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Chronicle
1933-1945
Werder Bremen in National Socialism
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Sport played an important role in stabilizing the Nazi dictatorship under increasingly radical conditions, as sport historian Markwart Herzog emphasizes. Unlike some demands within the NSDAP, the “bourgeois” game of football was not entirely militarized or, for example, absorbed into the SA after the Nazi seizure of power in March 1933.
This was likely because of the upcoming Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936. Nazi Germany wanted to present itself to the world as a peaceful nation. This was seen as necessary since the U.S. and other Western countries considered boycotts, which would have been a disaster for Nazi propaganda. Thus, sports clubs and associations enjoyed considerably more leeway in the first years after Hitler became Reich Chancellor than was the case elsewhere in society. However, the leaders of the associations used their freedom not to save their autonomy, but to actively establish their own Nazi views and display loyalty to the party.
The New "Club Leader" and the Role of the "Dietwart"
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Until 1933, Sportverein “Werder” had bylaws prohibiting members from political activity. This changed very quickly. The club immediately set about restructuring itself according to the Nazi model. Beginning on May 14, 1933, the “First Chairman” Bernhard Stake was now referred to as the “Club Leader.” The minutes of that assembly end with:
“The meeting concluded with a threefold ‘Sieg Heil,’ enthusiastically received for our Chancellor Adolf Hitler and our German fatherland.” In October 1933, the club’s structure was radically modified in an extraordinary general meeting.
The “Club Leader” still had to be elected by members, but could now choose his staff freely, without needing the general meeting’s approval. Willy Stöver, who now held the office, announced that he would use his new rights "ruthlessly if necessary" and "forever remove troublemakers and dissenters with iron energy." Already in April 1933, Stöver had declared his enthusiasm for the Nazi ideology in club bulletins. The SV “Werder” had, “since its founding, always represented the national idea and not discovered its national heart only after the revolution.”
Club bulletins repeatedly indicate there was already strong National Socialist sentiment among Werder members before 1933. Hermann Schlengemann, one of Werder’s earliest members, wrote in September 1937: “We still speak often of the old ‘Werder spirit.’ This spirit (…) has always been a spirit in the best National Socialist sense, and I am pleased to see that every club leader has understood how to transfer this spirit from one player generation to the next.”
The club adopted the Führer principle long before being required to. The club’s proximity to the Nazi ideology is also evident in the position of “Dietwart,” introduced by SV “Werder” in August 1936—a year before Nazis mandated it. Walter von Wienczkowski and Hans Korengel filled this role, both long-active club members and former players. Korengel said he wanted, as “Dietwart,” to ensure members “think German, feel German, and act German.” He regarded himself as the “ethnic and National Socialist conscience” of the club. “Comradeship and Diet evenings” were now regularly held, inviting speakers to instill Nazi ideology. For example, on March 30, 1938, Fritz Kellermeier, a Bremen NSDAP member, gave a lecture titled “The racial question is the key to world history.”
Propaganda for National Socialism
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The club also actively supported Nazi ideas in public. On March 30, 1934, SV “Werder” played Sportfreunde 05 Saarbrücken—a match of high interest to the NSDAP. It was used for “Saar region propaganda,” designed to reincorporate the Saar, under the League of Nations, into the Reich. The match was linked to a rally at the theater, arranged by club leader Willy Stöver.
Songs—some performed by the Hitler Youth—were sung; Stöver spoke before the mayor. Songs included the “Deutschland-Lied,” “Horst-Wessel-Lied,” and “Saar-Lied.”
SV “Werder” knowingly acted as organizer for Nazi propaganda and leveraged its reputation to support Hitler’s Saar campaign. Club bulletins from August 1934 claim pride in having “contributed in our small way to freeing our German compatriots in the Saar from foreign rule.”
Club activities now pursued not only sporting, but military aims. Since 1933, the idea of military sports came to the fore. Stöver claimed Werder was the first to adopt this openly. It was no longer only about athletics, but about preparing young men for military service. Stake announced in May 1933 that he intended to “shape the young men of the club into fit German soldiers.” Since October that year, “popular sports” for adults were again offered at SV “Werder” to serve the same purpose over time. The “Bremer Kampfbahn”—the “Weser Stadium” during the Third Reich—had already hosted Nazi rallies since 1932, with regular marches and mass NSDAP events.
Sport in the “Third Reich”
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Werder enjoyed its first national success during National Socialism, which the Nazis welcomed. The club was happy to appear alongside its successful “Gauliga” team. Abroad, sports promoted National Socialist ideals: in June 1938, the league team played in Denmark, starting each match with the “German greeting.” Werder also benefited in sporting terms during World War II: the “Bremer Kampfbahn” soon hosted three anti-aircraft installations.
Abbi Drewes, responsible for “technical direction of sporting operations,” along with the air force, stationed footballers at these anti-aircraft emplacements, making them available for Werder’s team.
Beyond football, Werder achieved its first national success in track and field, largely due to the 1937 transfer of the entire Stadium Sports Club’s track and field team to Werder, initiated by Nazi athletic leader Ernst Köwing.
Sport competitions continued even after Germany began World War II. After Goebbels declared “total war” in 1943, football was deemed “vital to the war effort.” Gauleiter emphasized that “athletically-trained bodies” had proven themselves at the front. But sport also served another purpose: in the hardest-hit cities, events aimed to distract the population from the sufferings of war, helping them endure “total war.” Football was played right up until March 1945.
Leo Weinstein, the Rosenthals, and Alfred Ries
Already in 1933, the “Völkischer Beobachter” called for the exclusion of “non-Aryans” from sports clubs. It was not mandatory until 1940, when the “Aryan paragraph” was introduced by the National Socialist Sports Association. SV “Werder” began, at least by 1939, to ask about “ancestry” in applications. It’s unclear how many were excluded before then, but several cases are documented.
For example, Leo Weinstein, a 12-year-old junior player, was told in early 1934 by his coach that “Jews were no longer allowed to be members,” as documented by Inge Marßolek. Thanks to a Polish visa, Leo and brother Rudolf emigrated to the U.S. via Antwerp in 1938. Their father, Hermann, was arrested by the Gestapo at the end of that year and died in Buchenwald concentration camp in 1941.
After the war, having served as a U.S. Army officer, Leo Weinstein became a professor of French literature at Stanford University, where he played and coached the university’s football team in the early 1950s and worked as a football journalist, covering World Cups. He died May 4, 2009, aged 87.
Harald Klingebiel traced the Rosenthal family: father Albert and sons Arthur, Herbert, and Hermann. Albert, a Werder member since 1906, had served as the club’s secretary. He was killed in Theresienstadt concentration camp at age 81 in 1942. Arthur, who helped modernize the club after WWI, was arrested in the November pogrom of 1938 and then deported to the Minsk ghetto and murdered.
Herbert and Hermann escaped in time. Herbert, a youth club officer and tennis member in the 1920s, survived the Nazi era in Ecuador. Hermann joined Werder as a youth footballer in 1917 and fled to the U.S. in 1939.
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Alfred Ries, sometimes a teammate of Hermann Rosenthal, joined Werder in 1909. More important off the field, he served in club administration and other organizations. At just 25, he was elected club chairman in 1923 and later headed the football department. After increasing antisemitic attacks in local Nazi publications, Ries left Bremen shortly before Hitler’s appointment as chancellor, officially departing SV Werder on January 7, 1933. After stays in Munich and Marienbad, he ended up in Zagreb, where he was arrested repeatedly during WWII but survived, unlike his parents, who were murdered in Theresienstadt. He returned to Bremen in autumn 1946, later serving as club president twice (1947–51 and 1963–67). Under him, Werder won its first German championship in 1965. Werder fans have honored his memory by naming a promenade at the stadium "Alfred-Ries-Platz" in 2018.
SV “Werder”: Component and Beneficiary of Nazi Ideology
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In summary, the club adapted to Nazi Germany faster and more zealously than many others. The sporting successes of the late 1930s and World War II had political and military roots: official backing brought top athletes to Werder; the best footballers were in Bremen because they were stationed there as soldiers.
Thus, SV “Werder” was a diligent part of Nazi sport, and the problems after WWII were accordingly great. The club had to try several times and change names before it could compete again under the traditional SV “Werder Bremen” name.
Many figures active during this era continued in the club after the so-called “zero hour” in 1945. This, too, is part of the club’s history—as are later triumphs and successes. It is important to remember this chapter and face the resulting responsibility.
Sources and Further Reading
Literaturquellen:
FANPROJEKT BREMEN E. V. (Hrsg.): Unvergessen vergessen – Alfred Ries. „Wer Versöhnung will, muss sie praktizieren.“ Eine Infobroschüre anlässlich des 50. Todestages eines großen Werderaners. Bremen 2017.
HAVEMANN, Nils: Fußball unterm Hakenkreuz. Der DFB zwischen Sport, Politik und Kommerz. Frankfurt/Main 2005.
HERZOG, Markwart: Die „Gleichschaltung“ des Fußballsports im Nationalsozialismus. Politische, organisatorische sowie ökonomische und soziokulturelle Aspekte, in: Ders. (Hrsg.): Die Gleichschaltung des Fußballsports im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland. Stuttgart 2016. S. 15-23.
HERZOG, Markwart: Fußball als Mythenmaschine. Zweiter Weltkrieg – Nationalsozialismus – Antifaschismus, in: Ders./BRÄNDLE, Fabian (Hrsg.): Europäischer Fußball im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Stuttgart 2015. S. 15-43.
HERZOG, Markwart: „Eigenwelt“ Fußball: Unterhaltung für die Massen, in: Ders. (Hrsg.): Fußball zur Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. Alltag – Medien – Künste – Stars. Stuttgart 2008. S. 11-35.
KLINGEBIEL, Harald: Jüdische Sportler bei Werder Bremen, in: KRÜGER, Arnd/WEDEMEYER-KOLWE (Hrsg.): Vergessen, verdrängt, abgelehnt – Zur Geschichte der Ausgrenzung im Sport. Berlin 2009. S. 50-71.
KLINGEBIEL, Harald: Werder Bremen – ein Verein, der nicht erst heute Geschichte macht, in: BREMER, Sven/DOROW, Olaf: Grün-weißes Wunderland. Die Geschichte von Werder Bremen. Göttingen 2008. S. 299-346.
MARßOLEK, Inge: Vom Leben der Juden in Bremen nach 1938 und im Krieg, in: Freie Hansestadt Bremen et al. (Hrsg.): „Reichskristallnacht“ in Bremen. Vorgeschichte, Hergang und ge-richtliche Bewältigung es Pogroms vom 9./10. November 1938. Bremen 1988. S. 60-71.
PFEIFFER, Lorenz/WAHLIG, Henry: Juden im Sport während des Nationalsozialismus. Ein historisches Handbuch für Niedersachsen und Bremen. Göttingen 2012.
WALLENHORST, Hans-Joachim: Grün-Weiß in braunen Zeiten, in: CHRISTIANSEN, Jörn (Hrsg.): Werder Bremen. 100 Jahre Sport im Rampenlicht. Bremen 1998. S. 162-171.
WALLENHORST, Hans-Joachim: Das vierte Jahrzehnt, in: WALLENHORST, Hans-Joachim/KLINGEBIEL, Harald (Hrsg.): Neunzig Jahre SV „Werder“ – 1899-1989. Bremen 1988. S. 147-183.
WALLENHORST, Hans-Joachim: Die Jahre des Zweiten Weltkrieges, in: WALLENHORST, Hans-Joachim/KLINGEBIEL, Harald (Hrsg.): Neunzig Jahre SV „Werder“ – 1899-1989. Bremen 1988. S. 147-183.
Onlinequellen:
HAVEN, Cynthia (13.05.) 2009: French professor, author and world soccer expert dies at 87, unter: news.stanford.edu/news/2009/may13/weinstein-051309.html (zuletzt aufgerufen am 09.04.2019).
HETHEY, Frank (01.02.) 2019: Alfred Ries – fünfmal Retter in der Not, unter: www.meinwerder.de/news_artikel,-alfred-ries-fuenfmal-retter-in-der-not-_arid,1803325.html (zuletzt aufgerufen am 09.04.2019).
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