Max Schmeling and the Making of a National Hero in Twentieth-Century Germany

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Jon Hughes

   Pages 1-16

3. The Weimar Republic 1: A Star is Born

   • Jon Hughes

   Pages 17-73

4. The Weimar Republic 2: The American Dream

   • Jon Hughes

   Pages 75-122

5. The Third Reich 1: The “Loyal Citizen”

   • Jon Hughes

   Pages 123-178

6. The Third Reich 2: “A German Victory”?

   • Jon Hughes

   Pages 179-256

7. After 1945: “The Good German”

   • Jon Hughes

   Pages 257-313

8. No More Heroes?: Conclusion

   • Jon Hughes

   Pages 315-321

9. Back Matter

   Pages 323-329

   PDF

This book presents the first in-depth study of the German boxer Max Schmeling (1905-2005) as a national hero and representative figure in Germany between the 1920s and the present day. It explores the complex relationship between sport, culture, politics and national identity and draws on a century of journalism, film, visual art, life writing and fiction. Detailed chapters analyse Schmeling’s emergence as an icon in the Weimar Republic, his association with America, his celebrity status in the Third Reich, and his rivalry with Joe Louis as a focus for an extraordinary propaganda and ideological contest. The book also examines how Schmeling’s post-war success in business associated him with the culture of the ‘zero hour’ nation in the era of ‘economic miracle’, and how he was later claimed as ‘good German’ and moral example for a post-war generation of Germans determined to ‘come to terms’ with the past. This book will appeal to readers with an interest in the history and representation of sport and boxing, in sports discourse and political culture, and in questions of national identity in modern German history.

• Sport
• Culture
• Joe Louis
• Nazi Germany
• Weimar Republic

“Hughes is clear that his intentions are not biographical his chronological treatment of Schmeling’s life makes for an engagingly readable book. The writing is clear and straightforward, readily accessible to advanced undergraduate or nonspecialists, while the generous quotation of primary sources in the original German alongside the author’s translation would also make this useful in a graduate seminar or for readers with a more advanced interest in German studies.” (Zachary T. Androus, Journal of Sport History, Vol. 45 (03), 2018)

• Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, United Kingdom

  Jon Hughes

Jon Hughes is Senior Lecturer in German and Cultural Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. He is the author of a monograph on the journalist and novelist Joseph Roth, and has also published on topics including the ‘New Objectivity’, mountaineering in Austrian culture and the representation of sport.

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