Christian Koller

The Recruitment of Colonial Troops in Africa and Asia and their Deployment in Europe during the First World War

The impact of the First World War on the colonies was profound and many-sided. A conflict that began in the Balkans turned into a general European war in July and August 1914, and then took on extra-European dimensions, particularly as some of the belligerent states ranked as the most important colonial powers globally. After the outbreak of the war, there was immediate fighting in several parts of the world as Great Britain, France, Belgium and Japan as well as the British dominions Australia, New Zealand and South Africa attacked the German colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Most of these territories were conquered by the Entente powers within a short time. Already in October and November 1914, Japanese troops occupied the German islands in Micronesia and captured the city of Tsingtau, where about 5000 Germans were made prisoners of war. Between August and November 1914 troops from Australia and New Zealand conquered Samoa, New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago, all of them German possessions. The German colonies in Africa were defended by so-called ‘Schutztruppen’, made up of German officers and African soldiers. While British and French troops overwhelmed Togo in August 1914, the fighting in Cameroon lasted until January 1916. German South West Africa was attacked by South Africa on behalf of the Entente powers. This caused problems in South Africa itself, however, for about 11,500 Anglophobe Boer soldiers rebelled, some of them openly joining the German side. The South African war between the British empire and the Boers had only ended 12 years before, and many Boers had preserved their anti-British

Football negotiating the placement of Switzerland within Europe.

Although hosting the ‘Union Européenne de Football Association’ (UEFA) and having co‐organized the 2008 European Championship, Switzerland is deliberately still a non‐member of the European Union. This evokes the question about footballs role in the negotiation of Switzerlands placement within Europe. Football and ‘Swissness’ have been linked at several times in modern Swiss history, even though the record of the Swiss national football team is rather poor, unlike Switzerlands political stability, economic prosperity and democratic traditions. This article will first give a concise overview of modern Switzerlands placement within Europe in general. The second section explores the relationship between football, national consciousness and Switzerlands place in Europe from the late nineteenth to the early twenty‐first centuries. In the third section, the link of this triangle to the relationship of Switzerlands linguistic communities is analysed, and the last section discusses the impact of the 2008 European Championship on Switzerlands placement within Europe.

Sport transfer over the channel: elitist migration and the advent of football and ice hockey in Switzerland

Abstract This article analyses the early cultural transfer of British sports to Switzerland by the example of football and ice hockey. After an assessment of Anglo-Swiss political, economic and cultural relations during the Victorian period, it identifies four main channels, all of which linked to elitist migration, through which football and ice hockey were transferred to Switzerland: British student and merchant communities in Switzerland, Swiss migrants returning from Britain, boarding schools in Western and Eastern Switzerland (from which the games were also transferred to other continental European countries) and British tourism to the Swiss Alps. A final section assesses the pattern of popularization of the two games in Switzerland. Both football and ice hockey were considered national sports by the end of the interwar period at the very latest. This process of appropriation included cultural, social, economic, geographical and gender issues. Players became role models of masculine heroes – footballers rather of an urban and working-class type, ice hockey players rather of a rural and alpine type, whilst their elitist character of the pioneering period largely disappeared. Nevertheless, the two games’ Anglo-Saxon roots were never forgotten, and unlike in many other countries, English sport terminology remained predominant in Switzerland.

Pioniere, Verteidiger, Verfolgte: Juden und Antisemitismus im metropolitanen Schweizer Sport in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts

Abstract This article provides an overview on both Jewish sport in Swiss metropolises and anti-Semitism in the Swiss sports system in the early 20th century. A number of Jewish sport pioneers considerably contributed to the formation and development of the Swiss sports system during the Belle Époque and again in the interwar period, be it as athletes, coaches, officials or journalists. At the same time, a small movement of Maccabi clubs emerged which would participate in the first international Maccabiah Games during the 1930s. However, anti-Semitism was not unknown in the early Swiss sport system. Whilst the article identifies a number of persistent anti-Semites amongst sports officials of the period considered and uncovers anti-Semitic mechanisms in individual sports associations, the full extent of discrimination against Jews in Swiss sports is yet to be explored.

The British Foreign Legion – Ein Phantom zwischen Militärpolitik und Migrationsdiskursen

Zusammenfassung: Im Unterschied zu Frankreich und einigen anderen Kolonialmächten hat das Vereinigte Königreich nie über eine permanente Fremdenlegion verfügt. Ansätze dazu bestanden indessen sehr wohl. Für den Krimkrieg wurde zwar eine britische Fremdenlegion rekrutiert, diese kam jedoch nicht zum Einsatz. Teile dieser Truppe gelangten später als Militärsiedler nach Südafrika. Vom Ersten Weltkrieg bis in den frühen Kalten Krieg gab es dann in Politik und Presse immer wieder Stimmen, die eine Fremdenlegion nach französischem Vorbild forderten, um Exilanten der Krone nutzbar zu machen. Der Artikel diskutiert diese im Schnittpunkt von Militärund Migrationsgeschichte stehenden Ansätze zur Etablierung einer britischen Fremdenlegion im Kontrast zur französischen Entwicklung und analysiert, welche Einflussfaktoren zu bestimmten Zeitpunkten Forderungen nach Einrichtung einer britischen Fremdenlegion haben laut werden lassen und welche die dauerhafte Gründung einer solchen Institution schließlich verhinderten.

Kriminelle Romantiker in der exotischen Hölle: Zur transnationalen Medialisierung der französischen Fremdenlegion

[...] I must confess to feeling a little nervous about the possible consequences. We may hear a good deal more of the incident in Parliament or the press. The French Foreign Legion is ‚news‘, and the public mind has been well prepared with stories of savage discipline, drastic punishment, and so forth. When it becomes known that four victims of this Draconic régime escaped to British territory and were heartlessly handed over to the French authorities to meet their fate, this will be all the material for a violent agitation.1

Sport, Urbanity and Communal Socialism: The Case of ‘Red Zurich’ (1928–1949)

This article analyses opportunities, limitations and impact of communal sport policies in the second quarter of the 20th century by the example of Zurich, the largest city of Switzerland. The period of ‘Red Zurich’ from 1928 to 1949, when a Social Democratic majority committed to the strategy of ‘communal socialism’ dominated the citys executive council, was at the same time the take-off period of both mass and commercialised elite sport. Yet, unlike in ‘Red Vienna’, a specifically socialist approach of ‘Red Zurich’ towards sport is hardly identifiable, with the city administration not privileging worker sports organisations ideologically close to them nor applying any theories of class specific physical education. Rather their policies were in line with contemporary mainstream discourses on health, hygiene and problems posed by modern urbanity. The same can be said regarding the development of sport infrastructure, which despite economic crisis and wartime austerity witnessed a rapid expansion and was closely intertwined with policy fields such as city planning (including the development of green spaces) and job creation. The Social Democratic government considerably improved the position of citizens’ sport activities, but also looked favourably upon private initiatives to build large stadiums, reflecting the increasing importance of mass spectator sport. On balance, ‘Red Zurichs’ sport policies epitomised their overall agenda not to be a hotbed of revolutionary experiments, but an example of solid progressive communal administration.

Kollektivierte Nomaden: die Gründung der Volksrepublik Mongolei vor 85 Jahren

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Defeat and Foreign Rule as a Narrative of National Rebirth — The German Memory of the Napoleonic Period in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

The Napoleonic period has played a crucial role in Germany’s cultural memory1 since the end of the anti-Napoleonic Wars. Between 1795 and 1805, Prussia had preserved its neutrality in the succeeding coalition wars. In 1806, it entered war against France, and on the 14 October its army experienced a disastrous defeat in the double battle of Jena and Auerstedt. About 20,000 Prussian and Saxon soldiers were killed or wounded, 13,000 were captured. The double battle proved that the Prussian army was outdated, poorly trained and inflexibly led. On the 27 October, Napoleon and his troops entered Berlin, while the Prussian king and his family fled eastwards. This disaster caused an enormous shock.2 In the treaty of Tilsit in July 1807, Prussia remained an autonomous state, but it lost half of its territories. It was occupied by French troops and charged with heavy contributions. In the following years, the leading ministers Stein and Hardenberg enacted a wide-ranging modernization programme that included reforms of government, administration, agriculture, trade, taxation, military and education.3

Die russische Revolution ist ein reines Kinderspiel gegenüber derjenigen in Albisrieden

Calvo Salgado, Martin Schaffner und Hans Medick. Das Titelzitat stammt aus dem „Volksrecht“ vom 7.7.1906 und mokiert sich über die bürgerliche Berichterstattung. 2 Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), 18.7.1906. 3 Vgl. Dick Geary, Protest and Strike. Recent Research on „Collective Action“ in England, Germany, and France, in: Klaus Tenfelde (Hg.), Arbeiter und Arbeiterbewegung im Vergleich. Berichte der internationalen Forschung, München 1986, 363–387. Für die Schweiz: Jakob Tanner, Klassenkämpfe, industrielle Beziehungen und Konsumbewegung, in: Brigitte Studer/François Vallotton (Hg.), Histoire sociale et mouvement ouvrier. Un bilan historiographique 1848–1998, Lausanne 1997, 91–106. 4 Für die schweizerische Streikgeschichte v. a. Willi Gautschi, Der Landesstreik 1918, Zürich etc. 1968; Marc Vuilleumier u. a., La Grève générale de 1918 en Suisse, Genf 1977. „Die russische Revolution ist ein reines Kinderspiel gegenüber derjenigen in Albisrieden!“