The Participation of Representatives of the German Minority in the Olympic Games during the Second Polish Republic

Abstract

The article The Participation of Representatives of the German Minority in the Olympic Games during the Second Polish Republic presents ten Olympians – representatives of German minority at the time of the Second Polish Republic, who took part in the Olympic Games. They competed at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin and at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The second part of the article presents a relationship of sports movement of German minority and these Olympians to their settlement land. The sports movement as an important element of activities to care about the German national consciousness on foreign lands was not free from political influence. Nevertheless, as examples in the article show, the Polish-German cooperate on the sports field in a harmony with philosophy of Olympism under the flag of Poland was possible.