In the future, a new group of experts will classify the biographies of members of the “German Sports Hall of Fame” in a historical context. This is part of “a comprehensive review of biographies from the Nazi era” in order to “preserve the basic values of the hall of fame that was established in 2006”. The three sponsors – Sporthilfe, Association of German Sports Journalists (VDS) and German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) – announced this on Tuesday.
The background was a guest article by the historian Armin Jäger in the South German newspaper in March. Accordingly, significantly more former NSDAP members were inducted into the Hall of Fame than originally stated, a total of 15 instead of five. The Hall of Fame holders then commissioned the historian and sports journalist Erik Eggers to carry out an audit, and Eggers “largely” confirmed the findings. The state of sports history research has now been incorporated into the affected biographies on the website.
The expert group, which is currently being founded, will consist of renowned sports historians and will make recommendations on possible exclusion procedures. “In such critical questions, we as the sponsor see it as essential to provide the jury, which largely consists of the living members of the ‘Hall of Fame’, with a classification and thus a recommendation for action,” said DOSB President Thomas Weikert.
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