Last modified: 2012-08-25 by pete loeser
Keywords: nsdap | german national league for physical education |
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plate or square example (reverse side)During the Third Reich there was a trend to transform all sports clubs and into National Socialist civil organizations, eventually placing them all under the control of the German National League for Physical Education - NSRL (Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen). From the vexillological point of view this resulted in some very unimaginative, standardized, and uniform flags. The only difference between the usual National Socialist sports flag is a plate or square in the canton with a different name of the organization.
Pete Loeser, 18 August 2012
![[German National League for Physical Education (NSDAP, Germany)]](../images/d/de_gl.gif)
Image by Jaume Ollé
In December of 1938, Adolf Hitler placed all German Sports activities under the Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen (German National League for Physical Education) which became the sports organization that controlled all sports in the Third Reich. The NSRL director was called the Reichssportführer (the leader of German Sports) and he controlled all sports events in Germany, including the German National Olympic Committee. All other German sport associations gradually lost their freedom and were co-opted into the NSRL. The NSRL's leaders were Hans von Tschammer und Osten (1933–1943), Arno Breitmeyer (1943–1944) and Karl Ritter von Halt (1944–1945).
Pete Loeser, 18 January 2012
Image by Fornax, 3 May 2009
It should be mentioned that this depicted banner was a unique standard (copying a SA-standard) used on the occasion of the official presentation of the NSRL colours at Breslau in 1938. Hans von Tschammer und Osten, the head of Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen (NSRL), received the new NSRL banner from Dr. Wilhelm Frick on the occasion.
Fornax, posted 18 January 2012
Image from Visa ett inlägg, 24 February 2011
Editorial Comment: The black patch on this Schützenfahne (shooting club flag) reads: Gau XVI Bayern/Sportgemeinsch. S.S. e.V./Tölz. (district 16/registered shooting club or association/Tölz). Schützenvereine also had departments of sport shooting (guns, pistols, archery, etc.). Schützenvereine have long been a tradition in Germany and they predate the more modern athletics clubs. In the late Middle Ages, they seem to have played some role in the citizen's militia, and were sometimes active as something similar to a guild. Their main task probably was defence against bandits and plundering groups of enemy troops, and they were not actually a part of any regular military campaigns.
The German abbreviation "e.V." stands for eingetragener Verein, which means "registered association."
Ole Andersen, 14 June 2002
The Gau in the inscription is probably not a Nazi Gau, but the Schützengau, the district of a higher level shooting association.
It is common practice for many different kinds of associations and clubs (Vereine) here in Germany (especially shooting clubs, voluntary fire brigades; traditional custom clubs; veterans' clubs; sports clubs, etc.) to have flags, usually embroidered. Originally, they were something like the "regimental colours", and today there are probably tens of thousands of these different flags in clubs in Germany. A whole terra incognita for vexillology!
Marcus Schmöger, 14 June 2002
Flag #1 (showing obverse side)
Flag #2 (showing reverse side)
Flag #1 from artfact.com, 24 February 2011
Flag #2 from James Bohanek, 18 August 2012
Notice the smaller columns, and the different heads of the eagles. Also, Flag #2 has the patch on one side [reverse] only, where from other hierarchies one would expect these flags to have patches on both sides [as in the case of Flag #1]. Still...these images are enough to show that they are all indeed based on the NSRL design, with some having the column shifted towards the hoist and with obvious size ratio differences.
Image by Fornax
After the German Cycling Federation (Bund Deutscher Radfahrer - BDR), which had been created in 1884 in Leipzig, was dissolved under the Third Reich in 1933 after Hitler seized power, it was replaced by the NS German Bicycle Union (Deutscher Radfahrer-Verband - DRV), and eventually becoming a unit (fachamt) of the German National League for Physical Education (Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen).
The DRV itself was disbanded in 1945 for being the branch of a Nazi organization. It was reborn as part of the Deutscher Sportausschuss (the DDR's German athletic sports body) in East Germany in 1946, and re-established as the BDR in 1948 in West Germany.
Pete Loeser, 21 August 2012
