but whilst Bayern were forced to appoint a quote Aryan Club president they refused to appoint a Nazi party member as was the norm at most clubs following Hitler's asensor power in fact landow's initial successor was a man named SE freed Herman who had been his vice president and Herman had fallen out with the Nazis long before he was appointed by Bayern and he sought to allow Landa to continue to run the club from afar until he too was forced out in 1934 and later sent to serve a

prison sentence in Vienna following landow's enforced resignation Bayan went through five different Club presidents in the space of the next 5 years it wasn't until 1938 the same year that B's badge changed that a fully-fledged Nazi was elected president Yosef Kelner was the man in question who became a member of FC Bayern in 1910 and of the Nazi party in 1933 having leaked official state secrets to the Nazis in the viar Republic Kelner eventually Rose to the role of District administrator in what is now the Czech Republic and was allegedly involved in judgments against officials

who had made statements against the Nazis or had contact with Jews none of this was in the public domain and very little was known about Kelner in The Wider public until quite recently as increased scrutiny has been applied to not just Bayern but all of German Football during the Nazi era whilst there was a great Reckoning and process of denazification in Germany post World War II which was much more comprehensive than the Reckoning that most countries have had after after carrying out their own atrocities football was rarely part of that conversation the dfb largely washed

their hands of any responsibility portraying themselves as powerless porns during the Nazi rise and Reign and claiming that most of their documents from that era had been destroyed during an Allied bomb raid which had burned down the building where their files were held both claims are heavily disputed and the reality paints a much darker picture of German Football Hitler himself hated football and no senior Nazis could understand its appeal but they did appreciate and understood its importance as propaganda by the 1930s football was no longer a French sport able to be suppressed by gymnasts at

local sports clubs it was a mass participation an audience sport which had taken Germany by storm the 1932 German Championship final between B and andri Frankfurt had a crowd of over 55,000 people and the biggest stadiums could have accommodate as many as 80,000 fans it wasn't actually until 1935 that Jews and other so-called unto mention that the Nazis considered undesirable were formly banned from participating in sports but as soon as Hitler came to power in 33 Jews disappeared from football in some cases quite literally over 300 Jewish figures affectively or literally disappeared from football in

1933 including Godfrey food fuks and Julius hsh fuks scored a then world record 10 goals for Germany in a single game a 16-0 win against Russia at the 1912 Olympics but fled to escape the Holocaust and managed to resettle in Canada H meanwhile was Germany's first ever Jewish International having won the German Championship with K ruer in 1910 a passionate German Patriots hirh was awarded with the Iron Cross for Extraordinary bravery during World War I the same declaration that a young Adolf Hitler received hirs divorced his non-jewish wife after the Nazis came to power in

an effort to protect his children and he believed that his Valiants in World War I would see him spared in 1943 HH was deported from K ruer to aitz concentration camp where he was killed Hitler's disdain for football is summed up by the fact that he is believed to have only ever attended a single match that match was the quarterfinals of the 1936 summer Olympics which Germany hosted the entire games were primarily a propaganda exercise and football was no exception Germany versus Norway at the post stadion in Berlin was supposed to be a major propaganda

victory for the Third Reich with gerbal guring Hess and Hitler all in attendance it didn't turn out like that Germany lost the game 2-0 and Hitler didn't even stay until the final whistle I know just when you think the European opinion of someone couldn't get any worse to make matters worse still as far as the Nazis were concerned the man who scored both of Norway's goals was Magna eacon a Jewish sounding name isacon wasn't actually Jewish at all but sounding Jewish was enough to irritate Hitler who GBL described in his diary as being incensed the

head coach of the Norway team however as bjon Halvorson was a Norwegian Jew who had spent 12 years playing for Hamburg in Germany and represented Norway at the 1920 Summer Olympics as a player before becoming Norwegian football Secretary General and acting head coach at the 1936 Olympics where Norway took bronze after Germany successfully invaded and began occupying Norway in 1940 H Von was one of the key figures of the Norwegian Sports boycott which ground almost all organized Norwegian sport to a halt under Nazi occupation combin H Von's highly effective Act ISM with his Jewish identity

and he became a prime target for the Nazis halson was arrested and held at a police station for 24 hours before being sent to greeny concentration camp when he was later transferred from a concentration camp in alas to one in NE Gama close to Hamburg according to journalist Kate Connelly Halon weighed just 40 kg or six Stone and was suffering from typhus pneumonia rheumatism and Mal marment annoying gammer how vson reportedly encountered his former teammate Otto T harder who wasn't a fellow inmate but was working as a guard at the camp harder who is one

of hamburg's greatest ever players and spent more than a decade playing alongside H Thon joined the nsdap in 1932 the SS in 1933 and he was drafted into the Waffen SS in 1939 harda was eventually promoted to the role of SS Unum Fiora after serving as a guard at several concentration and death camps and he was even a camp Commander at the ER and subcamp when it had to be evacuated following British attacks Hal vson survived the Holocaust but only just and the tyus that he caught at the camps killed him 10 years after the

war ended aged only 56 Hara meanwhile was arrested after the Nazis lost the war and tried for war crimes where in his own defense he said that he treed the prisoners well providing them with a football pitch and claimed that the only reason that people died was because they were used to poor quality food in the Jewish ghettos and were quote unable to cope with the quality and quantity of food offered to them in the camp he was sentenced to 15 years in prison later reduced to 10 and he was out in less than five

the contrasting fates of the two teammates of More Than A decade is Stark harda was by no means unique as a prominent figure in pre-war and wartime German football who supported or appeased the Nazis and helped to facilitate their atrocities Felix linman the president of the dfb or equivalent from 1925 to 1945 helped to disolve the dfb when Hitler came to power as domestic football in Germany was overhauled the gal Liga structures were established marxists and Jews were expelled the records of German Jews were erased from the record books and Hitler loots were made compulsory

in 2020 it was revealed that linman's role went far beyond that as a commander of the criminal pit linman was according to the dfbs own internal investigation in 2020 directly involved in the registration of cin and roma as the head of the Hanover criminal police control center that led to several hundred cinti and roma people being deported to aitz where they died linman never stood trial for his crimes and it wasn't until 2020 that he was stripped of his honorary presidency of the dfb broadly speaking the Nazis were mystified at football's popularity Hitler much preferred

boxing and Athletics as he sought to create his Warrior likee Master race meanwhile a perplexed Gobles once wrote following a second successive wartime defeat against Sweden quote 100,000 people left the stadium in a depressed state winning a match is of more importance to them people than the capture of a town somewhere in the East end quote because of that fact Geral the Reich minister of propaganda and if anything an even more committed Nazi ideologue and anti-semite than Hitler himself was placed in charge of overseeing the German national team it was a telling appointment to the

Nazis football was viewed solely through the lens of propaganda the fact that Geral knew nothing about football well that wasn't considered to be too big of a deal when Germany began losing games Geral began to avoid accepting fixtures against stronger teams and when that didn't work and Germany still lost games against the likes of Luxembourg and Slovakia Geral forbid the national team from losing any more matches hi that'll do it Joseph actually it didn't do it and after a 3-2 defeat against politically neutral Sweden in front of 90,000 fans at the Olympia Stadium in Berlin

in September 194 42 Gales had seen enough 2 months later he banned International Football and decided to focus on the domestic game instead yes that's right the ingenious solution that the Nazis propaganda Minister stumbled upon was that you can't keep losing games because you're hopeless at your job if you just don't play anymore before the ban German footballers were forced to undergo a strict Nazi education learn and celebrate the fur's birthday and practice doing the perfect perfect Nazi salute every Tuesday afternoon after training players had to sit an ideological exam fail it and you were

off the team pass it and you gained certain privileges such as subsidized rail travel and a small thifa representing the national team the latter was highly unusual for the Nazis who looked to Stamp Out the creeping professionalism that had been coming into German Football before they came into Power after landow was released from daau and moved to Switzerland Bayan traveled to zoric to play a friendly game against the Swiss national team in 1943 by this stage the club had been completely gutted of its Jewish players administrators and identity but the Affinity towards landow and Jord

concerned at that fact the Nazis prohibited bayern's players from meeting Landa during their time in Switzerland but they couldn't actually prevent landow from attending the game when bayern's players spotted landow in the crowd after the match they lined up and applauded their former president in a prominent Act of defiance at the time Landa knew that he had lost everything he had lost his job his home and almost all of his family who had been murdered at daau and now the Gusto were preventing him from even interacting with the club that he had built up for

the preceding two decades but still he retained the affection of FC Bayern it wasn't the only Act of defiance that Bayern were involved in in 19 34 bayern's players were involved in a brawl with Nazi brown shirts two years later Bayern Winger Willie zitz threr who was renowned for his speed made a point of having his picture taken with the African-American track athlete Jesse Owens who enraged Hitler at the 1936 Olympics by winning four gold medals undermining the idea of Aryan physical and athletic Supremacy Bayern fullback Zigman harringer was nearly sent to prison for describing

a Nazi flag w waving parade as kidss theater meanwhile Club Captain Connie hard camp and his wife hid bayern's entire trophy cabinet following an appeal by Reich Marshall Herman guring for football clubs to hand over their silverware to be melted down to help the war effort few other clubs defied ging's appeal ultimately football didn't prove to be very fertile ground for propaganda for the Nazis but not for the want of trying a relatively weak and horribly mismanaged national team meant that it resulted in more propaganda failures than success stories yet the domestic game was still

a powerful tool of nazification aided by supporters and collaborators at almost every level of the game and that is kind of the point it's not as though there aren't dark truths or hidden secrets worth scrutinizing about German football's past most of which went unchallenged until the early 2000s but that makes it all the more important to focus on real abuses and injustices rather than imagined ones Bayern Munich were not holy Angelic resistance Fighters throughout the Nazi era history tends to be a bit more complex than that between 1933 and 1945 21 of Bay's 41 board

members were members of the nsdap and in the early 2000s Bayern reportedly refused to pay into a compensation fund for former Nazi slave laborers stating that they themselves were victims of the Nazis many critics claimed that Bayern had Gravely missed the point of the fund nonetheless bayern's 1932 Championship pioneered by two Jews did put a Target on their back unlike Austra Vienna the other so-called uden club Bayern weren't forced to change their name but they were targeted by the Nazis and their swastika badge was viewed as a form of punishment in the final wartime football

match played in Germany a week before Hitler committed suicide by gunshot and two weeks weeks before Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allies Bayan beat their Rivals 1860 Munich 32 in 1947 Kurt landow was one of few high-profile German Jews to make a speedy return to Germany where he was once again appointed as bayern's Club president he remained in the role until 1951 when he failed to get reelected and he died in Munich in 1961 it wasn't until the early 2000s that thanks to bayan's Ultras Landa's Legacy was properly appreciated and celebrated with banners and memorials

in 2013 he was named as bayan's honorary President in 2005 the dfb established the Julius hirs prize for outstanding examples of integration and tolerance within German Football Bayern Munich were the awards first recipients after hosting a game between their under 17 team and a combin Israeli Palestinian youth selection it took b a lot of time to rebuild following World War II and the club was on the verge of being declared bankrupt in the late 1950s it wasn't until the Holy Trinity of France Beckham Bower G Muller and SE mea came along in the 1960s that

Bayern return to the heights that they scaled under landow and dumby in 1932 winning their first Bundesliga title in 1969 and a trio of European cups during the 1970s there are lots of legitimate reasons to dislike Bayern Munich principal among them from an Outsiders perspective the fact that their dominance over the past decade has all but removed any semblance of excitement at the top end of what would otherwise be perhaps the most competitive and entertaining league in Europe throughout so much of that time the club's badge between 1938 and 1945 though forced upon them by

the Nazis due to their reputation as a Jewish Club probably isn't one of them the reality is that Germany's biggest and most successful football club was co-founded by Jews they were inspired to their first German championship by two Jews and still their longest ever serving president was a Jewish German despite being exiled from his role for 12 long years by the Nazis that is a remarkable Legacy and one which profoundly undermines the Nazi ideology of Aryan Supremacy and Jewish or un mench racial and social inferiority those who seek to tie by into the Nazis therefore

when they were actually despised by them and ignore their Dee rooted Jewish Heritage typically only for partisan or tribal football trolling reasons are actually without realizing it I'm sure making a pro-nazi argument or at least serving to undermine a powerful argument against Nazi Dogma Bayern Munich's first German Championship in 1932 was evidence not only of Jewish Excellence far from racial or social inferiority but far more importantly of Jewish integration and assimilation at the heart of one of Germany's most recognizable and influential institutions and that ought never be forgotten that is it for today's video but

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