Jon Hughes

I Fight for a Living: boxing and the battle for black manhood 1880–1915

I Fight for a Living by Louis Moore, who is Associate Professor of History at Grand Valley State University, Michigan, presents a well-researched study of a hitherto under-explored aspect of the ea...

After 1945: “The Good German”

This chapter reconstructs the process by which a modified image of Max Schmeling was created after 1945. It analyses his post-war autobiographies and the continued relevance of the idea of “success” in perceptions of his business career. The chapter also considers the tensions between competing discourses of German national identity and history and attempts to explain how Schmeling’s potentially problematic image as “Hitler’s champion” was erased in favour of a widely accepted image of him as a moral exemplar and archetypal “good German”. It also presents close readings of recent representations of Schmeling in film and fiction, and in exhibitions and memorials, in the context of discussions of the recent “normalization” of Germany’s relationship with National Socialism and the past in the post-reunification “Berlin Republic”.

The Weimar Republic 1: A Star is Born

This chapter presents a contextual survey of the “boom” in sport in the Weimar Republic in the years following the First World War and cites some of the cultural and intellectual responses. Drawing on a range of contemporary newspapers, journals, memoirs and films, the chapter goes on to examine the emergence of boxing in Germany as a popular sport and a form of mass entertainment and assesses the emergence of discourses of self-improvement during the 1920s, to which Germany proved especially receptive. The chapter charts Schmeling’s emergence as a star of German sport through his representation in the specialist weekly magazine Boxsport and other primary sources and analyses his portrayal in artworks by George Grosz, Ernesto de Fiori, Rudolf Belling and others. The chapter also considers the political claims made on Schmeling in the late 1920s.

The Weimar Republic 2: The American Dream

This chapter focuses on Schmeling’s career in the USA. The manner in which he came to be associated not just with American boxing but with implicitly American qualities is assessed, and a detailed examination of the responses to Schmeling’s world title victory in 1930, when he became world champion after his opponent was disqualified for a foul blow, is presented. This chapter concludes by considering three of the key aspects of Schmeling’s public image in the final years of the Weimar Republic, all of which emerged under the influence of “Americanism”. It considers the myth of the so-called self-made man and the appeal of “success” stories, the representation of Schmeling as a professional and his representation as an embodiment of contemporary notions of Sachlichkeit (objectivity), rationalization and efficiency.

The Third Reich 1: The “Loyal Citizen”

This chapter begins by considering the impact of the Nazi seizure of power in Germany on both the organization of sport and its social and political functions in Germany. It considers the promotion of boxing for ideological reasons in the Third Reich and discusses the discrimination faced by the Sinti boxer Johann Wilhelm Trollmann as a case study. The chapter assesses Schmeling’s accommodating public stance towards Hitler and examines the representation of his marriage to the film star Anny Ondra, arguing that it reinforced perceptions of Schmeling as a conformist figure. The chapter also examines the representation of Schmeling’s fights in Germany in 1934 and 1935, which were organized, in co-operation with the Nazi Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy) organization, as mass events with a propaganda purpose.

The Third Reich 2: “A German Victory”?

This chapter analyses in detail the representation and consequences, both in Germany and internationally, of the two fights between Schmeling and the American boxer Joe Louis in 1936 and 1938. It examines the politicized reporting of the fights, observing that they were multi-media “modern” events. Additionally, it analyses the idealization of Schmeling in propaganda and ideology following his unexpected victory in 1936 and considers representations of Schmeling and of boxing in visual art in the Third Reich. Finally, Schmeling’s status as a landowner and farmer is considered in the context of Nazi agrarian policy and the myth of “blood and soil” and his elevation to a heroic figure capable of combining sporting and military attributes through his service as a paratrooper in the Crete campaign of 1941.

No More Heroes?: Conclusion

The final chapter reflects comparatively on what the idea of the national hero and elevation to such status might imply, culturally and ethically, in the modern world. It asks what distinguishes the sports icon from the sports hero and what qualifies the latter to be a national hero, and it considers whether the nationalistic implications make the continued representation of Schmeling—or any sports star—in such terms problematic. Comparisons are drawn with other examples of national heroes, including the boxer Barry McGuigan and the footballer Diego Maradona. The chapter concludes by arguing that contemporary Germany seems resistant to the nationalistic tendencies some have detected in national sports coverage and that the non-triumphalist tributes paid to Schmeling reflect this.

Violence, Masculinity and Self: Killing in Joseph Roth’s 1920s Fiction

This essay focuses upon a little considered aspect of Joseph Roth’s 1920s fiction – the depiction of the act of killing. I argue that this act should be viewed as central in Roth’s portrayal of the damaged psyche of young war veterans, whose strategies of self-denial and self-transformation have terrible consequences for themselves and others. With this in mind, I examine the actions and motives of the fascistic protagonist of Das Spinnennetz (1923), and the revolutionaries in Die Flucht ohne Ende (1927) and Rechts und Links (1929), in their historical and cultural context. The continuities between their actions reflect, I suggest, an awareness on Roth’s part of the continuum of male psychology. Drawing on concepts from the work of such cultural critics as Theweleit, Foucault, and Lacan, I discuss the significance of military training, the experience of combat, and political instability in displacing the masculine ego and creating the necessary conditions for violence. The essay concludes by challenging the assumption that Roth only intended to criticise his explicitly fascistic character, for all the texts considered close with personal misery for their characters: inability to relate to others, and dislocation from society.