Der Athlet
Josef Thorak’s monumental bronze sculpture depicting a triumphant athlete. Thorak, alongside Arno Breker, was amongst the few artists officially endorsed by the Nazi Party as a state-sponsored sculptor, his works being exhibited in the prestigious Haus der Deutschen Kunst. Albert Speer’s monumental architecture oft incorporated Thorak’s sculptures and reliefs.
Sports and athletics took on a national-political character in Nazi Germany, as the cultivation of one’s physical prowess was an indispensable facet in creating the utopian vision of a ‘New Man’ who would harness the ultimate potential of the human race. The will for self-improvement inherent to any sport is a central trait in Nietzsche’s concept of a “master-morality” which served as the foundation upon which National Socialism, and indeed all fascist thought, base their political philosophies. Nazism, in all its Darwinistic tendencies including eugenics, the subjugation of inferior peoples, the substitution for Christianity with Germanic paganism, amongst others, sought to fashion a new national culture rooted in this so-called “master-morality” to supplant the prevailing Judeo-Christian “slave-morality”. This celebration of the heroic and triumphant is the philosophical antithesis to the coddling liberal notion of enabling mediocrity.
The Nazi regime placed great emphasis on the physical fitness of its people and sports was promoted as a means to harden the spirit of citizens as well as making them feel that they were part of a wider national purpose. The steeling of one’s own body was connected to a healthy spirit and promoted the idea of a strong, unified Germany. For example, training within the Hitler Youth prioritized physical and military training rather than academics. More than just a way to keep the German nation healthy, sports became a means of inculcating in its youth a martial spirit and training them for combat. More than a mere recreation, sports, in its unrelenting pursuit for excellence and focus on man’s primal spirit, came to embody this new conception of life – National Socialism.
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Josef Thorak’s monumental bronze sculpture depicting a triumphant athlete. Thorak, alongside Arno Breker, was amongst the few artists officially endorsed by the Nazi Party as a state-sponsored sculptor, his works being exhibited in the prestigious Haus der Deutschen Kunst. Albert Speer’s monumental architecture oft incorporated Thorak’s sculptures and reliefs.
Sports and athletics took on a national-political character in Nazi Germany, as the cultivation of one’s physical prowess was an indispensable facet in creating the utopian vision of a ‘New Man’ who would harness the ultimate potential of the human race. The will for self-improvement inherent to any sport is a central trait in Nietzsche’s concept of a “master-morality” which served as the foundation upon which National Socialism, and indeed all fascist thought, base their political philosophies. Nazism, in all its Darwinistic tendencies including eugenics, the subjugation of inferior peoples, the substitution for Christianity with Germanic paganism, amongst others, sought to fashion a new national culture rooted in this so-called “master-morality” to supplant the prevailing Judeo-Christian “slave-morality”. This celebration of the heroic and triumphant is the philosophical antithesis to the coddling liberal notion of enabling mediocrity.
The Nazi regime placed great emphasis on the physical fitness of its people and sports was promoted as a means to harden the spirit of citizens as well as making them feel that they were part of a wider national purpose. The steeling of one’s own body was connected to a healthy spirit and promoted the idea of a strong, unified Germany. For example, training within the Hitler Youth prioritized physical and military training rather than academics. More than just a way to keep the German nation healthy, sports became a means of inculcating in its youth a martial spirit and training them for combat. More than a mere recreation, sports, in its unrelenting pursuit for excellence and focus on man’s primal spirit, came to embody this new conception of life – National Socialism.
