SPORT UND SOLDATEN (1936)

This is perhaps the only surviving original 1936 poster of this  67 minute long documentary film produced on behalf of the German War Ministry in 1936. It was released into German cinemas in July/August 1936, in anticipation of the Olympic Games which were held a few weeks later. The film documents the training and efforts of military men to become fit and to go on to represent Germany in the Games. You can see two such soldiers on the victor's podium in uniform, along with an Italian also in uniform, on our Riefenstahl's Olympia page to be found on our main website header menu. The film continued to be screened into 1937.

There is a print of the film in the Bundesarchiv as well as one in the London Imperial War Museum,  but it has not been re-released ever.

FURTHER information on the film can be gleaned from the "Staatspolitische Film" series of booklets edited by Dr. Walther Günther of the Abteilung Film of the RPL found in our Library. This booklet paired the documentary film Jugend der Welt Garmisch Winter Games of the 1936 Olympics with the Sport und Soldaten film; as the two films complemented one another both in subject matter and relevance. Healthy German Youth winning at Olympic Games were naturally then bringing such physical training with them into the armed forces of the Third Reich. In fact, as is shown in the handbill at the bottom of this page, both films were shown together in cinemas of the Third Reich in the 1936 Olympics year.

Sport und Soldaten: Hergestellt im Auftrage des Reichskriegsministeriums durch die Heeressportschule Wünsdorf; Sportliche Leitung: Heeressportleiter Herrmann Westerhaus; Hersteller: Filmpeter, Berlin; Filmische Gestaltung: Hans F. Wilhelm; Musik und musikalische Leitung: Walter Winnig; Sprecher: Carl de Vogt; Geleitwort: v. Blomberg.

This pamphlet was put out by the government to promote the film as an educational documentary; and the booklet has 16 pages on the film and also some B&W photos. The short Introduction to the booklet was written and signed by the then Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and Minister of War, General Werner von Blomberg. Excerpts translated from the pamphlet:

Introduction

In the training of a healthy, hard and strong Youth lies the secure foundation for peace, freedom and the greatness of the nation.

This training is also the best preparation for service in the Wehrmacht and thereby for the military readiness of the nation.

(signed) Blomberg, Berlin, February 1936

The film opens with demonstrations of the physical requirements of the Infantry during fighting and shows that preparation through sport (through games, gymnastics, light athletics, boxing and swimming). In the Navy, the same foundations are needed to provide service onboard ships; such as loading guns, coal, buoy maneuvers, regatta sailing, and fleet competition. Ski and mountain troops have special tasks to fulfill, for which sport is especially useful. Soldiers are then shown in pine forests, jumping out of machine gun nests, infantry crawling forward, machine guns in hand, then working their way uphill through sand.

What this prelude shows is the hard physical utilization during military service, and the fresh tautness that is required even after heavy efforts. The soldier-driven sport is a prerequisite for performance.

A  further description of the film's contents found courtesy of the website of the Imperial War Museum in London is reproduced here:

Recognition of the value of gymnastics and competitive sports in strengthening troops both physically and morally caused the services to establish their own Sports Academies, at Wünsdorf, Flensburg and Spandau. Soldiers at Wünsdorf undergo basic physical training before following a systematic course of sport which develops their strength and will-power. Early training covers running, ball games, elementary gymnastics, boxing and swimming. Soldiers subsequently compete at these various sports after special intensive training and demonstrate their ability in public displays which are a valuable link between the armed forces and the nation. Services favour particular sports, thus the Navy (Reel 7) concentrates on gymnastics, rowing and sailing, while mountain troops (Reels 8-10) become expert skiers and rock climbers. Sailors are seen signalling, playing on deck, coaling, scrubbing the deck and practising a man-overboard emergency, between views of the fleet. Mountain troops on ski-patrol cut off the enemy during an exercise. Final montage of military activity inter-cut with sporting shots reasserts film's claim that sport not only makes German soldiers strong, healthy and tenacious but also prepares them mentally for combat.

Details on the film courtesy of filmportal.de:

Produktionsfirma: Reichskriegsministerium (Berlin)
Länge: 1824 m, 67 min
Format: 35mm, 1:1.33
Bild/Ton: s/w
Prüfung/Zensur: Zensur (DE): 27.06.1936, B.42765, Jugendfrei / Lehrfilm

In our Collection we also have a handbill from the Haus der Länder in Berlin, offering film screenings in September–October 1936; and the 1936 Winter Olympics film Jugend der Welt appeared on a double–bill with Sport und Soldaten, just like the pairing (above) in the Staatspolitische Filme brochure.

BELOW: From our Collection, a page out of the November/December 1937 magazine FILM & FOTO, published by the Gaufilmstelle Sachsen.

The article mentions that Sport & Soldaten, or alternately, the film Hände am Werk ("Hands at work"),  should be paired with the pro–euthanasia film Opfer der Vergangenheit (" Victims of the Past") in all Gaufilmstelle program screenings. The article mentions the fact that when the euthanasia film is shown by itself, the audience can feel "depressed." When audiences see as a second film one showing healthy German workers or young soldiers striving for excellence in sport; they leave feeling positive and enthusiastic about the film evening.  It is further recommended that an expert from the Racial Political Office (Rassenpolitisches Amt) be engaged to speak to the audience between the two films. (In another issue of FILM & FOTO we read that such a speaker quoted from Mein Kampf on the racial hygiene problems in large cities. As the Gaufilmstelle only toured to regional areas comprising farmland, villages and small towns, this fit well the ideology which presented the dangers to youth and women of vice, alcohol, drugs, and marxism residing in big cities.)