Physical Education 1999

The History of The History of The History of The History of The History of
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ISBN 87 89361 69 5 ISBN 87 89361 69 5 ISBN 87 89361 69 5 ISBN 87 89361 69 5 ISBN 87 89361 69 5
The History of Physical Education & Sport from The History of Physical Education & Sport from The History of Physical Education & Sport from The History of Physical Education & Sport from The History of Physical Education & Sport from
European Perspectives European Perspectives European Perspectives European Perspectives European Perspectives is about different aspects is about different aspects is about different aspects is about different aspects is about different aspects
of the development of physical education, of the development of physical education, of the development of physical education, of the development of physical education, of the development of physical education,
gymnastics and sport in Europe, especially gymnastics and sport in Europe, especially gymnastics and sport in Europe, especially gymnastics and sport in Europe, especially gymnastics and sport in Europe, especially
during the last three hundreds years. The during the last three hundreds years. The during the last three hundreds years. The during the last three hundreds years. The during the last three hundreds years. The
chapters in the book represent 17 papers about chapters in the book represent 17 papers about chapters in the book represent 17 papers about chapters in the book represent 17 papers about chapters in the book represent 17 papers about
physical education from the Third Seminar of physical education from the Third Seminar of physical education from the Third Seminar of physical education from the Third Seminar of physical education from the Third Seminar of
the History of Sport in Europe, Copenhagen the History of Sport in Europe, Copenhagen the History of Sport in Europe, Copenhagen the History of Sport in Europe, Copenhagen the History of Sport in Europe, Copenhagen
1998 in auspecium of the European Committee 1998 in auspecium of the European Committee 1998 in auspecium of the European Committee 1998 in auspecium of the European Committee 1998 in auspecium of the European Committee
for the History of Sport (CESH). The authors for the History of Sport (CESH). The authors for the History of Sport (CESH). The authors for the History of Sport (CESH). The authors for the History of Sport (CESH). The authors
have so distinct perspectives, that the book have so distinct perspectives, that the book have so distinct perspectives, that the book have so distinct perspectives, that the book have so distinct perspectives, that the book
helps to enrich the study of European heritage helps to enrich the study of European heritage helps to enrich the study of European heritage helps to enrich the study of European heritage helps to enrich the study of European heritage
of Sport. of Sport. of Sport. of Sport. of Sport.
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the History the History the History the History the History of Sport in Europe of Sport in Europe of Sport in Europe of Sport in Europe of Sport in Europe
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The History of
Physical Education & Sport
from European Perspectives
T TT TTHE HE HE HE HE H HH HHISTORY ISTORY ISTORY ISTORY ISTORY OF OF OF OF OF P PP PPHYSICAL HYSICAL HYSICAL HYSICAL HYSICAL E EE EEDUCATION DUCATION DUCATION DUCATION DUCATION & S & S & S & S & SPORT PORT PORT PORT PORT FROM FROM FROM FROM FROM E EE EEUROPEAN UROPEAN UROPEAN UROPEAN UROPEAN P PP PPERSPECTIVES ERSPECTIVES ERSPECTIVES ERSPECTIVES ERSPECTIVES
Institute of Exercise and Sport Sciences, University of Copenhagen
European Committee for the History of Sport in Europe
Editors: Arnd Krger and Else Trangbk
Design and layout: Allis Skovbjerg Jepsen
Printed By: Olesen Offset, Viborg
ISBN 87 89361 69 5
All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, the reproduction or utilization
of this work in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and
recording, and in any information retrieval system, is forbidden without the
written permission of the publisher.
Printed in Denmark 1999
This book is supported by The Danish Ministry of Culture and Institute of
Exercise and Sport Sciences, University of Copenhagen
The History of
Physical Education & Sport
from European Perspectives
Arnd Krger
Else Trangbk
(editors)
CESH
Copenhagen 1999
4
PHYSICAL EDUCATION & SPORT
Content
Introduction................................................................................................. 7
Henrik Meinander
The Adaptable North: Aspects of Bourgeois Education
and Sport in Nordic Europe before 1940................................................... 15
Per Jrgensen
From Gymnastics to Supermarket Physical Education
in Danish Schools in the Twentieth Century ............................................... 27
Jean-Michel Delaplace
Le sport est-il educatif? Position du probleme en France de 1919 a 1960.... 47
Christos Pappas
The Agon A Social-Historical and -educational Analysis
of the Agonistic Principle in Greek Culture ................................................. 67
Penelope Kissoudi
The Participation of both the Students of the College of Gymnastics
and young Schoolboys in the 1927 and 1930 Delphic Games .................... 81
Ole Skjerk
Team Handball in Denmark 1898-1948: Civilisation or Sportification? ......... 97
Matti Goksyr
Football and Physical Education around the Turn of the Nineteenth
Century: Compatible Issues? Ideological and Practical Controversies
in a Norwegian Setting ............................................................................ 111
5
INTRODUCTION
Jan Grexa & Frantisek Seman
The History of Physical Education in Slovakia............................................ 123
Elisabeth L-Germain
Linstitut Lyonnais dEducation Physique .................................................... 137
Joris Vincent
Effects of University Policy on the Organization of University
Physical Education in France from 1968 to 1984 ...................................... 151
Villaret Sylvain
Un exemple de prise en compte ducative du naturisme: le mouvement
pour les Ecoles au soleil et les Ecoles de plein air (1900-1939) ................. 167
Thomas Skovgaard
From Frugality and Canon to Welfare and Changeableness
School, Health and Sport ...................................................................... 183
Mike Cronin
Schooling the Revolution: Sport and Education in the
Irish Independence Movement 1912-22.................................................. 205
Wolfgang Buss
Physical Education, Teacher Training and Sport Sciences in the Early Years
of the GDR their Ideological Base and Political Function......................... 219
Carla Bonello
Physical Culture and the Fascist Revolution............................................... 233
Angela Teja
Le fascisme entre ducation physique et sport ......................................... 249
Thierry Terret & Roberta Vescovi
Lducation physique lcole primaire dans lentre-deux-guerres.
Une comparaison des systmes Franais et Italiens ................................... 269
Illustrations .............................................................................................. 284
6
7
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
The third Seminar of the History of Sport in Europe took place in
Copenhagen December 1998. The theme of the seminar was: The His-
tory of Educational Institutions, Physical Education and Sport.
The theme of the seminar was related to special dates in the Danish
history of physical education i.e. 1798 and 1898. In 1798, the first
tentative efforts were made to introduce physical education for young
people in the schools. The initiatives came from the Danish gymnastics
pioneer Vivat Victorius Fredericus Nachtegall (1777-1847), who started
a Gymnastic Society in Copenhagen. The members were young students
and businessmen aged between thirty and forty years. Just one year
later, in 1799, Nachtegall issued a public invitation for the establish-
ment of a private gymnastic institute especially for children. They could
be enrolled when they were over five years old and were to be taught
physical exercises which consisted of vaulting, jumping, running, clim-
bing, balancing, dancing and swimming. The inspiration came espe-
cially from GutsMuths Gymnastik fr die Jugend, which was translated
into Danish in 1798. By a Royal Decree of 16 April 1814, gymnastics
was introduced into the primary schools in the country and the towns
in Denmark, both for girls and boys. But it was not before 1898 that
Denmark introduced teacher training in physical education with the
establishment of the State One-Year Gymnastic Course (later States
Institute for Physical Education) Then systematical teacher training
could begin in Denmark. The developments in other countries were
different, obviously, but European seminars are about learning from
one another and to look at ones own system from new and sometimes
8
foreign angles. They are about comparisons to better understand the
common European heritage.
In Copenhagen sixty papers were presented. The organizing and
the scientific comittees had decided to publish only a select number of
the papers. They will appear in two different publications: one about
physical education and another one about gender and sport. Some of
the papers had been enlarged and improved since the presentation in
the seminar. Besides this, some of the papers different from the two
main themes are peer reviewed and will be published in the first
yearbook of CESH.
Much of the origins of physical education in Europe can be traced
back to the problems Johan Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths (1759-1839)
had to deal with at the turn of the eighteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
His subdivisions of the physical education system can be used until
today. Physical education (for him gymnastics) were seen as either natural
or artificial. Of course, GutsMuths had read Rousseau and knew that
whatever the wild nature boys and girls did back in their forests was
superior to anything that could be invented for city boys and girls. In
the history of physical education we can therefore find from time to
time a back to nature movement that retraces the questions of Rousseau
but was incorporated by GutsMuths into straight forward physical
education.
The artificial gymnastics could be organised with different purposes
in mind: Health could be a major reason to do physical exercises.
Prescriptions for medical gymnastics can be seen all through the eighteenth
century and again today. Whenever the physical state of the male
and female youth was considered substandard the interest in medical
gymnastics has been constantly rising.
For GutsMuths, later Jahn, and all through the history of physical
education and sport military gymnastics has had a special importance.
In his famous Gymnastik fr die Jugend (1793) GutsMuths did not deal
much with this aspect. But when Germany had been occupied by
Napoleon later on, he published his Turnbuch fr die Shne des Vaterlands
(1817) to show how his exercises could be used for military purposes.
Physical training has always been close to the military preparation of
the young male. For ideological reasons, this has been emphasised at
various times in recent European history. It had little if any impor-
tance for the physical education of girls.
9
INTRODUCTION
What GutsMuths called athletic gymnastics can be seen as a preparation
for elite sports today. At his time this was more the preparation of the
circus athlete. As much as these skills were admired by GutsMuths, he
also considered them minor to his major approach: Educational gymnas-
tics. This is what his book is about that was then translated into many
other European languages. Nachtegal in Denmark was one of the first
to make use of it, and so it is most appropriate that an anthology on the
history of physical education in Europe like ours should be published
in Copenhagen, his home.
Today, we might consider it naive that GutsMuths assumed that all
of his educational gymnastics would really have a lasting educational
effect and not just a physical one. But that believe was not just a phe-
nomenon of the nineteenth century but can still be found today, al-
though the empirical evidence is quite limited.
GutsMuths had looked at the situation at his time and he also looked
backward. One hundred years later, when physical education had been
introduced in the school system of many European countries, Coubertin
could state in 1894 that there were three systems of physical education
with three distinct purposes: Swedish gymnastics with health as major
aim, German Turnen aiming at the preparation for warfare, and English
sport aiming at competition and the improvement of mankind. All
physical education and sport had for him an educational aim, it was
just the question of education for whom and for what.
The following papers from our seminar can all be placed within the
structure that GutsMuths and Coubertin provided for. Henrik Meinan-
der who was one of the key-note speakers at the CESH seminar gives
an overview of the role of physical education and sport in the Nordic
countries. He shows that there is a high degree of adaptability in these
countries so that the systems coming from Great Britain but also from
central Europe were absorbed. The strength and weaknesses of the
different systems can therefore be analysed in a Nordic context. Per
Jrgensen goes even one step further and shows that this adaptability
and readiness to assimilate the influences from abroad goes so far that
physical education has become a supermarket in which one can shop
anything for any educational purpose in any form in recent years.
It has often been questioned whether competitive sport with its
specialisation is educational at all. While Jahn who was about to prepare
the German guerrilla in its fight against Napoleon, was sure that
individual skill was very important, his successors eventually were keen
10
to prepare the ordinary soldier who was to obey orders and move as a
group and not individually. The Turner movement doubted therefore
any educational value of individual performance after 1860 and
resented sports. The difference was often not in form but in educational
notion: a 100 metre could be performed in a Turner spirit for the sake
of an all-round physical preparation or as a sporting event for the sake
of individual specialisation and perfection and as the Turner would
say individual stardom. Many of the same questions were visible
also in other European physical education cultures.
The chapter by Jean- Michel Delaplace can therefore easily be trans-
formed from the French to any European set-up when he discussed
the question of the 1930s whether sport had an educational value at
all. Christos Pappas looks at the principle of the agon the competition
in the ancient Greek sense and shows that this was not only the basis
for ancient Greek culture but has been an important aspect of all civi-
lisations since then and also in the sports of modern Greece. Penelope
Kissoudi shows in particular that a long time before the re-invention of
ancient Greek traditions for the benefit of the tourist trade in modern
Greece, much of the agonistic spirit of Greek antiquity had stayed alive.
Ole Skjerk gives another variation of the same theme when he
discusses in a Danish context the difference between team handball as
a school game with its educational aims and team handball as a sport
games one of the rougher ones. Similarly, Matti Goksyr discusses
the problem of considering playing football part of physical education
in Norway. In all of these chapters the traditional educational aims of
GutsMuths physical education are challenged by the onslaught of sports
in which the British Public School boy was supposed to receive his
education. This shift in thinking can also be seen in the German context
when the German military demanded in the midst of World War I that
school physical education in Germany ought to be changed and much
more sports brought in as the British seemed to be the superior soldiers
and their officers at least were brought up along sporting lines. Jan
Grexa and Frantisek Seman show for a Slovacian setting that cultural
as well as political changes can make a big difference over a longer
period of time in the signification of physical education for a whole
country. Elisabeth Le-Germain takes a similar approach but shows at
the example of the development of physical education and physical
education teacher training in Lyon what continuity and breaks can
occur over a lengthy period of time and that you should not just look
11
INTRODUCTION
at the text of physical education but put it into the social, political, and
intellectual context of the time.
Vincent Joris can show that in spite of many name shifts and admi-
nistrative changes the content of what takes place does not really change
all that much at least in the years 1968-84. The legalistic French
culture which regulates many details that elsewhere are left for indivi-
dual decisions is a very convincing case in that matter.
There is one paper that is concerned with what GutsMuths would
have called the natural gymnastics. Villaret Sylvain looks at naturism
and the open air school movement in France in the first third of the
twentieth century. Although it had some aspects of medical gymnastics
the main purpose was a back to nature.
The last slate of papers is concerned with the text of physical educa-
tion as much as with the context. Thomas Skovgaard uses the Danish
social welfare project as background to his study to show the demands
of the state in 1937, 1958 and 1975. Although the state demanded some
health aspects in the classical Lingian sense, the project of the social
welfare state incorporates physical education in a much deeper sense.
Mike Cronin can show how certain types of physical education were
used in the Anglo-Irish context as a marker for a certain type of natio-
nal identity. If you identified with the Irish nation you had to do a
different sport than if you considered yourself British. In the context of
the Irish liberation from British occupation, physical education therefore
served an important purpose. The situation was much more complex
in sporting terms in the now dissolved German Democratic Republic
which is in the centre of the work of Wolfgang Buss. It may be one of
the reasons why the GDR failed in the long run that it did not succeed
in achieving a GDR-specific identity. A national identity in Germany
meant most of the time an identity for a unified nation. On the other
hand, with most of the GDR under the influence of the West German
electronic mass media, the question may also be asked whether the
socialist GDR leadership had really read the socialist Antonio Gramsci
well.
Gramscis theories of hegemony can be taken as background for the
papers by Carla Bonello and by Angela Teja. Both show how the Fa-
scist government of Italy made use of physical education and sport to
reach all of the population and particularly the youth. With symbols,
ritual, and well constructed myths the youth was made to believe in
the insurmountable strength of the eternal Italian people. The question
12
remains, of course, to which extent in a fascist state all the parts are
really doing what the leadership is asking them to or whether there is
a certain degree of freedom to chose certain paths within the main
fascist road. The question is also whether everybody was really being
lured into this culture of consent.
The final paper by Thierry Terret and Roberta Vescovi show what
CESH and also this book is all about: Sport historiography is an ongoing
project for a better explanation of the past and by this also of the pre-
sent. We can all learn from one another. We also learn by asking better
and more stimulating questions, by international comparisons. This
joint Italian-French co-operative paper asks the question whether
everything that the Italian fascists did in physical education in the fa-
scist era was fascist by definition or whether much of it was not the
same as what was done elsewhere in democratic Europe. They could
show on a formal and organisational level that there was little diffe-
rence between France and Italy in physical education in the 1920s and
thirties. If one extends the question to other European countries, it
may also be asked whether much of what was going in the USSR at
the time in physical education and sport was not also similar.
This last paper also leads us back to many of the previous ones:
What do we know about the educational purpose involved, if we know
the physical education form? What do we know about the outcome of
the educational process? After all, physical education is education
and much of it is individual. We may have learned with the kind of
sources our authors have been using quite a lot about what was
supposed to have been encoded one way or another into the educational
process; but what do we know about how it was decoded by the male
and female teachers, and particularly the school children and youth,
female and male? For that we will probably need different research
questions and different source material and another CESH seminar.
Arnd Krger
Else Trangbk
13
INTRODUCTION
Professor Dr. Arnd Krger
Institut for Sports Sciences
Georg-August-University
Sprangerweg 2, 37075 Gttingen, Germany
e-mail: akruege1@gwdg.de
Associate Professor Dr. Else Trangbk
Institute of Exercise and Sport Sciences
University of Copenhagen
Nrre Alle 51, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
e-mail: etrangbaek@ifi.ku.dk
14
HENRIK MEINANDER
15
THE ADAPTABLE NORTH:
ASPECTS OF BOURGEOIS EDUCATION AND SPORT IN NORDIC EUROPE BEFORE 1940
The Adaptable North:
Aspects of Bourgeois Education and Sport in
Nordic Europe before 1940
Henrik Meinander
University of Helsinki, Finland
I shall begin by outlining the general thesis of this article, which is that
Nordic Europe differs from other peripheries of our Continent in at
least two ways. Firstly, it is obviously less self-confident than more
southern peripheries of Europe. The Nordic region meaning here
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden of today did not
belong to the Roman Empire, and its conversion to Christianity
happened as late as during the first centuries of this millennium. From
this follows the second noticeable feature of Nordic culture, which is a
more adaptable attitude towards innovations and new values from Cen-
tral Europe, Great Britain and the USA. The lack of an old civilization
has not only made the Nordic people less sure of themselves, it has
also released a lot of human energy to ensure the extraordinarily
efficient modernization of the Nordic societies.
How have these qualities of adaptability and efficiency been
manifested in the Nordic history of sport and physical education? A
glance at the Nordic development during the last three centuries reveals
a great deal that it has in common with other parts of Europe. Up until
the nineteenth century, games and popular sport events followed to a
high degree the social conventions of feudal society. The Nordic aristo-
cracy had its distinct pastimes that differed from the patrician leisure
culture in, for example, Germany or France, only in that this leisure
culture was less extravagant and had to be adjusted to the grim climate.
The same could be said about the recreation patterns of the old
bourgeoisie, although the lack of urban regions in the Nordic kingdoms
and thus also of a strong bourgeois culture meant that the Central Euro-
pean leisure customs were adopted only by a tiny social layer. Among
16
HENRIK MEINANDER
the peasants traditional games and amusements had clearly more local
features, which in essence was a consequence of the rather different
seasonal rhythms and natural environment of the North.
1
The
Enlightenment, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars set in
motion fundamental changes also in the Nordic region. Most important
in the social sphere was the growing influence of the bourgeoisie, which
among many other crucial reforms led to the emergence of national
school systems. An early step towards this systematization was taken
in the Danish-Norwegian kingdom with the Education Act of 1809,
which released the Latin school from ecclesiastic control and created a
new authority responsible for secondary and higher education.
2
By the
end of the 1870s national school systems had been constituted in each
Nordic country. Through these systems the expanding and increasingly
heterogeneous bourgeoisie was able to reach formal competence to
compete for high positions in society, and thus ensure itself a domi-
nant role in society. The national school systems would also function
as efficient instruments for the diffusion of a bourgeois world-view and
life-style.
3
Another product of the educational systematization was the gradual
implementation of physical education as a subject for all school children.
As elsewhere in Europe, the subject had so far been taught only in
Knight Academies and a small number of philanthropistic schools.
However, the Napoleonic wars convinced the authorities that the
construction of a civil army could begin in schools. Gymnastics institutes
for teacher training were established in Copenhagen (1804) and Stock-
holm (1813) and by the beginning of the 1820s the subject had become
a compulsory subject for boys in both Danish and Swedish secondary
schools. But these legislative measures had little immediate impact on
educational practices. Europe was blessed with a relatively long period
of peace and attitudes towards this new subject thus remained somewhat
indifferent. Nevertheless, by the 1860s the subject had already found a
regular place in the curriculum of Nordic secondary schools for boys.
4
The intensified implementation was clearly inspired by the military
challenges from Central Europe and, as elsewhere in Europe, from the
1880s onwards the motive of health promotion became increasingly
important. By the early twentieth century the health promotion aspect
had paved the way for the subject in all Nordic primary and secondary
education. Physical education had thus become a part of the vast project
to improve public health, which again was closely linked to the emer-
17
gence of the modern welfare state. The third driving force in the evo-
lution of Nordic physical education was, of course, the modern sport
movement, which at least up until the Second World War functioned
as a challenge to the established didactic patterns in the schools.
5
My summary so far is largely common knowledge and reveals no
significant diffences in comparison with what happened simultaneously
in, let us say, Prussian or Swiss schools. But as we look closer at some
of the turning points in the Nordic development interesting details are
uncovered which show a certain pattern of adaptability. My first case
is, not suprisingly, the so-called Ling gymnastics, clearly the best-known
Nordic system for physical education, which acquired its name from
the Swede Pehr Henrik Ling. During the 1810s and 1820s Ling
combined and refined a number German gymnastic movements and
principles into his own choreography.
Ling was a sturdy nationalist and because of this had a tendency to
overestimate the originality of his own solutions. indeed, many of his
ideas were taken from handbooks and instructions written by
GutsMuths and Pestalozzi. The systematization of Lings set of
instructions into a distinctive didactic method only took shape in reality
during the 1850s and 1860s. The leading system builder was his son
Hjalmar Ling, who in the late 1860s published two textbooks, which
became seminal works in Swedish and Norwegian physical education.
Once again the crucial innovation was taken from Germany, namely
from the textbooks of Adolf Spiess, which in accordance with the
didactics of Herbart gave detailed directives on how every lesson should
be carried out.
6
Yet it would be wrong to describe Lings gymnastics as simply a
disguised application of German traditions. The reason for this is that
Hjalmar Ling was actually able to refine some of the didactic ideas of
Spiess and thereby created a more rigid programme for how the school
children should be physically strengthened and mentally disciplined.
Equally important was the fact that the creation of a supposedly unique
didactic formula was followed by an energetic campaign against other
gymnastics systems, which were labelled as less rational and more risky
than Ling gymnastics.
7
The campaign reached its peak during the 1890s
and was to a large extent directed from the Royal Gymnastics Institute
in Stockholm. This institute attracted teacher candidates not only from
the whole Nordic region but also from other parts of Europe.
8
18
HENRIK MEINANDER
A central argument was that the Swedish system was the only
available set of gymnastics movements which had a balanced and
scientifically controlled impact on the body. The claim appealed to
many educationalists from Central Europe who, inspired by progress
in the natural sciences, feverishly sought for modern solutions in
physical education. The appeal was, of course, even more irrestistible
for Swedish teachers and instructors. The late nineteenth century was
the golden age for the invention of national traditions. In Sweden this
quest to glorify ones own culture further strengthened the image of
Ling gymnastics as something fundamentally different from other Euro-
pean systems of physical exercises.
The image had its attraction also to educationalists from the other
Nordic countries. Many of them had been influenced by so-called Scan-
dinavianism, which, although much less successful than the correspon-
ding pan-German and pan-Italian movements, has often been a force-
ful ideological instrument in facilitating the collaboration between the
Nordic states. Following the Scandinavianist view, Ling gymnastics
could be understood as the offshoot of a common Nordic branch, which
had its roots in the glorious Viking culture. The idea was especially
successful in Denmark and was in fact one reason why physical educa-
tion in Danish schools was reformed in 1899 partly according to the
Ling formula.
9
A third reason for the success of Ling gymnastics was that it fitted so
well the educational patterns of the bourgeois schooling, namely
emphasizing the importance of correct form. It was not a coincidence
that some contemporary educationalists in Sweden made comparisons
between learning the grammar of classical Latin and acquiring the right
gymnastics choreography. The idea was to add one accurate perfor-
mance to another according to a certain formula and, metaphorically
speaking, through these detailed instructions the collective exercises
would turn into a bodily grammar. This formalism would also be the
main reason why Ling gymnastics was increasingly criticized by libe-
ral educationalists, who questioned the credibility of rigid didactic sy-
stems and required more games and competitive sport on the syllabus.
10
Nevertheless, the hegemony of Ling gymnastics in its slightly different
national forms would remain strong in Nordic schools up until the
1920s. Its strength lay above all in that it had many practical and
ideological dimensions, each having an attraction to educationalists in
search of right formulas in teaching. As such, the emergence and
19
evolution of Ling gymnastics was a rather typical example of the flexible
way the Nordic culture developed in interaction with the rest of Europe.
It was originally not much more than a combination of other systems,
but after it had been established it matured gradually into a distinct
formula and obtained its own ideological momentum, which further
enforced the impression of its excelllence.
My second example of Nordic adaptability will focus on some of the
arguments put forward by proponents of a more sport-oriented syllabus.
Competitive sports in its modern form were introduced in urban areas
of the Nordic countries during the 1880s and 1890s. At the turn of this
century the expanding patchwork of voluntary associations in each
Nordic country were integrated and turned into nationwide central
organizations which had a far-reaching impact on society. The process
widened the gap between the sporting community and the educational
sector, as many teachers saw the sports movement as a threat to their
authority. The debate reached its climax around 1900. The older gene-
ration of teachers, who had been trained to instruct according to a
certain set of gymnastic movements, claimed that the ceaseless striving
for victories and records was not good either for body or soul, and was
lacking in both moral and physiological balance.
11
The proponents of the sports movement set aside this criticism as
misguided for a number of reasons, which all included the idea that
sport was not only more fun, but was also a more genuine and efficient
way of strengthening and preparing the young people for its future
challenges and obligations in society. The claim of authenticity was an
answer to those who accused competitive sports of being an alien
phenomenon, which, unlike Ling gymnastics, was said to have no roots
in the Nordic culture. According to leading advocates of modern sports
it should, in fact, be understood as a continuation of the pre-industrial
games and amusements of Northern Europe. The first true sportsmen
were not British public school boys but Nordic Vikings. To emphasize
their point they even reintroduced the old Norse word idrott for
manly contest. The concept came into wide use and would frequently
replace the foreign word sport in connections when it was important
to emphasize the national and Nordic commitment behind the
exercises.
12
Ironically enough, Viking romanticism was thus used by both sides
in order to underline the claim that they defended a more genuine
tradition. The power of such rhetoric lay in its capacity to make a new
20
HENRIK MEINANDER
and unknown activity seem old and familiar. It created an illusion of a
revival of the glorious past, which made the leap into the future less
threatening. It was, of course, not the active sportsmen who needed
encouragement to play their chosen game. Rather, the positive compa-
risons between the old and the new met the needs of uncertain teachers
and parents, who had difficulties in understanding why the younger
generation showed such a peculiarly strong interest in the competitive
games and sports of the modern age. The rhetoric of Viking romanticism
consequently functioned also as a critique of the established order; it
contained a vision of a different future.
13
Other, equally strong, sources of inspiration in the promotional
statements on sport at the turn of the century were Darwinian slogans
such the survival of the fittest, evolution and natural choice. Some
embraced the simplistic belief that fighting toughened up the human
race, but often this was in conjunction with the conviction that sport
developed the social conscience of the young. In the Danish educatio-
nalist Oscar Hansens influential book Opdragelselaere, published in 1898,
for example, organized games were recommended because they stimu-
lated a willingness to compete along with a discipline that inculcated
both initiative and obedience. The survival of the fittest was for him
a struggle for a more human existence; evolution was a further oppor-
tunity to point society in a positive direction.
14
Hansen referred above all to Herbert Spencer, whose moral teaching
would later be considered the crudest form of Social Darwinism. But
Spencers Nordic supporters did not view him as being an apostle of
self-absorbed egoism. They primarily valued the altruistic dimension
of Spencers naturalist ethos. The struggles on the playing fields on the
one hand developed strong and self-reliant individuals. On the other,
team work cultivated the inborn qualities of self-restraint and conside-
ration of others, in other words, precisely those skills that were needed
in an advanced industrial society. This interpretation was indeed alluring
and was extensively used by liberal educationalists in the Nordic
countries, who in their critique of the neoclassical curriculum promoted
the brisk outdoor life as a symbol of educational progress. In other
words, Spencers interpretation of Darwinism was used by them as
intellectual ammunition in the ideological war against the Establish-
ment and its formalist conception of schooling.
It was not only educationalists who found a political message in
Spencers attitude to the body. Equally keen on the Spencerian argu-
21
ments were a number of Nordic physicians, who in their participation
in the debate and planning of the new society often referred to the
physiological and psychological points made by the energetic
Englishman. There was also another reason why the focus of attention
was the human physique among these liberals. The progressive vision
of a new Nordic society was fuelled by the idea of doing away with the
cultural dependence of Central Europe and becoming self-sufficient,
or as is said in Scandinavian languages, to become sig selv nok. This
process was often seen as part of the modernization of society, which
was also supposed to set free the human body. As a consequence, the
liberated body was frequently understood as both a metaphor for Nordic
cultural independence and as an important symbol in itself. Taken toget-
her, it is clear that the vindication of a more sports-oriented syllabus
followed much the same pattern as the campaign in favour of Ling
gymnastics. In both cases we can see how the adaptation of a new
body culture was facilitated by giving it a specific Nordic emphasis.
15
My third example, the invention and promotion of a Finnish ver-
sion of the American baseball game, uncovers a slightly different mo-
del of cultural reception. The game in question was introduced in 1918
by Lauri Pihkala, an energetic sports instructor and fervent nationalist.
It was not a coincidence that he published the first rule book of Finnish
baseball only a few months after the White troops had defeated the
revolutionary army in the Finnish Civil War. Pihkala was appointed
by the military authorities to write an outline for a thorough militariza-
tion of physical education for boys. The invention of a Finnish base-
ball was one outcome of this task. Pihkala had made two study tours to
the USA before the First World War, which meant he was well-versed
in American sports culture. Influenced by these American trips and
keen to invent outdoor activities that developed practical combat skills,
Pihkala transformed the slow and rather monotonous American base-
ball into a swift and tactically advanced game. It required platoon-like
team work and its vocabulary was almost ridiculously warlike: runners
could be wounded and finally killed, and the ball was thought of as a
substitute for the hand grenade.
16
The game was introduced into both Finnish schools and the white
Home Guards, which had been established during the Civil War, and
was openly promoted as a patriotic exercise that improved military
capability. The planned militarization of physical education was in other
respects soon forgotten and attention was increasingly focused on how
22
HENRIK MEINANDER
the authorities should clear the way for more sports in schools. As in
the other Nordic countries, the belief in rigid gymnastics systems was
clearly weakening. The reason why the sportification of the syllabus
advanced so slowly from then on was based on structural problems.
The school buildings and environments were not designed for games
which required a lot of space, the classes were too large, and the curri-
culum was crowded with various other time-consuming subjects. The
teachers seldom had efficient strategies to overcome these obstacles.
17
However, Finnish baseball was among the few games that from the
1920s onwards was played regularly in schools. The school authorities
had no difficulty in persuading physical education teachers, who almost
without exception belonged to the Home Guard, and as such were
unreservedly in favour of the game. Typically enough, the sanctioned
status of the game made it less attractive to pupils, who would often
have preferred to play the less technical soccer.
18
But due to its
approriate ideological profile and undeniably competitive character
Finnish baseball would remain an important component in physical
education up until the 1960s. In short, it was a game that in a particular
way represented both national and international values at the same
time.
The distinct rules and outspokenly national mission prevented its
diffusion to the other Nordic countries. The game gained, true enough,
some popularity in neighbouring Estonia, but this foothold disappeared
when the Baltic states lost their independence. Simultaneously, the
spread of Finnish baseball was a bold step towards the sportification of
the physical exercises in schools and the Home Guard. Regular training
during the interwar period meant a good standard of play and well
attended public matches, which, following the same patterns as other
sports events, thereby fuelled the desire for more matches. The interest
in the game would decrease steadily after the Second World War and
its main support today is in the provinces.
19
However, it maintained an
unquestionable status in Finnish sports media up until recent times,
and only on account of a corruption scandal has the credibility of the
National Baseball League been seriously threatened.
Compared with the two earlier examined cases, the emergence of a
Finnish baseball tradition is perhaps the most radical example of how
the diffusion of new body cultures has facilitated in Nordic Europe by
recharging their ideology that is, by giving them a new mission.
Exercises and games were in essence the same as in Central Europe or
23
the USA. However, through innovative redefinitions their cultural and
political function would change considerably and serve as a powerful
justification for the swift dissemination of a new body culture.
My description of the Nordic adaptability can be compared with the
view of the German historian August Nitschke, who has put forward a
challenging theory concerning the relation between sport and societal
change. Nitschkes main point is that changes in the body culture are
not reflexions of changes in society. In fact they are an unconscious
forewarning of what eventually will happen in the economic and
technological spheres. This theory can to a certain degree be applied
to my three cases. Each of them is a description of how the initial
acceptance of a new body culture goes together with the cultural trans-
lation of its importance. Disguised as something traditional, the new
body culture would have a strong transforming impact on existing
values. Consequently, it would mentally prepare people for material
changes.
20
However, the main problem with Nitschkes theory is that it does
not recognize the social force of principles and ideals. It does not take
into account the fact that a changed conception of what a physical
exercise represents can actually tranform it into a new activity in both
an ideological and social sense. Nitschke tends to argue that a certain
bodily configuration is a forerunner of a certain set of social and cultural
values. Many historians make similar mechanical conclusions when
they describe the diffusion of ideas and ideologies from one culture to
another. In both cases there is a lack of contextual analysis. Precisely
because the significance of a certain ideology is thoroughly transfor-
med when it is transplanted into another culture, bodily configurations
tend to acquire new social functions as they spread from one culture to
another.
I am indebted to my Nordic colleagues Matti Goksyr and Niels
Kayser Nielsen for many of my arguments. Goksyr has shown in his
research that the diffusion of modern sports into the Nordic region was
the outcome of an interaction between two dynamic systems. British
rules and equipment were eagerly copied and reproduced, but their
usage and meaning as cultural performances were clearly shaped by
the local and national circumstances in which they were practised.
21
Niels Kayser Nielsen has responded directly to Nitschkes theory by
pointing out that a symbiotic and dialectical relationship always exists
between the body and society. New bodily configurations are both
24
HENRIK MEINANDER
reflections of changing attitudes in society and concrete actions, which
in themselves transform society. Nielsen compares this process with
the construction of medieval cathedrals, which simultaneously
reproduced their surrounding reality as they reshaped it.
22
May I conclude with the hope that this article, at least in some sense,
has had the same double function, in other words, that it has not only
reproduced but also reshaped some of your views on Nordic culture
and its adaptability!
Notes
1
Ove Korsgaard, Kampen om kroppen. Dansk idraets historie gennem 200 r
(Kbenhavn, 1982), pp.34-68; Antero Heikkinen, Terveyden ja ilon thden.
Herrasvki liikkeell Suomessa 1700- ja 1800-luvuilla (Helsinki, 1991), passim;
Mats Helspong, A Timeless Excitment: Swedish Agrarian Society and Sport
in the Pre-Industrial Era,in Henrik Meinander and J.A. Mangan (eds.),The
Nordic World: Sport in Society (London, 1998), pp.11-24.
2
Einar Higrd & Herman Ruge. Den norske skole historie. En oversikt. Ny
udgave ve Knut Ingar Hansen (Oslo, 1971), pp.60-2.
3
Henrik Meinander, Mellan nyhumanism och nordism. Aspekter p det
nordiska lroverkets systematisering 1800-1950, Historisk Tidskrift fr Fin-
land 2/1993, pp.198-206.
4
Henrik Meinander, Towards a Bourgeois Manhood. Boys Physical Education in
Nordic Secondary Schools 1880-1940 (Helsinki, 1994), pp.81-122.
5
Ibid., pp.147-208.
6
Henning Eichberg, Leistung, Spannung, Geschwindigkeit. Sport und Tanz im
gesellshaftlichen Wandel des 18./19. Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart, 1978), pp.141-167;
Meinander,Towards a Bourgeois Manhood, pp.106-107.
7
Jens Ljunggren, Kroppens bildning. Linggymnastikens manlighetsprojekt 1790-
1914 (Stockholm, 1999), pp.130-162.
8
Meinander,Towards a Bourgeois Manhood, pp.36-38.
9
Niels Kayser Nielsen, Krop og oplysning. Om kroppskultur i Danmark 1780-
1900 (Odense, 1993), pp.99-128.
10
Meinander, Towards a Bourgeois Manhood, pp.147-156, 181-190.
11
Henrik Meinander,The Power of Public Pronouncement: The Rhetoric of
Nordic Sport in the Early Twentieth Century in Meinander and Mangan,
The Nordic World, pp.48-51.
12
Tal vid Oxfordstudenternas besk 1922, vol.3, Viktor Balcks arkiv, CF,
Sveriges Riksarkiv; Kaj Wikstrm, Begreppsfltet kroppsvning. Semantiska stu-
dier i svenskt idrottssprk (Tampere, 1976), pp.144-177, 212.
13
Meinander, The Power of Public Pronouncement, p.50.
25
14
Oscar Hansen, Opdragelselaere (Kbenhavn 1898) pp.268-9; Vagn Skov-
gaard-Petersen, Dannelse og demokrati: fra latin - til almenskole: lov om hiere
almenskoler 24. april 1903 (Kbenhavn, 1976), pp.156-60.
15
Henrik Meinander, Den nordistiska kroppen, Internationale idstrmninger
och nordisk kultur 1850-1914: Den 22. nordiske historikermte: Oslo 13.-18. august
1994 (Oslo, 1997), pp.95-104.
16
Erkki Vasara, Valkoisen Suomen urheilevat soturit: suojeluskuntajrjestn urheilu-
ja kasvatustoiminta vuosina 1918-1939 (Helsinki, 1997), pp.171-282.
17
Meinander, Towards a Bourgeois Manhood, pp.198-207.
18
Ibid., pp.205-207.
19
Erkki Laitinen, Pespallo. Kansallispeli 60 vuotta, (Saarijrvi, 1983), passim.
20
August Nitschke, Krper in Bewegung. Gesten, Tnze und Rume im Wandel der
Geschichte (Stuttgart, 1989), passim.
21
Matti Goksyr, Idrett i borgerskapets by. En historisk underskelse av idrettens
utvikling og organisering i Bergen p 1800-tallet, (Oslo, 1991), passim.
22
Nielsen, Krop og oplysning, pp.99-128.
Henrik Meinander is Docent at both University of Helsinki and bo
Akademi University. His research interests include Finnish political and
intellectual history, Nordic educational history and history of sport. He
has published three monographs and numerous articles in these subjects.
Email: henrik.meinander@helsinki.fi
PER JRGENSEN
26
27
FROM GYMNASTICS TO SUPERMARKET
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN DANISH SCHOOLS IN THE 20TH CENTURY
From Gymnastics to Supermarket
Physical Education in Danish Schools
in the Twentieth Century
Per Jrgensen
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
In Denmark, it is about two hundred years since the first tentative
efforts were made to introduce physical education for young people in
the schools.
1
However, this interest in the body on the part of the
authorities did not become really systematised and widespread in
schools until about one hundred years later with the School Acts of 1899
and 1904, and the secondary school legislation in 1903.
2
Since then
physical education has gradually been extended to both sexes and the
whole educational system from primary school to upper secondary
school, and the subject has increasingly been taught by specially trained
teachers from teacher-training colleges or universities. In addition,
developments have been affected by the increased centralisation of
decisions and resolutions with regard to physical education. Control
of whether local authorities also complied with the resolutions were
adopted. Bureaucratisation and standardisation have included both the
content and frame of reference of the subject, while the aims for the
subject have been repeatedly changed.
3
The turn of the century witnessed a farewell of the old national and
military arguments for physical education in schools. They were
replaced by health and physiological arguments. A health discourse in
schools, as in society as a whole, became paramount until this was
replaced in the 1960s by a welfare discourse. As regards activities, the
period 1900-1960 was characterised mainly by gymnastics. Since then,
an ever-growing number of different sports disciplines together with a
number of subjects such as expressive activities, basic ball-activities,
racquet games and winter sports have characterised the picture. The
general developments within physical education in Danish schools has
been described by several sports historians.
4
PER JRGENSEN
28
In this article, gymnastics as an activity is understood in the same
sense as gymnastics is generally understood inside the Nordic countries
which is different from sport. Sport is understood as a physiologically
based activity where jointly accepted rules are important and compe-
tition plays a part. Gymnastics and sport are parts of idrt, which is an
old Nordic word for physical activities in general. The words sport and
idrt are, however, often used synonymously nowadays. This article
does not use the word idrt. The contents of the article are based on
archive-studies and hermeneutically based cultural studies and the
theoretical frame of reference is based on the writings of Norbert Elias,
Michel Foucault and Mary Douglas.
In the twentieth century, Danish society has changed completely,
socially, culturally, economically and politically, as has of course also
been the case for other countries. These changes started in Denmark
in the 1890s, and this was also the period when sport and physical
education became organised. In the following, some pivotal points in
the whole development will be discussed. The relationship between
Danish and Swedish gymnastics and between gymnastics and sport, and
the general position of physical education in the Danish school system
will be investigated. Finally, the role of physical education in the mod-
ernisation and construction of the Danish state will be assessed.
The content of Swedish gymnastics
Around the turn of the century, many supporters of gymnastics both
in Denmark and the rest of Europe considered gymnastics as something
basic and more educationally valuable than sport. However, there were
slight differences in this regard among gymnastics supporters. In Den-
mark, the most extremists were supporters of Ling gymnastics, called
Swedish gymnastics. For them, gymnastics was in fact not just a foundation.
It was the whole building, including both body and soul.
5
The sup-
porters of sport rarely had such absolute opinions about gymnastics,
but, on the other hand, often had great reservations about what they
regarded as boring gymnastics, the advantages of which they mainly
regarded as a sort of physical basic training for proper sport.
6
Supporters of Swedish gymnastics ensured among other ways through
good political connections, a strong position for their gymnastics in
primary schools with a number of reforms at the beginning of the
29
century. The supporters of Swedish gymnastics regarded sport and
games as something that should be - if not completely kept out of school
restricted as much as possible so as not to take time from gymnastics.
What was Swedish gymnastics really? In 1899, Danish physical
education was re-organised as the result of the work of a long-lasting
commission, where there was a majority of supporters of Swedish
gymnastics. This had already gained a footing since the 1880s in the
countryside outside the schools via the folk high schools as well as the
gymnastics and rifle-club movement. A new third-level teacher training
in physical education was set up in 1898 in Copenhagen with the estab-
lishment of the State One-Year Gymnastics Course, and a convinced sup-
porter of Swedish gymnastics, K.A.Knudsen, was the principal. Knud-
sen was to have great influence on the development of school gymna-
stics in Denmark, which, incidentally, he also had on the corresponding
development in England and other countries. His books were translated
and in several places abroad one can come across the term Knudsen
gymnastics as the name for the Swedish-inspired gymnastics he tried to
spread during the first part of the century. During the period 1905-
1907, K. A. Knudsen held a summer course in Swedish gymnastics
each year in England, helped by his Danish assistant H.G.Junker. Jun-
ker was appointed gymnastics inspector in England and continued the
summer courses there until 1910, after which he established his own
gymnastics school in Silkeborg in Denmark which trained hundreds of
English people until the Second World War when the school had to
close.
7
In Denmark the content in the new training, and thereby in the
future teaching in schools, was described in a number of books, pri-
marily in the authorised textbook from 1899: Haandbogen i Gymnastik
(The Manual), which was the basic textbook for the subject until the
middle of the 1920s. Apart from gymnastics, the book also had a large
section on games and sport (ball games). However the longest section
about seventy pages was the section on discipline. An impression
of the detailed interest given to this subject can be seen in the instruc-
tion (figure 1).
8
The remarkable thing is the great detail in the description. The same
degree of precision demanded in the disciplining exercises is, as we
shall se, also required in the gymnastics exercises. The underlying idea
was that if the performance was not exact, the effect was correspondingly
less. There were similar rules for boys.
PER JRGENSEN
30
The reforms around the turn of the century gave gymnastics espe-
cially understood as Swedish gymnastics a special position in physical
education. This special position was retained until the school reform
in 1937, in fact, partially right up to the school reform in 1958.
9
It has
been claimed that The Manual in itself was a victory for Swedish gym-
nastics. However, this is not really true as the contents were rather a
reflection of a compromise between different sections in the commission
that were behind the book. The compromise was that the contents of
the exercises should largely remain traditional, i.e. Danish while the
principles underlying the execution of the exercises should be Swedish.
This point was by far the most important for the supporters of Swedish
gymnastics. This provided a logical and functional line of thought that
could be used in physical education. As regards the actual exercises in
the original Swedish system, even the majority of the commission which
were supporters of Swedish gymnastics, thought that these were rather
boring (figure 2). That is why they were in favour of retaining and
extending the existing Danish gymnastics in the choice of exercises.
10
The result was that primarily our own earlier stock of exercises was
drawn on. That is to say that the exercises of the old Danish system
were used. Some exercises from the Swedish repertoire were also
selected though, and completely new ones were constructed. The
exercises that were thought to have the most educative effect on the
pupils were chosen. The educative element was in fact the most
important in school gymnastics. Already in the foreword to The Ma-
nual there was a warning about making the enjoyment principle the
Rules for the young female pupil:
The female pupil approaches the teacher at an ordinary walking pace,
which, two paces before the teacher, ends with a slanting step to the left
(right). While the upper part of her body bends like a bow, she moves her
right (left) foot with the tip on the ground in the direction towards the
left (right) foot followed by a short pace backwards of this (foot). At the
same time both knees slowly bend followed by a stretching, while the
weight of the body during the movement smoothly goes from the foot in
front to the one at the back, as the foot in front is drawn to the one at
the back, in such a way that a position of attention is taken. During the
movement the arms hang freely. A deep curtsy is made.
Figure 1: How to approach a teacher without having been called for
31
driving force in teaching. It was pointed out that the teacher in physical
education should not just teach what immediately appealed most to
the pupils, which apparently were games and particulary ball games.
Mainly gymnastics should be taught. The most important thing in fact
was not to amuse but to educate
11
the pupils.
The alleged Swedishness of school gymnastics from the turn of the
century and afterwards is thus primarily a principle and to a lesser
extent a content.
12
Central self-understanding contra local reality
The question is of course how widespread physical education in the
school was, including Swedish gymnastics. I would rather have a
reprimand from my superiors than to stand here in this miserable open
yard and make a fool of myself and the children for passers-by declared
a teacher around the turn of the century when he was asked to do
gymnastics with his pupils.
13
About twenty five years later, a well-known
school man declared for girls that gymnastics are splendid, but house-
work is after all more important.
In other words, there were many difficulties to overcome. That fact
appropriately (again) reminds us that syllabuses, legislation and for-
mulated aims are good sources for understanding the content of an
official ideology. For the understanding and the self-understanding of
a system they are important. But the content and requirements in that
type of source material do not necessarily reflect the reality. Thing are
decided centrally, what is actually done may be quite different at a
local level.
All exercises must have a physiological value.
Every exercise has to have a counter exercise. (Right-left, front-back
etc.)
Exercises have to be organized according to the impact on the organism.
The gymnastics-programme has to be a unity. At first it must lead from
easy to difficult exercises and later on to relaxing and closening exercises.
The exercises should mainly be carried out in common.
Lesson-guidance must be used.
The exercises have to be directed. Commands must be used.
Figure 2: The Swedish principles of gymnastics
PER JRGENSEN
32
Around 1930 after working for a generation to spread gymnastics
in Danish schools the result was not very inspiring, especially in the
rural areas. At that time, there were about 240 urban schools with ca
170,000 pupils and about 3,600 rural schools with ca 270,000 pupils.
14
The sources
15
gives the following picture of the situation around 1930
(figure 3).
It can thus be seen that in 1930 there were still many girls who were
not taught gymnastics. Particularly with regard to girls participation in
school gymnastics, it is a frequently repeated myth in Danish sports
history that school gymnastics for girls was implemented with the school
legislation of 1904.
16
As can be seen from the above, far from all girls
had gymnastics in 1904. But this is not apparent in the school legislation
from the same year. Here it is explicitly stated that girls should only be
taught gymnastics in the urban schools if the necessary teachers were
available and in rural schools only if the respective parish council
decided as such.
17
It was not until the school legislation of 1937 that
there was a requirement that both sexes should have physical education
throughout the whole school system.
18
As can also be seen from the outline, the bathing facilities in particular
left a lot to be desired. But paradoxically, even the existing bathing
facilities were not always used in connection with gymnastics lessons.
Two-thirds of the rural schools did not have a gymnastics hall. Nearly all
the urban schools had access to a hall.
A quarter of the girls in the rural areas were still not taught gymnastics.
In the towns, all girls were taught.
Half the pupils in rural areas were taught class-room gymnastics.
A third of the teachers in rural areas were not trained in gymnastics
according to the Swedish principles. In the towns, this applied to only a
twentieth of the teachers.
Three-quarters of the rural schools and a quarter of the urban schools
did not have bathing facilities.
Two-thirds of the pupils in rural areas and a twentieth of the pupils in the
towns were not taught ball games and games.
The average percentage of pupils who were excused from physical
education in the upper secondary schools was ca 15 for boys and ca 30
for girls.
Figure 3: School facilities ca. 1930
33
Instead a scheduled, controlled and regular fortnightly washing was
obviously thought to be more effective as regards hygiene than bathing
after school gymnastics.
Sport in schools
Even though the supporters of gymnastics as mentioned often were
opponents of sport, on the other hand they accepted that if children
were to do sport at all, it should preferably be in school. Here a pedago-
gical attitude could be adopted and sport could be used positively, so
there would be no over-indulgence: Only the school can ensure that
sport is led along the right lines, ruling out one-sidedness and over-
indulgence and in harmony with the rest of the schools work.
19
Most
of all, it was the competitive element in sport that school people repu-
diated. The competitive element in sport was a source of endless worry
for the gymnastics supporters in schools. The gymnastics inspector in
Copenhagen expressed this precisely in 1926 in a speech at the
Pedagogical Association: The sports movement has gone far beyond
the limits of what is reasonable, and has gone a good way into the area
of the ridiculous. The results achieved are measured in fractions of
seconds and metres. He found it reasonable, that the laurel wreath
was there for those who had fought stoutly, but I want it to be an
expression of festive joy and less than is now the case resemble a scalp
that is flayed off a vanquished enemy. The sports movement, however,
is still on the wrong course, which must make it inadvisable for the
school to have anything to do with sports.
20
In relation to gymnastics, sport must not take up too much room in
the schools. However, this seems to have been the case at an early
stage, and on several occasions, it was therefore pointed out that
gymnastics was more important. Around the First World War it was
laid down that sport especially ball games and games must not take
up more than a quarter of the teaching time. However, just as there
were many schools where physical education as mentioned did not
have the desired standard, or perhaps did not even exist, there were
many teachers who taught more games and sport than was intended.
This was in part because it interested the pupils and in part because it
was easier if the teacher was untrained for gymnastics or sport. If this
were the case, it was far easier to roll a ball in among the pupils than
PER JRGENSEN
34
teach them complicated gymnastics exercises where the emphasis had
to be on precise and correct execution to ensure the effect of the exercise
on the body and posture.
Shortly after the turn of the century, sport had become the leading
organised leisure activity in urban milieus in Denmark, but in schools
efforts were made to limit it and make it subordinate to gymnastics. In
the school reform of 1899, sport was given a place under the collective
term applied gymnastics, which consisted of ball games, games and swim-
ming. In contrast to applied gymnastics was real gymnastics which was
regarded by the school decision makers as being the serious and effec-
tive part of school gymnastics. Conversely they regarded the applied
gymnastics as being particularly suitable for fun. The relationship between
sport and gymnastics was thus like the relationship between play and
work. The fact that the gymnastics supporters regarded sport as
something alternative can also be seen from the pedagogical recom-
mendations about sport and games. The teacher is to take on the role
of referee, make decisions and criticise, it was said in The Manual. It
also laid down, finally it must be his task constantly to make himself
more and more superfluous, so that eventually it can go on, completely
without his teacher participation.
21
An unobtrusive, not to say invisible, teacher would never have been
recommended or accepted in connection with real gymnastics. However,
this must not lead one to believe that the reason for the recommendation
was that sport was regarded as being so unimportant that the teacher
did not need to be present. The recommendation about unobtrusiveness
should rather be seen against the background of the qualities attributed
to sport and games. With regard to spiritual upbringing, games and
sport were regarded as very important: Every game is like a shortened
version of life itself. It contains a number of the characteristics we con-
sider particularly valuable in life: responsibility, helpfulness, conside-
ration, willingness to subordination to the greater whole etc. This could
not it was stated be prepared beforehand. The pupil has to observe
the situation and then adapt his action himself.
22
The conflict between the reformers
Particularly in the period between the wars, but also before that time,
health was a central theme in the public debate including too the world
35
of gymnastics and sport. A large part of the health debate was about
physical cleanliness. This debate was followed by specific initiatives
involving physical education in schools. Two main strategies were
followed.
23
The first strategy was to keep the body completely clean. If
one was not clean, one became ill a clean body was a healthy body.
The other strategy was almost the opposite. Instead of combatting
illness, one should work for health. The body would be hardened to
withstand the attacks of illness. The implementation of this strategy in
the forum of the school was mainly the responsibility of the gymnastics
teacher. The school, cleanliness, body and physical education were
essential elements in the health debate of the period; and school
gymnastics had a central position in the introduction of the view of
health held by modern society. It was said by the health reformers in
the school that gymnastics could ensure a strong and clean body for
the young people, both physically and mentally. But these were not
only qualities that school people attributed to school physical education,
they were also qualities that leaders in the world of both sport and
gymnastics outside the school attributed to their respective activities.
This can only be understood by looking at the backgrounds of the
reformers/leaders inside and outside the school system.
Common for the reformers, as well inside as outside the schools
with backgrounds in sport or gymnastics, was that almost all had their
roots in the middle class. However, it was not that everyone from the
middle class was interested in gymnastics or sport at the turn of the
century; in fact there were only a few. Many directly rejected such
unsuitable, sweaty, unaesthetic and childish activities. Incidentally, this
was not the only area where there could be divergent opinions within
the middle class.
24
Some members of the middle class, however, were interested in gym-
nastics or sport. So in the same way as one could be a fanatical oppo-
nent of physical activities as a whole and still be from the middle class,
one could also be from the middle class and prefer gymnastics to sport
or sport to gymnastics. But irrespective of whether these people pre-
ferred sport or gymnastics, they had something in common besides
the fact that they came from the middle class.
25
The reformers/leaders
from these different gymnastics or sport milieus attributed the same
qualities to their respective activities. This last point is very important
in order to understand the establishment of the health discourse in
which the sport of the period must be seen. In the reasons given for the
PER JRGENSEN
36
respective advantages of gymnastics and sport, there was a common
core, which consisted of central middle-class virtues: both sport and
Swedish gymnastics were good for health, hygiene and discipline. The
reformers from both camps attributed the same basic usefulness to their
activities. And they fought the same fight, especially as regards the
demand for good bodily hygiene. For the middle class this meant
thorough and regular washing of the whole body. Cultivated people
bathed daily or at least once a week. Light, air and cleanliness became
a general educational programme for the lower classes through the
middle class.
26
A programme that the authorities and reformers within
school physical education, but also within sport and gymnastics, had
in common. It was a national cause.
In the Danish gymnastics or sports movement, reformers were
just as busy as reformers in the school system. Ideology and norms
as regards hygiene, precision, clothing and behaviour were transfer-
red to the working class, which was of course mainly the class that did
not know the middle-class codes and which, as early as the turn of the
century, was in the majority in the sports movement.
27
In the school
system the working-class children of course were in the majority.The
transfer of ideology and norms within the world of sport outside the
school was done for instance through the amateur and order regula-
tions.
28
All in all, the reformers/leaders from both gymnastics and sport attri-
buted the same basic qualities to their respective activities. If one ignores
their wholly general reasons, their meta-considerations, if one peels
away all the noble qualities that on a general plane were attributed to
their own physical activity and the vile qualities attributed to that of
others, a common core remains. This core consisted of central middle-
class virtues: both sport and gymnastics were claimed to be good for
health, hygiene and discipline.
These central middle-class virtues were instilled in the young people
in school through physical education among other things. Not just
through physical bodily discipline, but also on a more sub-conscious
level, for instance by the whole organisation and arrangement of school
physical education. This could be seen for instance in an attempt at
architectural standardisation of gymnastic halls, in the introduction of
regulation equipment, where each piece had its right place when it
was not in use. It could be seen in the way ropes and rings hung and
hang in well-ordered bundles or in symmetrical patterns. But even
37
the actual content of school gymnastics tried to show a conviction that
here order and regularity prevailed. Marching in time, absolutely
straight rows, synchronised exercises and a controlling teacher authority
were the main ingredients in the gymnastics lessons that followed the
guidelines in the lesson guidance also called day exercises con-
structed by the authorities in Copenhagen. The exercises were repeated
endlessly to perfection, many times used for years. And it could be
particularly seen in the meticulous attention to detail and the search for
precision in form and execution, often taken to absurd lengths (figure 4).
29
Precision was crucial if the gymnastics exercise was to affect discipline
and posture and thereby health. Good posture was a healthy posture,
a posture characterised by order.
The fight against sickness and for health and hygiene in fact was
very much a project about order. To classify the world, order it according
to the system one has learned, implies that one eliminates what does
not fit. The fight against uncleanliness and disorder is the classic fight
against chaos. Uncleanliness is something that is not in its right place.
Cleanliness is connected with order and uncleanliness with disorder.
The need to create order in the broad sense of the word is expressed in
a will to exercise power. The will to exercise power is in this way a
force of stability, where a repeatable pattern is sought, which gives
an assurance of law and order, and is thus reassuring.
30
The law and
order of the middle class in this context is thus the will on the social
level to fight, to prohibit, whatever falls outside the social order that
constitutes the middle class. Whatever we repudiate, we attribute charac-
Forward Jumping with separated feet. Without run-up:
How to command the exercise correctly:
For jump forward, left foot back ready! Jump!
How to carry out the exercise correctly:
On ready, move the left foot under an eighth turn to the left a step
back, both knees bent, the back knee most (deck position), the body
turns (stands sideways) so that the chest points directly to the side, the
face directly forward. On jump, take a strong takeoff, first with the back
then with the front foot; the body turns during this in the direction of the
jump, the arms swing forward, the feet are placed together, the body
straightens and the jump down is made.
Figure 4: Exercise in Swedish Gymnastics
PER JRGENSEN
38
teristics such as dirty, disgusting and unclean. The things we repudiate,
however, depend on the culture in which we have grown up, the
experiences we have had, and the learning instilled in us.
31
By empha-
sising ones own orderliness in all matters in life and making this a
virtue one can demonstrate a higher stage of development. The
middle-class culture is the culture of right angles and a clear division
into functions. In the middle-class home, there was an obsession with
drawing lines between different activities and territories. Children were
separated from adults, the family from servants, the private sphere
from the public...We see the same principles of order in the organisa-
tion of the middle-class public sphere. The principle of right angles is
repeated in the straight lines of hospital beds or school desks...In all
these seemingly trivial details, there is a continual fight against
threatening chaos.
32
Culture and order are linked together in opposi-
tion to nature and chaos. Lines are drawn. In the school chaos was
among other thing combatted through the arrangement of the
gymnastics hall and the content of gymnastics, which each tried to
show the conviction that here order and regularity prevailed.
The interest in health, hygiene, behaviour, discipline and order on
the part of the reformers in school gymnastics was obvious. During the
period between 1900 and 1960, these concepts were important instru-
ments in the transfer of middle-class norms to the rest of the population.
The development of the teacher-pupil relations
The school reform in 1958 changed the formal position of gymnastics
in schools. As in the other school subjects, there was still a fixed syllabus
in physical education, but gymnastics was now just one activity among
many others. However, the fact of the fixed syllabus was changed in
the following years. Parallel with the general changes in the pedagogical
belief, that the school, in stead of supplying manifest knowledge in a
fixed syllabus should teach flexibility and improvisation, this also
happened within school sport. On the whole, going to school changed
dramatically during the 1960s and the 1970s. This was particularly true
of the relationship between teacher and pupil.
Within a few years around 1970, gymnastics teacher Mr Mortensen
became sport teacher Erik, Keld, Peter or whatever his first name was,
and at the same time the formal form of address was discarded in favour
39
of the familiar form. The same process saw the disappearance of slap-
ping and the arbitrary punishments that as late as the 1960s were still
pure routine for many teachers in and outside gymnastics lessons. Strict
discipline was no longer either pedagogically or socially desirable, as
it was no longer regarded the cornerstone of all learning and education.
The school reform of 1958 was particularly important for Danish
physical education. From gymnastics having been the central activity,
a multitude of activities appeared in the following years. The demand
for discipline, commands and uniformity that had been implicit in all
school education as a frame for pupil behaviour had, of course, been
explicit precisely in school physical education, primarily in gymnastics.
Here the importance of commands, discipline and uniformity had been
a direct requirement if the teaching was to be orderly, i.e. to work. The
introduction of less authority-demanding activities, the slackening of
discipline, and the introduction of a certain relaxation in the teacher-
pupil relationship meant that for many pupils physical education lessons
were a better place to be than had been the case before, when for
many the lessons had been a place for feelings of inadequacy and humi-
liation.
The relationship between physical education and club sport
As already mentioned, the 1958 reform defined the content of various
disciplines which were on an equal footing with gymnastics. The chan-
ges in the content of the subject did not take effect from one day to the
next, but during the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, the content
of physical education was radically changed. It came to resemble leisure
sport to a greater extent. The problem that pupils had been largely
forced for years to practise a certain activity (gymnastics) in school,
which many of them could not recognise in their free time (when they
did sport), was thus solved.
On the other hand, the problem quickly arose that the number of
disciplines was so large that every selection criterion for what was essen-
tial and non-essential in both form and content was questionable. This
has not been solved in the course of time. The selection of activities in
school has become increasingly large over the years and is now so
large that the amount of activity in itself can lead to superficiality. The
situation has been compared rather sarcastically with a supermarket,
PER JRGENSEN
40
here one can pick and choose among the goods on the shelves. In the
term, supermarket, there is naturally also the fear that every form of
pedagogical context will drown in the multiplicity of options. The school
reform of 1975 gave a strong position to expressive activities. This should
be seen in connection with the beginning of the experiments in the
1970s with joint teaching of boys and girls. For reasons of equality, this
led to an interest in activities where girls could perform at least as
well as boys. Expressive activities were favoured in connection with
the ordinary cultural and educative trends of the time, which were
characterised by the fact that the horizon was extended in many direct-
ions at the same time.
33
The content of physical education in school over the past forty years
has increasingly become sport and thus identical with the content of
sport in the club system. However, this has only partly led to cooperation
between the school system and the club system. Even though the situa-
tion from the turn of the century when efforts were made to keep orga-
nised sport completely outside the school no longer exists, cooperation
in our day is not widespread. Football and other sports is still claimed
by physical education teachers to have a different purpose and content
when it is played in the school context from when it is played in the
club context.
Since the 1970s, on the pedagogical front, many sports teachers have
argued in favour of, and tried to develop, a pedagogical practice that
can promote the pupils total development. The most recent Danish
school legislation from 1993 also mentions this effort, but the teacher
is now no longer regarded as the person who can develop the pupil.
Key words and concepts such as competence, perception, experience,
reflection and self-responsibility are now central in the statement of
purpose for physical education in the school.
34
Subject-oriented
teaching instead of discipline-oriented teaching, among other things
as a consequence of this, is gaining ground. There are similar tendencies
in the upper secondary school.
The position of school sport in school upbringing
It is difficult to argue in favour of a definite content in the disciplines
within school sport, where everything is now equally good. To a much
greater extent than in the old days the arguments for the value of the
41
subject have been based now on benefits about the pupils mental,
social, democratic and personal development.
The confidence that the teacher had in his or her choice of teaching
method, which lay in the belief of the past in the blessings of the fixed
syllabus and the necessity of gymnastics, has naturally disappeared.
During the 1970s, the rather static subject of physical education was
completely revolutionised. First, of course in the general pedagogical
discussion and in legislation and regulations, but over the years also in
the actual specific content of the subject in the single physical education
lesson.
35
Here it is impossible to describe in detail the pedagogical
discussion during the last twenty five years, but rather simplistically it
can be said that there have been two trends.
36
One trend has characterised the public discussion and has had great
influence on the aims and regulations of the subject. As regards content,
this trend wanted multiplicity, alternatives, and expressive activities
and, as regards the educational side, wanted creativity, cooperation,
action competence, problem solution and experimentation. In addi-
tion the pupil were supposed to learn reflect the teaching and their
own practise.
The other trend has not dominated the public discussion but has a
certain weight among the ordinary teachers in the schools. It has been
based on rational planning without much pupil involvement. Didactics
is here regarded as a planning activity and the teachers task is to plan
the teaching so that it is in accordance with the goals that have been
set. The practical organisation of the teaching is done with conside-
ration of the pupils sex, age, maturity, motivation etc. Rational plan-
ning, of course, is nothing new for a physical education teacher. It was
also done in Swedish gymnastics. The new element is that the plan-
ning is to be done locally according to local circumstances and not
centrally in Copenhagen.
School sport has often been under attack in Denmark, and is so
especially at the moment. When the reason for the importance of the
subject has been transferred from content (such as health and education
through Swedish gymnastics) to the pupils social and mental develop-
ment, when the subject has increasingly become a means instead of
having a value in itself, it has become more difficult to argue in favour
of the importance of the subject. When many physical education
teachers have made much of emphasising the contribution of sport to
achieving general goals such as social development, action competence,
PER JRGENSEN
42
creativity and health, the intention has been to bring the subject of
sport out of its marginal position and raise its status. Paradoxically, the
result has often been close to bringing about the opposite, because by
arguing that the school-sport especially is a mean to something else,
one has undermined the inherent value of the subject and the salient
feature of sport: movement. The subject of sport is relevant in relation to
the general purpose of the school precisely because it is something special.
37
However, on the other hand it is no solution for physical education
in schools completely to give up the idea that the subject also has a
value as a means. That could really put the position of the subject in
danger. Because then it would be obvious to claim that school sport
could just as well be completely handed over to the leisure-time sport
movement, where about 65% of school pupils are members in any
case in the ca 14,000 Danish sport clubs based on voluntary work.
Conclusion
Swedish gymnastics have been introduced in Danish schools at
the turn of the century were primarily a principle and not an activity.
Many pupils, especially girls and especially in rural districts, did not
have physical education at all until after the Second World War.
Much more sport was played before the Second World War than
was recommended by the authorities.
The supporters of gymnastics and those of sport had no matter
how much they seemed to disagree on the surface identical basic
views with regard to the possibilities and advantages of their
respective activities. It seems that leading groups in a civilising process
who had very different opinions about overriding societal ideas and
who had different, even contradictory, ideas about what sorts of
physical exercises were best and most valuable, could still share basic
ideas relating to health, hygiene and discipline.
The relationship between teacher and pupil has changed during the
past fourty years, especially in physical education.
During the past fourty years, the content in physical education has
largely become identical with sport, as played outside the school.
The many new activities have in part entailed supermarket condit-
ions where a selection is made from all the shelves in the daily
work, and in part implied that all activities in principle are attributed
the same value.
43
A subject-specific reason for physical education has increasingly been
abandoned in favour of the assertion that the subject is a means to
foster the general mental and social development of the pupils. This
has caused problems in advancing arguments for the value of the
subject.
At the beginning of the century, there were five lessons a week in
physical education, today there are only two.
Notes
1
In 1799 it was ordered that the schools under the Copenhagen Poor Relief
District should teach gymnastics. The Royal Resolution of 16 April 1814
introduced gymnastics in principle for all children in the Danish schools,
where there were qualified teachers. On the developments in Danish physical
education from ca. 1800 to 1900 see Else Trangbk: Gymnastik bliver
skolefag and Jrn Hansen, Gennembruddet: Fra Sundhedskommissioner
til Gymnastikkommissioner in Ivar Berg-Srensen og Per Jrgensen (eds.)
Een Time Dagligen - Skoleidrt gennem 200 r, Odense 1998 (pp.25-84).
2
In the last one hundred years, the aims for the teaching of physical education
in Denmark have been changed for the primary schools in 1899, 1904,
1937, 1958, 1975 and 1993. In the case of secondary schools, the first change
was made in 1903, and since then at approximately the same times as for
the primary schools.
3
Around the turn of the century, there were 5-7 hours of physical education
lessons a week in primary schools and secondary schools. In our day, the
number of lessons is two. Lejf Degnbol, Idrt og timetal in Uddannelses-
historie 1997 (Selskabet for Dansk Skolehistorie, 31-1997) and Ernst Mller,
Trk af skoleidrttens historie, Nyborg 1980.
4
The development is most thoroughly described in Berg-Srensen and Jr-
gensen (eds) Een Time Dagligen op.cit. 1998. The background for the
reforms around the turn of the century and the relationship between Danish
and Swedish gymnastics are thoroughly described by Else Trangbk: Mel-
lem leg og disciplin. Gymnastikken i Danmark i 1800-tallet, Auning, 1987. Ove
Korsgaard, Kampen om Kroppen. Dansk Idrts historie gennem 200 r, Kben-
havn 1982 also deals with the development in physical education in Danish
schools. See, too, Mller, Trk af skoleidrttens historie, op.cit..
5
In Sweden, there was disagreement between Ling gymnastics and sport. This
was also the case in Denmark where the dispute has actually been said to be
the cardinal point in the understanding of the general development of sport.
6
Dansk Idrts-Forbunds Aarsberetning, 1921 (Kbenhavn, 1922) Bilag D.
7
Roland Naul, Dansk gymnastiks europiske dimension in Idrtshistorisk
rbog 14-1998, Odense 1999; pp.40-41.
8
Haandbog i Gymnastik (Gymnastikkommisionen) Kbenhavn, 1899, p.110
PER JRGENSEN
44
9
With the reform in 1958, gymnastics lost its dominant position. The subject
was officially called physical exercises, and in the course of the next 10-15
years, gymnastics was one activity among more and more other activities.
With a later reform, in 1975, the subject got its current name, idrt.
10
Henrik Meinander, Towards a Bourgeois Manhood. BoysPhysical Education in
Nordic Secondary Schools 1880-1940, Helsingfors, 1994 p.110
11
Haandbog i Gymnastik (1899) op.cit., p.281.
12
The principles are grouped on the basis of K.A.Knudsen, Danmarks Hj-
skole for Legemsvelser (Kbenhavn, 1948) and Haandbog i Gymnastik (1899).
13
Per Jrgensen, Idrt under forandring in Bjarne Ibsen (i.a.) Idrt i bev-
gelse, Kbenhavn 1993 p.43
14
Beretning om Statens Gymnastikinstitut 1925 (Kbenhavn, 1926) pp.51-56
15
In particular, the annual reports from the State Gymnastics Inspectorate
(Danmarks Rigsarkiv) and the annual reports from the State One-year Course
in Gymnastics and the State Gymnastics Institute (Det Kgl. Bibliotek) have
been used.
16
Originally, it is said, school gymnastics was introduced for both sexes as
early as the school legislation in 1814. In 1828, it was discontinued for girls.
But school gymnastics had not been made obligatory for either girls or
boys in 1814! It is clearly stated in the Royal decree that only if the teachers
had teacher training with gymnastics as a subject, or in some other way had
got similar skills, were they to teach gymnastic exercises. Anordning for
Almue-Skolevsenet paa Landet i Danmark af 29. Juli 1814.
17
Lov om forskellige Forhold vedrrende Folkeskolen (29.3.1904).
18
Lov om folkeskolen af 18. Maj 1937 (nr.160).
19
Mller, Trk af skoleidrttens historie i Danmark , 1980 op.cit., p.117.
20
Ibid., pp.157-158.
21
Haandbog i Gymnastik (1899) op.cit. p. 284.
22
Ibid p.278
23
Lars Henrik Schmidt and Jens Erik Kristensen, Lys. Luft og Renlighed, K-
benhavn, 1986, pp.70-75.
24
Around the turn of the century, even the views about one of the flagships of
the middle class, the family, held by officers and higher-ranking civil servants
could differ from those held by the new groups of industrialists, merchants
and administrators. But just as the view of the family became increasingly
homogeneous within the middle class in the period up to the First World
War, the same occurred within areas such as health and hygiene. Over the
years, the middle class became a class that was welded together both socially
and culturally. It has been pointed out that the spread of the middle-class
life style to broader social strata resulted in the fact that the Nordic welfare
state after the Second World War was characterised to a great extent by
basic middle-class values and norms. The distance, and with that the speed
of percolation, between the strata of society had become less. Henrik
Meinander, Towards a Bourgeois Manhood (1994) op.cit., p.222 and Per Jr-
gensen, Ro, Renlighed, Regelmssighed, Kbenhavn, 1997 pp.61-93.
45
25
Per Jrgensen, Ro, Renlighed, Regelmssighed (1997) op.cit., pp. 246-249 and
Jrn Hansen, Gennembruddet: Fra Sundhedskommissioner til... op.cit.,
pp.77-81.
26
In Copenhagen, around the turn of the century, there were more than 1,000
two-room flats with at least eight people living in them and without a toilet.
Many of the flats did not have running water. About 20% of the children
died before the age of three. Per Jrgensen, Ro, Renlighed, Regelmssighed
(1997) op.cit., pp. 72-73.
27
Ibid., pp.61-93.
28
Ibid. and Per Jrgensen, Order, Discipline and Self-Control in: The Inter-
national Journal of the History of Sport, vol.13, No.3 (1996) pp. 340-55.
29
Rikard Frederiksen, Fra kommando til Undervisning in Emanuel Han-
sen, Danmarks Hjskole for Legemsvelser (1961), p.65. The exercise was used
for instance in the State One-year Course.
30
Per Jrgensen, Ro, Renlighed, Regelmssighed (1997) op.cit,. pp. 86-90.
31
Middle-class norms were fundamental for good manners and correct
behaviour around the turn of the century and for many years after. The
way the lower classes lived in towns and in the country was characterised
by chaos and disorder. Ibid. pp.61-93.
32
Ibid. pp.86-90.
33
Per Fibk Laursen, Mangfoldighed og frigrelse - Ca. 1975-1998 in Berg-
Srensen and Jrgensen (red.) Een Time Dagligen (1998) op.cit. (p.208).
34
Helle Rnholt, Fra sundhedsopdragelse til udvikling og lring in Berg-
Srensen and Jrgensen (red.) Een Time Dagligen (1998) op.cit., (pp.257-259).
35
Per Fibk Laursen, Mangfoldighed og frigrelse (1998) op.cit. p.209.
36
Ibid pp. 213-215.
37
Per Fibk Laursen, Mod kategorial dannelse i Tidsskrift for Idrt 3-1998
(pp.86-87)
Associate Professor Dr. Per Jrgensen
Institute of Exercise and Sport Sciences, University of Copenhagen,
Denmark.
Email: pjorgensen@ifi.ku.dk
Some resent publications:
Ikke at more, men at opdrage. in: Ivar Berg-Soerensen og Per Joergensen
(red.), Een Time Dagligen Skoleidraet Gennem 200 Aar, Odense
Universitetsforlag, 1998 (pp.85-150).
Ro, Renlighed, Regelmaessighed Dansk Idraets-Forbund og sportens
gennembrud ca. 1896-1918, Odense Universitetsforlag, 1997.
From Balck to Nurmi: The Olympic Movement and the Nordic Nations.
in The International Journal of the History of Sport (vol. 14, December
1997-3) pp.69-99.
JEAN-MICHEL DELAPLACE
46
47
LE SPORT EST-IL EDUCATIF? POSITION DU PROBLEME EN FRANCE DE 1919 A 1960
Le sport est-il educatif? Position du probleme
en France de 1919 a 1960
Jean-Michel Delaplace
CRIS Universit de Lyon 1, France
Les leons de pdagogie sportive
1
de Pierre de Coubertin
sont ignores au sortir de la premire guerre mondiale
Ds le dbut de son uvre de diffusion des pratiques sportives en
France, de Coubertin connat ses adversaires. Ainsi en mars 1899, dpo-
sant devant la commission denqute sur lenseignement secondaire, il
constate quil a rencontr dans lUniversit depuis douze ans lopposition la
plus sourde, la plus incessante, la plus pnible.
2
Pour autant peut-on accrditer la remarque de P-Y. Boulongne:
la logique coubertinienne portait en elle la rvolution mthodo-
logique de la seconde moiti du XXme sicle: delle surgiront toutes
les tentatives qui vont faire du sport le moyen privilgi de
lducation physique?
3
En tudiant comment se gnre et senvisage cette question du sport
ducatif durant lentre-deux-guerres et jusquau dbut des annes
soixante, il apparat que les transformations des attitudes par rapport
au sport passent par un lent processus de lgitimation de celui-ci. Et ce
processus, largement dpendant des circonstances conjoncturelles, de
Coubertin ne pouvait pas le prvoir.
Nous avons dj eu loccasion de mettre en vidence ces rsistances
lintgration du sport dans lcole.
4
P. Arnaud
5
a galement soulign
lincompatibilit entre la turbulence des sports et la rationalit gymna-
stique qui amne les responsables de tous ordres diffrer lintroduction
du sport dans les programmes scolaires.
48
Notre intention est ici de dmonter le rseau de causalit qui font
que les discours sur les vertus ducatives du sport, de confidentiels
quils sont au dbut du sicle, vont gagner petit petit la majorit des
acteurs de la sphre ducative.
limpossible sport ducatif
Il est maintenant admis que les instigateurs du mouvement olympique
sont aussi les premiers promouvoir lide que les sports sont ducatifs.
Outre P. de Coubertin dj cit, son ami le pre dominicain Henri
Didon, applicateur zl de ses ides au sein de lAssociation Athltique
de lcole Albert-le-Grand (A.A.A.G.)
6
, annonce clairement son opi-
nion loccasion du congrs olympique du Havre en 1897:
jacquitte donc ma dette de reconnaissance, en rendant tmoignage
cette uvre et venant parler ici de la puissance ducatrice et de
laction morale des exercices physiques de plein air sur la jeunesse,
sur la formation du caractre et le dveloppement de la personnalit.
Ce sujet intresse tout le monde ; il intresse les mres, il intresse
les pres, il intresse les fils, il intresse les pouvoirs publics, il
intresse le Ministre de lInstruction Publique dont nous avons ici
lhonorable reprsentant, il intresse enfin tous ceux qui ont souci
de lavenir de ce pays et jestime, Mesdames et Messieurs, que jaurai
rendu quelque service sil mtait donn de prouver avec une vidence
irrsistible pour les plus rfractaires, que cette puissance ducatrice,
que cette force morale contenue dans les exercices physiques de plein
air est une puissance certaine et doue dune pntrante action sur
la jeunesse
7
Quarante six ans sparent ces propos de ceux de M. Baquet, mais
largument reste le mme:
Lintrt du sport est tel que ladolescent est prt y engager son
honneur, cest--dire sa personnalit mme. De l sa valeur
ducative
8
Par contre, si, comme nous le verrons, le discours de Baquet reoit une
certaine audience, Didon et Coubertin prchent dans le dsert. Ainsi
de Coubertin en est-il rduit pourfendre ses adversaires sudistes:
49
le fameux Mens sana in corpore sano auquel ont recouru tant
dorateurs de pauvre imagination et dont il a t fait un tel abus
quon peut sans exagration le qualifier dinsupportable rengaine.
9
De la mme faon Didon essaye de convaincre les responsables poli-
tiques du rle ducatif du sport, dans un discours rempli de sous-enten-
dus:
Si josais, je pourrais madresser M. le sous-prfet et lui dire :
Vous qui menez des hommes, qui avez les gouverner, vous savez
quelle puissance on a quand on peut faire lunit dans un milieu,
quand on peut couper les sectes et ramasser les combattants autour
dune ide forte. L est le gnie politique et, tandis que le gnie de
limpolitique passez-moi le mot barbare est de diviser, celui de
la politique est de runir.
10
P. Arnaud a montr comment ces divergences entre sportifs et gym-
nastes ont entran les responsables politiques dclarer que le sport
est une antigymnastique.
11
Avant 1914, la situation politique (par
exemple le patriotisme de P. Droulde), la confidentialit de la pratique
sportive et lhgmonie des approches gymnastiques de lcole de
Joinville et de la mthode naturelle de G. Hbert sont autant de raisons
qui occultent la mise lordre du jour de lintgration du sport dans les
programmes scolaires.
Cependant, pour parcourir sa carrire, il (le sport, ndr.) lui faudra
suivre la bonne piste deux tournants qui lattendent: le tournant
du professionnalisme, le tournant de lducation physique.
12
Ces considrations du Dr Bellin du Coteau sur lavenir du sport mettent
en exergue que la question de la place du sport en ducation physique
nest toujours pas rgle en 1927. Certes il y a eu la nomination dHenri
Pat le 22 juillet 1921 au ministre de la guerre pour une mission
concernant la rforme de lducation physique et de la prparation
militaire, mais la prparation militaire accapare toutes les attentions et
surtout tous les moyens financiers. Depuis la proposition de loi au snat
du 14 avril 1920 dpose par Chron, deux tendances se dtachent
nettement dans les dbats. Dune part les partisans dune prorogation
de la tutelle militaire, de lautre les dfenseurs dune ducation physique
pdagogique et mdicale, cole contre arme, mdecine contre arme,
tels sont les antagonismes qui repoussent loin des proccupations
50
politiques, la question du sport. On retrouve ces clivages lors du vote
de la loi au snat le 24 novembre 1921 o Chron prend rsolument le
parti de larme alors que Poitevin, au nom de lenseignement, dfend
les arguments mdicaux et que Gaston Vidal, ancien prsident de
lU.S.F.S.A., tente vainement de plaider la cause des sports athltique.
Alors quen est-il de la prise en charge politique du sport?
En mars 1922 est cr un service de lducation physique et des sports
au sein du ministre de linstruction publique dont la direction est
confie Gaston Vidal. Demble, Vidal profite de la distance prise
avec Chron pour enfoncer le clou. Il cre le 6 avril 1922 un comit
consultatif pour ltude des questions relatives lducation physique
et aux sports dans lenseignement, et il invite y participer une cohorte
impressionnante de mdecins,
13
sassurant ainsi un rempart efficace
contre les militaires.
Il fait publier le 13 fvrier 1923 une circulaire concernant la cration
des comits sportifs dacadmie, organismes chargs dassister les
recteurs dans leur tche dorganisation des championnats scolaires. Ces
comits auront un rle de propagande, de direction et dadministra-
tion.
14
Nayant impliqu dans cette circulaire que les fdrations
manant de lancienne USFSA, il est oblig de faire publier, afin de
complter la liste des fdrations concernes, une nouvelle circulaire
le 2 mai 1923. Il en profite pour rgler la question de ladministration
des associations sportives scolaires, bureau dans lequel aucun lve
nest admis ! La circulaire du 14 dcembre 1923 complte le dispositif
en prcisant les catgories dge qui vont des minimes (12 15 ans) qui
ne font pas de comptitions et ne font pas partie de lassociation spor-
tive,
15
aux seniors (de 18 ans lge du service militaire).
Mais lorganisation de ce sport scolaire na rien voir avec celle de
lducation physique, et la question nest pas de savoir si le sport est ou
non ducatif. Tel est lavis mis dans la tribune libre des professeurs de
lenseignement secondaire, le journal des lyces:
Il est craindre quune organisation si bien comprise ne donne
que des rsultats mdiocres. En effet, les personnes groupes dans
le Comit sportif dAcadmie ne parlent pas le mme langage.
Dune part, il y a des universitaires pour qui le sport est une
nouveaut; dautre part, on y voit des dlgus de fdrations qui
51
nentendent rien aux choses de lenseignement. Chacun dveloppera
ses arguments pour ou contre: lun parlera des ncessits de
lenseignement, lautre des exigences du sport, et il ne se trouvera
personne pour concilier les deux parties.
16
De fait, en tant confie aux fdrations sportives, lorganisation du
sport scolaire chappe totalement aux pdagogues. De toute manire,
les professeurs dducation physique, peu nombreux dans le secondaire
(environ 250 en 1924), sont souvent hostiles la diffusion scolaire des
sports
17
et prchent pour la gymnastique linstar de ce monsieur Jean
Pdague, rdacteur de la Revue de lEnseignement Primaire:
Nous navons pas tort de redouter loutrance sportive actuelle et
daffirmer que lducation physique devenant une uvre scolaire
pourra seule crer les tres harmonieux et forts que nous rvons.
18
Les Jeux Olympiques de Paris 1924 puis le dveloppement du
sport fasciste italien partir de 1927 provoquent des ractions
contradictoires par rapport au rle ducatif du sport
Aprs la violente diatribe dH. de Montherlant, grande corrida
Colombes , propos de la finale olympique de rugby Etats-Unis con-
tre France,
19
les critiques ne cessent de vilipender le lamentable compor-
tement des spectateurs sportifs:
Ce genre de dlire rend souvent le sport aussi intolrable que la
politique, par exemple, o il est admis que ceux qui ne font rien
jugent svrement ceux qui travaillent pour le bien public. Mais
voici que maintenant sajoute aux dsagrments du sport une sorte
de nationalisme chauff qui solidarise lhonneur dun pays avec
les athltes auxquels on a confi le drapeau. Grce aux fameux
jeux olympiques, des dfis sont jets de peuple peuple, la presse
sirrite, les sentiments saigrissent et de bons amis se considrent
avec une sourde animosit.
20
Ces excs font bien entendu le jeu des dtracteurs du sport et G Hbert
ne se prive pas de rassembler dans les colonnes de sa revue ainsi que
dans son ouvrage le sport contre lducation physique,
21
les articles
et arguments qui vont dans ce sens. Ainsi cet article de la revue suisse le
gymnaste est-il voqu sous le titre la stade, champ de foire aux vanits:
52
La folie du record se dveloppe de plus en plus et malheureusement
nos journaux mettent une volont par trop complaisante accep-
ter la prose ampoule des mas-tu vu du sport. Non seulement
les journaux sportifs, dont cest un peu le rle, mais nos graves
journaux politiques, de lextrme gauche la droite la plus
conservatrice font lenvi lloge outr, lhyperbole du champion
() Quand donc sarrtera cette folie du sport, plus grave de
consquences quon ne se limagine souvent. Combien de nos jeunes
gens qui devraient mener de front tudes et gymnastique, blouis
par la lecture dexploits sportifs se laissent entraner dans des sports
qui les accaparent compltement et gchent leur avenir.
22
Mais la grande rvlation des jeux olympiques de 1924, bientt
accentue par lexemple de nos voisins italiens, concerne les usages
politiques de lducation sportive.
23
LOrganisation Nationale Balilla
(O.N.B. 1926) ainsi que le Comit olympique national italien (1927)
sont les deux structures organisatrices du sport fasciste italien
24
directe-
ment dpendantes du chef charismatique, lui-mme grand sportif.
25
Les observateurs franais sont, pour la majorit, sduits par la
propagande fasciste. D Strohl, collaborateur dHbert, est rgulirement
invit partir de 1933 par lO.N.B. et ses tmoignages sont chaque
fois dithyrambiques et fort complaisants pour une organisation dont le
fonctionnement dmocratique nest pas la caractristique dominante :
les Avant-guardisti sont soumis des exercices militaires et des
disciplines sportives. Ils font de lescrime, de la course pied, du
cyclisme, du football, de la natation, de lquitation, du canotage,
etc. () Les socits sportives restent en dehors de lO.N.B.. Elles
ne reoivent aucune subvention gouvernementale
26
. Elles ont leur
vie propre
27
. Les dirigeants de lO.N.B. croient encore lutilit
du spectacle pour amener la masse lexercice physique, mais les
socits et leurs runions sont trs surveilles et impitoyablement
rprimandes.
28
Mais alors que pour les Italiens, le sport est un moyen de former un
peuple fort et conqurant, et quil ne fait donc pas de doute quil a une
fonction ducative, les franais senferment dans une conception
hyginique et mdicale de la formation physique de la population et
considrent dans le meilleur des cas, le sport comme un vecteur de
paix et de communication entre les peuples.
29
53
Mme les dfenseurs du sport ducatif ont des prudences de jeunes
premiers lorsquil sagit daborder les problmes de lutilisation
pdagogique du sport:
Les sports et les exercices sportifs possdent une telle dominante
psychique quil nous apparat ncessaire de la souligner ds ici
() limmense intrt social du sport est dtre un dlassement
physico-psychique dune absolue moralit.
30
Bellin du Coteau, le premier, essaye de donner ses lettres
daccrditation ducatives au sport
En proposant une mthode sportive qui sinspire avant tout de lclectisme
et (qui) nest point uniquement sportive,
31
Bellin du Coteau prvient les
invitables et classiques critiques faites propos des excs sportifs. De
la mme faon, en se plaant rsolument sur le terrain mdical, il
accorde demble ses rflexions le srieux de largument scientifique.
Ainsi lorsquil prsente en 1930 des rsultats, ou plutt des considrat-
ions, trs approximatifs,
32
il prend soin de les abriter derrire des termes
techniques mdicaux: traumatismes, pathologie interne des sportifs,
maladies de lappareil respiratoire, fausse hypertrophie cardiaque,
etc. Ce qui lui permet de conclure que les risques de surmenage sportif
sont exceptionnels, et (que) lorganisme humain est beaucoup plus souvent
rceptif du fait de tares sociales ou de misres physiologiques.
Par contre, il va user darguments tout fait nouveaux, du moins
depuis de Coubertin et Didon, et en rupture avec le discours convenu
de lpoque. En affirmant que les sports amliorent considrable-
ment le rendement sportif et social , il inaugure une catgorie
argumentaire dont M. Baquet usera lui aussi quelques annes plus tard:
La comptition sollicite le sujet un rendement maximum; le
record est un mot sportif. Or, le record appartient celui qui le
mrite, et lhabitude sociale du record, de lamlioration du rende-
ment, nous semble essentiellement morale et utilitaire.
33
Voil un point de vue propre sduire les entrepreneurs de tous ord-
res, quils soient conomiques ou politiques au moment o la crise
conomique mondiale commence faire sentir ses effets dans la vie
sociale franaise. Cependant, comme le souligne Dubief, lEtat ne suivait
pas lengouement national et ladulation dont les vedettes du spectacle et les
54
champions taient lobjet paraissait frustrer dun lgitime tribut les philanthropes,
les savants et autres bienfaiteurs de lhumanit que la popularit ngligeait
34
.
Mais plus surprenant encore est le dernier argument dvelopp par
Bellin du Coteau:
les sports constituent la plus saine des distractions () les sports
contribuent donner aux sportifs de la joie. Ils sont en mme
temps dispensateurs de sant.
35
En fait cet argument anticipe sur la politique des loisirs du Front Popu-
laire et prolonge une ide chre de Coubertin et lUnion Pdagogique
Universelle: le droit daccs la culture gnrale et le droit au sport.
36
Le Brevet Sportif Populaire et la politique sportive du Front
Populaire recentrent la question du sport ducatif sur des
considrations hyginiques
La cration du sous-secrtariat dtat aux sports et aux loisirs, et celui
de lducation physique par le dcret du 5 juin 1936 (donc avant les
accords Matignon
37
), le premier rattach au ministre de la sant le
second celui de lducation nationale, marquent la volont forte de
ce gouvernement dentreprendre une grande uvre. Encourags par
les ministres J. Zay et H. Sellier
38
, Le docteur P. Dezarnaulds pour
lducation physique et L. Lagrange pour les sports et les loisirs
39
mettent
en place une politique sportive caractrise par un fort dveloppement
du sport de masse et des pratiques hyginiques et de plein-air.
Dans une dclaration quil fait la radio le 10 juin 1936, L. Lagrange
dclare que la masse doit pouvoir pratiquer les sports pour y trouver joie et
sant, dtente et panouissement; le but poursuivre doit scarter rsolument
de ltat desprit qui fait dboucher cette pratique sur la prparation militaire et
les vises bellicistes.
40
Cette conception hrite des positions des responsa-
bles communistes du sport ouvrier, sinspire galement largement de
lInternationale Rouge Sportive.
41
Lagrange est contre le sport de haute
comptition et il se heurte demble aux responsables des grandes
fdrations sportives. Ainsi, en refusant denvisager la construction dun
stade de 100 000 places pour la coupe du monde de football 1939
saline-t-il les reprsentants de la fdration de football. Il rejoint en
cela les durs de la F.S.G.T. pour qui le sport de masse prime, le sport de
haut niveau tant rejet pour des raisons morales et thiques.
42
55
La cration du Brevet Sportif Populaire (B.S.P.) concrtise cette
orientation hyginiste du sport. Dans le rapport prliminaire au prsi-
dent de la Rpublique, H. Sellier prcise un certain nombre de points
particulirement significatifs des attendus:
le sport est domin par des comptitions nintressant que peu
dathltes. La slection et la prparation de ces athltes nont fait
que diminuer leffort destin lamlioration physique de
lindividu; sans rejeter llite, il faut se soucier de la sant des
Franais et des Franaises en dveloppant un sport de masse; des
preuves faciles contrler et organiser dmontreront un bon
quilibre physique face la pratique de tous les sports. Le BSP
veut participer un effort national de rnovation physique.
43
Sappuyant sur les preuves et tables de cotation du code de la force
de G. Hbert
44
, les crateurs du BSP ont pris comme repre lathlte
dbrouill en renforant cependant les exigences pour la course de
vitesse et le saut, par rapport aux preuves de rsistance.
45
Epreuve de
vulgarisation, le brevet doit tre loccasion damener la masse des franais et des
franaises prendre souci de leur sant et de leur dveloppement physique.
46
Ainsi le stade et les terrains de sport deviennent les rivaux du sanato-
rium ou de lhospice.
47
Autre versant de la politique sportive du Front Populaire, les activits
en plein-air stimulent llan ncessaire vers lair et le retour aux sources de
sant.
48
Dailleurs on retrouve les mmes arguments que ceux qui ont
prsids la cration du BSP:
transformer physiquement la jeunesse dun grand pays, lui donner
la fois le got de la vie en plein air et le sens de la joie, tout cela
constitue une uvre longue aux aspects multiples, aux incidences
insouponnes: le Brevet Sportif Populaire est un lment de cette
uvre ncessaire.
49
Larrt du 22 mai 1937 en tendant la demi-journe de plein air
aux classes de collges, lyces et coles primaires suprieures
50
rend
possible la pratique des sports dans le secondaire. Cette possibilit est
dautant plus exploite par les enseignants quils sont dsormais couverts
par lEtat en matire de responsabilit civile par la Loi du 5 avril 1937.
51
Mais comme le souligne Hbert, lducation physique est entire-
ment entre les mains des mdecins, et les voix slvent de plus en
plus nombreuses contre cette main mise du pouvoir mdical.
52
Le re-
56
groupement des services de Lagrange ceux du ministre de lducation
nationale et leur fusion avec lducation physique en juin 1937 a t en
partie motive par ces mouvements de protestation.
La cration de lOffice du Sport Scolaire et Universitaire en
juin 1938 consacre luvre sportive du Front Populaire et
partant, les vertus ducatives du sport
Georges Barthlemy, maire de Puteaux, dput et rapporteur de la
commission des finances de la chambre des dputs, charg dtudier
le budget de lducation physique des sports et des loisirs entre 1936 et
1939, est lorigine de la publication des textes concernant lO.S.S.U.
53
Extrieur au gouvernement du Front Populaire, Barthlemy est trs
engag dans la promotion dune meilleure organisation administrative
des sports et des loisirs en France:
Il est un point sur lequel laccord est unanime: cest que le rgime
sportif actuel est incapable daboutir dheureux rsultats () Il
faut mettre fin aux errements actuels en donnant simplement
lEtat des pouvoirs plus tendus de contrle et de coordination,
quitte, pour certains cas despce recourir aux procds
dautorit.
54
A lorigine des circulaires du 23 juin 1938 et du 22 juillet 1938
consacrant la cration de loffice,
55
Barthlemy essaye vainement de
trouver des subventions pour dvelopper lducation physique et le
sport. En fait les difficults du fonctionnement de lO.S.S.U. tiennent
plus linsuffisance des quipements sportifs qu des problmes de
budget de fonctionnement proprement dit.
56
Le dveloppement du
sport dans lcole et en ducation physique doit attendre la mise en
place de la politique de Vichy quelques annes plus tard.
Borotra et Baquet, deux proslytes notoires des pdagogies
sportives sous Vichy
Llgant et chevaleresque Borotra,
57
ami dYbarnegaray,
58
est nomm
commissaire gnral de lEducation Gnrale et Sportive (E.G.S.),
dpendant partir du 6 septembre 1940 du ministre de lducation
57
nationale dirig par Jean Carcopino. Tennisman de renom et
polytechnicien, militant des Croix de feu et acquis aux ides de Ptain,
Borotra est non seulement un grand champion, mais il reprsente de
plus, par sa formation et son ducation, une sorte de vivant modle de la
jeunesse franaise. Pour tous il est un guide et ceux qui le suivront seront
assurs de cheminer sur une route droite, lcart des prcipices.
59
Il affiche ostensiblement ses ides anti-allemandes
60
et il nhsite
pas rendre un hommage posthume Lo Lagrange au cours dune
journe nationale dathltisme organise en son honneur au stade Jean
Bouin le 5 octobre 1941, assurant ainsi la continuit du commissariat
gnral avec le sous-secrtariat dtat du Front Populaire
61
. Borotra se
dote aussi des moyens pour assurer la russite de lentreprise. Conscient
des carences en installations sportives, il obtient ds la fin de 1940 un
crdit dun milliard neuf cents millions de francs pour lquipement
sportif du pays,
62
ce qui se traduit au 1
er
janvier 1944 par 10 335 terrains
dducation physique acquis par lEtat (mais 1000 seulement sont
utilisables).
Luvre sportive, pilier de la rvolution nationale , est aussi
poursuivie dans le sport scolaire. De 542 associations pour 17194
licencis en 1939, lO.S.S.U., devenu Union du Sport Scolaire et
Universitaire en mars 1942
63
, passe en 44-45 1477 associations pour
43342 licencis ! Cette augmentation spectaculaire ne manque pas
dinquiter G. Hbert qui crit en 1942:
certes, nous voyons bien que la mthode naturelle a t prise comme
base de lducation physique gnrale. Mais en y regardant de plus
prs, on constate quelle se trouve rduite au rle de simple procd
de travail () ainsi le but, sinon avou, du moins patent est de
former finalement des sportifs
64
De fait, Hbert na pas tort car Maurice Baquet, spcialiste de la pda-
gogie sportive davant guerre, professeur lEcole Normale dE.P,
profite de cette orientation sportive pour pousser son avantage. Profes-
seur de pdagogie sportive au centre national dE.G.S. sous Vichy, il
publie en 1942 Education sportive, ainsi que de nombreux articles
dans les carnets dducation gnrale.
65
En 1943, son ouvrage Prcis
dinitiation sportive traite du sport lmentaire pour garons et filles et non
dentranement pour adultes ou athltes confirms.
66
Lapproche quil fait
de la pdagogie sportive accrdite sa remarque selon laquelle le sport
a des vertus, mais des vertus qui senseignent .
67
En effet, lexpos des conseils
58
pdagogiques a de quoi rassurer ceux qui craignent le dsordre et lexcs
dans le sport. La base de la pdagogie sportive est lapprentissage du
geste sportif.
68
Linitiation doit donc commencer par la dmonstration rpte
plusieurs fois () cest par imitation quil apprend le mieux le
geste sportif () il faudra former des groupes de valeur technique
homogne () lenfant doit tour tour se soumettre, et agir en
libert cela sapprend () le matre ne doit pas seulement crer
la bonne technique et la beaut des gestes, il doit tre un animateur,
il lui faut se donner et aider ses lves dgager leur personnalit
de faon mettre entre eux lharmonie qui engendre le bonheur.
69
La pdagogie sportive de Baquet se caractrise avant tout par lassoci-
ation de lducation physique et du sport. Cette tendance est dailleurs
confirme par la cration le 31 dcembre 1942 du Certificat dAptitude
au Professorat dEducation Physique et Sportive (C.A.P.E.P.S.). Aprs
la libration, Baquet continue lInstitut National des Sports (I.N.S.) la
promotion de la formule avec son collaborateur A. Listello. Caract-
ristique de cette association de lE.P. et des sports, lducation spor-
tive gnralise prsente dans la revue I.N.S. ds 1946 nest rien
dautre quune compilation dexercices emprunts aux mthodes
davant-guerre. Cependant, en plein retour de lclectisme
70
dans les
textes officiels, il profite de la publication des instructions officielles du
1
er
octobre 1945 pour joindre une note dinformation de lI.N.S. sous
le titre: lavenir de lducation physique. Dans cette note, il apporte
ce commentaire emprunt de militantisme: quon le veuille ou non, nous
allons vers une ducation sportive
71
Jusquau dbut de la 5
me
Rpublique, la situation
institutionnelle de lE.P.S. ne va gure voluer, mais la
corporation des enseignants dE.P.S. commence prendre
en main ses destines
Limmobilisme politique bien connu des gouvernements de la 4
me
Rpublique et le contexte de guerre coloniale nest pas favorable
linnovation en E.P.S. malgr des avances significatives comme
lintgration de lencadrement de lassociation sportive des tablisse-
ments scolaires dans le service statutaire des enseignants dE.P.S.
72
En
59
fait, cest sur le terrain que les transformations se font. Opposs aux
partisans de lducation physique mthodique, les cadres de lI.N.S.
et un certain nombre de professeurs de lEcole Normale Suprieure
dE.P.S. (E.N.S.E.P.S.) organisent la promotion des pdagogies sportives.
Quil sagisse de la cration de la revue E.P.S. en 1950, de lorgani-
sation des stages par lAmicale des anciens lves de lE.N.S.E.P.S.,
73
de la publication de nombreux ouvrages pdagogiques, tout est mis en
uvre pour prouver que le sport est accessible tous, dans la mesure o
lon dcouvre des formes lmentaires et attnues, dans la mesure o lon rompt
avec la rigidit des rglements.
74
En fait le combat pour lintroduction du sport ducatif est dj gagn,
mme si linstitution ne suit pas encore, en particulier sur le plan des
installations sportives.
75
La prise de conscience de la valeur des mdailles
dans un contexte de guerre froide, plus que le dveloppement de la
pratique sportive elle-mme, laugmentation des effectifs scolaires et
paralllement celle dun corps professoral de plus en plus comptent
et impliqu dans le mouvement sportif associatif rendent inluctable
la prise en compte du sport comme fait ducatif.
Cest ce quoi sattachera M. Herzog, Haut-commissaire la jeunesse
et aux sports, ds 1958.
Rsum
Peru par certains comme une antigymnastique dont les mfaits
physiques, moraux et sociaux sont systmatiquement dnoncs, le sport
ne devra son intgration lcole qu la volont dhommes politiques
dabord sduits par son rle idologique.
Mais de la pratique volontaire du sport au sein des associations
sportives scolaires sa prise en compte en tant quobjet denseignement
en ducation physique, le chemin va tre long et jalonn de dbats et
de conflits entre hommes politiques, mdecins, parents dlves,
pdagogues et sportifs. Le contexte europen de lEntre-deux-guerres,
avec le poids dans lopinion publique des exemples italien et allemand,
jouera un rle non ngligeable dans lvolution des attitudes lgard
du sport.
Lhypothse principale de ce travail repose sur le constat que les
vertus du sport ne vont senseigner (Baquet, 1942) qu partir du
moment o trois conditions sont remplies: lvolution de lopinion
60
publique en faveur dun sport devenu plus propre et moins violent, le
changement dattitude des enseignants dducation physique
nouvellement forms partir de 1933 et la mise en place de politiques
sportives inaugures par le Front Populaire.
Le corpus tudi comporte les ouvrages et les principales revues
dducation physique ainsi que la presse sportive de la priode de
rfrence. Les dbats parlementaires, textes officiels, documents
politiques et syndicaux sont aussi utiliss.
La conclusion accrdite la dclaration prmonitoire de M. Baquet
(1946): il faut, quon le veuille ou non, faire une place plus grande au
sport et linitiation sportive. Nous allons donc vers une ducation
sportive.
Bibliographie
Amar M., Ns pour courir, Grenoble, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 1987.
Andrieu G. (sous la direction de), Le brevet sportif populaire et la politique du
Front Populaire en faveur des sports et des loisirs, Nanterre, Laboratoire dhistoire
du sport, 1987.
Andrieu G., Enjeux et dbats en E.P. (1886-1966) La dmocratisation de lE.P.
entre dsir et ralit (1967-1997), Paris, les Cahiers Actio, 1998.
Arnaud P. (sous la direction de), les origines du sport ouvrier en Europe, Paris,
LHarmattan, 1994.
Arnaud P., Naissance dune fdration enjeux de pouvoirs autour du sport
scolaire (1919-1939), dans CTHS, Jeux et sports dans lhistoire tome 1
associations et politiques, Paris, Editions du CTHS, 1992, pp. 27-64.
Arnaud P., Les deux voies dintgration du sport dans linstitution scolaire ,
in Arnaud P. et Terret T. (sous la direction de), Education et politique sportives
XIXe XXe sicles, Paris, Editions du CTHS, 1995, pp. 11-39.
Arvin-Brod A., Et Didon cra la devise des Jeux Olympiques , Echirolles, Edit-
ions Sciriolus, 1994
Baquet M., Education sportive. Initiation et entranement, Paris, Godin, 1942.
Baquet M., Prcis dinitiation sportive, Paris, Editions Bourrelier et Cie, 1943.
Bellin du Coteau Dr, Lavenir du sport, dans Lalmanach sportif, Revue annuelle
illustre, Paris, 1927.
Bellin du Coteau Dr, La mthode sportive gymnastiques et sports , dans
Labb M., Trait dducation physique, tome deuxime, Paris, Doin, 1930, pp.
305-433.
Boulongne P-Y., La vie et luvre pdagogique de Pierre de Coubertin 1863-1937,
Ottawa, Edt. Lemac, 1975.
Cholley P., Pierre de Coubertin la deuxime croisade, Lausanne, Comit Interna-
tional Olympique, 1996.
61
Commissariat lE.G.S., Education gnrale et sportive, Paris, Bourrelier, 1942.
Coubertin P. de, Bulletin n4 du B.I.P.S., 1929.
Coubertin P. de, Leons de pdagogie sportive, 1921
Coubertin P. de, Pdagogie sportive histoire des exercices sportifs, 1922.
Delaplace J-M., Les acteurs du dveloppement du sport entre les deux guerres
en France (1919-1940): dfenseurs et adversaires , in Krger A. et Teja A,
La Comune Eredit dello Sport in Europa, Roma, Scuola dello Sport Coni,
1997, pp. 351-359.
Didon Pre H., Linfluence morale des sports athltiques, discours prononc
au congrs olympique du Havre le 29 juillet 1897.
Dubief H., Le dclin de la IIIe Rpublique 1929-1938, Paris, Seuil, 1976.
Gay-Lescot J-L., De lE.P. rpublicaine lE.G.S. nationale (1936-1942) six
annes fondamentales, dans Arnaud P., Clment J-P. et Herr M. (sous la
direction de), Education physique et sport en France 1920-1980, Clermont-Fer-
rand, ditions AFRAPS, 1989, pp. 129-146.
Giolitto P., Histoire de la jeunesse sous Vichy, Paris, Perrin, 1991.
Hbert G., Le code de la force, Paris, Vuibert, 1914.
Hbert G., Le sport contre lducation physique, Paris, Vuibert, 1925.
Raude E. et Prouteau G., Le message de Lo Lagrange, Paris, La compagnie du
livre, 1950.
Saint-Martin J-P., Lexemplarit des ducations physiques trangres en France entre
les deux guerres mondiales, Thse pour le doctorat STAPS, Universit de Lyon
1, 1997.
Spivak M., La politique sportive du Front Populaire : essai dinterprtation ,
dans Andrieu G. (sous la direction de), Le brevet sportif populaire et la politique
du Front Populaire en faveur des sports et des loisirs, Nanterre, Laboratoire
dhistoire du sport, 1987, pp. 9-17.
Zorro J., 150 ans dE.P.S., Paris, Association des enseignants dE.P.S., 1986.
Notes
1
Coubertin P. de (1921)
2
Coubertin P. de (1922), p. 55.
3
Boulongne P-Y (1975), p. 239.
4
Voir Delaplace J-M. (1997)
5
Cest donc la conjonction de raisons politiques, culturelles et pdagogiques,
qui ont entrav lintgration du sport dans linstitution scolaire, Arnaud P.
(1995), p. 12.
6
Cest loccasion des championnats de lA.A.A.G. organiss Arcueil le
samedi 7 mars 1891 que Didon prononce la devise au destin olympique:
citius, altius, fortius, cit par P. de Coubertin in la Revue Athltique du 14
mars 1891.
7
Cit par Arvin-Brod A (1994), pp. 66-67.
62
8
Baquet M. (1943), p. 3.
9
Coubertin P. (1929), p. 12.
10
Didon Pre H. (1897).
11
Arnaud P. (1995), p. 23.
12
Bellin du Coteau (1927), p. 3.
13
La liste est fournie par Andrieu G. (1998), p. 40.
14
Circulaire du 13 fvrier 1923.
15
Ils ne sont autoriss qu suivre des entranements pendant la semaine.
16
Le journal des Lyces, ditorial, septembre 1923
17
Les professeurs de gymnastique, qui depuis quelque temps ont obtenu
dans nos tablissements denseignement la grande vedette, dnoncent
aujourdhui aux parents le srieux inconvnient de la pratique immodre
des sports dans luniversit. Rien nest plus accablant que le rapport que le
Prsident de lAmicale des professeurs dducation physique de
lenseignement secondaire se propose de soumettre au Congrs national
des professeurs de lyce, dans lIllustration du 27 fvrier 1926.
18
Cit par Hbert, revue Lducation physique n 31 du 15 mai 1925, p. 33.
19
Voir Delaplace J-M. (1997), p. 353.
20
Ed. J., Jeux olympiques, dans Le Temps, cit dans la revue lEducation
Physique, n23 du 15 juillet 1924, p.34.
21
Hbert G. (1925).
22
Le gymnaste suisse, Lausanne, 20 novembre 1925.
23
Expression emprunte P. Arnaud (1995), op. cit., p.28.
24
Voir sur ce sujet Fabrizio F., Sport e fascismo, la politica sportiva del regime
1924-1936, Rimini-Firenze, Guaraldi, 1976; ainsi que, Gonzalez Aja T et
Teja A., Mussolini and Franco Sportmen: two constrasting fascit conceptions
of sports, dans Krger A. et Teja A. (1997), pp. 413-419.
25
To the end, a full-fledged legend was built up around the sporting life of Mussolini,
who, despite the countless tasks he faced, always found time to practice an incredible
variety of sports, especially those which called for strength and daring, in line with
the motto: live dangerously, in Gonzalez Aja T. et Teja A. (1997), p. 413.
26
Sauf parfois de lgers secours en argent si elles font uvre dE.P. bien
caractrise, note incluse dans le texte original.
27
Strohl insiste beaucoup sur cet abandon des socits sportives leur vie
propre et loctroi dun simple appui sympathique sans subvention, dans
Strohl D., En Italie le rgime fasciste a cr un admirable mouvement
en faveur dune ducation synthtique: physique, virile et morale, dans la
revue lEducation Physique, n 27 (nvelle srie), 15 juillet 1933, p. 187.
28
Strohl D., idem p. 180.
29
Voici un commentaire journalistique tout fait difiant: A la suite de notre
dfaite de Magdebourg, o, en athltisme, les Allemands nous infligrent une vritable
correction, les franais prsents sur le terrain auraient d en sortir loreille basse, si
nous navions pas eu compter avec lesprit chevaleresque du Ritter von Halt ()
Aussitt que le public eut applaudi frntiquement la dernire victoire de 4x400, qui
attribuait son quipe lavantage dcisif de 40 points dcart, le prsident de la
fdration allemande se saisissait du micro. Il haranguait les 20 000 spectateurs,
63
leur expliquait que les franais avaient valeureusement disput leurs chances, que la
faute de leur trop dure dfaite taient due principalement des circonstances
indpendantes deux, qui ne leur avaient pas permis de dplacer de Magdebourg leur
quipe complte. Puis il donnait lordre de pousser avec lui un triple Heil en
lhonneur des visiteurs. Ce qui fut fait avec un ensemble et un enthousiasme trs
germanique. Les Franais quittrent lAllemagne profondment touchs du geste
minemment chevaleresque, digne du meilleur esprit olympique, dans le Miroir
des sports, n792 du 2 octobre 1934, pp. 350-351.
30
Bellin du Coteau Dr. (1930), pp. 307-309.
31
Bellin du Coteau Dr. (1927), p. 115.
32
Bellin du Coteau en convient lui mme: on peut envisager les rsultats des
sports sous un aspect gnral, sen tenant des apprciations densemble,
dun ordre videmment peu scientifique. Cela ne veut point dire que ces
apprciations sont ngligeables, car elles portent sur un nombre de sujets
considrable , idem p. 428.
33
idem p. 431.
34
Dubief H. (1976), p. 137.
35
Bellin du Coteau (1930), p. 431.
36
Voir sur ce sujet Cholley P. (1996), pp. 119-131.
37
Autrement dit les Lois des 20, 21 et 24 juin 1936.
38
Respectivement ministre de lducation nationale et ministre de la sant.
39
Le sous-secrtariat dtat de Lo Lagrange sera rattach au ministre de
lducation nationale en 1937.
40
Cit par Spivak M. (1987), p. 10.
41
Voir Gounot A., Sport rformiste ou sport rvolutionnaire? Les dbuts des
Internationales sportives ouvrires, dans Arnaud P. (1994), pp. 219-246.
42
Voir la lettre de Henri Sellier Lo Lagrange du 26 octobre 1936, A.N. F17
14460.
43
Rapport au prsident de la Rpublique: Brevet Sportif Populaire, 9 mars
1937.
44
Hbert G. (1914).
45
Voir Andrieu G. (1987), pp. 61-73. La question de lorigine du BSP est
controverse et on peut lire sur ce sujet Saint-Martin J-P. (1997), pp. 322-
323.
46
Capitaine A. Clayeux, rgles dorganisation du BSP, 1938, p.45.
47
Cette expression est inscrite dans le rapport au prsident de la Rpublique
concernant la cration du conseil suprieur des sports, 15 juillet 1936 (J.O.
du 23 juillet 1936, p. 7714).
48
Le Populaire du 2 novembre 1936.
49
Raude E. et Prouteau G. (1950), p. 135.
50
Ce texte fait suite la circulaire du 6 aot 1937 qui instaure cette demi-
journe de plein air dans le primaire.
51
Dans tous les cas o la responsabilit des membres de lenseignement public la
suite ou loccasion dun fait dommageable commis, soit par les enfants ou les jeunes
qui leur sont confis raison de leurs fonctions, soit ces enfants ou jeunes gens dans
les mmes conditions, la responsabilit de lEtat sera substitue celle des dits membres
64
de lenseignement qui ne pourront jamais tre remis en cause devant les tribunaux
civils par la victime ou ses reprsentants, J.O. du 6 avril 1937, p. 3923.
52
Voir Ory P., la politique du Front Populaire en matire dducation physi-
que, dans Andrieu G. (1987), pp. 18-30.
53
Voir Saint-Martin J-P. (1997), pp. 338-358 et annexe n38.
54
J.O.D.P.C., sance du 7 juillet 1937, annexe n2850, p.1497.
55
lO.S.S.U. est donc cr sous le premier gouvernement Daladier aprs la
chute du Front Populaire, mais J. Zay est toujours le ministre de lducation
nationale en charge de lducation physique et des sports.
56
Voir Arnaud P. (1992), pp. 57-58.
57
Expression emprunte R. Gillouin, philosophe, ami dAlibert et de
Maurras, conseiller de Ptain, cit par Giolitto P. (1991), p. 186.
58
Secrtaire dEtat la jeunesse et la famille du gouvernement de Vichy en
1940, basque comme Borotra.
59
Giolitto P. (1991), p. 189.
60
Il soppose toute rencontre sportive entre Franais et Allemands et dclare
mme lors dune visite au collge dathltes dAntibes: nous nous prparons
pour librer le pays. Les Allemands vont dailleurs dclencher contre lui
une campagne de diffamation et Laval le congdiera deux jours seulement
aprs sa prise de pouvoir le 20 avril 1942.
61
La transformation du B.S.P. en Brevet Sportif National tmoigne de cette
continuit.
62
En 1939, le budget des sports ne dpasse pas 50 millions de francs.
63
Sans que cela ne change fondamentalement le fonctionnement du sport
scolaire.
64
Cit par Gay-Lescot J-L. (1989), p. 138.
65
Commissariat lE.G.S. (1942).
66
Baquet M. (1943), p. 3.
67
Idem.
68
Idem p. 5.
69
Idem pp. 5-9.
70
Sans approfondir cet aspect, il convient de rappeler que cet clectisme est
surtout d aux conditions sanitaires de la population scolaire au sortir de la
guerre ainsi qu ltat du corps enseignant et des installations dE.P.
71
Note dinformation n1, I.N.S. 1945.
72
A concurrence de 3 heures forfaitaires par semaine; Dcret du 25 mars
1950.
73
Comme par exemple le stage de perfectionnement de Dinard en 1948.
Lamicale fonde le comit dtudes et dinformations pdagogiques de
lE.P.S. qui transforme les notes techniques de lE.N.S.E.P.S. en revue EPS.
74
L. Lemaire (1954) cit par Zorro J. (1986), p. 66.
75
Voir Amar M. (1987).
65
Professor Dr. Jean-Michel Delaplace
Montpellier University, Faculty of Sports Ssciences,
Director of sports history team and member of CRIS, University of Lyon
E-mail: delaplace.sport.histoire@wanadoo.fr
Major publications:
Histoire du sport et de lducation physique en France et en Allemagne.
Clermont-Ferrand: ditions AFRAPS, 1994. (with G.Treutlein, G.Spitzer)
Lhistoire du sport, lhistoire des sportifs: le sportif, lentraneur, le
dirigeant, 19
e
et 20
e
sicles. Paris: lHarmattan, 1999.
CHRISTOS PAPPAS
66
67
THE AGON. A SOCIAL-HISTORICAL AND -EDUCATIONAL ANALYSIS
OF THE AGONISTIC PRINCIPLE IN GREEK CULTURE
The Agon A Social-Historical
and -educational Analysis of the Agonistic
Principle in Greek Culture
Christos Pappas
Ioannina University, Greece
Introduction
To understand the agonistic principle in ancient Greek culture we have
to look at the variety of ancient Greek authors, philosophers, and histo-
rians as well as at the many inscriptions that have been unearthed over
the centuries. In this we can see that the rich cultural life of antiquity
was equally dominated by intellectual as by physical education.
The conscientious attitude of the man (and to a lesser extent as far as
the sources go women) of antiquity to his body which were connected to
the respective culture of the time are visible in the works of Homer, Plato,
Aristoteles, Pausanias and others. They show us the great importance of
the agonistic principle in the socio-cultural life of the ancient Greeks.
To understand the impact of the agonistic principle we have to
differentiate between two main cultural periods.
1
The first is the knightly
culture of the time of Homer in which the struggle for honour and
acceptance were of prime importance. The other period is centred
around the philosophical works of Plato. He was attempting to invent
the ideal state in which the agonistic principle was put into the context
of education. This way, poetry and philosophy demonstrate the per-
fection of ancient man under the notion of Kalokagathia, which combines
physical and intellectual as well as artistic perfection.
This agonistic principle which was especially elaborated at the time
of Homer shows a high degree of continuity through the various epochs
until the rebirth of the Olympic Games in the nineteenth century. This
way one may talk about the renaissance of the agonistic idea of antiquity
in the late nineteen century, as it became one of the cornerstones of
CHRISTOS PAPPAS
68
the modern Olympic movement. This continuity of cultural elements
through the various historical epochs has been shown elsewhere. Of
course, the idea of the agon was adapted to the concrete conditions of
the respective times.
2
During the nineteenth century only shortly after the liberation
from Turkish occupation a renaissance of the Olympic idea was
attempted. While in northern Europe, particularly in Germany, the
philantropical element was responsible for much of the revival of
physical education in the late eighteenth and early nineteen centuries,
a renaissance of the ancient sporting ideal was attempted in Greece
due to a number of exogenous and endogenous influences. As far as
the endogenous endeavours were concerned, there have been four
attempts in Greece for the revival of the ancient Olympic Games, in
the years 1859, 1870, 1875, and 1889. These attempts were not very
successful and there was little resonance in the Greek public so that it
can be safely assumed that they failed
3
.
The exogenous renaissance of the Olympic sporting ideal in Greece
was influenced by a number of independent events:
a) A revival of the notions of antiquity brought particularly home by
Greek students who had studied abroad and came back after the
liberation.
b) The help in developing a Greek system that was brought in by experts
from abroad. This was particularly the case due to the German-Greek
relations. Here it was the special relationship between Greece and
Bavaria that played a particular role as Greece received a Bavarian
King.
c) The excarvations in Olympia by Johann Winckelmann (1717-1768)
and his successors such as Ernst Curtius (1814-1896) and Wilhelm
Drpfeld (1853-1940).
4
The four attempts to revive the Olympic Games in the nineteenth
cenury were combined with much discussion about the importance of
classical Greek culture. The Olympic idea was thus responsible for the
modern Greeks to be concerned with the tradition of antiquity.
This nostalgia for an Olympic renaissance in the nineteenth century
had its shortcomings considering that Greece had been about four
hundred years under Turkish occupation. Additionally, the country
was politically in quite a chaos immediately following the liberation.
Solving the political and economic problems was much more important
69
than the cultural ones. In spite of this, the revival of the Olympic Games
was attempted many times although there were much more pressing
problems at hand. When the Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin finally
revived the Olympic Games, it had a different meaning for Greece
than for the rest of the world.
The agonistic principle as basis to understand Greek culture
1. The notion of AGON
A world with heroic deeds is developed in the Homeric epoi of Ilias
and Odyssee which have agonistic deeds at their centre. The Homeric
world is characterised by the trilogy
5
of ideals:
Philopatria = to love the fatherland
Philoprotia = to love victory
Progonolatria = to love the ancestors.
This can be seen in the Ilias by a bird, symbol for the forefathers
land.
6
To be the best and superior to anybody else.
7
Not to dishonour the ancestors.
8
The Greek word agon comes originally from the verb agonizein (to
fight) and referred to the spectators that surrounded the ground where
the struggle took place.
The original meaning of the word can be seen in the Odyssee: They
assembled, smoothed out a place for the battle and made space for
ground where the fight would take place.
9
Eventually, there was a
change in meaning in that battle became a competition also in the artistic
field and in the sense of a discussion, a battle of arguments. This was
particularly the case in the work of Isokrates who wrote that at the
occasions of such festivities there is the chance to make many new
friends and to spent a lot of money not just to see athletic competitions
in which speed and strength were tested but which gave also the chance
to compete in an intellectual field.
10
Berve added the following about the agon: Agon was a game, but
just like any game it had its seriousness and rules. The training to prepare
for the game was taken dead seriously and, of course, the competition
in particular which could be lethal. It demanded such a utilisation of
CHRISTOS PAPPAS
70
strength that Agony could take the meaning of fear and pain, and that
the adjective athlios which derive its meaning from the noun Athlos
(competition) became synonymous for painful and miserable.
11
Huizinga wrote in his Homo Ludens on the notion of agon. Bolkerstein
12
disagreed with him about the combination of the game with the agonistic
principle. Huizinga therefore explained that the agon had all the form-
alistic principles of a game and is usually performed in the context of a
festivity. It is impossible to exclude the competition as a cultural function
from the connection with game, play, celebration in a holy context.
13
2. Different kinds of Agon
The agon has as its main function to make man of antiquity work har-
der. Competition was the attempt to come up with better solutions, to
do better than one had done before but also better than anybody else.
That way, there were competitions in Greek antiquity between
schoolboys trying to do better in good and beautiful handwriting or
painting, but also the well-known competitions such as the Olympic
Games and many others to prepare for these in the years in between.
There were also competitions of soldiers to celebrate those that had
done the most courageous deeds. It is impossible to list all of the known
competitions that fell under the name of agon, the most important in
terms of their contribution to Greek cultural life were the following
categories: those related to sport, to horses and to music.
2.1 Gymnic agones
The gymnastic competitions included all contests in which the
competitors were in the nude. In such an agon physical performance in
the widest sense was applied, this included in particular running,
jumping, javelin throwing, discus throwing, wrestling, boxing and
pancration, and the pentathlon.
2.2 Hippic agones
In the competitions with horses there were basically two meanings:
On the one hand the question was the speed and agility of the horses
and on the other hand the skill of the charioteers. There were special
competitions for young horses (Poloi) and for adult ones (Adephagoi or
Teleioi), a separation which was also used for the chariots with two or
four horses.
71
2.3 Musical agones
The musical competitions included the categories of music and of
poetry. Artists, i.e. poets, composers, choreographers, but also those
presenting poetry and drama, music and danse were in competition
with each other.
The religious celebrations were the best occasions for such competi-
tions. Those were bound to the gods that were particularly celebrated
at the particular sites or cities, i.e. Zeus in Olympia, Poseidon in Corinth,
Apollon in Delphi, Zeus in Nemea, Athena in Athens. These games
therefore received the names of the gods that were prayed to at these
festivities. The agon in these cities was repeated in a certain cycle, i.e.
four years for the Olympic Games honouring Zeus at Olympia. These
cycles did much to keep Greece together as a nation as it was a rem-
inder of the unity of the nation in spite of the many differences. The
ritual that brought the best of the young of all of Greece together helped
maintaining the band that kept the nation together.
3. The agonistic principle and its socio-cultural importance in the life of the
Greeks
The constant attempts of the Greeks for physical perfection has also
influenced their notion of beauty. This did not only include the physical
education but it was combined with the notion of perfection in the
intellectual field and the perfect character. Much of our current notion
that physical education as an efficient way of character building comes
from the ancient Greeks.
a) At which occasions were there agonistic competitions?
b) And what were they for?
In Homers poetry we realise that the agon was particularly performed
at festivities and in the leisure time. Special occasions included marria-
ges, visits of famous people, thanksgiving at harvest times or other
occasions such as victories after battle. In texts that are referring the
time prior to the Trojan War we learn that the ancient heroes spent
much of their leisure time practising discus or javelin throwing and
archery.
14
In the second question we are told in the Ilias try always to be
better than the others, to be the first, not to be a shame to your tribe
I hope that you will become a decent successor of such famous men as
CHRISTOS PAPPAS
72
your ancestors.
15
This quote from Homer shows us that the prime
goal of the ancient Greek was to make full use of his ambition and to
improve on the performance of oneself and also that of others.
Recognition and glory were particularly important for man in antiquity.
Another occasion were religious celebrations, holy competitions,
agones hieroi, and which related to a particular god for which the city or
the stadium was known. If the competition became important, then
the local god received a primary importance for all of Greece. This
can best be seen in the case of the Olympic Games, which eventually
became the most important of all competitions in ancient Greece. These
games helped to bring all of the Greek city states which in themselves
were competing and often fighting with each other together in a
quadrennial competition. Olympia was outside the actual battle grounds
as the state of Elis was not very important. It could thus become a
panhellenic centre for celebrations, parades and many other activities
which arose out of the fact that it turned eventually into the main
spectator event of the time. The Greek citizens of all of the cities came
together here to look at their local heroes and see how they compare
with the heroes of other towns. But at the same time this was a good
meeting place for business, for political negotiations, and for the
development of socio-cultural relations between the various city states.
During the Games there was an Ekecheiria, a truce. The agones had a
great attraction to all of Greece and could thus help to integrate the
Greek nation through its symbolic interplay and ritual functions. The
truce was, however, also the chance to establish and develop good
relations among the city states in many other fields and thus helped
every four years that, in spite of the competitive spirit between the
nations, the unity between the Greek cities was still maintained to a
certain extent. The time of the Games also served in the spreading of
scientific knowledge. It was only at the occasion of such gatherings
that discussions reaching not just one state could take place. Philo-
sophers, poets, historians, politicians all used the possibility to present
their newest ideas at the games, e.g., Herodot could present his History
of the Persian Wars only at Olympia as otherwise he would have had to
travel all trough Greece to make his message known. The artist Aetion,
after having presented his work at Olympia, could marry there the
daughter of a judge of the competition of the Olympic Games, Proxeni-
da
16
. So, the Games also served as a marriage market, to assure that
marriages between Greeks of the various cities could take place.
73
Discussions consisting of opposing ideas being presented also played
an important role in ancient Greek life. This showed the role of the
dialogue as a method to find the truth. We can therefore see that the
agon did play an important role in Greek life. To take part in such
competitions you had to be Greek and of free birth, so that the racial
conscience of the Greeks was strongly developed. The notion that
somebody who was not Greek might show up and compete at Olympia
was completely unthinkable for an ancient Greek.
4. The agonistic principle as constituent element of the kalokagathia
The Homeric ideal to be better than anybody else, to be a true hero,
eventually became the icon for all of Greece, which then could not be
missed at any of the Greek national festivals, as much of what was
considered to be Greek was defined in such a way. The agon had become
part of the educational system. In the older culture of Sparta we
therefore find also a different meaning of the arete, a virtue that was
connected with the physical as well as the intellectual perfection. Athens
became the cultural centre of Greece in the late sixth and the early
fifth century BC. All agonistic competitions were celebrated there and
financially supported.
17
It becomes obvious that a new educational ideal is strived for in the
cultural climate of Athens: Kalokagathia, the education of the harmo-
niously developed character which is best achieved by applying also
music and gymnastics is particularly stressed in Platos writing about
the state. To understand his ideas better which in many ways have
become the basis of much of sport education around the world, I will
summarise his system.
Divisions of the three functions of the citizens and state according to Plato
STATE STATE STATE STATE STATE VIRTUES VIRTUES VIRTUES VIRTUES VIRTUES SOUL SOUL SOUL SOUL SOUL
PHILOSOPHERS WISDOM INTELLIGENT
GUARDS HEROISM HEROIC
ARTISAN VIGILANCE CREATIVE
CHRISTOS PAPPAS
74
Educational Aims of the State
RULER LOGIC WISDOM
(ARCHONTES) (LOGISTIKON) (SOFIA)
GUARD HEROISM HEROISM
(PHYLAKES) (THYMOEIDES) (ANDREIA)
WORK DESIRE PROPER MEASURE
(DEMIOURGOI) (EPITHYMITIKON) (SOPHROSYNI)
We realise that the human soul has three different layers and therefore
he also has three different divisions of the state. These three represent
different sectors of society, which have to receive a different education.
On the one hand there are the farmer and the artisan who are not
educated by the state but have received their training by their parents.
They are capable of supplying also the other segments of society with
the necessary food and goods. Then there are the guards and the
philosophers who are educated by the state and learn much about
science, gymnastics and music, fields that were considered of primary
importance for all of education. From the schema as of above you can
see that Plato is of the opinion that the upper echelon of society needs
to be educated by the state and that this education ought to include
gymnastics and music. This had the additional function to assure a
certain degree of toughness and readiness for war. Kalokagathia, is thus
achieved by assuring courage through physical education, but at the
same time the best of the soul is educated by the use of music and
poetry. The young should be prepared for a life in the polis in such a
way that all of the functions of the state were best provided for.
According to Plato, whoever is looking after the soul is doing the best
preparation for the city state.
18
Obviously the agonistic principle was visible not only in Homer and
Plato but a constituent element of all Greek education and life (Paideia).
75
The renaissance of the agonistic principle
in modern Greek sport
Modern Greek sport is characterised not just by the typical internatio-
nal sports but also by the remnansts of the ancient Greek with its agones.
Their main function is to remember the proud tradition.
19
There are many local competitions in modern Greece that depend
on the initiatives of local organisers. These Games come and go accor-
ding to the local traditions and capabilities of the organisers. As an
example we shall use here the pancration which Philostratos termed the
most beautiful of all events. It was introduced in Olympia in 648 BC.
20
It is a combination of wrestling and boxing, quite brutal, and often
ended with one of the competitors dying on the field. The revival of
the pancration in modern Greece took place on September 7, 1997 in
Olympia.
The revival of this sport was done at the occasion of the 294th.
Olympiade if you continue counting the ancient ones. The organisa-
tion of the event is handled by EOPA, a federation that is exclusively
concerned with the revival of ancient games. It has fiftynine clubs all
over Greece. As for pancration, in 1999 it is planned to start a European
Pancration Federation in Athens.
According to EOPA, modern Pancration is devided into three
different sections:
1. Pancrations for girls and boys seven through nine and ten through
eleven. The aim here is a thorough technical education.
2. Polydamas, a competition of girls and boys, women and men. In these
competitions the competitors have to fight with three opponents at
the same time. They are armed with knive, sticks, javelins etc. This
is supposed to exercise all of the athletic abilities. All skills are
supposed to be developed further at this stage.
3. The pancration for women and men in which the competitors strive
for victory. The athletes may use all of their possibilities to win and
force the opponent to give up. Since the introduction of the sport,
no major injuries have been recorded as the deadly blows of antiquity
have been excluded.
To have competitions for the benefit of the tourists and to attract more
toursists to certain localities in Greece is not the function of the
pancration. As can be seen by the populatity and the speed with which
CHRISTOS PAPPAS
76
such a revived form of sport has cought on in Greece. It is a living
proof of the continuity and the historical conscience of the agonistic
principle that is still alive in Greek culture. To have a national federa-
tion for the maintenance of the ancient Greek sports shows the
adaptability of the ancient agonistic principle to the structures of a
modern sport.
This federation organises athletic meetings in which the traditional
competitions are being staged, such as the Stadion 192,27 metres, the
Diaulos 384,54 metres (two Stadia), longjump with altera, the race
carrying arms and other disciplines from antiquity. In Epidaurus there
will be competitions throughout the year. The organizational committee
will stage these from April 1 through October 30.
Of course, there is the respctive ancient stadion and, of course some
of it will serve the tourists. But the revival of the ancient spirit and with
it the ancient games is indicative of the proud heritage of Greek sport
which will assure the participation not just of men and women but also
of school children. Many Greek cities have now athletic meetings that
go back to the ancient rites performed in that particular town. Of course,
it can be questioned whether this is really a sign of continuity as there
were so many centuries without, but the readiness of the population to
pick up these ancient sports shows that the spirit is still (or again) there.
In Arachova, e.g., there is the celebration of St. George, which takes
place for three days. On the first day there is a competition of old men,
they run barefooted uphill and the first price is a lamb which is grilled
on a spear. There are various jumping competitions on the second day
and on the third, there are wrestling, shot put and weight lifting.
21
Such competitions are not only taking place at the occasion of religious
and other local festivities but also to honour famous personalities and
to remember important dates in Greek history, particularly in
antiquity.
22
Annually, there are competitions at the Thermopyles, the Leonidia,
remembering the King of Sparta who faught a decicive battle at this
place with his 300 heroes against 7,000 Persian warrior. To honour
Zeus, there have been the annual Diia in Katerini (Macedonia) since
1926. The Panathenean Games have taken place in Athens to honour
Pallas Athene since 1927. The battle of Marathon under the leadership
of Miltiades and the run by a warrior in his full armour from Marathon
to Athens takes place twice a year, on April 6 and on October 20. This
run was organised for the first time at the occasion of the first modern
77
Olympic Games in Athens, but only the long distance running boom
of the recent decades assured a sufficient amount of participants for
this event.
There are many other examples for this modern trend to revive
traditional games. In this we find the continuity of the agonistic prin-
ciple, but also the attempt to maintain and celebrate a proud tradition.
It is thus not only the philoprotia, but at the same time the philopatria
and the progonolatria that is being celebrated in the revival of the ancient
agones.
23
Notes
1
See Kornex1, Elmar, Leibesbungen bei Homer und Platon, Frankfurt/Main
1969, pp. 7f.
2
See Pappas, Christos, Die antike agonale Idee als Grundstein der Olympischen
Spiele und des heutigen Wettkampfsports, Saarbrcken 1986, pp.42 ff.
3
See Chrysaphis I.E., Die gegenwrtigen internationalen Olympischen Spiele,
Athens 1930, vol. A, pp. 16,17, 51 und 112 (in Greek).
4
For the endogeneous and exogeneous influences of the revival of the
Olympic Games in the nineteenth century see also Pappas, op. cit., pp. 92
ff.
5
Pappas, Die antike agonale Idee, p. 43.
6
Hom. Il. 12, 243.
7
Hom. Il. 6, 206-210.
8
Hom. Il. 6, 206-210.
9
Stanford, W.B., Homerou Odysseia, London 1961, p. 120, chapter. 8, 260 (in
Greek).
10
Benseler, Gustavus Eduardus, Isokrates, Leipzig 1913, p. 51, chapter. IV, 45
(in Greek).
11
Berve, Helmut: Gestaltende Krfte der Antike, Mnchen 1966, p. 3.
12
Huizinga, J., Homo Ludens, Basel 1949, p. 49.
13
Ibidem, p. 50.
14
Il. 2, pp. 773-75; Od.4, pp. 425 27; 17, pp.168-69.
15
Dindorf, Guilelmus and Henze, C., Homeri Ilias, Leipzig 1938, p. 119, chapter.
VI, pp. 205-11 (in Greek).
16
See Pavlidis, Evangelos, History of Gymnastics, Athens 1953, p. 179 (in Greek.).
17
Koch, Alois Die Leibesbungen im Urteil der antiken und frhchristlichen Anthro-
pologie, Stuttgart 1965, p. 20.
18
Ibidem.
19
Pappas, Die antike agonale Idee, op. cit., p. 116.
20
Santa, A.S., Olympia Olympische Spiele Olympiasieger von 776 v. Chr. 393 n.
Chr. und 1896 1964, Athens 1966, pp. 81 f. (in Greek).
CHRISTOS PAPPAS
78
21
The Philostratos centre is publishing an annual brochure which contains the
programs and contact addresses.
22
See Mega, G.A., Griechische Feste und Bruche, Athens 1963, p. 183; see also
Pappas, op. cit., p.. 108.
23
The tendency to revive traditional games has been vivid in all of Europe
and was at times coordinated by the Council of Europe. What makes the
Greek case so special, is the fact that such revivals have taken place since
Greek independence in the nineteenth century, that there were more revival
competitions in the nineteen twenties than in the rest of Europe today, see
also Pappas, op. cit., pp. 104 ff. for the continuity discussion.
79
Senior Lecturer Dr. Christos Pappas
The Educational Department of the Western Greek University
of Ioannina where he also is head of international sport.
E-mail: develeg@cs.uoi.gr
Main publications:
Die antike agonale Idee als Grundstein der Olympischen Spiele und des
heutigen Wettkampfsports, Saarbrcken 1986.
Soziologie des Sports, Athens 1990.
Die Vergesellschaftung des menschlichen Krpers im Rahmen philanthro-
pischer Leibeserziehung: Eine Sozial historische und Pdagogische
Betrachtung der Leibeserziehung, Volos 1999.
PENELOPE KISSOUDI
80
81
PROFESSIONAL FEMALE PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHERS AND
THE LEADERSHIP OF DANISH SPORT BEFORE 1935
The Participation of both the Students of the
College of Gymnastics and young Schoolboys
in the 1927 and 1930 Delphic Games
Penelope Kissoudi
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Angelos Sikelianos and the Delphic Idea
Angelos Sikelianos (1884-1951),
1
the prime mover of the 1927 and 1930
Delphic Festivals organization, was an inspired and prolific Greek poet
who tried to support and promote the harmonious coexistence and
collaboration among peoples, to create aspirations and build high ideals
such as those of liberty, peace and fraternity. Due to his deep knowledge
of ancient Greek texts, he believed that ancient Greek civilizations
values were an unrivaled, universal and sacred heritage. He believed
that these vivid values could bring people back to the lost spiritualism
and join them together on a higher level.
2
In the early 1920s, depressed over the failure of the League of Nati-
ons, Angelos conceived the idealistic Delphic Idea of bringing the na-
tions of the world together in an intellectual league with headquarters
at Delphi where the arts of peace and good would be expounded in a
University. He initiated a world-wide correspondence with prominent
scholars, poets and leaders of peace movements and, encouraged by
their response, he decided with his wife Eva Palmer-Sikelianou to call
everybody to Delphi.
3
Delphi was not a haphazard choice. It had been the great sacred
and spiritual center in antiquity, a symbol of the ancient world and this
place could be again, according to Angelos Sikelianos, a vivid symbol
of the contemporary world, a symbol of everlasting values.
4
The gathe-
ring would be initiated with an ancient Greek drama. An exhibition of
folk arts would also be presented as an expression of the unity of the
people of all nations. Athletic games, including Pyrrichian dance, would
PENELOPE KISSOUDI
82
be held in the ancient Delphic stadium, but as a protest against pro-
fessionalism no records would be aimed at.
5
The young generation was Sikelianos first concern. Therefore, in
1923, in the Law School of Athens, he gave a series of lectures on
world liberty and collaboration among peoples. He conceived the
Delphic Idea step by step, choosing Delphi as the place of his dream
6
.
The Delphic Idea was a combination of spiritual liberty and peoples
peaceful coexistence, an appreciation of ancient Greek spirit and
civilization which was the corner stone of European civilization
7
. More-
over, Sikelianos considered athletic spirit a hopeful springboard from
which young people could derive ideals and create new and high goals
8
.
Physical education in Greece in 1920s
and the College of Gymnastics
Concerning physical education in Greece in 1920s, its worth making
here a brief review of gymnastics evolution and transition from the
nineteenth to the twentieth centuries. From 1834, when the new Greek
state came into existence, little interest was taken in physical education.
Just in 1862, according to Greek governments resolution, gymnastics
was introduced in public schools as an optional subject. Physical educa-
tion was despised as a subject and it was hardly considered as an im-
portant factor in education and in humans spiritual improvement.
9
The man who tried to change the wrong approach to physical educa-
tion was J. Phokianos (1845-1896). Due to his hard efforts gymnastics
was introduced into the primary and secondary education as a com-
pulsory subject and equal to other subjects taught in schools in 1880.
10
Two years later the Greek government decided to institute a School
where future physical education teachers would be trained. Their
training lasted forty days and it was incomplete.
11
Unfortunately, in
1883, military training was introduced into schools of secondary
education. J. Phokianos made every endeavour to persuade the Mini-
ster of Education to abrogate this kind of training. For all his exertions,
J. Phokianos achieved his purpose in 1893.
12
In the first decades of the tweentieth century and especially in 1920s,
the man who dominated in physical educations field was J. Chryssafis,
one of the pioneers in physical education in Greece. In 1908, J. Chrys-
safis introduced the Swedish Gymnastic System replacing the French-
83
German Gymnastic System that had been prevailing in Greece from
1893 till 1908. The Swedish Gymnastic System dominated both in the
training of future physical education teachers and in public schools
gymnastics during the first half of our century. Furthermore, the
Department of Physical Education in the Ministry of Education was
instituted due to the efforts of J. Chryssafis.
13
The College of Gymnastics was instituted in 1918
14
and it replaced the
School of Gymnasts established in 1899.
15
It aimed to educate and train
the future physical education teachers and according to the 13
th
article
of the law, the College could participate in the Panhellenic and Olympic
Games.
16
In 1929, according to the 4371 Law, the College of Gymnastics
was converted into a higher Gymnastic Institution and the courses lasted
three years.
17
That time, curricula were reorganized and the subjects
taught were medical and biological studies, pedagogic gymnastics,
dances, singing and competition by war-arms / military training.
18
In
1932, the Gymnastic Academy replaced the College of Gymnastics.
19
In 1919, John Chryssafis, director of the Department of Physical Educa-
tion at the Ministry of Education, proposed to the Greek Olympic Com-
mittee the admission of a second category of games that would comple-
ment the Olympic Games and would be a combination of ancient
agonistike and modern Greek games. These games would be a race,
discus and javelin throwing, stone, free wrestling and pentathlon. The
new games would be called Classical Games or Panatheanea.
20
His
proposal was accepted by the Greek Olympic Committee and in 1925 he
was asked to meet sportsmen from other countries and especially Pierre
de Coubertin. Pierre de Coubertin was immediately convinced that
these games would promote both the Olympic Idea and physical
education and they would rouse, step by step, ancient Greece lovers
interest and especially scholars and artists attention.
21
According to J.
Chryssafis, classical games would promote Greek physical education
and they would also bring it nearer to the nude body to which it owed
its name gymnastics, in antiquity. He also believed that classical games
would enforce and make more effective the efforts that intelligent men
made many years ago for the promotion of new generations health,
beauty and physique.
22
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84
The 1927 Delphic Games
The 1927 Delphic Festivals was an important cultural and athletic event,
a landmark in modern Greek civilization which made a world-wide
favourable impression. Greece had not attracted the international
cultural and athletic interest since 1896 and 1906, dates when the first
Modern Olympic Games and Mesolympics were held in Athens.
23
This
paper will investigate the unique importance of these games. It is also
designed to analyse the contribution of both the students of the College
of Gymnastics, the future physical education teachers, and the young
athletes for the important role gymnastics in the Delphic Festivals. They
were putting into practice a new approach to Greek gymnastics.
The position of Greece among Balkan countries was unstable and
from the political view point the country had just come out of turbu-
lent times in the 1920s. The Greek politician Eleftherios Venizelos who
dominated in Greek political life in the first decades of our century,
aspiring to a stable political scene in Greece, had tried to achieve a
peaceful political approach to the Balkans. Due to his efforts, the ad-
mission of Greece to the League of Balkan Nations was achieved in
1912.
24
But, in 1924, Serbia denounced the treaty between Serbia and
Greece. In the same year a dictatorial government took over in Greece.
Two years later in 1926 the dictatorial regime was overthrown and
step by step the political situation was back to normal.
25
Within this
political situation, Angelos Sikelianos, decided to invite eminent per-
sons from all over the world to Delphi to a series of cultural and athletic
events. The Festivals would include not only a performance of ancient
Greek drama and an exhibition of folk art, but classical games of
antiquity and Pyrrichian dance, an ancient war dance, would also be
represented.
26
According to Angelos Sikelianos aspiration, the spirit
of the Delphic Games would be against professionalism and commer-
cialization and would include not only nude games such as discus and
javelin throwing, running, jumping and wrestling, but traditional local
games would also be held. Young people coming from nearby villages
and dressed in their local costumes could enter for the simple athletic
events of modern Greece such as running, jumping, wrestling and rock
throwing.
27
What J. Chryssafis had dreamed and proposed in 1919, was mate-
rialized by Angelos Sikelianos in 1927, in the ancient Delphic stadium.
The classical games were held with the participation of both the students
85
of the College of Gymnastics and young schoolboys chosen by the Young
Mens Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.) of Thessaloniki to be members
of the athletic delegation to the games. Among them was e.g. Ion
Ioannides, a young student at Anatolia College, the later supervisor of
physical education at the Ministry of Education.
The 1927 Delphic classical games consisted of exhibitions of such
events as running or stadion, diavlos, oplites and pentathlon.
The games aimed to bring spectators nearer to the spirit of the ancient
Greek agonistike and its enduring value and to show the interdependence
of body and spirit and the ideal of beauty and harmony.
28
In antiquity,
running or stadion consisted of a simple sprint along the stadium the
length of which varied from stadium to stadium and in Delphi the
length amounted to 178 meters. Diavlos was a race of the length of
two stadiums meters. Oplites was a warriors race of 1200 feet during
which athletes were dressed in a suit of armour made of copper. They
were running wearing a helmet and holding a shield.
29
Pentathlon
consisted of five games: jump, run, discus and javelin throwing and
wrestling.
30
The 1927 Festivals program of the second day announced the athletic
games as follows:
3 p.m. Athletic Games in the ancient stadium. The students of
the College of Gymnastics will compete in the ancient pentathlon
and athletes coming from Thessaloniki will participate in several
events. The ancient Pyrrichian dance will be danced in full armour.
Incidental music to the dance by Mr. Psachos. Finally, a torch-
race will be held by the athletes along the Sacred Way, who, passing
the ancient theater, will light foreign visitors way with torches.
31
Regarding the Pyrrichian dance, an ancient war dance, the Sikelianos
couple planned to present it with many dynamic elements. To achieve
their purpose, they had thirty hand-made war costumes as well as
breastplates, helmets, swords and spears, all magnificent replica of
ancient patterns. After a close consideration of finding out the most
qualified performers of the Pyrrichian dance, Eva Palmer-Sikelianou
worked out to apply to the commander of the First Army Corps in
Athens who willingly allotted to Eva as many soldiers as she wished to
have.
32
Athletes training was held in the Delphic stadium and they were
dressed in short, light-coloured tunics woven by Gladys Stewart Ric-
PENELOPE KISSOUDI
86
hardson.
33
The soldiers were trained in the Pyrrichian dance by the
dance teacher Thanos Veloudios who taught them the steps of the
Zeibekikos-Artozinos dance, as he had observed on ancient vases
depictions, on statues, coins and especially as he had been taught by
skillful folk dancers. Dancers steps were guided by the sounds of a
military drum.
34
The word Zeibekikos is a compound word whose
first part Zei means spirit whereas the second part Bekos, means
bread, symbolising the body. In Greek villages, Zeibekikos was
danced by two or more dancers, in the rhythm of 9/8, whereas it was
danced by one dancer alone in Greek cities.
35
The great popularity of
the 9/8 Pyrrichian dance, that is Zeibekikos or in its Greek name
Artozinos, must be attributed to the fact that as a religious and
symbolic dance it relieves mans spirit, soul and body. The dancers
steps and movements symbolize his endeavour to overcome lifes
difficulties and they show his attempt to get rid of every depressing
feeling.
36
In antiquity, the Pyrrichian dance was usually presented during the
ancient Panathenaea. It is said that the goddess Athena had invented
it as she had danced it herself in the Panathenaea celebrating the
victory of ancient Greek gods over giants, i.e. the victory of spirit over
violence and spiritual darkness. Pyrrichian dancers were dressed in
war equipment (helmet, shield and javelin), they were accompanied
by the music of a flute or a lyre and the movements they performed
represented attacks and defenses.
37
The 1927 athletic games were entirely successful. The spectators
watched them with real interest and shared athletes feelings enforcing
their endeavour. The athletes school-fellows impersonated umpires
and the trophy was a chaplet of laurel.
38
According to Eva Palmer-
Sikelianou, the Delphic Games aimed to create a inexhaustible spring-
board where peaceful movements would spring from and, following
the same route, would play a determinative role in the preservation of
peace.
39
The 1930 Delphic Games
The first Delphic Festivals success was the challenge for the organization
of the second Festival. Eva Sikelianou decided to leave for America
looking for a financier. She designed four papers and one of them was
87
on athleticism. In America, Eva, accompanied by her good friend Dr.
McGoffin, managed to meet Mr Applegate, responsible for the Rocke-
feller Foundation. Dr. McGoffin spoke enthusiastically about the
classical games presented in the ancient Delphic stadium, pointing out
the fact that the games were kept independent of financial and perso-
nal profits and they showed that the real purpose of athleticism was
the physical and mental development.
40
Although nobody in America
supported the second Delphic Festivals financially, these Festivals were
held in Delphi in 1930 and the classical games were once more an
essential part of them.
41
The third day of the 1930 Delphic Festivals was the day of the games.
According to the program the games would be held as follows:
Third Day
Stadium of Delphi
Pythic Games (dedicated to the heroes of the Greek War of Indepen-
dence of 1821).
Parade of athletes-Oath.
Pentathlon: Race 192m.
Javelin throwing
Discus throwing
Jump
Wrestling
Torch-race
Athletic Games
Macedonian War Dance performed by Macedonian boys
Equestrian Parade
Oplites Race
Archers Parade
Athletic Games by Macedonian boys
Pyrrichian Dance.
42
The 1930 classical games were mainly presented by young schoolboys
chosen by the Thessaloniki Y.M.C.A. Students of the Military School
and the Cavalry of the 1
st
Regiment were also participants in the games.
43
A vivid account of the games was given by L.W. Riess, Director of the
Thessaloniki Y.M.C.A. and the essential factor of young athletes
training. In his article entitled: Modern Delphic Games, Riess writes:
The athletes entered a stadium filled with an audience of thousands
PENELOPE KISSOUDI
88
of eager spectators. First came the parade of the athletes dressed in the
short, graceful chiton of hand-woven silk in rich colors; then followed
the warriors in full war regalia consisting of breastplate, shield and
plumed helmet, a short sword at the waist and a long spear. Under the
armor they also wore the colorful chiton. All wore the sandals of the
ancients. With the sun shining brightly upon the gleaming armor and
the bronzed bodies, the sight was one to stir the imagination of the
most phlegmatic.
44
Following the stirring entrance of the participants,
the athletes oath was given and the pentathlon competitors were called
to take their places. Dropping the chiton, they stood stripped of all but
a loin cloth. They made a fine spectacle-those splendid Greek types.
As there were no records kept in the olden days, none were kept on
this occasion. The man who jumped the farthest, ran the faster or he
had successfully contested a wrestling match, was proclaimed the win-
ner. After the placing of the laurel wreath upon the brow of the winning
athletes of the pentathlon, the palestra games took place. The palestra
games consisted of exhibitions of such events as jumping, running,
discus and javelin throwing, ball games, archery contests, etc. Following
these games, there was a race of the warriors in full armour

.
45
The last part of the games is described by L. W.Riess as follows:
The program concluded with the Macedonian war dance and the
phyrrician dance which brought down a thunder of applause.
46
After
the athletic events, an exhibition of horsemanship was staged-the riders
riding bareback in the short robes. The whole spectacle was received
with enthusiasm. The old stadium so silent for 1700 years, re-echoed to
the frantic applause of the multitude of pilgrims from all over the world.
Mr. and Mrs Sikelianos and Mr. Benakis, the president of the commit-
tee, were carried on the shields of the warriors amid the cheers of the
crowd.
47
According to Eva Palmer-Sikelianou, her husband and she aimed to
establish a Spiritual Center unaffected by politics, an Educational In-
stitution where science and art would be mainly taught. This Institu-
tion, according to Eva, would try to achieve the accomplishment of
three human ideals: Education, Liberty and Justice. The ancient drama
performances, the classical games and the folk exhibition were all used
as means for the accomplishment of these goals. The games came
back to their real and right aim, Eva Palmer-Sikelianou noted. No
more hand-picked athletes, but a team of people with body and soul,
balanced in beauty and generosity.
48
89
Ion Ioannides and the Delphic Cultural and Athletic Center
In 1927, while he was a student at Anatolia College, Ion Ioannides
(1910-1984) was chosen by the Y.M.C.A. of Thessaloniki to be a member
of the delegation to the first Delphic Games. It seems that his partici-
pation in that unique spiritual activity proved to have been a deter-
minating factor in his further development. His experience served as a
sort of a springboard from which he later developed and promoted his
high ideals.
49
As a supervisor of physical education at the Pedagogical
Institution in 1965, Ion conceived and tried to materialise the estab-
lishment of an International Delphic Cultural Center for Physical Education,
donating a magnificent piece of property near Delphi and underscoring
the necessity of establishing such kind of Centers so that new generati-
ons will be able to improve their culture and physique. He proposed a
place near Delphi as seat for the Center in an admiration of ancient
Greek culture, but from a deeper belief in its enduring value. From the
belief that bringing this enchanting value before the eyes of youth,
young people would be inspired by ideals that would be an exalting
power in their lives.
50
In 1970, Ion Ioannides speaking at the Sacramento State College
where he taught for two years, on the project of a Delphic Center of
Physical Cultural Studies, he underscored that in 1965, as the man
responsible for the physical education program in Greece, he came
nearer to the great need for the physical education field to be more
concerned with the cultural background.
51
According to Ion, the pur-
poses of the Delphic Study Center would be: 1) The research and study
of sources of Physical Culture with the aim of broadening the cultural
background of the field. 2) The promotion of investigation and re-
search relative to current aspects and philosophy of physical education
and sport through-out the world. 3) Cultivation of an improved spirit
of understanding and fraternal fellowship among members of the pro-
fession of physical education and sport and 4) Coordination of physical
education activities with other fields of cultural attainment: i.e. music,
dance, art and other, in every form.
52
During his lecture at the Sacra-
mento College, Ion tried to answer himself questions that might arise.
So, he underscored the fact that up-to-date works of cultural content
which might create aspirations and build ideals were very few but that
ancient sources are endlessly comprehensive. According to Ion
Ioannides, no research work can solve a problem definitively, especially
PENELOPE KISSOUDI
90
a problem of education and that there are no limits to work in the area
of physical education. As for the aims of both International Olympic
Academy and Delphic Center, Ion underscored that they are quite similar
but the organization and the approach to the aims are totally different.
Delphic Center would be an Institution independent from doctrines and
political lines.
53
A definite step for the realization of the Delphic Center
was that there was an appropriate site of about six acres available. It
was at a place named Psatha, on the southern shore of the Korinthian
Gulf, on the way to Delphi. In that location there could be the seat of
the Center with all its establishments: administration building, library,
meeting and reading rooms, boarding houses, dining hall, etc. There
could also be an office in Athens, a second one in some central Euro-
pean country and a third in the United States. One of them would be
the main office, depending on the sponsoring relationship.
54
Ion
Ioannides finished his speech adding that Olympia and Delphi existed
throughout the course of ancient history without any antagonism. On
the contrary, they always assisted one another in harmony and gave
mutual aid to better and fuller functioning. In the times we live, Ion
pointed out, and with the ever-expanding world in view, more and
more Delphic and Olympic Centers could be created and still they
would not be enough.
55
Conclusions
Angelos Sikelianos and Eva Palmer Sikelianou, presenting the classical
games of antiquity in the ancient stadium of Delphi, tried and succeeded
in keeping athleticism unaffected by professionalism and unfair com-
petition and they also made Greeks proud of their glorious past. The
participation of the future physical education teachers in a unique spi-
ritual activity, broke fresh ground in Greek physical education. The
participanting athletes showed and promoted the cultural dimension
of gymnastics and athleticism. It was a dynamic presence in culture,
peace, fraternity and collaboration among peoples. We have to admit
that more than ever before we need principles and moral goals by
which athletes and students may direct their lives.
Moreover, the participation of young schoolboys-athletes, as mem-
bers of Thessaloniki Y.M.C.A. delegation, in 1927 and 1930 Delphic
Games, was not of no effect reflecting on the bright example of Ion
91
Ioannides who, influenced by his participation in the 1927 Delphic
Games, decided to propose and materialise the foundation of a Delphic
Athletic and Cultural Center with spiritual, cultural and peaceful aims.
Bibliography
A. Anthony, Eva Sikelianou. In Eos, 103-107 (1966).
A. Anthony, A Trip to Delphi. In Eos, 98-102 (1966).
P. abArnold, The Olympic Games, Athens 1896-1906, Seoul 1988, Athens 1988.
Ph. Carvelas, A Brief Historical Review of the College of Gymnastics and its
Course in the Years 1929-1930. In College of Gymnastics, 1929-1930 Year
Book, Athens, s.a.
J. Chryssafis, Physical Education and Youths Military Training and their Appropriate
Organization, Athens, 1925
J. Chryssafis, The International Classical Games. In College of Gymnastics,
1929-1930 Year Book, Athens, s.a.
D. Deligiorgou-Ellinikou, Delphic Idea, Athens, Nea Thesis, 1986.
K. Th. Dimara, History of Modern Greek Literature, Athens, 1964.
Delphic Festivals Program-May 1927. In Eos, 98-102 (1966).
Delphic Festivals Program-May 1930. In Eos, 103-107 (1966).
Th. B. Giannaki, Physical Education and Athleticism, Athens, 1980.
Th. B. Giannaki, The Ancients Agonistike Techinique through Vases Depictions,
Athens, s.a.
S. Giatsis, Ion Ioannides and Greek Physical Education (1910-1984). In
Athleticism and Society, 12 (1995).
I. Ioannides, International Delphic Center for Physical Culture. A project for an
International Study Center, Sacramento State College, 1970.
M. Ioannidi, Ion P. Ioannides-A Biographical Remembrance, Athens, 1994.
B. karasmani, Seventy Years after the Delphic Festivals. In Special Edition
Dedicated to Angelos Sikelianos. Newspaper Kathimerini 6-7-1997.
P. Karolidi, The History of Greek Nation-from the first World-War till 1930, Vol. II,
Athens, 1933.
Legislative Decree, 30-7-1932 About Modification, Completion and Codifi-
cation of Physical Education Legislation in Force, Official Gazette, Issues
Number 246, Chapter E (Special Gymnastic Staff Training. Gymnastic
Academy).
Law 1406, 30-4-1918 About College of Gymnastics, Official Gazette, Issues
Number 101.
Law 4371, 13-8-1929 About Modification, Completion and Confirmation of
9
th
of December 1925 Law, Official Gazette, Issues Number 298, Chapter
E (Special Gymnastic Staff and the College of Gymnastics).
E. Palmer-Sikelianou, Upward Panic, (trans. into Greek by J.P.Anton, Athens,
Exantas, 1992).
PENELOPE KISSOUDI
92
F. Pavlinis, History of Gymnastics, Thessaloniki, Kyriakides Brothers, 1977.
D. Pournara, Eleftherios Venizelos, Vol. III, Athens, s.a.
L.W. Riess, The Modern Delphic games. In Journal of Health and Physical
Education, 5 (1931).
Royal Decree, 10-8-1899 About the School of Gymnastics, Official Gazette,
Issues Number 179.
E. Sikelianou, The Delphic Movement in Greece. In Eos, 98-102 (1966).
E. Spathari, The Olympic Spirit, Athens, Adam, 1992.
A. Tarassouleas, Olympics in Athens 1896-1906, Athens, 1988.
B. Theros, The Dreamer. In Nea Estia-Christmas 1952, Athens, 1952.
Th. Veloudios, Teaching of 9/8 pyrrichian or Artozinos, that is Zeibekikon.
In Eos, 98-102 (1966).
Notes
1
K.Th. Dimara, History of Modern Greek Literature, Athens, 1964, p. 433.
2
B. Karasmani, Seventy Years after the Delphic Festivals. In Special Edition
dedicated to Angelos Sikelianos. Kathimerini, 6-7-1997.
3
A. Anthony, Eva Sikelianou. 3n Eos, 103-107 (1966), p.189.
4
B. Karasmani, Seventy Years after the Delphic Festivals. In Special Edition
dedicated to Angelos Sikelianos. Kathimerini, 6-7-1997.
5
Ibid.
6
A. Theros, The Dreamer. In Nea Estia- Christmas 1952, Athens, 1952, pp.
84-85.
7
D. Deligiorgou-Ellinikou, Delphic Idea, Athens, Nea Thesis, 1986, p. 77.
8
T. Doxas, Sikelianos and Olympia. In Nea Estia-Christmas 1952, pp. 199-
201.
9
E. Pavlinis, History of Gymnastics, Thessaloniki, Kyriakides Brothers, 1977,
p. 403.
10
Ibid, pp. 402-403.
11
Ibid, p. 403.
12
Ibid, pp. 404-405.
13
J. Chryssafis, Physical Education and Youths Military Training and their
Appropriate Organization, Athens, 1925, p. 114.
14
Number 101, articles 1-13. Ph. Carvelas, A Brief Historical Review of the
College of Gymnastics and its Course in the Years 1929-1930. In College of
Gymnastics, pp. 10-12.
15
Royal Decree, 10-8-1899 About the School of Gymnasts, Official Gazette,
Issues Number 179, articles 1-4. Ph. Carvelas, A Brief Historical Review
of the College of Gymnastics and its Course in the Years 1929-1930. In
College of Gymnastics, p. 9.
93
16
Number 101, article 13.
17
Law 4371, 13-8-1929 About Modification, Completion and Confirmation
of 9
th
of December 1925 Law, Official Gazette, Issues Number 298, Chapter
E (Special Gymnastic Staff and the College of Gymnastics), article 10.
18
J. Chryssafis, Physical Education and Youths Military Training and their
Appropriate Organization, pp. 115-120.
19
Legislative Decree, 30-7-1932 About Modification, Completion and
Codification of Physical Education Legislation in Force, Official Gazette,
Issues Number 246, Chapter C (Special Gymnastic Staff Training. Gymnastic
Academy), article 16.
20
J. Chryssafis, The International Classic Games. In College of Gymnastics,
1929-1930 Year- Book, Athens, s.a., pp. 75-80.
21
Ibid, p. 79.
22
J. Chryssafis, The International Classic Games. In College of Gymnastics,
p. 80.
23
P. Arnold, The Olympic Games, Athens 1896-1906-Seoul 1988, Athens 1988,
p. 12. A. Tarassouleas, Olympics in Athens 1896-1906, Athens, 1988, p. 115.
24
D. Pournara, Eleftherios Venizelos, Vol. III, Athens, s.a., p. 474.
25
P. Karolidi, The History of Greek Nation -from the first World-War till 1930, Vol.
II, Athens, 1993, pp. 295-307.
26
A. Antony, A Trip to Delphi. In Eos, 98-102 (1966), pp. 11-12.
27
E. Sikelianou, The Delphic Movement in Greece. In Eos, 98-102 (1966), p.
76.
28
E. Pavlinis, History of Gymnastics, p. 409.
29
E. Pavlini, History of Gymnastics, p. 44. Th. B. Gianaki, The Ancients Agonistike
Technique through Vases Depictions, Athens, s.a., pp. 29-45. E. Spathari, The
Olympic Spirit, Athens, Adam, 1992, p. 96.
30
E. Pavlini, History of Gymnastics, p. 78. Th. B. Gianaki, The Ancients Agonistike
Technique through Vases Depictions, pp. 97-99. E. Spathari, The Olympic Spirit,
p. 106.
31
Delphic Festivals Program-May 1927. In Eos, 98-102 (1966), p.209.
32
E. Palmer- Sikelianou, Upward Panic, (trans. into Greek by J.P. Anton, Athens,
Exantas, 1992), p. 128. D. Lazogiorgou-Ellinikou, The Delphic Idea, pp. 42-
46.
33
Ibid, p.54.
34
Th. Veloudios, Teaching of 9/8 Pyrrichian or Artozianos, that is
Zeibekikon. In Eos, 98-102 (1966), pp. 116-125.
35
Ibid, pp. 116-117.
36
Ibid, pp. 118-125.
37
Th. B. Giannaki, Physical Education and Athleticism, Athens, 1980, pp. 162-
164.
38
E. Pavlini, History of Gymnastics, p. 409.
39
E. Palmer-Sikelianou, Upward Panic, p. 159.
40
Ibid, pp. 139-142.
41
E. Palmer-Sikelianou, Upward Panic, p. 142.
PENELOPE KISSOUDI
94
42
Delphic Festivals Program -May 1930. In Eos, 103-107 (1966), p. 219.
43
Delphic Festivals Program -May 1930. In Eos, 103-107 (1966), p. 219.
44
L.W.Riess, The Modern Delphic Games. In Journal of Health and Physical
Education, 5 (1931), pp. 14-15.
45
Ibid.
46
Ibid.
47
L.W.Riess, The Modern Delphic Games. In Journal of Health and Physical
Education, 5 (1931), pp. 14-15.
48
E. Palmer-Sikelianou, Upward Panic, pp. 158-159.
49
M. Ioannidi, Ion P. Ioannides- A Biographical Remembrance, Athens, 1994, p.
33.
50
I.Ioannides, International Delphic Center for Physical Culture. A Project for an
International Study Center, Sacramento State College, p. 2. S. Giatsis, Ion
Ioannides and the Greek Physical Education (1910-1984), Athleticism and
Society,12 (1995), pp. 27-28.
51
I.Ioannides, Internationl Delphic Center for Physical Culture. A Project for an
International Study Center, 1970, p. 1.
52
Ibid, p. 3.
53
I.Ioannides, Internationl Delphic Center for Physical Culture. A Project for an
International Study Center, p. 5.
54
Ibid, pp. 3-4.
55
Ibid, p. 6.
95
Kissoudi Penelope, PhD in Greek History. Teaching of history, Greek and
English language and literature in public secondary and higher education.
Art and Athleticism in Modern Greece
The Contribution of Fine Arts and Literature to the first Modern Games -
Athens 1896
Dance in Kazantzakis Novels
OLE SKJERK
96
97
TEAM HANDBALL IN DENMARK 1898 - 1948: CIVILISATION OR SPORTIFICATION?
Team Handball in Denmark 1898-1948:
Civilisation or Sportification?
Ole Skjerk
In this article it will be suggested that different ideas of rationality often
lead to severe conflicts and that this type of conflicts also can be ob-
served inside the limited field of sport. In this case the game of handball
1
in two different institutional settings in Denmark will be analysed in
order to see how different ideas of rationality influenced the way the
game was perceived. The concept of rationality will be linked to the
developmental processes civilisation and sportification claiming that a
main difference between these processes is their respective understan-
ding of what counts as rational action.
Max Weber (1864-1920)
When rationality and values are discussed in a historical and sociological
context, Max Weber must be introduced as the founding father. Webers
objective was to analyse human action as the starting point for historical
changes. For Weber human action was composed of the actual (material)
behaviour and the rationality, that is the ideological constructs that
made this action comprehensible. In order to understand human ac-
tion it is therefore necessary to analyse the rationality of the period,
and for Weber the connection between rationality and ethics was very
close. The idea of what counts as right or wrong has strong implications
for which type of action is seen as possible and sensible.
OLE SKJERK
98
Rationality
Rationality will here be defined as a framework that gives the guide-
lines for deciding which actions can be understood as meaningful and
which type of development can be seen as desirable. Weber suggested
four ideal types
2
of rationality that differ in their understanding of what
counts as rational actions
3
, and in the context of modernity are two of
his ideal types of relevance:
Wert-rational actions
Zweck-rational
4
actions
According to Weber it is possible to trace a movement from Wert-rationa-
lity towards Zweck-rationality
5
in the western world of modern times.
Weber connects rationality and ethics by claiming that Wert-rationality
is connected to a moral obligation, while Zweck-rationality is connected
to a personal responsibility. The moral obligation that forms the base
of wert-rational actions stems from demands outside and beyond the
individual, often with a religious basis to support them, while the per-
sonal responsibility that is the base for zweck-rational actions is a choice
made by the individual himself or herself.
The rationality of sport
Until the beginning of the twentieth century sport was built upon ideas
of fair play and amateurism and the concept of sportsmanship acquired
an almost religious character. Thus the actions in sport were Wert-ratio-
nal, based on an ethic, where the correct attitude during the game was
as important as winning the game while in modern sport winning is
everything, and the quality of actions in sport is seen in the light of
their ability to produce victory.
An example from the game of soccer can illustrate this difference in
ideas: In the beginning of the twentieth century goalkeepers often would
leave their goal and refuse to try to save a penalty kick, because they
did not want to evade the punishment given their team for committing
a foul. Therefore, a new rule was implemented in 1905 stating that the
goalkeeper was not allowed to move away from the goal line until the
penalty kick was taken.
6
This episode tells of a struggle between different
99
ideas of what counts as rational action and the new rule can be seen as
a mean to evolve soccer into a sport built upon ideas of Zweck-rationality.
Remembering that ideal types in the tradition of Weber are hypothe-
sises, not facts or reality, but ways of testing reality, we can proceed to
the empirical subject of this article Team Handball in Denmark 1898-
1948.
Team Handball
In the first half of this century it is possible to distinguish two different
forms of rationality in the game of handball in Denmark. The school
game was connected to Wert-rationality, while the game in the sports
clubs was connected to Zweck-rationality, and these two forms of ratio-
nality were linked to different ideas of development, civilisation and
sportification.
7
Civilisation describes a process the content of which is to develop
and determine the relationship between the individual and the collec-
tive. Civilisation is a broad social process the central ideas of which are
to develop responsibility towards the whole, and to develop the ability
for co-operation and consideration, both on the physical and mental
level. In the case of handball, these ideals were expressed in the handball
game in schools as it developed from 1898.
Sportification is a narrower process which describes a development
within sport. This development process will be understood as efforts
to decrease the effect of chance on the outcome of a match. It is therefore
closely connected to the process of professionalisation in the business
and academic world. Handball in the sports clubs went through a
development in the years after 1920 which can be termed sportification
with regard to organisation, tournament structures and rules. The clash
between these lines of development gave rise to conflicts within
handball, for instance between the father of handball, Holger Niel-
sen,
8
and tournament handball in the beginning of the 1920s, and in
the form of a discussion that lasted for years in the Danish Physical
Education Teachers Association about whether they should retain their
own rules for the school or play according to the rules of the Danish
Handball Federation.
OLE SKJERK
100
School game
Holger Nielsen was a physical education teacher at Ordrup secondary
school and wrote about the origin of the game in this school in 1898:
I had noticed for a while and amused myself at the boys game
with a football, before real football had started... By particularly
observing that the children preferred to use their hands in their
handling of the ball, (...) I got the idea to try to make a ball game
where only hands, arms and head were to be used to direct the
ball.
9
Danish boys have thus invented the game, and my part is limited
to having put it into a system and giving some rules and hints for
the most desirable way of playing.
10
The most desirable way of playing can be seen as a metaphor for the
civilisation project that was a central part of the school agenda. Handball
as a school game unaffected by ideas from sport organisations and
clubs could be integrated in this project and gained a footing as an
activity in school physical education in the first decades of this century.
In addition, the game fitted in with the fascination with the open air,
which was also on the agenda in the Danish school system around the
turn of the century, because handball was mainly played outdoors in
the school context. This probably explains why handball got its chance
in the school at a time when it was mainly Swedish gymnastics and its
advocates who defined the content and development of school physical
education.
Civilisation
The educational ideals of the civilisation project can be found in Hol-
ger Nielsens early set of rules. According to Nielsen, the game of hand-
ball develops such qualities as decisiveness, resourcefulness and alert-
ness
11
Other qualities that are emphasised are co-operation:
A handball team has to work as a whole; each player must have
solely the interests of the side in mind.
12
and consideration:
101
That opponents run against each other cannot be avoided, but
both these clashes as well as the way in which the speed of an
opponent is checked when he runs with the ball must be done with
all due consideration.
13
Responsibility for ones own actions, too, was part of the learning in
the game of handball. Holger Nielsen did not have a referee in the
game, but an umpire who should wait for a request from the players
before he interfered in the game.
Upbringing in a civilisation perspective was the central theme in the
early school handball, whereas interest in developing a precise and
standardised set of rules was very limited.
The playing pitch can be large or small, as circumstances dictate,
14
Holger Nielsen wrote in his rules, and apart from a few matches be-
tween two schools, until 1920, handball was played at the individual
school according to local rules.
The civilisation efforts within school handball can be formulated as
a desire to regulate the players behaviour. So behaviour was the key word in
the school handball.
Handball in the Sports clubs
The sports clubs put handball on their programmes around 1914, and
the first Danish tournament was held in 1921. It was played indoors,
and a great effort was made to develop a set of rules that clearly laid
down the framework and the conditions for playing the game. In the
invitation to the tournament in 1921, attention was expressly drawn to
the fact that the play will be according to rules laid down by an expert
committee of sports leaders
15
Sportification
During the period 1921-1935 handball flourished as an indoor winter
sport in the Copenhagen sports clubs, and in 1935 the Danish Handball
Federation was established. During this period the rules and tournament
structure were subject to a number of changes, with the purpose of
ensuring that the best team had the greatest chance of going far in the
OLE SKJERK
102
tournament. From the start, it was organised as a cup tournament, where
the teams were knocked out after only a single defeat, and there was
no form of seeding, so that the best teams risked knocking each other
out in the preliminary rounds.
In the first years, this structure was considered a strength: One of
the things that gives the game charm, [is] that chance and the energy of
the moment play a relatively great role.
16
But there were also sceptics,
who thought that it impaired the sporting value of the tournament: It
was just a shame, that two such good teams should meet each other
early in the tournament; both undoubtedly deserved to be in the fi-
nal.
17
..In the future, the organisers should aim to have the teams
graded, so that the A [best] teams do not come to play against teams
that cannot give any opposition at all.
18
These new ideas found increasing favour, and in 1930, the cup
tournament was replaced by a system with proper divisions, where the
results of the matches for a whole season were decisive for the position
of the teams. The teams were no longer knocked out because of a
single defeat. At the same time a grouping in divisions according to
playing strength was introduced, and teams had to qualify to be
promoted to the higher divisions. In addition, in 1928, permission had
been given to put in reserves for injured players, so the teams were not
weakened on account of accidents; and finally, in 1929, an age classi-
fication of the tournament was introduced.
During the 1920s, the game of handball in the sports clubs developed
a number of sporting features. This sportification can be characterised
as a preoccupation with improving the framework of the game and
framework came to be the key word in this process. In spite of this one
can hardly describe handball as a sport until after the Second World
War. Among other things, there was no agreement on an international
level about rules and size of pitch until after the war, the game was still
regarded mainly as a training game, and there was no great development
in the extent and form of training before the war.
Conflicts
In the following, the conflicts that arose between the two ways of under-
standing handball behaviour in contrast to framework will be
described. The focus will be on the perception of the role of the referee
103
and on a discussion about whether school handball should be subject
to the rules of the Danish Handball Federation.
Referee or umpire?
At the first tournament in the sports clubs in 1921, the schoolteacher
Holger Nielsen was appointed referee. At that time, Holger Nielsen
had almost the status of a national icon in Denmark, and was usually
referred to as the father of handball. To criticise him was almost
unthinkable, and the following rather reserved assessment of his
refereeing at the 1921 tournament must be seen in this light:
Gradually the game deteriorated into being too violent, the referee
intervened only rarely, but it was not rarely that the rules were
infringed.
19
What was the reason for this negative assessment? My
suggestion is that Holger Nielsen and the participants in the tournament
on the ideological level played different games. Holger Nielsen was
concerned with improving the behaviour of the players; while they, in
contrast, regarded the referee as part of the framework of the game.
Holger Nielsens idea that the game should primarily have an
educational function had two consequences with regard to his under-
standing of the role of the referee.
First, Holger Nielsen in his set of rules operated with an umpire and
not with a proper referee. As a rule, the umpire should not intervene
on his own initiative, but had to await an appeal from the players,
before he interfered in the game.
Second, the job of the umpire was to explain incidents in the game
when it had been stopped. In his rules, Holger Nielsen writes that when
the whistle is blown, it would be correct to accustom the pupils to
immediately come to attention facing the teacher. The pose is held
until the teachers verdict is given.
20
These ideas had unfortunate conse-
quences when they were used in the sports clubs tournament. Holger
Nielsens lack of intervention meant that he allowed too many irregular
actions, so that the game and the players in the end took over from
him;
21
on the other hand, when he finally intervened, he spent time
explaining what was right and what was wrong. A newspaper wrote,
that he used the awarded frees to give the spectators small instructive
courses in the finesses of the game of handball. Of course, this occurred
at the expense of the playing time.
22
And since the playing time was
OLE SKJERK
104
only 2 x 7 minutes, one can imagine the frustration of the players during
these instructive courses.
In the following year, the organisers of the tournament chose to pass
over Holger Nielsen as a referee. Instead he was invited to attend the
matches from the special stand. In 1921, it was impossible to combine
the idea of handball as education and handball as sport and after this
the two ways of playing parted company. That it was more than an
accidental conflict is obvious from the difficulty involved in combining
them again.
Danish Physical Education Teachers Association: The Rules of
School Handball
In a lecture in 1925, Langkilde, the physical education inspector of
Copenhagen, stated that the sports movement is (...) taking a wrong
turning, which must give schools misgivings about having anything to
do with it. It is too greatly concerned with efforts to promote the achie-
vement of the greatest possible sporting performances. Langkilde
concludes that the school should develop its own sports life and strengt-
hen it in connection with the whole common life of the school.
23
That
is why in 1930 it was wanted to introduce common rules for school
handball. A rule committee was set up where, among others, Lang-
kilde had a seat, and the committee published special school rules for
indoor handball in 1931 and 1935. The schools did not want to play
according to the rules used in the clubs, and at that time, it was still
possible to maintain a difference between the rules in school and those
in club sport as club sport at that time was primarily intended for
adults and not for children.
But there were changes on the way, and this was emphasised by
physical education teacher and handball coach Henry Larsen in an
article about School handball Club handball. The purpose of the
article was to show that it was meaningless to have own handball rules
in school and a campaign for the schools to begin to play according to
the rules of the Danish Handball Federation
24
took place. Larsens argu-
ment was based on the fact that the handball clubs now were getting
many youth members, who learned to play by the rules of the Handball
Federation. Therefore, it just created confusion if the young people
had to play in another way at school. In addition, the sports organisa-
105
tions that had handball on their programmes had agreed on a common
set of rules in 1936, and the schools were therefore on their own with
their special rules.
When a leading member of the rules committee of the schools, Poul
Jrgensen, who was also a member of the rules committee of the Danish
Handball Federation, stated that the time was ripe for common rules, the
Danish Physical Education Teachers Association had to give in, and the
chairman of the Danish Handball Federation could in 1938 state that,
The rules of the Danish Handball Federation for the 7-man game have
been approved as valid, for school handball too
25
However, there
was still disagreement in the Danish Physical Education Teachers Associa-
tion about this decision, and a proviso had been inserted that schools
could withdraw from the rule co-operation if the rules were changed.
And when the chance arose three years later, they were ready.
Dribbling
In 1941 the Danish Handball Federation decided to accede to the inter-
national handball rules, and at the annual meeting of the Danish Physical
Education Teachers Association it was said: With regard to the handball
rules, it was stated that people in schools do not want to maintain the
connection with the Danish Handball Federation, but want to have their
own rules.
26
The problem with the new rules was that dribbling had
been introduced as a new element in the game. In the opinion of the
Physical Education Teachers Association, dribbling implied an emphasis
on the individual performance at the expense of team play and co-
operation an argument based on the consequences the change in the
rules would have for the players behaviour.
But it was the end of the line for the independent status of school
handball. After the war years, the schools again came under pressure
to conform to the rules of the Danish Handball Federation. In 1946, Leo
Helge advocated the introduction of dribbling in the school game with
arguments based on the importance of dribbling both for the framework
of the game and for the players behaviour: There have to be (...)
opportunities for a development in the game in the direction of sophi-
sticated finesses, which raise the game to a more distinguished level
and make it much more interesting, attractive and therefore stimulating
and amusing. Dribbling contains many of these elements.
27
OLE SKJERK
106
In 1948, the Physical Education Teachers Association took over the inter-
national rules and in 1960 as a consequence of the new law for the
public school from 1958 gymnastics or physical education which
was the new name was given the objective to stimulate the pupils to
continue their physical education after [ ] finishing school.
28
Hereby
sports in sports clubs had for the first time an official recognition from
the authorities of the school.
Conclusion
Handball in Denmark developed in two environments with different
ideals. In the school ideas of civilisation prevailed while in the sports
clubs sportification was on the agenda. In the schools, it was possible
to maintain own playing rules and the values that lay in the civilisation
project until childrens sport in the sports clubs reached such a size
that children there learned handball according to the rules and values
of sport. Seen in a rationality perspective, it can be said that the action
of the children to some degree changed the rationality of the school
game in the direction of a proper sport.
Theoretic implications
In this article it has been investigated whether looking at differences in
the concept of rationality is a fruitful way to examine and understand
different ideas of the value of sport in this case team handball. The
concept of rationality has been closely linked to ideas of the develop-
mental processes civilising and sportification in two institutional settings.
It seems that using rationality in the form of ideal types as the tool to
divide reality in order to analyse it gives some valuable sociological
and historical insight. The concept of rationality suggests that historical
actions must be interpreted in the context of the rationality that was
prevailing at the given time and it is therefore a tool to combine the
understanding of actions and ideas of a historical period. On the other
hand it opens a new complex of problems: How to define rationality?
Do we only find one form of rationality in a society, or is it possible to
distinguish between different forms of rationality coexisting in different
parts of the same society? And how is it possible to decide when a
107
given form of rationality comes in existence? What kind and which
level of conditions should be fulfilled?
Bibliography
Berg-Srensen, Ivar and Jrgensen, Per (eds), en time dagligen. Odense, (1998).
Bernett, Hajo, Die Versportlichung des Spiels in Sportwissenschaft no. 2,
1984, pp. 141-165.
Elias, Norbert, The History of Manners, New York, (1939) (1978).
Elias, Norbert and Dunning, Eric, Quest for Excitement, Oxford, (1986).
Goksyr, Matti, Sivilisering, Modernisering, Sportifisering, Oslo, (1988).
Nielsen, Holger, Haandbold (1923).
Nielsen, Holger, Vejledning i Haandbold (1906).
Nielsen, Holger, Haandbold pp. 145-152, in Idrtsbogen, ed. A. C. Meyer,
(1909).
Berlingske Aften 17/3 1921, and Berlingske Tidende 28/2 1924.
Dagbladet 21/2, 28/2 1924.
DHF-minute 1938.
Gymnastisk Tidsskrift 1925.
Idrtsbladet 19/3, 21/3 1921.
Love for Haandbold i Skolen 1931, 1935, 1942.
Old Boys archives.
Tidsskrift for Idrt 1936, 1941, 1946.
Notes
1
Team handball should not be confused with the primarily American game of
handball which has some similarities to squash. See www.ushandball.org.
In this article handball and team handball both denotes the European game.
2
Webers concept ideal type should be understood as ideal in its logical
construction, and not as the ideal type of historical development. Max Weber,
The interpretation, p 226-228.
3
Per Mnson: Max Weber, p 91 in Heine Andersen et al: Klassisk og moderne
samfundsteori.
4
Wert-rational and Zweck-rational are concepts very closely linked to Webers
sociology and therefore very difficult to translate. I have chosen to use his
concepts. For a discussion, see J.E.T. Eldridge in: Max Weber, The interpre-
tation of social reality, pp. 76-81, 1980.
5
Mnson p 91 and 102.
It has been vividly disputed, whether Weber can be categorised as evolutio-
nist, but this will not be discussed further here. See J.E.T. Eldridge in: Max
Weber, The interpretation of social reality, p 53-65, 1980.
OLE SKJERK
108
6
Frits Ahlstrm, Guinness Fodboldbog 1992, p 22-23.
7
The use of these concepts are primarily inspired by the work of Elias (1978,
1986), Bernett (1984) and Goksyr (1988).
8
Holger Nielsen published the first known handball rules in 1905-06 in Vej-
ledning i hndbold. He was in 1936 appointed der geistigen Vater des Hand-
ballspiels by the International Amateur Handball Federation (Hndbold i Dan-
mark 1904-54).
9
Holger Nielsen in Meyer 1909, p 145.
10
Nielsen 1906, p 6.
11
Holger Nielsen in Meyer 1909, p 146.
12
Nielsen 1906, p 13.
13
Nielsen 1906, p 12.
14
Nielsen 1906, p 3
15
Old Boys archives.
16
Berlingske Tidende 28/2 1924.
17
Dagbladet 28/2 1924.
18
Dagbladet 21/2 1924.
19
Idrtsbladet 19/3 1921.
20
Nielsen 1906, p 9.
21
Idrtsbladet 19/3 1921.
22
Berlingske Aften 17/3 1921.
23
Gymnastisk Tidsskrift 1925, p 60-61
24
Tidsskrift for Idrt 1936, p 99
25
DHF minutes, 12/6 1938
26
Tidsskrift for Idrt 1941, p IV
27
Tidsskrift for Idrt 1946, p 76.
28
n time dagligen, p 181.
109
Ole Skjerk, PhD scholar
Institute of Exercise and Sport Sciences,
Department of History and Social Sciences
E-mail: oskjerk@ifi.ku.dk
Damernes massive Sknhed, in Politiken 3/12 1997
Ikke i Pigekammeret, men paa Frersdet in Idrtshistorisk rbog 1997.
Odense 1998. (with Anne Lykke Poulsen)
Gymnastikkens mangfoldighed, Hndbold fra skolespil til medalje-
strmme og Kvindeatletik fra alsidighed til specialisering. in Kvindeliv
Idrtsliv, Kbenhavn 1998. (with Anne Lykke Poulsen)
MATTI GOKSYR
110
111
FOOTBALL AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION AROUND
THE TURN OF THE 19TH CENTURY: COMPATIBLE ISSUES?
IDEOLOGICAL AND PRACTICAL CONTROVERSIES IN A NORWEGIAN SETTING
Football and Physical Education around the
Turn of the Nineteenth Century: Compatible
Issues? Ideological and Practical Controversies
in a Norwegian Setting
Matti Goksyr
University of Sport and Physical Education, Norway
This paper will discuss the role of football in a physical education per-
spective. It does not give an overview of the general development con-
cerning physical education and sport, but, as the title indicates, it tries
to present a specific case study which hopefully might provoke some
thoughts on relations and power structures.
From the few studies that have been made of Norwegian football
history, it is evident that towards the end of the nineteenth century
school boys of some sort took the game to their hearts and provided
the kind of social environment and cultural milieu whithin which the
new imported game could establish itself, and from which it could
develop further.
However, not only the boys, but also some teachers took interest in
the game, and the case to study is: How could teachers who were
brought up and educated in the spirit of the Swedish gymnastics allow
themselves to include a game like football in their classes? What
dominated physical education at this time was gymnastics, exercises
and drill. Football at the same time was considered from most of the
establishment as a chaotic, undiscisplined activity not exactly con-
tributing to order. It did not meet with the demands of leading sports
ideologues of the time of providing a harmonious, rational physical
exercise. It was accused of being raw and brutal. It was neither
scientific, nor was it invented or controlled by adults.
This paper will study some concrete examples of early Norwegian
football history, mainly from the city of Bergen, and try to discuss how
football did function in a school environment.
MATTI GOKSYR
112
When the theme is physical education in Norwegian secondary schools
in the last decades of the nineteenth century and a little bit into the
twentieth, the subjects are young urban males as would be the modern
expression, or boys living in the cities, socially coming from the middle
classes and upwards, and their male teachers.
Traditionally this sort of school was a holdingpoint for Norwegian
editions of the Swedish Ling-gymnastics. However, the conceptions of
what this term really meant in Norway varied. The strong references
to Ling which later became synonymous with Swedish gymnastics
occurred rather late in Norway, from around 1860. The power basis of
the Swedish gymnastics, the triangle; school, military and the Central
Association for the Spread of Physical Exercises and the Practise of
Arms increased with the establishment of a new teachers college in
1870: The Gymnastic Central School. With bureaucratic relations into
the Ministry this constellation could take a heavy, if not total, influence
on the content of the physical education.
Seen through ministerial circulars, programmes and published by
school authorities, both central and local, the predominance of Swedish
Ling-gymnastics was overwhelming in the practical education. But
whats more important here: the way of thinking connected to the
Lingian system constituted the rationale for how physical education
should be organised and performed: As Henrik Meinander has pointed
out; a sufficient degree of formalism secured a rational usage of the
limited space and time reserved for physical education.
1
As an apropos here, one must note that the syllabus in this period
gradually would allow more games and sports and competitive
elements. However, the point is that these elements in the beginning
of the period i.e. before the turn of the century, were weak and almost
non-existing.
The presence of Ling-gymnastics, in any way, was taken as a guaran-
tee of secure and rational conditions. Ling-gymnasts and their protago-
nists were suppossed to counter-act the influence of both German turnen
and the sports coming mainly from Britain. The turners were stig-
matized not only because they practised what was considered an in-
correct gymnastic system, but also because the turners in Norway
were much more inclined to take up and practise other sports and
games.
Yet, in the second largest city, Bergen, the distance to the controlling
authorities in the Ministry, naturally seated in Kristiania (todays Oslo)
113
was long, opening up to a certain degree for more independent inter-
pretations of what gymnastics really meant and should mean.
However, also here in Bergen it was important for the physical
education (pe) teachers to position themselves in relation to the Swedish
gymnastics, and especially to the different camps at the Royal Gymnastic
Institute in Stockholm. It is illustrating that the pe-teacher Hans Chri-
stie (with the Cathedral School to 1882, then Tanks school) in his let-
ters and requests to the Institute only adressed the orthodox Lingian
Lars M.Trngren, while his local rival and eventually successor as the
dominant pe-teacher in town, Oscar Lunde (with Hambros School,
also from 1882 with the Cathedral School), a person with whom we
shall deal with more extensively in this paper, Oscar Lunde chose no
other than Victor Balck as his first and most influential authority
already in 1881.
2
Even though Lunde also had contacts with Trngren
mostly because Trngren was the official contact in Stockholm
the constellation Lunde Balck is interesting in many ways.
Balck was a manifold pioneers in the area of sports (or more correctly
idrett) and gymnastics.
3
In this connection it is relevant to emphasize
Balcks background from the Royal Gymnastic Institute and Swedish
gymnastics together with his growing interest of sports (idrett) in general
- an interest which did not particularly amuse conservative Lingian
circles. Oscar Lunde had, from a Norwegian perspective, a background
which was relatively similar to Balcks. They were both officers with a
gymnastic education from Stockholm, and they developed a view
for Balcks part almost a philosophy, for Lundes part; a practise on
sports (idrett) with striking similarities. How did such a view function
in a school milieu /environment in the 1880s and 90s?
The development in Lundes view on sports did have influence both
on the pe-teaching in secondary schools and on the urban development
of sport in general. In addition to being a pe-teacher at two of Bergens
leading secondary schools for 25 years, Lunde also taught at Bergen
technical school for 15 years. At the same time he was gymnastics
instructor in the Bergen Gymnastic Club (Turnforening), the citys largest
sports club.
The first football match in Bergen was, as far as we know today,
played in the autumn of 1886. In the same period, the school year
ranging from autumn 1886 to spring/summer 1887. Oscar Lunde
introduced football to his pupils at the Cathedral and Hambros School.
The yearly report from Hambros School from 1886/87 said that the
MATTI GOKSYR
114
students when the weather permitted, had practised outdoor exercises,
mostly stick games and football.
4
The fact that the game was introduced and accepted as a part of the
physical education as early as this is interesting. Only two reasonable
causes seems to be possible. But, given the students basis of influence
in those days, it seems likely that their desires to play cannot have
been the decisice reason behind the introduction. The cause then is
probably personal and can be named after the teacher Oscar Lunde.
Lundes practise as intructor in the Bergen Gymnastic Club (Turn-
forening) also points to this. The club did namely at the same time
show a remarkable remarkable for being a gymnastic club although
passing, interest in football. At the other secondary schools in town it
still lasted some years till the game had a break-through.
Now, the part of the teaching being devoted to football was not
overwhelming. The first year Lunde did not report more than ten hours
for outdoor games. More important was the fact that this introduced a
new game or sport to a social group who had the opportunities to
practise or carry it further. The students were mainly sons of well-to-do
citizens. They had the chances and opportunities to try out the new
game also in their leisure time, in the school playground or in the one
park in the city where games were permitted, if they wished to. And it
seems as if the desire to do so had been awakened. Fascination for the
new game made it spread rapidly and become popular especially among
students at secondary schools. The new dimensions in the game
probably made an impact here. Compared to the traditional content
of the physical education, football introduced qualitatively new
elements: more individual freedom in movement, more opportunities
for personal initiatives and also chances of a stronger commitment in
the physical display. Football in this manner reminded more of street
games than the traditional gymnastics, the drill and other obligatory
parts of the physical education classes.
The taste for football acquired during school hours led to more
football after hours. In addition to introducing this new game for its
students, the schools also gave conditions and opportunities for playing
football after schooldays ending. The Cathedral School in the after-
noons let their playground be open for free play. Students from the
various schools in this early phase became the centres of the develop-
ment of football in the city. The secondary schools thus became the
environment where football survived after vain efforts of club building
115
in the 1880s. During the 1890s pupils from the different schools met to
play one another in one of the city parks. The schools also provided
the social environment from which Bergens first modern football
club named Bergen Football Club(!) emerged in 1899. The develop-
ment was in this way similar to the British; gradually a desire arose
among sections of the students to continue playing after their schooldays
had come to an end. Different from Britain was that the new clubs
never had any official old boys affiliation. They were just regarded
as a continuation of a milieu that arose from certain schools.
What was worth noticing in Bergen was that the students not only
were permitted to use the schools playground in the breaks or otherwise
after school, but that the teacher directly used the game as a part of
teaching. Judging from circulars sent out by the Ministry concerning
school gymnastics, Lunde in this way was ahead of his time. Rarely
was football used so directly and so early in the pe-teaching, even though
some signals from central authorities opened up for idrt already in
1885.
5
It would however represent somewhat of a historical anacro-
nism to interpret this term in the direction of acceptance of football.
On the contrary, educationalists in general have, by most football histo-
rians, been reproduced as being active opponents to football, because
of the games suppossedly brutalising effects.
6
Especially the pe-
teachers have been placed in this category, as they most often were
officers and as such loaded with the philosophy of Swedish gymnastics.
This picture is not a 100 percent black and white; there were educatio-
nalists who held a more positive view of the game.
Now, considering that Bergen was not a very big city and that Oscar
Lunde worked at several schools, his view on sports and gymnastics
had an impact. And, it led to less visible divisions between voluntary
sports and compulsory schools activities. The point here is not that the
principal distinction between compulsory and extra-curriculum
activities become smaller.
7
The point is that the practical and expe-
rienced distances between the two activities becomes smaller. They
were no longer, at least not always, worlds apart.
The practical life of Oscar Lunde makes it even more natural and
relevant to treat and study school activities as part of the total sporting
scene. Apart from being teacher at three secondary schools he instructed
two gymnastic clubs, one of them, Bergen Gymnastic Club, was the
largest sports club in the city. He was also in the board for the citys
rifle shooting club. This interest also showed itself through Lundes
MATTI GOKSYR
116
practise in his classes. In addition, Lunde was an eager builder of sports
fascilities. He headed several private committees and propagated pub-
lic playing grounds. It was this enthusiasm for sports in general he
brought along to the schools physical education. Lundes formal
background, as an officer with courses from the Royal Gymnastic
Insitute, made his practise easier to accept for his superiors.
Nevertheless also Lundes classes were influenced by another deve-
lopment in the 1890s; the process of making Ling-gymnastics more
scientific, more rational. From 1892 Louis Bentzens gymnastic tables
made out a core of the teaching, which was attempted to be more
systematised.
8
From Lundes point of view, this did not inflict with his
more liberal and tolerant view on games and sports.
Lundes pedagogical practise must be seen in the perspective of his
view on sports. It is a question, though, if he fits into a traditional mo-
del where sports and games interest is seen as synonymous to a
pedagogical interest in character-building. According to this model the
ones who preached character-building were the ones most inclined to
pick up sports and games as a means to reach this goal.
9
Transferred to
a Scandinavian and Norwegian scene, this meant both a British and a
social-Darwinistic influence. However, when one analyses such
seemingly similar perspectives in new local settings one should always
be aware of new and other conditions which might have influenced
the very existence of these attitudes and ideas.
E.g., did not only physical education teachers and physicians, but
other local sports pioneers in Bergen such as Johan Martens and Johan
Blytt clearly express a strong belief in sports as a character-building
means. Any self-governed boys activity from boys marching batall-
ions (or brigades, organised as a boys autonomous acitivity) to street
fighting as well as more rational forms of sport did, according to Mart-
ens function positively for self-esteem, mutual respect, disciplin and
chivalry. Johan Blytt on his side romaticised the character-building of
both fist fighting and sports. Such activities made the boys fearless
and vigorous. Blytt even turned the means and goals somewhat upside
down. According to Blytt it was sport that gave us the energy and
force to handle the quite necessary fights.
10
Oscar Lunde was not so much a man of the pen as the others men-
tioned here. However, resembling ideas seem to have existed behind
his introduction of the game of football. The playing, described as the
wild kicking and fighting of the ball in Lundes classes... was hardly
117
acceptable for school officials and bourgeois parents, unless it could
be legitimated as a means of character-building and perhaps also of
exercising control.
The students warm acceptance of this, could raise the question if a
form of athleticism existed also in Norway. I cannot go into a full
discussion of this concept here, just say briefly and pre-maturely that
the main difference between J.A.Mangans use of the term and the
reality in Bergen seems to be, apart from the fact that this never became
an established ideology in Norwegian schools, that Mangan perhaps
underestimates the students genuine interest in creating their own sports
culture a point which would have to be included in a Norwegian
setting.
However, outside schools and the boys domain, football was not
looked upon as something worthy of cultivation. In Bergen, football
was strictly forbidden outside the one playing ground set aside for the
purpose until 1898. The game did not make into the newspapers, instead
periodicals printed reports on football matches with a strong bias of
sensationalism, emphasizing the physical contact side of the game.
Nevertheless, sports interest flourished at the schools in Bergen
around the turn of last century, encouraged by management and
physical education teachers. One example is the previoulsy mentioned
Technical School. Here the students showed a broad sports interest:
they joined massively several gymnastic clubs. One of the towns lea-
ding rowing clubs consisted mainly of technical students. And, football
had a large following at the school. Bergen Technical Schools Football
Club was among the towns dominating teams around and shortly after
the turn of the century. It was from this group of students that the later
famous club of Brann was founded in 1908. In general, the emerging
team sports did find the citys secondary schools as their natural
nurturing milieu. Why was this? It could hardly be because the students
had such an interest in character-building. Nor is the control-aspect
clearly visible:
As a matter of fact the principals and the pe-teachers at the Bergen
secondary schools did lose control over the game. From the beginning
in the 1890s the teachers had exerted their authority through the natural
control-function on the field, namely the referee-function. But as inspi-
rators without great professional knowledge they gradually became
surpassed by development. Instigated by a few so called dubious
decisions the boys took more over, to the degree that all pe-teachers
MATTI GOKSYR
118
except one or two were expelled from the grounds after the turn of
the century. Hence, outside the school, football more and more stood
out as a manifest of a self-controlled physical expression, and as such the
opposite to traditional control. Footballs way from curriculum, via
extra-curriculum to more or less independent activities could then be
regarded as an example of what Niels Kayser Nielsen has labelled
sport as a youth revolt.
11
Football as we have mentioned, did represent new dimensions in
what had so far been regarded as the Norwegian sports scene. As a
physical team- and ball game it created some challenges for tradi-
tionalists. As a sport this game thus meant something sensational and
provocative perhaps even a rebellion against the traditional bour-
geois sports with their ideals of style, restraint and correct posture
which had been regarded as central parts of a correct sports
performance. It would take a convinced social-Darwinist to promote a
game characterized by such a degree of close bodily contact and
physical drudgery, as suitable and apt for young men of the bourgeoisie.
It is illustrating then, that Johan Martens; sports pioneer with not only
tendencies of social-Darwinistic thinking, did not manage to accept
the game of football as a rational sport for adults.
However, the question remains of the function of the playing within
school. Could playing build character without going through the often
obligatory component of discipline? Here we must look at the social
recruitment of the schools. Secondary schools in Bergen were mainly
joined by sons of the better-off citizens. In these circles there existed a
belief in a school of life where abilities to endure taking and giving
as well as the ability to manage by oneself were regarded as useful
qualities. Football thereby became an appropriate game for those who
believed that boys physical education should develop properties and
train qualities such as manliness, chivalry and self-discipline. As a means
for character-building for boys needing such properties in their civil
life, the introduction of football therefore could be defended.
However, footballs break-through could still remain somewhat of a
paradox, at least from the standards of the time, if one does not look at
what had changed: With respect to footballs physical side, it seems
safe to conclude that the game probably would not and could not have
been well received in an earlier phase. It was not compatible with the
public culture in the civic society before the mentality of the upper
strata had changed to tolerate more drudgery and physical contact; in
119
other words much of the same development which took place through
the sportization of most other idrett, games and pastimes. In football,
however, it was not only new social groups, but also a new generation,
the adolescents who advocated the new, the faster and tighter perfor-
mance of the already most popular ball game.
The development then just went on. As barriers from the beginning
had been smaller in Norway than in Sweden, there was nothing that
could stop football from invading also physical education.
12
To illustrate that the things I have discussed soforth was not only a
physical education thing, I would like to add the following:
The development inside the compulsory physical education is clearly
related to the development in the other sports fields. Attitudes and
mentalities changed both within and outside schools. From the side of
the students this was obvious. They made out the practical performers
both in the compulsory and voluntary sector. From the schools and
the teachers sides this was less obvious. Yet we have seen also from
this side a gradually changing attitude and reception of the new sports.
One interesting outcome of this increasing receptiveness was the
entry of sports in other disciplines than the physical education. Sports
related themes were regarded as social themes from the 1890s and as
such part of the everyday life and culture which students were expected
to know. This meant that the students at Hambros school in the verna-
cular (or mothers tongue) classes had to write essays on sport.
This was something quite new. Towards the end of the 1880s there
had been given papers on the new problematic spare-time or leisure,
such as How should the young use their spare time?. Or they could
be asked to present their knowledges about themes like A ski hike/
walk/tour/outing. In 1890 the students were asked to produce a paper
On physical exercises. In the next year the word sport appeared in a
given essay for the first time, and from the school year 1891-92 the
essay title On sport was a yearly recurrence for the older students,
sometimes varied to The meaning of sport. Likewise it was a signal
of changing attitudes and times that the essay A ski hike in 1897 was
replaced with the more competitive A ski race.
13
So at the turn of the century, the sports milieus at the secondary
schools had become influential centres for diffusing modern sport
into other parts of society. The schools gave information and knowledge
about various forms of sports. They also provided facilities to a certain
degreee. But, the ones who made the decisive step towards bringing
MATTI GOKSYR
120
sport out of school were the students themselves and the environments
they formed.
Notes
1
Henrik Meinander: Towards a bourgeois manhood, Helsinki 1994, p.157.
2
References from Bergen, see Matti Goksyr: Idrettsliv i borgerskapets by.
NIH, Oslo 1991.
3
Today idrett and sport at least in Norway are used as rather synonymous
terms. Historically, however, idrett has had more of an ideological component
than sport. The explorer Fridtjof Nansen could therefore say: Practise idrett,
but detest sport and its record mania.
4
Hambros annual reports, 1887. Bergen municipial archives.
5
Meinander: p. 94.
6
P.Larsen: 1986, F.Olstad: 1987.
7
Meinander, p.75.
8
Bentzen was head of Den gymnastiske centralskole, from 1870 the Norwegian
institution for the education of physical education teachers.
9
Meinander. See also J.A.Mangan 1981.
10
Goksyr 1991: p.285.
11
N Kayser Nielsen 1990: p.183ff.
12
A letter from some despairing parents in Bergens Aftenblad 26.April 1917 can
illustrate the situation:
Football out of the gymnastics lesson!
The use of the gymnastics lessons to play football in school have been the terror of the
parents for a long time. It costs the home a lot of soles of shoes. In a time when a pair
of soles for shoes for a 14-years old costs up to 7 kr., one has to demand that the
schools show understanding in the time of high prices. They ought to forbid football
and instead chose to take up the outdoor games as Lang-bold and others which work
less hard on the shoe when the boys are going to have the gym-lesson outdoors. The
boys, who in the winter time walk on the sole of shoes up to eight weeks, wear out a
pear of soles of shoes in 2-3 weeks in the time for football, and for the family with
several boys football can be a ruinous game. Many parents.
13
Goksyr 1991: p.287.
121
Associate Professor Dr.scient. Matti Goksyr
Norges Idrettshgskole (The Norwegian University of Sport and Physical
Education).
E-mail: Matti@brage.idrettshs.no
Main publications:
Kropp, Kultur og tippekamp (Oslo 1996)
Vi gir alt for Norge (Oslo 1996)
Idrettsliv i borgerskapets by. En historisk underskelse av idrettens
utvikling og organisering i Bergen p 1800-tallet (Dr.scient.dissertation,
NIH, Oslo 1991).
Published and edited various articles in journals and books international
and national.
JAN GREXA & FRANTISEK SEMAN
122
123
THE HISTORY OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN SLOVAKIA
The History of Physical Education in Slovakia
Jan Grexa & Frantisek Seman
Comenius University of Bratislava, Slovakia
The history of physical education in Slovakia can be regarded in many
different ways. In this short overview we stress the elements of
professionalisation of the physical educators, and do not go into great
detail what the physical educator did in the school system nor what
the instructors and coaches did in the sport system. We have divided
our overview into eight periods.
Prior to 1777
Since the twelfth century religious schools existed in the area of Slovakia.
These schools were usually attached to monasteries, to churches, to
perishes. If there was any physical education in these schools at all,
nothing has been recorded about it, so we assume that there was none.
After the foundation of the first towns, village schools started to grow.
In 1465, the Academia Istropolitana, the first university was founded in
Bratislava. During the Reformation and the Counter-reformation
different types of schools were founded by, e.g., the Jesuits but also
catholic universities in Trnava (1635) and Kosice (1660). A mining
university was founded in Banka Stiavnica (1760).
The sources for the existence of physical education can mainly be
found in the school and university rules books. Physical education is
usually located under recreation. In some schools forms of physical
education existed as extra-curricular activities. There was no stable
content for these activities, but games and excursions played a major
role and were seen as a form of compensation to feel less stressed after
124
severe intellectual Studies. In some cases, like in the excursions in the
High Tatra Mountains the physical activity was combined with geogra-
phical, botanical and other intellectual pursuits. There was no formalised
physical education teacher training. The major personalities we find in
these extra-curricular activities are, e.g., Jan Bocatius (1568-1621), Jan
Bayer (1630-1674) and Elias Ladiver, jr. (1633-1686).
Rationalism and the National Revival (1777-1848)
The new school reform connected with a reformation of the school
system occurred in 1777 (ratio educationis) and brought about conside-
rable changes for the role of physical education. The new ideas about
the school system were strongly influenced by the influx of rationalism
and the Philantropical movement. The Slovakian author Adan Frantisek
Kollar (1718-1783) combined these influences and brought them in an
original form. The ratio educationis included a section on the norms of
physical education. The main purposes were within the medical
gymnastics, i.e. to fight bodily infirmities, strengthen the bodily organs,
and assure a spiritual refreshment. The physical educator were to respect
the age and physical development of the children and youth. All schools
had to have two physical education and sports fields: one very near to
the school and one outside of town.
The ratio educationis defined the role of physical education, the
educational means, the methodological tasks for the implementation
of the physical exercises, the rules of the games, the organisation of
tournaments, and rules for the construction and implementation of
sports grounds. Rules for the preparation of the physical educator did
not yet exist.
Ratio was in use within Transleithania, the Hungarian part of Slovakia,
while in Cisleithania, which was part of the Czech lands and thus of
the Austrian Monarchy, the school rules of the Emperor and King
(Allgemeine Schulordnung fr die deutschen Normal-, Haupt-, und Trivialschulen
in smtlichen K. und K. Erblndern) were operative since 1774. These
statutes introduced obligatory primary school education in three distinct
grades, defined the content in the classes very concretely but did not
introduce physical education. It can, therefore, be seen that the Slova-
kian Transleithanian ratio educationis is something very modern in the
European context of that time.
125
The Slovakian poet Jan Kollar (1793-1852) demanded the introduc-
tion of physical education in the Cisleithanian Slovakian schools from
the Vienna government in his Gedanken und Plan zu einer zeitgemssen
Reorganisierung der Schulen und des gesamten Volkserziehungswesens in der
sterreichischen Monarchie besonders in der Slowakei (Thoughts and plan
for a contemporary reorganisation of the primary school system in the
Austrian Monarchy, especially in Slovakia). Kollar recommends that
the school system should be divided into three distinct forms, primary,
secondary, and superior schools. Physical education was among the
subjects that were to be taught in all three levels of schools. Gymnasia
were supposed to be built near if not attached to every school. The
physical education classes were to be organised by professional teachers.
Jan Kollar did, however, not say how he wanted these professionally
prepared.
Jozef Kritsche was also among those who recommended physical
education in the Slovakian territory. In his votum separatum (1829) he
recommended the introduction of physical education but, as with
other separate votes, you would not voice them if you were with the
majority. Until a professional preparation of physical educators, he de-
manded that non-professionally prepared ones ought to instruct the subject.
From the National Revival to the end of the First World War
The period of the Revolution of 1848 until the fall of the Austro-Hun-
garian Empire is characterised by the rise of capitalism and after the
Austro-Hungarian compromise of 1867 by a strong Hungarisation.
The government planned to change the multinational part of Hungary
into a mono-national one. The assimilation politics slowed the develop-
ment of public education in Slovakia down. Until 1868, physical educa-
tion was but an optional subject in the school system. Only after the
defeat in the war against Prussia was this politics changed. The Prussian
Army had a physical preparation that was by far superior. Physical
education, therefore, became obligatory in 1869 based on the Spiess
system. The so called Etvs Reforms (1868) had made physical education
a required subject in village and in city schools. Pupils of several school
classes and thus age groups were instructed jointly, according to the
principles that were originally Jahns. These were on the whole drills
in large groups, standing, marching, sitting, some with apparatus. The
126
programmes were slightly changed over the years but basically stayed
the same until the end of the First World War. As these exercises were
pre-military in character, they were for boys and young men only, but
not for girls and young women.
Girls physical education was introduced into the city schools in 1877.
The Realschule (a kind of secondary modern school) had introduced
physical education for girls in 1874 while the classical Lyces, as the
traditional bourgeois secondary school for girls, waited until 1883. In
the professional and superior schools physical education was not yet
introduced.
In Cisleithania, the school law of 1869 introduced obligatory physical
education in the city schools. This was one year after Transleithania,
which was part of Hungary. In 1874, obligatory physical education was
introduced here in the country primary schools and in 1889 also in the
Lyces. The first real programmes were those of 1874 and were almost
identical to the southern German one by Adolf Spiess. This included
two hours of physical education every week. But the so called New
school abolished girls physical education again until the end of the First
World War.
The level on which physical education was taught can be characte-
rised in several rather negative ways. The teachers were not qualified
for their job. A serious physical education teacher training began in
Budapest in 1871. The secondary school teachers were, however, older
university students that did not have physical education classes, thus
they did not know what to teach. Although they had to take an exam
in several subject matters to qualify as teachers, these exams did not
include physical education and often were rather vague in the other
matters, too. More modifications in the years 1865, 1875, and 1880
improved the situation in some fields, but not in physical education. In
the 1880s only 5 % of the Hungarian school system had qualified teachers.
With the Law of 1868 (37
th
Art. of the Hungarian Parliament) twenty
new institutions were created to prepare primary school teachers. Of
these, three were inside Slovakia (Spisska Nova Ves, Modra, and in
Klastor pod Znievom). With that school law the Seminaries to prepare
primary school teachers were not included into the system of the
secondary schools (although they were post-primary), but in a special
category of National Schools. This had its advantages for physical
education as the teachers were prepared for this subject matter now
separately. This was a three year course for the preparation of the
127
primary school teachers of the new kind. This was an education for the
boys only, girls were not yet included.
According to the school programme, the primary school instructors
learned how to teach physical education for three years. In the first
two years they learned all the exercises. In the last year, they learned
only the military drill, i.e. how to teach the exercises in a pre-military
manner, some methodology of teaching physical education, the way
how to construct physical education equipment and grounds. In the
second year (4 hours of physical education per week) there had also
been some input that might be called didactics, i.e. educational theory
for physical education.
The preparation for the primary school instructor contained three
main subject area fields: The third one contained physical education,
drawing, singing and orthography. The instructors also had the chance
to observe practical teaching (2 hours), theoretical (2 hours), and
practical work experience of the pupils (3 hours/week). Apart from
these experiences, the knowledge of anatomy, biology, public hygiene,
and later on pre-military education served the purpose of physical
education.
The Union of physical education teachers participated in the
preparation of the qualified instructors. The first Normal School for
Instructors on Slovakian soil that included physical education was build
in Levice (1865). In Cisleithania, the training of the primary school
teachers lasted four instead of three years. In their programme physical
education also played an important role. It was introduced in 1884.
Physical education was included into the training of the secondary
school teachers in the Czech countries (to which Slovakia was counted)
in 1878, while it had been introduced officially in Austria in 1870.
In Austria-Hungary most schools were state schools, there were, how-
ever, also private schools, mainly run by the Catholic Church. The
three catholic Slovak lyces in Revuca, Martin, and Klastor pod Znie-
vom Slovak Lyces only existed for the years 1862-1875. In the efforts
of the Hungarianisation they were abolished again. Physical education
there, was but an elective. The lyce in Revuca had eight forms and it
also included the possibility for the girls to become primary school
mistresses in three years.
The main personality in charge of physical education was Dr. Ivan
Branislav Zoch (1849-1921), who was also the author of the first Slovak
physical education manual: Kratky navod k vyucovaniu telocviku hlavne
128
pre skoly narodnie. He had the subject of physical education subdivided
into eight parts: Free exercises, Joint exercises in cadences, Jumps,
Exercises with apparatus, Exercises with the cord, Dance, Combat
exercises, and Games. The exercises were only supposed to take place
in the summer, usually twice a week, as there were no gymnasia attached
to the schools. In addition to these groups of exercises there was some
swimming and also excursions.
Finally, in may be concluded that on the whole physical education
on Slovakian soil was as good or as bad as elsewhere in central
Europe at the time. There was only one major difference: While physical
education in central Europe was part of the project for a national
education that could not develop in Slovakia, as some was under
German/Austrian, some under Czech and some under Hungarian rules.
The education generally took place in the Hungarian language. A
Slovakian terminology could not develop and there was no proper
basis for a unified Slovakian system of physical education yet.
Czechoslovakia between the two wars (1918-1938)
The creation of Czechoslovakia at the end of the First World War had
very positive effects on public education, its Slovakisation and demo-
cratisation.
A new organisation of the school system was created and there were
also new pedagogical academies (one year institutions) in Prague, Brno,
and in Bratislava. Physical education in the trade schools, in professio-
nal and other secondary schools that were not preparing university
was still lacking. In 1937, as a reaction to outside threats and in antici-
pation of the next war compulsory pre-military physical education was
introduced into all secondary schools. In that period, there were by far
not enough sufficiently qualified physical educators in the school sy-
stem. In the lyces, e.g., there were 242 teachers of physical education
of which only 13 had a proper preparation for their job. In the school
year 1934/35 only 66 properly qualified physical education teachers
were employed in all of the Slovakian school system. Of these, only
ten were of Slovakian nationality. In the fourteen Normal Schools for
primary school education 102 teachers were employed to prepare the
next generation of primary school teachers, but only five of these had
a qualification in physical education.
129
The quality of the preparation of the specialist physical educators
was therefore quite insufficient. Those teachers that were prepared by
the Normal Schools were instructors with a very basic knowledge and
were not qualified to teach physical education with an educational im-
petus. In addition, the graduate had the right to be excused from the
exams in drawing and physical education and still pass the final exam
as a teacher for all subject matters. The somewhat better qualified
teachers for the city schools could also avoid physical education until
the school year 1934/35, as it was part of the non-compulsory subjects.
The preparation of the secondary school teachers for physical education
took place in practical courses. They were done at first for six semesters
(since 1936 eight semester) and took place in Prague (1920) and later
also in Brno (1922). These courses were no proper Academic Studies,
as the instructors were all secondary school teachers. Physical education
had to be combined with another teaching matter either in the Faculty
of Letters or of Science.
The Slovakian Republic (1939-1945)
In March 1939 Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. The Czech part became
the German Protectorate Moravia and Bohemia, while the Slovakian
part became the independent Slovakian Republic. In spite of the inde-
pendence, the republic was politically and economically not much more
than a German colony. In school education, new elements and guide-
lines were used stressing humility, respect of authority, clericalism, an
intense nationalism, and anti-Semitism. The influence of the Catholic
Church was strengthened. In secondary education, e.g., co-education
was abolished, the instruction of the girls became much more limited
than before. The influence of the Czech educators (including physical
educators) was reduced as it had not been favourable for the quality of
education.
But the prestige of physical education was increased by the state.
This was kept this way for military reasons during the World War. In
the physical education context an education for hegemony, discipline
and national aggressiveness could easily be arranged. School physical
education was also closely linked to extra-scholastic education within
the state youth organisation Hlinka Youth. This helped in increasing
the amount of physical education lessons and its political impact.
130
But many of the necessities to improve the standards of physical
education stayed in the stage of discussion and were not realised. The
lack of sufficiently qualified physical education teachers and of proper
sports grounds survived the previous system. The social status of
physical educators and their income was also not changed to any
significant degree. The physical education teacher had to teach 16%
classes more and received 16 % salary less than their colleagues teaching
the other subjects. This caused a lack in interest in taking courses to
become a physical education teacher.
The preparation of physical education teachers was also reformed.
The Studies on the pedagogical academies was prolonged by one year.
In the third year (only for the boys) there were three physical education
classes per week. Additionally, there were combat games in the second
year. The preparation for the physical educators in the village and city
primary schools remained, however, unchanged. These teachers
received five years of preparation. Those for the city schools had regular
courses in physical education and had to take a written exam and
additionally teach a supervised class, take an oral theoretical exam,
and demonstrate the physical education and sport skills the pupils had
to learn including swimming.
On October 23, 1939 a Physical Education Department was opened
in the Slovakian University to prepare the secondary school teachers
in physical education. This preparation of the future teachers took place
in close co-operation with the Medical Faculty and with the Faculty of
Letters. The future teachers had to take exams in track and field, sport
games, swimming, rhythmical gymnastics and sporting gymnastics.
They also had to pass a medical fitness exam.
1945-1948
The Czechoslovak Republic was recreated after the Second World War.
The democratic development was interrupted by the Communist coup
dEtat in March 1948. The Communists absorbed the power and
abolished all elements of political pluralism. Czechoslovakia developed
into an authoritarian state under the dominance of the Soviet Union.
In terms of physical education, the most important event took place
April 30, 1946 when it was decreed that physical education had the
same status as all other school subjects (including its status in the trade
131
school and other tertiary education). Physical educators were also no
longer discriminated against professionally, i.e. they started to receive
the same salary as all other teachers. In tertiary education physical
education departments and also departments for medicine in physical
education were formed. These institutes assured the obligatory physical
education classes for all students in tertiary education until 1952/3.
The physical educators were prepared similarly to those prior to the
Second World War. There were also attempts to find a solution for the
provisional holiday sport courses and excursions.
The universities founded educational faculties for the formation of
Kindergarten mistresses and primary school teachers according to a
law of 1946. It was the first time that this kind of pre-school and primary
school education had found its place in the university curriculum. They
had to take five physical education lessons per week, i. e., theory of
physical education, physiology, hygiene of childrens physical educa-
tion, history of physical education, measurement in physical education,
singing, and sports for all. In the practical part, lessons had to be taken
in track and field, rhythmical and sporting gymnastics, swimming,
combat sports, skiing, ice skating, and hiking and camping. The physical
education departments were included into the Pedagogical Faculty of
the Slovak University on October 1, 1947. These departments were
responsible for the courses for the kindergarten mistresses (one year),
for the primary school teachers (two years), the city school teachers
(three years), and the secondary school teachers (four years).
Socialist Czechoslovakia (1948-1989)
After 1948, physical education stabilised its situation as an obligatory
subject on the same level with all others. The curriculum was moder-
nised according to the world standard in physical education. The
teachers were prepared in a qualified way. The level was only influenced
negatively by such events as changes in the national curriculum,
different directors of the department, working methods, different sta-
tus and quality of voluntary workers in short, the problems of a tota-
litarian regime. The socialist regime could not eliminate the problems
of the past, i.e. the lack of decent equipment and qualified instructors.
The physical state of the youth, therefore, deteriorated steadily.
132
The Socialist Education Law No. 95 of April 1948 created the unified
school system and assured free access to all education of all strata of
the social echelon. With the new law, the principles of the Soviet school
system and instruction was formally taken over. This strengthened the
role of physical education in all schools. According to the Soviet mo-
del of physical culture as an integral part of Communist education,
changes were made to help develop physical education as an education
to adhere to the new regime.
In 1953, the obligatory school was prolonged to eleven years with
new Soviet programmes. In the 1960s many sport games were
introduced into the school system. The level of physical performance
of all pupils was continuously monitored. In the 1950s special schools
were founded in which elite sport pupils were prepared. The first of
this kind were created in the USSR in 1934/5.
With the restitution of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1945, the resti-
tution of the military law of 1937 was enacted according to which all
students of tertiary education had obligatory physical education. With
this, institutes of instruction and research in physical education were
created in all institutions of higher learning.
From the 1960s onward, it was no longer exclusively the Soviet model
that was enacted, but more and more research results of Czechoslovakia,
of the Soviet Union and the best results from around the world became
the basis for the physical education system. The system became more
open, and it was possible to discuss the usefulness of certain key elements
that before had been blindly taken over because they had been con-
sidered Communist. Until that time, the didactical principle of mate-
rialism had been dominating.
In the programmes of 1970, certain changes were made. It was no
longer the external maximal result that was striven for, but the education
took the situation of the child into consideration, its physical capacities,
individual development etc.. Under the socialist system the all-round
primary school teacher had been abolished and physical education at
that level, too, had been taught by specialists. The preparation of these
had been done in the physical education departments. In 1950, these
departments had been converted into university chairs of physical
education in the faculties of education. In 1959/60 the chair was
included into the Faculty of Letters of the Comenius University in
Bratislava. The sub-departments under that Chair were concerned with
the social Sciences of physical education, with the biology of physical
133
education, and with practical lessons. These three sub-departments
became the nucleus for research in the theory of physical education.
With the government decree 24 of April 7, 1953 the IEPS (Institute
for physical education and sport) was created in Prague and also an
Institute for the research in physical education and sport. These
departments began to operate the following semester. In Slovakia, the
IEPS existed until 1960 and was enlarged and transformed into a
Faculty of physical education and sport in 1965. The preparation for
the instructors in physical education took five years. From 1961/2
onward there was also a course for students who wanted to become
university trained coaches. One year later there were also courses by
correspondence for future coaches.
After 1960 there were yet again changes in the education of those
who were about to become physical education instructors for the
primary schools. They were to be prepared in the pedagogical institutes
and received a basis in the biology of physical education, the theory of
physical education, special education and practical application. These
departments were transformed into proper faculties in 1964.
In the 1980s, the pre-school instructors were prepared on special
schools of secondary education and the teachers of secondary schools
were prepared in tertiary (university) institutes (Normal school for
instructors, the Faculty of letters and science, the Faculty of physical
education and sport). The Soviet educational system was more or less
imposed on all socialist countries. It had the unity of education as major
aim. The basis was Marxism-Leninism. Physical education played a
key role in this Communist educational system to prepare man for the
Socialist society of the future. With the downfall of the Soviet system
the question arose whether physical education could maintain this
relatively high profile.
The 1990s
Currently, the preparation of physical education teachers of some sort
is being done in the Faculty of Human Sciences of the University of
Presov in Presov, in the Faculty of Human Sciences of the Matej Bel
University in Banska Bystrica, in the Normal School for Instructors of
the Kanstantin Filosof University in Nitra, Normal School for Instructors
of the at the Comenius University in Bratislava, and the Faculty of
134
Physical Education and Sport of the Comenius University in Bratislava.
The alma mater of those is the latter, the Faculty of Physical Education
and Sport of the Comenius University in Bratislava. The greatest variety
of qualified courses is offered there, i.e., physical education and sport
for future coaches. The students finish their Studies with a state exam
and a thesis. The graduates receive a diploma and this is a Magister
exam (M.A.). It is a four year course. Secondly, there is the preparation
of physical education teachers who have to take one additional teaching
field according to their choice like in many Western and Northern
European countries. The course of Studies takes five years, is finished
by a state exam and a thesis. The graduates receive a diploma and this
is a Magister exam (M.A.). Thirdly, there is a three year course for
Bachelors in Coaching without a thesis since 1996/7. Finally, there is a
two year course by correspondence for coaches who are already
working in the field. This course is done in co-operation with the
Slovakian sports federations.
Obviously, this is but a temporary overview for the current situa-
tion. As could be seen, physical education and sport is a very dynamic
field, and we can be sure that in future times it will continue to adopt
to the necessities of a changing society. It is difficult to go into greater
detail in the space given, to show what the changes on a formal level of
professionalisation really meant in the practical field.
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J. Perutka, K formovaniu sovietskeho systemu telesnej kultury, in: Acta Facultatis
Educationis Physicae Universitatis Comenianae (Bratislava) 21 (1980).
135
A. Radlinsky, Strcny vytah z navrhu o ustrojnosti gymnasii a vecnic cili realek v
Rakouskem mocnarstve (Budin, 1851).
L. Reitmayer, Dejiny skolni telesne vychovy v ceskych zemich (Prague, 1972).
G. Sorm, Nazory a navrhy Jana Kollara, in: Telovychovyny sbornik i, 1956 (Prague,
1956).
Studijne programy FTVS UK v Bratislave pre sk roky 1989/90 B 1998/99.
J. Svara, Sbirka narizeni o telesne vychove v csi republice (Prague, 1933).
F. Sykora, Skolska telesna vychova po roku 1948, in: Rozvoj telesnej vychovy a
sportu na Slovensku v rokoch 1948 B 1973 (Bratislava, 1973).
F. Sykora, Geneza tvorby ucebnych osnov telesnej vychovy v nasom skolskom
systeme, in: Inovacia projektov telesnej vychvy v zakladnych a strenych skolach
Slovenskej republiky (Bratislava, 1996).
System planovani vedecke prace v telesne vychove. Archives of the FTVS UK.
Ungarischer Schulbote 6 (1873)
P. Vajcik, Skolstvo, studijne a skolske poriasky na Slovensku v 16. Storoci (Bratislava,
1995).
I. B. Zoch, Kratky navod k vyucovaniu telocviku hlavne pre narodnie skoly (Revuca,
1873).
Zpravy skolskeho referatu v Bratislave 1 (1920).
Zvesti Ministerstva skolstva a narodnej ostvety 2 (1939); 3 (1940); 4 (1941).
Profesor PhD Jn Grexa is chief of the Department of the Social Sciences
at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport of the Comenius University
in Bratislava (Slovak Republic). He is also president of the Slovak Olympic
Academy.
E-mail: grexa@sporter.fsport.uniba.sk
Major publications:
Our Representatives at The Olympic Games
Olympic Movement in Slovakia
Frantiek Seman is teacher at The Department of the social sciences at
the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport of the Comenius University in
Bratislava (Slovak Republic).
E-mail: seman@sporter.fsport.uniba.sk
Major publications:
Education Olympic.
ELISABETH L-GERMAIN
136
137
LINSTITUT LYONNAIS DEDUCATION PHYSIQUE
Linstitut Lyonnais dEducation Physique
Elisabeth L-Germain
CRIS Lyon 1, France
Les lois franaises de la Troisime Rpublique sur lorganisation de
lcole laque et gratuite raffirment le principe de lducation physique
dans lenseignement primaire. Celle-ci semble tre le lieu idal pour la
formation du citoyen dans une perspective de progrs social et didal
rpublicain. En effet, en devenant accessible tous et gratuite, lcole
doit permettre chaque petit franais daccder au savoir, quelque soit
sa fortune. La Rpublique par un systme de bourse veut donner sa
chance chacun et notamment aux enfants les plus pauvres qui le
mritent. De cette masse, sera issue la future lite de la nation, cest
dire les hommes les plus brillants quelque soient leurs origines sociales
ou leur fortune. Lcole constitue donc pour la Rpublique naissante,
le fleuron politique dans lequel lenfant va se construire sur le plan
intellectuel et physique. Car lducation physique, si elle est correcte-
ment enseigne permettra daccrotre lefficience intellectuelle et contri-
bue donc ainsi obtenir de meilleurs rsultats dans les disciplines intel-
lectuelles.
Mais la France vient galement de perdre lAlsace et la Lorraine
dans la guerre de 1870. Elle en ressort humilie et attribue une partie
de la dfaite aux instituteurs qui nont pas russi prparer de futurs
soldats vaillants et courageux. Il convient donc, au dbut du sicle, de
remdier cet tat de fait et de prparer la revanche car la France
nentend pas laisser sous la coupe allemande cette bande de terre quelle
revendique. La France va dsormais sintresser plus srieusement la
question de lducation physique de ses enfants. Pour cela, elle va
dlguer quelques observateurs qui vont entreprendre un tour dEurope
sur la question de lducation physique et de ses mthodes. Elle va
ELISABETH L-GERMAIN
138
ainsi dcouvrir son retard en matire dentranement et de connaissance
scientifique, mais va surtout tre sduite par la gymnastique sudoise
de Ling, qui sculpte les corps merveille... Cest ainsi que les
gymnastiques trangres et notamment la Sudoise vont faire leur entre
dans notre pays. La cration du cours suprieur dducation physique
par Georges Dmeny en atteste : lducation physique doit faire parti
des programmes denseignement scolaire.
Mais, en ce dbut de sicle, si les motifs revanchards sont bien pr-
sents, ils ne sont pas les seuls: il y a galement une proccupation hygi-
nique importante. La population franaise, en effet, connat un vritable
tat de dlabrement physique, au point que bon nombre de mdecins
vont vanter ici o l les mrites du sport pour les uns et de la gymna-
stique pour les autres. Outre le crtinisme dont sont atteints nombre
de jeunes franais, la tuberculose et lalcoolisme font des ravages. Le
poids et la taille des jeunes appels sont en diminution. La population
dgnre et lide de lextinction totale de la race est franchement
pose. Dans ces conditions, lide dune reconstruction physique de la
population franaise est sduisante et cest la conjugaison de ces deux
facteurs (revanchard et hyginique) qui va conduire, tout naturelle-
ment, encourager lenseignement de lducation physique lcole.
Or, cette perspective tant toute rcente, les instituteurs ne sont pas
forms pour enseigner lducation physique. Les classes sont parfois
confies danciens militaires ou des matres darmes qui prennent
en charge lentranement physique des jeunes mais, la plupart du temps,
cet enseignement, pourtant obligatoire, disparat purement et simple-
ment des emplois du temps. Se pose donc en France le problme de la
formation des enseignants dducation physique.
Alors que la grande guerre, celle de 1914-1918 doit thoriquement
tre la dernire, les pertes humaines gigantesques vont une fois de plus
poser la question de lavenir de la race et relancer le dbat sur la question
de lducation physique. Le principe de lobligation de cet enseignement
est rgulirement raffirm mme si rares sont les coles primaires ou
les lyces qui proposent cet enseignement leurs lves. La gymnastique
lorsquelle est enseigne, se rsume des volutions militaires, des
marches et des exercices de tir. Mais le phnomne sportif commence
attirer les jeunes dautant que la mouvemnt Olympique, largement
dfendu par le baron Pierre de Coubertin, gagne du terrain et soutient
lide selon laquelle le sport a des vertus qui mritent dtre enseignes.
Ce vaste mouvement sportif est lui aussi pris en compte notamment
139
dans le rglement militaire de lEcole de Joinville (1919) et dans la
rdaction de la Mthode Franaise qui sera publie en 1925. Le sport
est prconis pour les jeunes adultes en complment de lducation
physique de base qui elle, sadresse au plus grand nombre. Ces questions
de lducation physique, du sport et de leur enseignement ne laissent
personne indiffrent dans les annes 20 en France et nous tudierons
comment, une rponse est apporte Lyon, dans la deuxime ville de
France. Lyon, pendant cette priode de lentre-deux guerre va, dans le
domaine de lducation physique et du sport, donner lexemple la
France et notamment travers ce projet: la cration de lInstitut
Lyonnais dEducation Physique (ILEP).
Cest en 1920, que lInstitut va ouvrir ses portes sous limpulsion du
professeur de mdecine Andr Latarjet qui trouve au sein de la muni-
cipalit lyonnaise un cho particulirement favorable en la personne
de son maire, Edouard Herriot. Cest dailleurs probablement grce
cette conjoncture particulire Lyon, quune telle ralisation va tre
possible. Par ailleurs, il faut souligner que la cration de cet Institut est
une premire en France. Elle constitue, en effet, un engagement muni-
cipal trs fort en faveur du sport et de lducation physique, accompagn
dautres mesures dailleurs, et cet exemple prfigure un aspect de la
politique de formation des enseignants dducation physique en France
et notamment la cration des Instituts Rgionaux dEducation Physique
(IREP) dans les annes 1927-1928. Nous pouvons alors nous interroger:
pourquoi cet institut voit-il le jour Lyon? Lyon serait-elle une ville
emblmatique en matire de politique sportive? Pourquoi une telle
politique mene Lyon et non Paris qui pourtant est la capitale de la
France?
Cest pour tenter de rpondre toutes ces questions que nous distin-
guerons deux parties dans notre expos: la premire sera consacre
aux acteurs et aux faits qui ont conduits louverture de lILEP en
1920, alors que la seconde montrera comment cette exprience participe
une politique lyonnaise originale et novatrice et surtout, comment
Lyon tente de saffirmer comme un laboratoire exprimental en
matire de sport et dducation physique au niveau national.
ELISABETH L-GERMAIN
140
LILEP et la formation des cadres sportifs
dans les annes 20 Lyon
Si lILEP ouvre ses portes ds le dbut des annes 20, cest en partie
grce aux convictions convergentes de deux hommes: Andr Latarjet,
le mdecin et Edouard Herriot, le politique. Nous allons dans cette
premire partie, montrer en quoi leur action ft dterminante dans ce
projet, en tudiant rapidement leur parcours personnel.
Andr Latarjet est n Dijon le 20 aot 1877. Il sinstalle avec sa
famille Lyon et passe son baccalaurat. Il poursuit ensuite des tudes
de mdecine et soutient sa thse
1
en 1906. Trs vite, il saffirme
comme un grand anatomiste et ses travaux avec le professeur Testut
lui assurent une renomme internationale.
2
Le muse danatomie
humaine de la Facult de mdecine de Lyon porte dailleurs
aujourdhui son nom. Cest loccasion de ses nombreux dplace-
ments, particulirement en Italie et en Tchcoslovaquie quAndr
Latarjet labore une nouvelle conception de lducation physique.
3
Latarjet dplore notamment le budget considrable allou la
mdecine thrapeutique et la maigre part alloue lducation
physique. Quelle misre crit-il (...) il est urgent de montrer (...)
la part que le mouvement, les exercices physiques doivent occuper
dans le dveloppement de lenfant et dans lentretien de la vie
adulte,
4
dautant que Latarjet lui-mme est un adepte des activits
de plein air notamment du ski (surtout depuis les Jeux Olympiques
de Chamonix en 1924). Cet avenir de la race est une question prpon-
drante ds le tournant du sicle. De nombreux auteurs dcrivent
avec talent cette lassitude gnrale, ce manque dnergie lis la fin
du sicle
5
et les incertitudes sur lavenir qui laccompagnent. Latarjet,
trs sensible ce discours va donc tenter dimpulser Lyon une
politique novatrice en faveur de la jeunesse, des sports et des activits
physiques. En 1925, il succde au professeur Langlois la Direction
du Cours Suprieur dducation physique cre par Dmeny en 1903.
Il y propose des rformes, notamment des confrences destines
aux inspecteurs dacadmie, aux proviseurs de lyces et de collges
et aux professeurs de gymnastique. En 1927, il organise au lyce
Michelet Vanves, un stage dinformation du cours suprieur ddu-
cation physique cautionn par le Ministre de lInstruction Publique,
qui nest autre quEdouard Herriot ! Les deux hommes se connaissent
bien car les projets de lun nauraient pu tre mens leur terme
141
sans lcoute bienveillante de lautre, Edouard Herriot, le maire de
Lyon, laquelle la personnalit et lenvergure politique ne sont pas
trangres.
Edouard Herriot a sensiblement le mme ge que Latarjet. Il est issu
de la petite bourgeoisie. Son pre, militaire de carrire lui administre
des principes dducation trs stricts qui toute sa vie, resteront la
base de son mode de pense. Il est en effet, convaincu que la volont
et le travail permettent toujours de sen sortir, de gravir les chelons
sociaux au point que lenfance et la jeunesse dEdouard Herriot
semblent faites pour illustrer un manuel de morale rpublicaine.
6
Edouard Herriot bnficie dune bourse dtude qui lui permet
dachever ses tudes secondaires, puis entre lcole Normale
Suprieure et devient professeur agrg de lettres modernes. Rien
ne semble prdestines Herriot la carrire politique nationale quon
lui connat si ce nest une mutation quil obtient pour la ville de
Lyon en 1896. Nomm au lyce Ampre, il acquiert, grce sa grande
loquence, une vaste popularit. Marqu par lAffaire Dreyfus, il
rencontre bientt la Ligue des Droits de lHomme les grandes
personnalits de la ville et parmi elles, son prdcesseur, Victor
Augagneur. Elu Conseiller Municipal et Adjoint lInstruction
Publique en 1904, il se voit propuls la tte de la municipalit en
1905 suite au dpart inopin dAugagneur. Cest ainsi qu lge de
tente trois ans, pouss par ses nouveaux amis, il prend en charge le
destin de la ville de Lyon et cela pour un demi sicle puisquil restera
maire de la ville pendant plus de cinquante ans
7
(1905-1957). Cest
Lyon quEdouard Herriot fait lapprentissage des affaires
publiques.
8
Cette formation acquise Lyon, va le conduire aux
plus hautes fonctions de lEtat ; Ministre de lInstruction Publique
entre 1926 et 1928, il sera Prsident du Conseil (le Premier Ministre
actuel) plusieurs reprises et achve sa carrire politique en mme
temps que sa vie la Prsidence de la Chambre des Dputs. Mais,
sil est un projet auquel Edouard Herriot reste particulirement atta-
ch tout au long de sa vie, cest certainement celui de lducation.
Sensible la formation de la jeunesse sur le plan intellectuel et
physique, il voit dans lducation physique un moyen efficace de
lutter contre lalcoolisme et toute forme de dgnrescence de ltre
humain, mais aussi, un moyen dinculquer certaines valeurs rpubli-
caines telles la volont ou le courage. De ce fait, on peut considrer
que les actions entreprises Lyon entre 1905 et 1930 dans le domaine
ELISABETH L-GERMAIN
142
du sport et de lducation physique, constituent pour lui et au regard
des lgislations nationales
9
qui seront adoptes plus tard, des exp-
riences bnficiant de toute son attention et qui mritent le soutien
financier de la ville, faisant de Lyon, une sorte de laboratoire exp-
rimental, dans le domaine du sport et de lducation physique. En
effet, lILEP participe un plus vaste programme
10
dont Edouard
Herriot ne manque pas de senorgueillir ds que loccasion se
prsente.
Nous pouvons donc considrer que cest sous limpulsion de ces deux
hommes que lILEP a pu tre cr, mais rien naurait pu tre fait sur le
terrain sans lintervention dun troisime acteur, le pdagogue, Eugne
Fortunet.
Eugne Fortunet est certes moins connu ; son action discrte na
gure laiss de traces.
11
Fortunet est n en 1871, en Sane et Loire. Il
pratique la gymnastique, ce qui le conduit enseigner dans les coles
de Mcon. Pendant son service militaire, il effectue un stage Joinville
o il obtient le diplme de moniteur de gymnastique. Il fait parti
dun groupe dtudiants qui participent aux travaux du Cours
Suprieur de Dmeny. En 1905, il est nomm au lyce Ampre
Lyon, o il acquiert trs vite une grande notorit. En 1919, il est
affect lcole normale dinstituteurs, et cest alors que Latarjet fait
appel lui pour organiser les enseignements pdagogiques et
pratiques de lILEP. Fortunet sera ds lors associ chaque projet
de la ville de Lyon et matire dducation physique et notamment,
la coordination des 2000 participants des coles primaires de la ville,
lors des ftes de la jeunesse de 1926. Fortunet prend sa retraite en
1933 mais continue de former jusquen 1943, lIREP (Institut
Rgional dEducation Physique) de nombreux candidats au profes-
sorat dducation physique. Il laisse limage dun organisateur
talentueux, ducateur hors pair, dot de grandes comptences.
Lorganisation matrielle de lILEP sappuie sur des fonds publics grce
au concours de la ville de Lyon, du Conseil Gnral du Rhne et du
Comit lyonnais des sports. Destin former les enseignants dducation
physique sur la base dun programme scientifique et pdagogique,
lILEP constitue un point dappui ltude des questions relatives
lducation physique au sein de la Facult de mdecine de Lyon. Le
Directeur de lInstitut nest autre que le Professeur Latarjet. Il prend en
143
charge les cours danatomie et le Professeur Policard enseigne la
physiologie. Par une lettre du 10 janvier 1923, les professeurs Latarjet
et Policard soulignent les rsultats satisfaisants de lInstitut et raffirment
le caractre scientifique de lducation physique. Un des buts de
lInstitut est de prparer des cadres instructeurs connaissant non
seulement les mthodes modernes denseignement de la culture physi-
que mais encore les bases scientifiques lmentaires de lducation
physique
12
. Si nous ne connaissons que peu de choses sur le fonctionne-
ment de lInstitut ses dbuts, faute darchives, nous pouvons nan-
moins souligner limplication municipale dans cette entreprise. En effet,
la ville de Lyon met disposition de lInstitut, ds le dbut des annes
20, des locaux communaux et prend sa charge,
13
la fourniture et
linstallation des appareils de gymnastique ncessaires. Elle soutiendra
dailleurs cette institution jusqu son rattachement officiel lUniversit
en 1927, voire mme aprs, en dsignant systmatiquement un membre
du Conseil Municipal pour reprsenter la ville au sein du Conseil de
lUniversit. Cette fonction sera dabord confie Monsieur Michon
jusquen 1927 puis au Docteur Vagnon et enfin Monsieur Privat en
1930.
A partir de 1928, lILEP est rattach lUniversit. Il change alors
de nom et devient au mme titre que dix autres instituts cres en France,
un IREP. Il est plac sous le contrle de la Facult de mdecine et
nous avons alors retrouv de plus nombreuses traces de son organisa-
tion et de son fonctionnement. Toujours plac sous la codirection (cette
fois) du Professeur Latarjet et de Monsieur Coche, Inspecteur de
lEnseignement Primaire, le but de lIREP est multiple. Il sagit :
dun enseignement aux mdecins et aux tudiants de mdecine
dsireux de se perfectionner dans les questions de mdecine
applique lducation physique,
dun enseignement aux futurs professeurs dducation physique
comprenant la prparation du CAEG (Certificat dAptitude
lEnseignement de la Gymnastique) degr lmentaire et suprieur,
dun enseignement thorique et pratique aux moniteurs des socits
sportives et de gymnastique, ainsi quaux sportifs et aux gymnastes.
14
Lemploi du temps de ces diffrents enseignements est reproduit en
annexe, et il est intressant de noter que les cours tant assur par des
mdecins, qui gardent bien entendu une charge importante de travail
ELISABETH L-GERMAIN
144
auprs de leurs malades lHpital, sont assurs pour la plupart dentre
eux relativement tard le soir ou encore, le dimanche!
Mais cet institut na pas pour seule vocation de dispenser le savoir
sur les questions dducation physique. A partir de 1928, Latarjet expose
son intention dorganiser un laboratoire, dirig par un professeur de
physiologie de la Facult, dont le but sera de produire du savoir. Il
sagit en effet, dorganiser des recherches
15
sur la valeur physique des
athltes, en utilisant des appareils relativement sophistiqus, permettant
lanalyse des mouvements, le contrle des temps de raction, etc. Tout
porte croire donc, que lIREP entend dvelopper Lyon, un vritable
ple de recherche incontournable dans le domaine de lducation
physique et du sport. Et cest encore vers la municipalit lyonnaise
quil se tourne pour faire face ses projets sur le plan financier. Cest la
cas par exemple lorsque lIREP va simpliquer plus particulirement
dans une exprience pdagogique conduite Lyon, ds 1928, auprs
denfants dits dbiles que le Professeur Latarjet souhaite regrouper dans
une cole de rcupration.
16
Ainsi lIREP entend bien participer de vastes projets en matire
dducation physique et des sports et il trouve un cho tout particulire-
ment favorable pour les raisons que nous dvelopperons dans une
seconde partie.
Analyse de la politique sportive de la ville de Lyon
Lyon, par son action prcoce par rapport dautres villes franaises,
constitue, selon nous, un exemple de politique municipale en faveur
du sport et de lducation physique ds le dbut du sicle. En effet, de
grands projets ont t raliss Lyon. Cest le cas par exemple de la
construction du premier grand stade franais, le stade de Gerland. Son
inauguration, dans le cadre des ftes de la jeunesse en 1926, seront
loccasion pour le maire Edouard Herriot de recevoir des invits
prestigieux, notamment Lo Lagrange et de leur exposer ses ides en
matire dducation en gnral et dducation physique en particulier.
Cest aussi lInstitut Lyonnais dEducation Physique que nous avons
voqu dans la premire partie qui, parce quil est le premier en France,
constitue encore une exprience lyonnaise. Dautres exemples
pourraient tre choisis, telles les classes de sant, les stages de ski
pour les instituteurs ou encore, le Comit Lyonnais des sports... bref,
145
au nom de la lutte en faveur de lducation de tous et des dfavoriss
en particulier, de la lutte contre lalcoolisme et la maladie, Lyon devient
une ville phare dans le domaine de lducation physique sous la houlette
de son maire Edouard Herriot. Mais dans le fond, pourquoi Herriot
tient-il tant faire de sa ville une ville pilote dans ce domaine?
dabord parce quHerriot est un ancien professeur. Ses orientations
politiques seront toujours lies cette jeunesse laquelle il est si
profondment attach. Respectueux de linstitution scolaire, il
reprsente un pur produit de cette troisime Rpublique
17
sans
laquelle il naurait pu accder, en raison de ses origines modestes,
aux fonctions quil occupe pendant cette premire moiti du 20
me
sicle. Cette proccupation doeuvrer toujours en faveur des masses
est bien entendu une consquence de lducation quil a reue et
cela se produit parfois au dtriment des lites. Il ne faut pas chercher
faire des spcialistes, des champions dclare-t-il ds 1913, il faut
travailler au relvement du niveau moyen chez le plus grand
nombre.
18
La cration de lILEP sinscrit naturellement dans cette
optique; il est ncessaire de former des cadres comptents si lon
souhaite rellement voir des progrs dans la jeunesse lyonnaise sur
le plan physique.
Ensuite, Herriot reprsente larchtype de Rpublicain. Il se doit
donc doeuvrer Lyon en matire dducation. Rappelons que cest
Lyon quil fait lapprentissage de la vie publique et politique. Il va
conduire une politique courageuse sur laquelle il pourra sappuyer
une fois prises en charges les plus hautes fonctions de lEtat, et cest
le cas notamment lorsquil gnralisera la cration des IREP
lensemble du pays. Par ailleurs, il se doit, dans ce climat particulier
li aux consquences de la Loi de Sparation des Eglises et de lEtat
du 9 dcembre 1905, de marquer sa position et de dfendre osten-
siblement le camp rpublicain. En effet, dans la ville de Lyon, que
de nombreux auteurs qualifient de ville de prire et de labeur,
19
les
relations entre lcole laque et lcole libre restent la source denjeux
constants. Dans ce contexte, Herriot affirme clairement sa volont:
jumeler lcole primaire avec la mairie plus ou moins explicitement
affronte lglise.
20
Herriot allie donc ses convictions personnelles
et politiques, des intentions en matire de sant publique et une
action manifestement gnreuse en faveur de la formation.
Enfin, la politique conduite par Edouard Herriot tient ncessairement
compte des singularits locales: le caractre lyonnais reste marqu
ELISABETH L-GERMAIN
146
par les vnements terribles de la Rvolution Franaise au cours des
quels Lyon fut assige en 1793. Edouard Herriot est passionn par
cette priode au point quil publie entre 1937 et 1940 Lyon nest
plus
21
en quatre tomes, soit prs de 2000 pages, relatant trs prci-
sment les rles de chaque camp partir de 1789. Cet affrontement
entre Paris et Lyon permet nanmoins de rgler des diffrents
prexistants entre les deux villes et notamment ce rle de capitale
qui na cess dchapper la ville de Lyon. Cest contre la dictature
de Paris et de la municipalit jacobine que les Lyonnais se soulvent
(...) Au del de la lutte pour le pouvoir, cest bien lopposition entre
le centralisme et le rgionalisme qui sexprime Lyon en 1793.
22
Il
est donc probable quHerriot, profondment attach la ville de
Lyon, sensible ces vnements tragiques, reprend, son compte,
ce combat. Il souhaite faire jouer la ville de Lyon, le rle quelle
na jamais pu obtenir et il voit dans le sport et lducation physique,
un puissant moyen pour y parvenir. Peut-tre, avait-il compris avant
dautres, limpact politique quil est possible dutiliser lors des
manifestations sportives ? Cest le cas par exemple lorsque, fort des
diverses expriences menes Lyon dans le domaine du sport et de
lducation physique, en possession du premier grand stade franais,
il dpose officiellement la candidature de la ville de Lyon, pour
lorganisation des jeux Olympiques. Les JO de 1920 chappent
Lyon. Attribus Paris en 1924, Herriot va tenter de rcuprer leur
organisation en vain... 1968, mme si ce nest plus de son ressort,
sera encore une opration sans suite... jusqu 2004 o la ville ft
coiffe par Lille dans le dpt de la candidature officielle franaise.
Toujours est-il que Lyon, pendant toute la premire moiti du 20
me
sicle, se dmarque sans cesse de la politique parisienne et entend bien
dmontrer sa supriorit en matire dducation physique, de recherche
dans le sport, ou dexpriences en faveur de la jeunesse.
Pour conclure, la cration Lyon de lInstitut dEducation Physique
en 1920, reflte bien une volont trs clairement affiche de la
municipalit lyonnaise de prendre part au dbat concernant ces
questions dactivit physique, de gymnastique de sport et dducation.
Herriot voit l un excellent moyen de montrer la supriorit lyonnaise,
dautant que ce projet sinscrit dans un ensemble plus vaste dexpri-
ences originales, gnreuses, qui concident dune part avec ses con-
victions personnelles, et dautre part, avec la politique gnrale de la
147
Troisime Rpublique. Ce projet lyonnais, sil rsulte de la coordination
de trois hommes, reste original parce quindit jusque l, et surtout,
parce quil servira de base lorganisation future des structures de for-
mation des cadres enseignants dducation physique en France.
Notes
1
Latarjet Andr, Etude sur les pharyngectomies, Lyon, 1906
2
A la mort de Testut, il rdige les 8mes et 9mes ditions du trait danatomie
humaine, parues en 1930 et 1946. Ces ouvrages sont connus dans le monde
entier.
3
Cf. Arnaud Pierre, Lducation physique Lyon, russites et ambiguts dune
politique municipale, 1919-1939, in Revue STAPS n26, octobre 1986, p.15
4
In LExcelsior, srie darticles parus entre le 17 et le 20 avril 1935
5
Weber E., Fin de sicle, la France la fin du 19
me
sicle, Paris , Fayard, 1986,
p.21
6
Berstein S., Edouard Herriot ou la Rpublique en personne, Paris, Presses de la
Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, 1985, p.15
7
Edouard Herriot, contraint et forc dut se rsoudre lexil ds 1940. Toujours
gnant parce quardent dfenseur de la Rpublique et de ses institutions
fondamentales, il vcut dabord en rsidence surveille avant dtre dport
jusquen mai 1945. On a malgr tout coutume daffirmer quEdouard Herriot
fut maire de Lyon pendant plus dun demi sicle.
8
Bonnefous E., Edouard Herriot, tudes et tmoignages, Publications de la
Sorbonne, 1975, p.125
9
Nous faisons allusion ici la cration des Instituts Rgionaux dducation
Physique, au nombre de onze. Ce projet fut propos par la commission
dtude et de coordination des questions relatives lducation physique
quEdouard Herriot a constitue pour lancer en France en 1927 et 1928 un
vaste plan national en faveur de la formation des enseignants dducation
physique, in Herriot E., Pourquoi je suis radical socialiste, Editions de France,
Paris, 1928, p.169
10
Le programme en faveur de lducation physique et de sport auquel nous
faisons rfrence ici est suffisamment vaste pour constituer notre sujet de
Doctorat. Toutefois, certains aspects ont dj t traits in L-Germain E.,
Le stade de Gerland, enjeux dune politique municipale dquipements sportifs (1913-
1926), mmoire de DEA STAPS, Lyon 1, 1993, les classes de sant, in L-
Germain E., Les classes de sant (1928-1939), paratre dans Sport et Sant,
Actes du congrs de lISHPES de Lyon, juillet 1997, ou encore les ftes de
la jeunesse in L-Germain E., la masse contre llite, in Sport et Identits, 8
me
carrefour de lhistoire du sport, Bordeaux, 1998, paratre.
11
Seul Pierre Arnaud a crit son sujet, en particulier dans Le sportman, lcolier,
le gymnaste, thse dEtat, Lyon 2, 1986 et Revue STAPS n26, op. cit., pp.14-15
ELISABETH L-GERMAIN
148
12
In Lettre du 10 janvier 1923 des professeurs Latarjet et Policard adresse au
Doyen de la Facult de mdecine
13
Bulletin Municipal Officiel de la Ville de Lyon, 10 avril 1922, p.115
14
Note pour la presse du professeur Andr Latarjet, datant probablement de
1928. Il est dailleurs curieux de constater quil nest fait nulle part allusion
lIREP, autant dans la presse rgionale que nationale.
15
In Lettre du Professeur Andr Latarjet adresse probablement la
municipalit lyonnaise en 1928.
16
Voir ce propos Arnaud P., A laube du mi-temps pdagogique, Revue
Binet-Simon n589, Lyon, 1982, pp.252-286 ou L-Germain E., Les classes
de sant (1928-1939), Ibid.
17
Cf., Gutton J-P., Les lyonnais dans lhistoire, Privat, 1985
18
In Bulletin Municipal Officiel de la Ville de Lyon du 31 aot 1913.
19
Voir notamment Saunier P-Y., Lesprit lyonnais au 19
me
et 20
me
sicle, ditions
CNRS, Paris 1995
20
Cf., Lequin Y., Histoire des Franais, Colin, Paris, 1984, p.204
21
Herriot E., Lyon nest plus ; 4 tomes, Hachette, 1938-1940
22
Martin M., Lyon vu de Paris pendant la Rvolution franaise, 1789-1799, Mmoire
de Matrise, Universit Lyon 2, Centre Pierre Lon, 1992, p.26
Bibliographie
Livres et revues
Arnaud P., Lducation physique Lyon, russites et ambiguts dune politique
municipale, 1919-1939, in Revue STAPS n26, octobre 1986
Arnaud P., Le sportman, lcolier, le gymnaste, thse dEtat, Lyon 2, 1986
Arnaud P., A laube du mi-temps pdagogique, Revue Binet-Simon n589, Lyon,
1982
Berstein S., Edouard Herriot ou la Rpublique en personne, Paris, Presses de la
Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, 1985
Bonnefous E., Edouard Herriot, tudes et tmoignages, Publications de la Sorbonne,
1975
Gutton J-P., Les lyonnais dans lhistoire, Privat, 1985
Herriot E., Lyon nest plus; 4 tomes, Hachette, 1938-1940
Herriot E., Pourquoi je suis radical socialiste, Editions de France, Paris, 1928
*Latarjet Andr, Etude sur les pharyngectomies, Lyon, 1906
L-Germain E., Le stade de Gerland, enjeux dune politique municipale dquipements
sportifs (1913-1926), mmoire de DEA STAPS, Lyon 1, 1993
L-Germain E., Les classes de sant (1928-1939), paratre dans Sport et sant,
Actes du congrs de lISHPES de Lyon, juillet 1997
L-Germain E., la masse contre llite, in Sport et Identits, 8
me
carrefour de lhistoire
du sport, Bordeaux, 1998, paratre.
Lequin Y., Histoire des Franais, Colin, Paris, 1984
Martin M., Lyon vu de Paris pendant la Rvolution franaise, 1789-1799, Mmoire
de Matrise, Universit Lyon 2, Centre Pierre Lon, 1992
149
Saunier P-Y., Lesprit lyonnais au 19
me
et 20
me
sicle, ditions CNRS, Paris 1995
Weber E., Fin de sicle, la France la fin du 19
me
sicle, Paris, Fayard, 1986
Sources darchives et journaux consults
Dlibrations du Conseil Municipal de la Ville de Lyon (1904-1957)
Le Nouvelliste de Lyon
Le Progrs de Lyon
Lyon-Sport
Sports Lyonnais et Rgionaux
LExcelsior
Archives personnelles du Professeur Latarjet que Pierre Arnaud nous a trs
gentiment permis de consulter
Annexe:
Programme des enseignements de lIREP parit de 1928
Prparation des futurs professeurs de gymnastique
1. Degr lmentaire
Cours thorique le mercredi 20h30, 33 rue Bossuet, ouverture des
cours le 12 dcembre 1928
Exercices pdagogiques et pratiques, 33 rue Bossuet, partir du 12
dcembre 1928, le mercredi soir 21h30, le jeudi matin 8h30, le
vendredi soir 20h30, les 2
me
, 3
me
et 4
me
dimanches de chaque
mois 8h30. Ces exercices sont placs sous la direction de Mon-
sieur Fortunet et Mademoiselle Nardy
1. Degr suprieur
Cours thoriques (24 confrences) le jeudi 11 heures
Exercices pdagogiques et pratiques, comme pour le degr lmen-
taire et aux mmes heures
Les inscriptions sont reues au secrtariat de la Facult de mdecine,
Quai Claude Bernard, Lyon.
Professeur Agre Elisabeth L-Germain
Centre Condorcet UFR STAPS
CRIS Lyon 1
Email: qve_le@club-internet.fr
JORIS VINCENT
150
151
EFFECTS OF UNIVERSITY POLICY ON THE ORGANIZATION
OF UNIVERSITY PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN FRANCE FROM 1968 TO 1984
Effects of University Policy on the Organization
of University Physical Education in France from
1968 to 1984
Joris Vincent
CRIS Lyon 1, France
In 1968, the Law of tertiary teaching renewed all of the structures of
physical education teacher training in France.
1
What used to be cent-
rally controlled organisms outside the university became units of
education and research within the university thus enjoying more
pedagogical autonomy, but they would remain nevertheless under the
supervision of the Medical Faculties.
This change reconstructed completely the structures, the program-
mes and the educational organisation of physical education teacher
training. The evolutionary changes also had consequences regarding
the identity of the teachers of physical education and sport (EPS). By
becoming part of Academia, the discipline changed its denomination
in the course of the period of 1968 to 1984. In 1967, the training was
dispensed to the Regional Institutes in Sport and Physical Education (IREPS),
then transformed into the Unit of Education and Research in Physical
Education and Sport (UEREPS) in the course of year 1971, then after the
statutes of 1984 into the Unit of Training and Research in Sciences and
Techniques in Sport and Physical Activities (UFRSTAPS). Before 1967, the
certificates of Physical Education were professional certificates. They
became university diplomas in Sciences and Techniques in Sport and Physical
Activities. This transformation of diplomas is the result of the change of
these structures.
What looks just like a semantic change, is in reality the consequence
of two distinct developmental processes: it follows the rules and
regulations of the universities and at the same time it depends upon
the more or less corporate attitude of the teachers of physical education
and sport. It is necessary, therefore, to look at the origins of these trans-
formations. Much follows the university law of 12 November 1968.
JORIS VINCENT
152
This phenomenon is quite complex as it took place in the middle of
the changes which were the result of the student upheavals of 1968
that changed considerably the structure of French but also of other
universities throughout all of Europe and did not leave much of the
old structure. In this perspective, it is worthwhile to understand the
logic and the origin of that transformation. We will show that this struc-
tural change is a mixture of the results of university law and the more
or less corporate attitude of the university instructors of physical educa-
tion and sport to preserve to some extent their professional identity.
The problems of a University education in EPS
An analysis of the evolution supposes that there will be effects on the
places where EPS is taught as consequences of the statutory changes
that the laws between 1968 and 1984 brought about. If we study the
conditions under which physical education students were prepared for
their new profession, the names of their diplomas, the duration and
the places of their education and the conditions of access we can see
that there are already a number of shifts.
If we regard this table closely, we can see that there are five types of
observations. Since 1984, UFRSTAPS became the only institutes in
which the teaching credential (CAPEPS) could be acquired. The political
readiness to unite and centralise the degrees in EPS was connected
with the suppression of the privileges of the National Institute of Sport
(ENSEPS)
2
and of the progressive reductions of the prerogatives of
the CREPS.
3
This evolution also shows that there was a transforma-
Table 1: The teachers of EPS, 1967 1984.
5
153
tion of the old and the creation of new diplomas. The professional
certificates to teach physical education (teaching credential = Matrise
or exam to teach at a certain level = CAPEPS ) were replaced by
university diplomas (Deug,
4
Licence, Matrise and Doctoral exam in
STAPS). This also resulted in new competitions to enter civil service in
EPS. In 1977, the licence in STAPS, a university diploma, was the only
necessary condition to pass the exam to enter civil service, i.e. the
CAPEPS. The competition, therefore, also contained different modifi-
cations and conditions of passing and failing.
In spite of the changes in the structures the teaching mission has
remained basically the same and has in fact even been enlarged and
become much less specific. In addition to the preparation of teachers,
the legislature demanded that EPS should also start to do research.
Although it may seem to be superfluous, but the term EPS (physical
education and sport) also disappeared and was replaced by APS
(physical and sporting activities).
These facts give rise to a number of questions. In fact, within twenty
years the preparation of physical education teachers has become
Academic with a diversification of the approaches which were partially
more oriented towards teaching and partially more towards research.
Nevertheless, the evolution of the different purposes questioned the
maintenance of a certain coherence between the initial aims of impro-
ving the practical formation of physical educators basically an educa-
tional profession and the aims of a course in university Studies in the
science of movement, much broader and discursive than the original
intention. If we look closer at the name and content of the university
diplomas we can make an interesting analysis. We can also question
the legitimacy of the newly developed structures. It can also be
questioned, whether the new structure did not develop its own dynamics
and created a new kind of preparation. This construction leads to a
complexification of the sources of legitimisation of authority in the
formation of the graduates in EPS. To understand the complexity of
this problem, we have to look at the transfer of the competencies in
examining and handing out the degree between the State and the
educational institution. This action seemed to have been influenced
by the equilibrium between the competencies of the State and the
physical education profession and the specific research questions dealt
with within the context of the universities in a double process of de-
centralisation and then recentralisation.
JORIS VINCENT
154
If we keep this in mind, we can look at the consequences of this
process as regards the identity of the university instructors for EPS but
also of the university graduates of the same subject. As the instructors
were integrated into the university and entrusted with a greater cultural
capital and responsibility, there seemed to have been a positive effect.
But this has to be regarded in relation to their professional status, if it
was improved, stayed the same or was decreased. As the instructors
were obliged to a certain degree of conformity with university rules,
the integration also led to a greater corporate resistance and the
development of an anti-intellectual ideology.
From 1968 to 1975, a tentative assimilation
at the values and symbolic codes of the university
In 1968, the text of the Orientation Law
6
announced a much greater
autonomy for the universities and their different parts. This autonomy
was administrative and pedagogical: The departments and research
units are run by an elected committee and by a chair person elected by
the committee.
7
Since that time, the French state has encouraged the
various actors in the structures to participate more and more in the
administration of that increased autonomy.
To provide a proper access to such a form of autonomy and to facilitate
the passage from one structure to the next, the Units had to vote for
themselves their new statutes including their aims and missions and to
what extent they wanted to participate in the CAPEPS. This way the
teaching providing access to all kinds of diplomas on all levels and all
competitions for access into the civil service was provided for.
8
Nevertheless, this autonomy was relative, and it stayed controlled
by the state on various levels of the decision making process. The text
of the Law of 1968 was associated with a number of decisions which
seemed to have had negative effects and which were only corrected
with the Savary Law in 1984. There was a double directorate of the
departments: The directors of the departments were elected for five
years by a joint decree of the Minister of Education and of the Minister
for Youth and Sports on the basis of a proposal by the committee of
the teaching/research unit. In addition, the so elected director was under
the strong influence of the chair of the Committee. In addition, the
Chair of the Committee is always in the hands of a person of rank A,
155
i.e. a university Professor or at least a Matre de Conference, a Senior
Lecturer. The director is more or less reduced to the task of co-ordina-
tion of the teaching of the courses of the department. This role was,
however, important when the teaching was restructured.
Parallel to that administrative shake-up which gave the teaching staff
a relative autonomy, the teaching itself was reorganised with a certain
educational lightness. According to the Law, the university units for
teaching and research had the right to determine for themselves their
activities, methods, control methods and tests.
9
The teaching was placed
under permanent Evaluation which was also to assure that the students
were properly prepared for their exams.
10
The Evaluation was done in two ways: There was a close scrutiny of
the university diplomas that were granted and on the other hand it was
checked how the graduates faired in the central exam for the recruitment
of EPS teachers.
11
The exam to sanction the second and third year of
Studies was decentralised. It was replaced by the handing out of two
different certificates. This decentralisation resulted in an ever larger
amount of students whose preparation for the teaching profession was
ever more diversified. This augmentation in the amount of students
made it very difficult for the institution to stabilise its educational and
administrative functions. This politics reaffirmed the dominant role of
the UEREPS in the preparation of the EPS teachers and that all the
more as the Indemnits Pdagogiques lEnseignement Scolaire (IPES) were
also replaced by them.
12
The IPES favoured the recruitment of
candidates for the CAPEPS in the UEREPS. The government order
prescribed that a certain number of future high school teachers had to
have received their preparation in a UEREPS.
In spite of the apparent autonomy favoured by the decentralisation
of some stages of the formation, the notion of a centralised responsibility
of the French State remained. The competition for the recruitment for
the Civil Service, i.e., teaching, stayed centralised in the Minister of
Youth, Sport, and Leisure Activities which decided the modalities of
the competitive exam and the number of position the competition was
for. There were many more ways in which the government could let
the research and teaching units know that there were limits to their
autonomy. The UEREPS depended on the university and the Mini-
ster for Higher Education, but much of their own staff came from the
Minister for Youth and Sports, that also allotted some of the funds the
units worked with to prepare the students for the competitions.
JORIS VINCENT
156
Although the UEREPS had the status of a normal university depart-
ment they stayed outside the actual realm of the university, as they did
not hand out proper university diplomas, but just those in EPS. They
had, therefore, stronger elements of centralisation than the rest of the
university. For their own emancipation, the units therefore fought hard
to be permitted to teach also courses for the first university cycle. The
first step in that direction was taken with the government order of
March 1, 1973, which established the structure of each university diplo-
ma. EPS had, however, to wait until April 11, 1975 when its first true
university diploma was permitted to grant: the Deug mention Sciences et
Techniques des Activits Physiques et Sportives (a two year diploma in the
Sciences and Techniques of Physical and Sporting Activities). Although
this was only the first university cycle, it was nevertheless a success in
terms of autonomy as it was no longer a diploma restricted to school
teaching but a general one in sport Sciences, and could thus serve for
such things as tourism.
13
From 1976 1981, a professionalisation in the Studies
for a generalist preparation in STAPS
These changes and mutations did not hinder the EPS teachers to con-
tinue to develop their own professional culture. The fact that there
were not yet university diplomas in the period 1968 75 provided an
additional pedagogical autonomy which was used by the units to
maintain and strengthen their social conscience. According to this logic,
they organised the Studies around the sporting experiences which were
highly valued by them. This resistance strategy was accompanied by
an interior differentiation in the departments. The teaching was more
organised according to individual skills than according to the former
necessities of the content of the teaching credential. The educational
organisation of the UEREPS in Lille is illuminating for this situation.
The theory courses were left exclusively to the university teachers that
were brought in, while all of the practical courses were taught by the
former teachers of EPS which did not have their doctorate.
14
Consequently, there was a certain conformity, respecting on the one
hand university rules concerning the control of teaching and basic
university learning. This was mainly achieved by big lectures and
not so much by small seminars. But this conformity could not cover up
157
the desire for corporatism in the former EPS teachers. This could be
seen, e.g., in the behaviour of the EPS teachers who would prepare to
become teachers of EPS only, claiming for themselves the right to teach
all of the educational and of the physical education and sport courses.
This resistance against renewal was facilitated by a certain liberty and
space to manoeuvre in this period of the creation of the new diplomas.
But not all of the spaces to experiment were used, e.g., that leading
towards proper university research. Even if the UEREPS were capable
of organising scientific research in relation to physical activities at the
highest level of their region, in the other fields of research it remained
embryonic.
15
The problem remained, however, that although the teachers of EPS
did some research in the educational side of physical education and
sport, they did not invest sufficiently in the whole field of research and
thus continued to teach their courses in the first and second cycles of
the university Studies the same as they had done previously. This
was, however, not in accordance with the logic of the professionalisat-
ion of the course of university Studies. After all, the creation of the
diplomas in STAPS had replaced the traditional ones in CAPEPS. But
the teachers of EPS could not just continue as they pleased. These di-
plomas had to have a certain quantity of courses and hours taught, cer-
tain methods and subjects taught to assure a minimum of equality of
university students of different fields but of the same level of Studies.
16
It was in the field of choices of subjects for the Deug STAPS that the
teachers in the UEREPS exploited the margins of liberty that they had
under university rules. This liberty led to paradoxical situations:
Although the rules were politically meant to harmonise university Stu-
dies, the situation in STAPS was leading to a maximum of eclectical
Studies. This eclecticism could be observed best in the courses that
were to be passed to be admitted from the first to the second cycle of
university Studies. According to Gerbeaux
17
(1977) there were three
forms of selections in the universities to pass this barrier: There was
the cylindrical form, i.e., the Universities created a barrier at the begin-
ning as entrance exam inscription was possible. The second type of
selection is the conical one, reducing the amount of students conti-
nuously from the first year of the Deug to the last year of the Teaching
Credential or university exam. The last type is that of a funnel with a
sieve usually at the end of the first year of the Deug. These different
ways of selections made the diplomas of the different departments and
JORIS VINCENT
158
universities quite different in themselves and created a specificity in
spite of the same name of the courses.
Looking at the specificity leads us to the second paradox as it places
the structures in the UEREPS in contrast to the very mission of a
University: Everyone has the right to attach oneself to a university ....
and the university has the obligation to accept everyone who wants to
study and has the capacity to do so.
18
The Minister for Youth and
Sports imposed an entrance exam for all candidates who wanted to
inscribe themselves in the first year of STAPS. The government order
of April 11, 1975 concerning the Deug in The Science and Techniques
of Physical Activity and Sports, gives a precise definition in article 8 :
The candidates who want to be admitted to the first year have to
show satisfactory results in tests which show their physical aptitudes to
be capable of pursuing such Studies. The University Council is
responsible for the test which is proposed by the UEREPS.
19
The
departments, therefore, had to establish a test programme to verify
that the future students had the capacity according to the law to
follow the course of Studies successfully.
20
The different structures and inputs into the Studies for the Deug STAPS
was a constant course of discussion. The more or less individualised
content of the courses caused a certain instability of the departments,
particularly in their relationship with the different Ministries they had
to answer to. Therefore, the presidents of the UEREPS created a per-
manent conference in 1975 to assure some sort of basic agreement.
This organism did not have any legal rights at the beginning and can
be regarded as a creation of a certain counter movement, a concerted
action against the structures of the state.
21
This conference is a
complimentary structure to the conference of the Presidents of the
UEREPS,
22
which was the principal negotiation partner of the Mini-
ster for Youth and Sport and of the State Secretariat for the Universities.
Their action concerned the creation of positions in the UEREPS for
the basic Sciences and was passed by unanimously by the Presidents.
The teaching at our U.E.R. is becoming more and more difficult in
the scientific and educational input of the DEUG (STAPS) as there are
not enough positions in the basic Sciences and this will become already
an insurmountable hindrance when the school year will start in the
coming October (1977-1978)

.
23
The conference of the presidents had a different and a complemen-
tary objective and thus created a counter power to avoid too much
159
influx of the Basic Scientists into the UEREPS. With the agreement of
the University Presidents, the Conference of the Presidents received a
lawful status to assure their collective interests. Their aim was to co-
ordinate on a national level the different actions and reflections of the
departments concerned and to speak with one voice with the Minis-
ters concerned.
One of the first missions was the creation of guidelines according to
which the finances of the departments should be subsidised. Previously,
all the departments had been in competition with each other for
government funds and positions. They created a basis for an Evaluation
process for the instruction in the UEREPS
24
at the end of which there
was supposed to be some sort of normalisation of the means that were
available for the departments. We find this same collective strategy in
the relationship with the national Inspection for EPS concerning the
organisation of the CAPEPS, too. The Conference also intervened
towards the authorities to assure the individual rights of the teachers
EPS in the departments.
25
Their rights were based on the statutes of
1968, as explained by Peraut: The teachers of EPS in the UEREPS
assure the same functions as any other teacher at the University, as
their duties are the same. The amount of hours they have had to teach
were identical with that of a teacher in secondary education. If they
request today the same status as a teacher-researcher of the University,
it is because they have acquired for themselves specific competencies
to keep up with the required courses, yesterday for the Deug and the
Teaching Credential, today for the masters Degree.
26
After numerous
applications, they obtained a modification of their services without
acquiring a proper university professional grade. This statutory progress
was confirmed at the occasion of the Conference of the Directors of
the UEREPS of June 3, 1981. The teachers achieved a reduction of the
amount of classes they had to teach down to twelve hours per week.
At the same time the teachers of EPS stayed, however, under the
domain of the Ministers of National Education and thus with the same
Minister who was in charge of the high school teachers and not the
University professors. The integration into the rest of the university
remained, therefore, quite limited as they were not placed under the
responsibility of the Minister in charge of the universities. The Mini-
ster has not satisfactorily assured our integration into the universities.
27
This blockage can be explained by the actions of the Directors just as
much as by the attitude of the teachers of EPS.
28
On the one had they
JORIS VINCENT
160
aspired a status as university teacher-researcher and on the other they
resisted the universitarisation of the formation, attempting to conserve a
professional non-university culture in the organisation of the Studies.
This professionalisation can be observed in the organisation of the
diplomas and in the emphasis put on the different part of the Studies.
The teaching of specialised courses very early to permit the students,
e.g., to become animators and monitors of water sports and other open
air activities was counter to the attempt to prepare the students for the
possibilities of research in the field of sports. The creation of the
Teaching Credential in STAPS in 1977, shows the same corporatist
logic as it assured a strong emphasis on the practical side of physical
education and sport in each diploma. This professionalisation did not
only concern the future teachers of EPS, but as soon as there seemed
to be the possibility that the amount university jobs for the teachers of
EPS in the University was cut and to be converted into teachers-
researchers (Plan of Soisson 1978) their actions was also concerning
the amount of input of each field into the degrees and credentials.
The content of the programmes for the teaching credential were
constructed according to the different professional milieus. The inte-
gration of elite sport, of sport for the physically, socially, and mentally
handicapped, but also that of sport management as a profession for
the sport manager and the animator had to be achieved.
Consequently, the second cycle of university Studies showed the
enlargement of the cultural legitimacy for the formation in STAPS and
an opening towards the different branches of the professional
opportunities in EPS. This cultural opening was, however, not reflected
in the teachers in university EPS. They were no longer high school
teachers and not yet university researchers. Their professional identity
was fragile and in constant dispute with the image of their new university
preparation in STAPS and the new diplomas they were handing out to
their students.
From 1982 to 1984, the legitimisation of
the university courses in STAPS
The years 1981-1984 were a period of stabilisation and the development
of university structures in STAPS. The departments constructed the last
cycle in university education by creating an M. A. (Matrise) on 5 January,
161
1982. The Matrise assured a deeper scientific approach to the courses of
Studies and a certain degree specialisation in a particular domain of physical
activity. The main aim was to prepare the students for all of the fields in
physical education and sport inside the school system and outside.
The finalisation of the second cycle of university Studies marks
definitively the end of the centralised formation around the preparation
for the EPS teacher and an opening for true scientific university
diplomas. The teaching mission is that of a generalist in physical acti-
vities and sport. This generalist appeared progressively and constantly
according to the logic of the universitarisation of the Studies.
The year 1982 saw a structuration of the third university degree
level in that a Diplme dEtudes Approfondies STAPS (deepened diploma
in the Studies of Physical Activities and Sport) was created. Parallel,
the university physical educator became the 74th section STAPS of the
National Council of Universities (Conseil National des Universits), thus
assuring that an integration had finally taken place. The teachers in
STAPS (and no longer in EPS) could qualify in three cycles, each
finishable with a diploma, oriented towards research which seemed
to have been the means to really integrate into the corpus of the
universities. This orientation was confirmed at the occasion of the First
Research Conference in STAPS in November 1980: Research seems
to be the logical consequence of being part of university and it is no
longer only the quality of teaching. Scientific Research has to be
included for the benefit of the evolution of the discipline. In 1980, the
quality of a department depends upon the quality of the research that
is conducted in it.
29
The existing teachers of EPS had to adopt this way to achieve
eventually a university status. Particularly the Syndicat National dEPS
realised that the chances were better to integrate diplomas first and
people second rather than the opposite that they had tried before.
30
Of course, there was resistance towards the research that was now
conducted in the departments. The first research programs were orga-
nised in close proximity to the mother disciplines inside the university.
This proximity did not really help in the emancipation process for
research in STAPS. It was also leading to clashes of interest within the
departments between the researchers in the social and humanistic
Sciences on the one side and those of the life Sciences on the other.
In the logic of scientific emancipation, an Association Francophone de
Recherche sur les Activits Physiques et Sports (Association of Franco-phone
JORIS VINCENT
162
Researchers in Physical Education and Sport, AFRAPS) was founded
in 1979. It also started a specialist journal STAPS, the first issue of which
appeared in April 1980. The editorial of the first issue was important
for the aims of the new association. It stressed the importance that a
new science had its own means to develop its broad interests and its
own standards.
31
By starting research in STAPS (and no longer in the mother discipli-
nes) a new group of people emerged in the structures of the formation
of the university teachers. These researchers in STAPS placed them-
selves between the fundamental university professors and the university
teachers in EPS who only had their second level degree. When this
group appeared, the tensions between the two different approaches to
the university Studies in STAPS became open.
The development of scientific research thus led to the same difficulty
as had been visible before: With the new diplomas you had the spilt
between the traditional teacher in EPS whose aim it was to produce
quality EPS teachers and those with a new university diploma who
were interested in teaching and research. The former were happy to
teach an application of research and that often only propedeutically,
while the others were interested in furthering Physical Activity and
sport by research and find their own way into a research culture of the
scientific community. The cultural cleavage was thus visible inside the
departments of STAPS. There were three different currents visible: The
corporate culture of the EPS teachers, the generalist culture in research
in STAPS and that of a general university culture of research, thus you
had the ambience of Physical Education, of Sport Science and of Science
Applied to Sport.
Conclusion
In spite of the resistance of the corporatist, the turn towards a sport
science was already taken and was only confirmed by the Law n 84-
52 of January 16, 1984. The text of the Law leaves out the derogatory
measures of the Orientation Law of 1968 and grants to the university
departments of physical education and sport pedagogical, scientific,
administrative and financial autonomy.
32
This means that the university
departments gradually loose their ties to the Minister of Youth and
Sports. Parallel, the STAPS departments find their way into the Mini-
163
ster of University Studies and by this they are full fledged members of
the Academic community. The relationship with the universities
becomes more and more important for the future of the research and
teaching units. The autonomy and the integration into the universities
has not solved a logical problem that is visible in the STAPS departments:
An education based on the empiricism and the corporatist logic of the
physical education teacher on the one side and the discursive logical
reasoning, typical for a university, without any direct application to a
job situation on the other.
Bibliography
M. Gerbeaux., Les types de slection dans les UEREPS de France , Internal
document, Universit Droit et Sant de Lille II, 1977.
Y. Gougeon, Professeurs dEPS, les ambiguts dune discipline scolaire et dun corps
professionnel, Thesis in sociology, Universit Lille I, 1994.
B. Michon, LEspace des sciences et techniques des activits physiques et sportives :
Recours au corps et aux effets de corps, Universit des Sciences Humaines de
Strasbourg, February 1993, 546 - 47.
J. Vincent, Gense dune identit professionnelle dans les structures de formation de
cadres en Education Physique et Sportive , DEA STAPS, Universit Lyon 1,
June 1998.
Primary Sources
Actes du 1er colloque sur la recherche en STAPS, Novembre 1980.
Bulletins Officiels de lEducation Nationale.
Circulaires de la Jeunesse et des Sports.
Comptes rendus des conseils dunit et des conseils scientifiques de lUEREPS de Lille,
Archives de lUEREPS de Lille.
Courriers et comptes rendus des runions la Confrence des directeurs dUEREPS de
1975 1984, Archives de lUEREPS de Lille.
Courriers du Prsident de la Confrence des Prsidents des UEREPS aux directeurs des
UEREPS de 1975 1984, Archives de lUEREPS de Lille.
Document Etudes et Recherches de la confrence des Directeurs dUEREPS.
Loi dorientation n 68-978 du 12 novembre 1968 dorientation de lenseignement suprieur.
Loi n 84-52 du 26 janvier 1984 sur lenseignement suprieur.
Revues STAPS.
Statut de lUEREPS de Lille, Archives de lUEREPS de Lille.
JORIS VINCENT
164
Notes
1
The organisation of teachers in sport and physical education regroups all
persons that teach EPS in secondary education in the French scholastic
system in the period 1968 to 1984.
2
In 1967, there were two Superior Normal Schools of EPS (one for males
and one for females) in which one would get the teaching credential for
EPS. These institutions were developed out of the Ecole Normale dEduca-
tion Physique (ENEP) which had been founded in 1933.
3
In 1967, there were 17 CREPS (regional sports centers) in France which
had its legal base in a law that was passed by the Vichy government.
4
Diploma of general university studies.
5
This synoptic typology was proposed by B. Michon, LEspace des sciences
et techniques des activits physiques et sportives : Recours au corps et aux
effets de corps , Universit des Sciences Humaines de Strasbourg, February
1993, pp. 546-47.
6
Loi dorientation n 68-978 du 12 novembre 1968 dorientation de lenseig-
nement suprieur.
7
Loi dorientation n 68-978 du 12 novembre 1968 dorientation de lenseigne-
ment suprieur, Titre III Autonomie administrative et participation, Art. 12.
8
Statut de lUEREPS de Lille du 30 juin 1971, Art. 3.
9
Loi dorientation n 68-978 of Novembre 12, 1968 dorientation de lenseigne-
ment suprieur, Titre IV Autonomie pdagogique et participation, Art. 19.
10
Ibidem, Art. 20.
11
Rforme du concours CAPEPS par arrt of April 30, 1968.
12
Dcret du Ministre de lEducation Nationale of 31 July 1967.
13
According to Michon (1993), this transformation marks the first phase of a
de-professionalisation. This statement is quite relative as many considered
it a step forward to have more Academic freedom on the side of the students.
The statistics of the Conference of the Directors of the PE departments
(Confrence des directeurs dUEREPS) concerning the success of the
UEREPS in France from 1977-1992 showed that in spite of the relative
freedom the main orientation stayed the same: geared towards physical
education teaching.
14
J. Vincent., Gense dune identit professionnelle dans les structures de formation
de cadres en Education Physique et Sportive, DEA STAPS, Universit Lyon ,
June 1, 1998.
15
Y. Gougeon., Professeurs dEPS, les ambiguts dune discipline scolaire et dun
corps professionnel, Thse de sociologie, Universit Lille I, 1994, p. 498.
16
The government order (larrt) concerning the Deug STAPS 11 April 1975
proposed a list of subjects to be taught. They were grouped into two catego-
ries: one obligatory but proposed by the University, one to be chooses by
the students. The universities could offer: History of physical education
and sport, Biomechanics and Physiology of Exercise, Biotypology in Anthro-
pology, Ecology, Genetics, Informatics, Entrainment in written and verbal
165
form, the Sciences of Education, (Macro)Economics, Business Administra-
tion, Practical physical activities and sports. The students could chose:
Biochemistry, Ergonomics and Physiology of work, Musical Formation
(vocal and instrumental), History of Civilisations, Philosophy and History
of the Sciences and of Techniques, Methods and Techniques of audio-visual
Equipment, Techniques of Documentation, Foreign Languages, Techniques
of Animation and group leadership and any other university subject.
17
M. Gerbeaux, Les types de slection dans les UEREPS de France, Internal
Document, Universit Droit et Sant de Lille II, 1977.
18
Article 1 de la loi n 68-978 of 12 November 1968 dorientation de lenseigne-
ment suprieur.
19
Arrt du 11 avril 1975.
20
Arrt du 11 avril 1975.
21
B. Michon, LEspace des sciences et techniques des activits physiques et sportives :
Recours au corps et aux effets de corps, Universit des Sciences Humaines de
Strasbourg, February 1993, p. 104.
22
The principal actors were : Professeur Noel (UEREPS de Nancy), Professeur
Tanche (UEREPS de Grenoble) and Professeur Vanlerenberghe (UEREPS
de Lille).
23
Compte rendu de la runion des Prsidents dU.E.R.E.P.S. of 11 February 1977.
24
Evaluation des cots de fonctionnement des U.E.R.E.P.S., document Etudes
et Recherches de la confrence des Directeurs dU.E.R.E.P.S., Mars 1978,
Annexe I n 7 pp. 32 - 42.
25
Comptes rendus (Minutes) de la Confrence des directeurs dUEREPS de
1975 1984, Archives de lUEREPS de Lille.
26
Dclaration de M. Peraut, directeur de lenseignement suprieur, runion
de la confrence des Directeurs dUEREPS of 3 June 1981.
27
Courrier of 18 January 1978 de M. Noel (Prsident de la Confrence des
Prsidents des UEREPS) aux directeurs des UEREPS.
28
It will be interesting to study the attitude of the Syndicat National de lEducation
Physique (National Trade Union of Physical Education Teachers) particularly
in relation to their reservations of the old trade union members towards the
integration of the new ones with a more scientific preparation and a less
strong basis in traditional physical education.
29
Guignet E., Prsident de lUniversit Droit et Sant Lille II, allocution
douverture of 17 November 1980 au colloque sur la recherche en S.T.A.P.S..
30
Courrier of 18 January 1978 de M. Noel aux directeurs des UEREPS.
31
STAPS, une nouvelle revue, pour quoi faire?, Editorial de la revue STAPS
n 1, Avril 1980, p. 2.
32
Article 20 de la loi 84-52 of 26 January 1984 sur lenseignement suprieur.
Professeur Agre Joris Vincent
Faculte des Sciences du Sport et de LEducation Physique Universite Lille II
9, rue de Universite, 59 790 Ronchin, France
Email: vincent@hp-sc.univ-lille2.fr
VILLARET SYLVAIN
166
167
UN EXEMPLE DE PRISE EN COMPTE DUCATIVE DU NATURISME: LE MOUVEMENT
POUR LES ECOLES AU SOLEIL ET LES ECOLES DE PLEIN AIR (1900-1939)
Un exemple de prise en compte ducative du
naturisme: le mouvement pour les Ecoles au
soleil et les Ecoles de plein air (1900-1939)
Villaret Sylvain
Universit de Lyon I, France
Introduction: la fin du XXe sicle est marqu par le
renouveau du naturisme en France.
Les origines du naturisme en France se perdent dans la nuit des temps,
bien que la premire utilisation crite de ce terme remonte au XVIIIe
sicle.
1
Le naturisme renvoie ainsi une philosophie mdicale reposant
sur lide principale que la nature est bienfaitrice pour lhomme et plus
prcisment quelle est, selon la formule passe la postrit dHip-
pocrate, mdecin des maladies.
2
Cest en effet, lillustre mdecin de Cos,
qui formalise et rationalise cette conception de la pratique mdicale.
Selon lui, le rle du mdecin se borne accompagner la maladie,
aider la nature en la prenant comme guide et modle. Ds lors, les
paramtres dittiques et thermiques (chaud, froid, sec, humide) ainsi
que lexercice physique sont les moyens privilgis daction pour
faciliter la gurison du malade. En raison du statut dHippocrate,
considr comme le pre de la mdecine occidentale, cette philosophie
de traitement perdure travers les sicles sans subir de modifications
majeures. Il faut ainsi attendre le XIXe sicle pour observer un chan-
gement majeur.
3
Dans la seconde partie du XIXe sicle, le naturisme franais est en
plein renouveau suite au dveloppement en Allemagne de systmes
de cure naturelle rhabilitant lusage de lair, de leau, et du soleil dans
la thrapeutique. Rejetant la mdecine mdicamenteuse, Arnold Rikli
4
propose alors de soigner les maladies uniquement au moyen de bains
dair et de soleil pris presque nus. Quant Sebastian Kneipp
5
ou Vinzenz
Priessnitz, cest sous la forme de bains deau diffrentes tempratures,
VILLARET SYLVAIN
168
denveloppements humides, daffusions locales que tout traitement
sorganise. Imports en France la fin du XIXe sicle, ces pratiques
deviennent la base de toute thrapeutique naturiste et sont largement
diffuses dans des revues mdicales spcialises
6
et dans des manuels
dhygine.
7
Ces pratiques naturistes influencent mme jusquaux
conceptions de la sant. Le retour une vie plus naturelle base sur
lactivit physique et le contact avec lair, le soleil, leau, la nature
apparat alors pour de nombreux hyginistes et mdecins comme le
seul moyen fiable denrayer la dgnrescence de la race. Cest dans
ce contexte porteur que les premires prises en compte scolaires du
naturisme se produisent.
La campagne contre le surmenage et la tuberculose est
lorigine de la prise en compte des thmes naturistes dans
lcole travers, entre autres, la leon dducation physique
(1880-1914)
Lcole rpublicaine subit aprs une premire priode dengouement
les plus vives critiques. Mdecins, pdagogues, hyginistes dnoncent
ds les annes 1880 le surmenage intellectuel et le sdentarisme excessif
quelle impose toute la jeunesse franaise, avenir de la nation.
8
Dve-
loppement prcoce de la myopie, dviations vertbrales, fatigue
chronique, anmie, atrophie musculaire sont les maux les plus souvent
voqus par le corps mdical pour dsigner les effets de lenseignement
scolaire. LAcadmie de Mdecine fait tat de cette situation en 1887
travers deux rapports.
9
Un an plus tard, elle adresse une rsolution
aux pouvoirs publics rclamant la suppression des internats,
linstallation des tablissements loin du centre des villes, des heures
dexercices corporels presque gales au temps dtude, la journe de
huit heures et lorganisation chaque anne dun sjour la campagne.
En effet, pour la majeure partie des mdecins, le dlabrement physique
des lves trouve en grande partie son origine dans les conditions
hyginiques entourant la vie en classe et en particulier dans le manque
dair. Comme en tmoignent les crits du Dr Baradat en 1904, laction
bienfaisante des lments naturels fait alors cruellement dfaut la
population scolaire:
De la nature partout, clament de tous cts les hyginistes et les
mdecins. Eloignons de nos villes nos malades et nos prdisposs,
169
rendons-les cette bonne vie naturelle o ils trouveront pro-
fusion lair et la lumire. Cest vrai mais pourquoi rserve-t-on ces
sages prceptes pour les adultes, et ne les applique-t-on pas
intgralement nos coles afin que nos enfants (...) deviennent des
tres sains, vigoureux et rfractaires aux influences morbides qui
nous entourent de toute part. Il faut la jeune plante humaine,
crit le professeur Bouveret, de lair pur, de la lumire, de lespace,
du mouvement et des jeux.
10
Par ailleurs, louverture de sanatoria consacrs au traitement de la
tuberculose grce lhliothrapie et larothrapie met en exergue le
rle majeur jou par le soleil et lair dans llimination du bacille de
Koch et le recouvrement de la sant.
11
Rappelons alors que la tuber-
culose est un vritable flau social qui dcime les gnrations nouvelles.
De plus en plus de mdecins franais souvrent au mme moment un
naturisme moderne prconisant lusage quotidien des bains dair, de
soleil, deau, le dvtissement et le retour une vie plus naturelle.
12
Le
spectre de la dgnrescence de la race, le dsir de revanche suite
lhumiliation de la dfaite de 1870 contre la Prusse ainsi que le conflit
opposant lenseignement libre au laque, stimulent au dbut du XXe
sicle certaines initiatives en faveur dune prise en compte des thmes
naturistes dans lcole.
Ainsi, outre lencouragement de la pratique des sports de plein air
dans des tablissements privs tels lEcole des Roches, les efforts du
Professeur Grancher devaient conduire la cration le 7 novembre
1903 de Luvre de prservation de lenfance. Suite un examen des lves
des coles parisiennes, cette organisation se propose de placer les enfants
ns de parents tuberculeux la campagne dans des familles de paysans
afin de les prserver de la contamination. Le Professeur Grancher ralise
la mme anne une enqute sur ltat de sant des lves dans les
coles de Paris. Ainsi sur 4226 enfants examins, 15 % dentre eux
taient porteurs des germes de la tuberculose. Trois enfants taient par
ailleurs atteints de tuberculose ouverte. Cette situation amne le
Professeur Grancher crire:
La Ville de Paris devrait crer pour tous ces enfants candidats
la tuberculose dj bacillifres et qui sont au nombre de 20 25
000, des coles la campagne o la vie en plein air, judicieusement
associe aux tudes, guriraient la plupart dentre eux.
13
VILLARET SYLVAIN
170
Face la multiplication des enfants prtuberculeux, lide de la cration
dcoles publiques de plein air, d coles-sanatorium comme les nomme
le Pr. Grancher, tend alors simposer dans le corps mdical. Malgr
les efforts dans ce sens du Pr. Grancher, il faut attendre trois ans pour
que la premire Ecole de plein air (E.P.A.) tel quil la conoit voit le jour.
Il faut noter la cration entre temps (1906) de la Ligue pour lducation
en plein air. De linitiative du Pr. Mry, des Drs Mathieu et Dufestel
aids de Mari-Davy et de Gaston Lemonier, elle reoit le soutien de
la Ligue de lEnseignement et le patronage dEdouard Petit ainsi que de
Ferdinand Brunot. La Ligue prne la gnralisation de la classe en
plein air ainsi que la pratique des classes de promenades. Elle
demande ltablissement despaces libres, de terrains de jeux et
lobligation de la culture physique rationnelle. Elle porte toute son at-
tention sur lhygine des locaux, du matriel, des vtements. Elle
revendique par ailleurs la diminution des effectifs scolaire, la rduction
quatre heures de la journe scolaire pour les enfants ainsi que la
restauration des jeux franais.
Lessor des E.P.A. (1907-1920) Les premires crations
Cest la ville de Lyon que revient le mrite davoir ouvert en 1907 la
premire E.P.A.
14
Le 21 mars 1907, linstigation du Dr. Vigne, le maire
de Lyon, Edouard Herriot, expose au Conseil Municipal lintrt que
prsente lE.P.A. et propose son installation dans la proprit du Vernay.
Le 25 mars 1907, cette proposition est adopte lunanimit. La rivalit
qui oppose Paris Lyon nest pas trangre cette initiative avant-
gardiste.
15
Et il nest pas surprenant de voir souvrir trois ans plus tard
Paris, au Vsinet, la seconde E.P.A. Par ailleurs, les ralisations
trangres de ce type sont de plus en plus mise en exergue dans les
congrs internationaux de mdecine et de lutte contre la tuberculose.
Ainsi, en Allemagne les E.P.A. de Mulhouse, de Charlottenbourg ou
de Hohenlychen, attirent depuis leur cration
16
les regards des praticiens
franais. A la diffrence de lcole du Vernay, elles fonctionnent le
plus souvent sur le mode de lexternat. Les allemands dveloppent
galement les coles de la fort . Accueillant le plus souvent les enfants
malingres pendant les vacances, elles acceptent galement les lves
malades durant la priode des classes. Comme leur nom lindique,
elles sont situes au cur des forts avoisinant les grandes villes.
171
LE.P.A. du Vernay est installe quant elle en pleine campagne,
dans la banlieue lyonnaise. Elle est rserve aux enfants prtuberculeux
et fonctionne sur le mode de linternat. Il sagit de donner aux 35 lves
quelle accueille la premire anne: double ration dair, double ration de
nourriture, demi ration de travail.
17
Quatre repas sont ainsi dispenss lors
de la journe. Les trois heures et demi dtude sont donnes en plein
air, entrecoupes, outre le moment des repas, par deux heures de jar-
dinage et une heure de sieste. Bain froid hebdomadaire dans la piscine
de la proprit, ablutions journalires et gymnastique sudoise com-
pltent le programme de la premire E.P.A. Le contrle mdical de
chaque enfant est ralis toute les semaines. LE.P.A. du Vsinet
fonctionne selon les mmes rgles. La dure de sjour des enfants y est
de cinq semaines. Reconnaissant la valeur curatrice et rgnratrice
de lair, souvrent galement Lyon, dans le groupe scolaire la Part
Dieu, des Classes de plein air. En 1908, une Pouponnire de plein air
est adjointe aux installations du Vernay.
Un nouveau modle dE.P.A., lcole au soleil, simpose en
France sous linfluence de G. Hbert et du Dr. Rollier
La conception des E.P.A. va nanmoins se trouver modifie par les
ralisations dun mdecin suisse: le Dr. Rollier. Il est linitiateur de
lhliothrapie gnrale dans le traitement des tuberculoses
chirurgicales. Elargissant ses procds thrapeutiques lhygine et la
prophylaxie, le Dr. Rollier ouvre en 1910 la premire cole au soleil
destine aux enfants prtuberculeux.
18
Il est notamment influenc par
le systme de traitement naturiste de Rikli, et se base sur laction
thrapeutique du soleil pour traiter ses patients. Fort de rsultats qualifis
de miraculeux par de nombreux observateurs,
19
il ouvre entre 1903 et
1918, cinq cliniques hliothrapiques Leysin (Suisse). Son prventorium
solaire et scolaire
20
doit permettre chaque enfant de sinstruire tout en
pratiquant lhliothrapie.
Respectant les principes dhygine naturistes, les sports, les jeux, la
gymnastique respiratoire tiennent une place des plus importante dans
la journe. La viande est en grande partie bannie de lalimentation des
enfants. La classe se droule, quand le temps le permet, en pleine na-
ture, les enfants disposant de pupitres pliants et aisment transportab-
les. Ceux-ci leur permettent par ailleurs de travailler dans la position
VILLARET SYLVAIN
172
la plus favorable aux bains de soleil, cest dire allong. Une des
innovations majeures par rapport aux E.P.A. franaises rside dans la
tenue vestimentaire des enfants. Aux habits recouvrant compltement
le corps des coliers du Vernay, sest substitu le port unique du caleon
ou du simple slip pour les garons comme pour les filles.
Au mme moment, le promoteur dun systme dducation physique
naturiste, G.Hbert, prconise la pratique de la leon de gymnastique
dans la tenue vestimentaire la plus restreinte possible, quelle que soit
la temprature et le temps. Les dmonstrations quil organise au Congrs
International dEducation Physique de Paris en 1913 et au Collge dAthltes
de Reims frappent les esprits et font lobjet dun communiqu lAca-
dmie de Mdecine. On reconnat une fois de plus travers le dvelop-
pement physique des lves de G.Hbert laction rgnratrice du soleil
et de lair.
21
De nombreux mdecins franais nhsitent pas alors venir visiter
les installations de Leysin et celles du Collge dAthltes de Reims. Cest
ainsi que les Drs Paul Flix Armand-Delille et Philippe Wapler ouvrent
en 1918: une cole au soleil, limitation de celle de notre ami Rollier, que
nous tions all tudier sur place Leysin.
22
Quelques annes plus tt le
Dr Armand-Delille faisait galement partie des dlgations mdicales
reues au Collge dAthltes.
En 1918, La ligue dhygine scolaire avec le concours du Professeur
Mry et de Mlle Chauveau cre galement Fontaine-Bouillant, prs
de Chartres, une E.P.A. destine aux enfants des coles parisiennes,
chasss par les bombardements. Suivant les tendances nouvelles, le
bain de soleil, le coucher dans des pices aux fentres gardes grandes
ouvertes ainsi que lhydrothrapie matinale compltent Fontaine-
Bouillant le programme en vigueur dans les E.P.A. antrieures. Au
bout de quatre mois, les rsultats sont selon les organisateurs excellents.
Malgr les restriction alimentaires, une augmentation de 3 kilos en
moyenne
23
est constate sur les cinquante fillettes envoyes l-bas. Une
nouveaut importante se fait jour. Les E.P.A. ne sont plus rserves
comme autrefois aux enfants prtuberculeux mais accueillent aussi les
malingres, les phtisiques, les rachitiques...
Avec la fin de la guerre, les coles de plein air et au soleil se multiplient
grce aux efforts du Dr. Armand-Delille, ancien lve et ami du Pro-
fesseur Mry. Il tente alors de faire appliquer systmatiquement les
principes organisant lcole au soleil du Dr. Rollier aux E.P.A. Pour
173
arriver ses fins, il publie notamment en 1920, chez Maloine, louvrage
de rfrence: Lcole de plein air et lcole au soleil.
24
Il est intressant de constater que la cration de groupements scolaires
de plein air se restreint en grande partie dans ses annes immdiates
daprs-guerre la rgion parisienne. On recense ainsi lcole au soleil
du Dr. Wapler, installe dans le parc de Versailles pendant la saison
dt, lE.P.A. du Boulevard Mortier sous la direction du Dr. Dufestel,
celle de Lemonier dans le XIIe arrondissement, celle du centre dOeuvres
de toute lenfance en plein air, au Bastion 42, ou encore lcole de Sure-
snes cre linitiative dHenri Sellier, conseiller gnral de la Seine et
auteur en 1920 dun rapport sur les E.P.A. du dpartement de la Seine.
En 1922, la Ligue pour lducation en plein air organise Paris, le premier
Congrs International des E.P.A.. Cinq gouvernements et huit nations sont
reprsents par 85 dlgus et 250 congressistes. Il faut noter la parti-
cipation ce congrs dHbert, reprsent par un de ses collaborateurs,
D. Strohl. Au cours de ce congrs, la Ligue obtient de M. Lapie, direc-
teur de lEnseignement, la reconnaissance officielle des E.P.A., leur
intressement aux subsides de lEtat, le dtachement puis la nomina-
tion dinstituteurs attachs ces tablissements ainsi quaux prventoria.
Rpondant aux voeux mis lors du congrs, la Ligue pour lducation
en plein air donne naissance au Comit national des coles de plein air sous
les auspices du Comit National de lEnfance. Ds le milieu des annes
1920, le Dr Armand-Delille saffirmera dans le rle de prsident du
Comit. Lemonier, quant lui, reste un des principaux acteurs de ce
mouvement, en tant tout dabord le prsident fondateur du Comit puis
en occupant la fonction de secrtaire gnral et de prsident dhonneur.
La constitution et la structuration dun naturisme ducatif et
officiel (1922-1939) Les E. P. A. fonctionnent selon un
programme naturiste rservant une place cruciale
lducation physique hbertiste
Comme nous avons pu lobserver, les dbuts des E.P.A. senracinent
dans un contexte naturiste dterminant, que ce soit en ce qui concerne
la reprsentation de lair et du soleil ou dans le cas de certaines pratiques
telles que les bains atmosphriques ou encore le rejet de lalimentation
carne. Linfluence du Dr. Rollier, dfendant une hygine de vie et de
traitement naturiste, a renforc les orientations prises dans le cadre des
VILLARET SYLVAIN
174
principes rgissant la vie des enfants dans les E.P.A. A partir de 1923,
la prise en compte partielle au sein de lcole de la mthode dducation
physique naturiste de G. Hbert tmoigne dune volution allant dans
le sens des E.P.A.
Les annes 1920 sont marques par lexplosion de la pratique du
naturisme en France et la diffusion massive de ses thories. Revues,
ouvrages, instituts mdicaux, maison dalimentation, restaurants, cent-
res de vacances, sont autant de ralisations qui se multiplient sous lgide
du naturisme. Le nudisme prn par Marcel Kienn de Mongeot
saffirme ds 1926. Le naturisme se dcline dsormais dans les esprits
comme une hygine permanente et ncessaire, une thique de vie.
Le mouvement pour les E.P.A. va suivre cette orientation. Les 500
E.P.A. cres entre 1920 et 1931, souvrent tous les enfants fragiles
quels quils soient. On distingue dsormais les E.P.A. externats des
E.P.A. internats. Les deux types de structures naccueillent cependant
que des enfants issus dcole primaire. Lamnagement dune E.P.A.
fait alors lobjet de rgles strictes, dfinies par le Dr. Armand-Delille.
La question du site est de premire importance. Proche de grands arbres,
lemplacement doit tre galement ensoleill, ar, sec et protg autant
que possible des vents du Nord et de lOuest. Plac loin des fumes
des usines, lE.P.A. doit disposer dun prau ouvert dun seul ct et
destin la classe de plein air ainsi que dun terrain de jeu dau mini-
mum 100 m sur 50. Les douches, le rfectoire, les lavabos ainsi que les
salles de classes doivent tre ensoleills. Le mobilier scolaire sera lger
et pliant afin de permettre le droulement de la classe en pleine na-
ture. Quant aux fentres des btiments, elles resteront ouvertes jour et
nuit. Suivant les prceptes de Rikli, qui faisait coucher ses adeptes dans
des huttes dair, chalet dune seule pice auquel il manquait une
cloison, les internes dormiront si possible sur des galeries extrieures
simplement protges par un toit. Lalimentation reste naturiste. Elle
se base sur les lgumes, les crales, les fruits frais, les laitages.
La leon de gymnastique doit se faire de prfrence selon la mthode
dducation physique naturiste de G. Hbert. Les exercices de
gymnastique sudoise sont nanmoins largement utiliss dans la plupart
des cas. Des rallye papier, et des jeux collectifs de plein air sont
organiss le jeudi et le dimanche. Respectant lthique naturiste, les
lves suivent les enseignements en tat de quasi-nudit. Les garons
sont ainsi revtus dun simple caleon. Quant, aux filles, caleon et
cache-seins ou encore tunique sans manches, trs chancre dans le
175
dos, sont les tenues les plus courantes. En hiver, cependant, seules les
leons dducation physique sont excutes avec un habillage aussi
restreint. Comme lindique le Dr. Armand-Delille: Lentranement la
vie demi-nue est tout fait remarquable et sacquiert trs vite.
25
Lengagement du Comit national des E.P.A. en faveur du respect des
rgles dhygines naturistes va beaucoup plus loin. Outre le souhait
que tous les enfants des villes puissent bnficier dune E.P.A., le Dr.
Armand-Delille rclame que:
Non seulement dans les coles de plein air, mais dans toutes les
coles primaires et les collges et lyces, le bain de soleil doit tre
pratiqu dune manire systmatique, ainsi que la gymnastique
Hbert; de plus comme le demande le Comit national des coles
de plein air, le programme des coles primaires et des lyces et
collges doit comporter un certain nombre dheures par jour
consacres lexercice le corps nu et en plein air. (...) il y aurait
lieu galement de transformer les toits des lyces en terrasses pour
permettre lhliothrapie.
26
Enfin, la cration de collges et de lyces de plein air saffirme dans
lesprit des dirigeants du Comit comme la suite logique des actions
entreprises avec la population des coles primaires.
Lengagement des protagonistes du mouvement des E.P.A.
dans le phnomne naturiste explique les orientations prises
Il est patent de constater la participation active de certains membres
du Comit national des E.P.A. dans les mouvements naturistes. Ainsi le
Dr. Armand-Delille, prsident du Comit, apporte son soutien G. Hbert
dans sa qute de reconnaissance officielle pour sa mthode dducation
physique. Alors que les Instructions Officielles de 1923 prconisent
lemploi privilgi de la gymnastique sudoise dans les coles primaires,
il sefforce dimposer lusage de la Mthode Naturelle dHbert dans les
E.P.A. Le Dr. Armand-Delille devient par ailleurs, dans ses annes,
membre du comit dhonneur de la Ligue Vivre, premire organisation
nudiste de France. Il prend partie contre linterdiction prfectorale dont
est victime la revue nudiste Vivre intgralement en 1930:
Je considre au contraire que votre publication nest nullement
licencieuse, et que prconiser le retour aux conditions normales et
VILLARET SYLVAIN
176
physiologiques de lexistence doit tre encourag et ne peut que
contribuer la conservation et lamlioration de la race. Vous
savez que je suis partisan du nudisme intgral chez les jeunes enfants
et le volume que je publie actuellement chez Masson sur
lhliothrapie vous en donnera la preuve.
27
Le Dr Rollier, ami influent du Dr. Armand-Delille, nhsite pas, quant
lui, faire la prface de louvrage pro-nudiste dun membre minent
de la Ligue Vivre, le Dr. Poucel.
28
Les E.P.A. sont en retour reconnues et dfendues avec force par
toutes les organisations naturistes. G. Hbert publie de nombreux
articles leur faveur dans sa revue, Lducation physique. Les moniteurs
et les monitrices quil forme interviennent notamment dans les E.P.A..
Plus dune dizaine darticles est consacre aux E.P.A. dans la revue
Vivre intgralement. Le Dr. Pathault, ardent dfenseur du nudisme crit
ainsi:
Reconnaissons que son programme (celui des E.P.A.) est le notre,
que nous lacceptons entirement et quil pourrait suffire notre
naturisme. (...) De sorte quon pourrait dire : le centre gymnique
et naturiste (centre nudiste dans le sens o lentend le Dr. Pathault)
est lE.P.A. de ladulte et rciproquement les E.P.A. ne sont que
des centres gymniques et naturistes de lenfant.
29
Tous les mouvements naturistes sentendent pour rclamer la
gnralisation des E.P.A. Toute cole doit devenir une E.P.A. La pro-
portion minime des enfants qui en bnficient dans les annes 1930,
25 000 environ, entrane de leur part une critique vigoureuse et syst-
matique de laction du gouvernement.
30
Le numro spcial de la revue
Vivre intgralement de mai 1936 sintitule ainsi:Piti pour la jeunesse!
LINSTRUCTION PUBLIQUE TUEUSE DENFANTS.
31
Conclusion. Un naturisme officiel mais qui reste peu
dvelopp
Comme nous avons pu le voir, cest grce en grande partie au corps
mdical que les E.P.A. ont pu se crer et se sont dveloppes depuis le
dbut du XXe sicle. Le fait que les mdecins soient lorigine du
naturisme et de son dveloppement en France explique les orientations
177
naturistes qui se sont imposes aux groupements scolaires de plein air.
Le rle jou par des promoteurs de mthode dducation physique
naturiste tels que G. Hbert a t nanmoins dterminant. La leon
dducation physique en offrant la possibilit de faire pratiquer aisment
les lves en plein air et dvtus, sest avr le pilier sur lequel repose
toute E.P.A.. Elle a constitu un moyen dinitiation des enfants la
nudit dcente, condition ncessaire au recouvrement de la sant.
En dpit des rsultats quelles obtiennent sur la sant des enfants, les
E.P.A. stendent avec difficult partir des annes 1930. Malgr la
nomination dHenri Sellier comme Ministre de la Sant en 1936, le
nombre dE.P.A. stagne aux alentours de 500. La France se situe alors
loin derrire lItalie qui a organis grande chelle ses Scula del Sole.
Lcole au soleil de Milan accueille ainsi elle seule plus de 3 000
enfants. Par ailleurs, les revendications du Comit national des E.P.A.
demeurent souvent lettre morte. Et pourtant, la tuberculose tue chaque
anne environ 80 000 franais. Comme le souligne Saint-Martin: En
1935, elle atteint son maximum de destruction entre 20 et 40 ans et retire la vie
plus de 5 000 jeunes gens gs de 15 19 ans.
32
Avec lvolution des
moeurs, le dvtissement peut nanmoins stendre dans les coles et
en particulier lors des leons dducation physique.
LEntre-deux-guerres voit seffectuer une structuration des E.P.A. au
plan international. Ainsi, avec lessor des E.P.A. dans le monde entier,
se cre en 1925 le Comit international des coles de plein air. En 1935, il
fait dj partie de la Socit des Nations. Les congrs internationaux se
multiplient ds la fin des annes 1920. Les instigateurs du IIe congrs
international des coles de plein air ne sont autres, une fois de plus, que les
membres du Comit franais.
Bibliographie
Armand-Delille (Dr.), Wapler (Dr.). Lcole de plein air et lcole au soleil.
Paris: Maloine, 1920.
Armand-Delille (Dr.). Hliothrapie. Actinothrapie et strols irradis. Paris:
Masson et Cie, 1931.
Arnaud, P. Education physique et sant. Quand Lyon faisait la politique de la
France. In Thierry Terret (d), Sport et sant dans lhistoire. Proceedings of
the IVth ISHPES Congress, Lyon (France), 16-22 juillet). Sankt-Augustin:
Academia Verlag, 129-143, 1999.
VILLARET SYLVAIN
178
Baradat (Dr.). Lducation physique de la jeunesse dans la lutte anti-
tuberculeuse. In: IVe congrs national de climatothrapie et dhygine
urbaine. Monaco: Imprimerie de Monaco, 1904.
Brouardel (Dr.). Du surmenage et de la sdentarit dans les coles. Mmoire.
Paris, 1886.
Desternes. Suzanne. Les coles de plein air. Lducation physique, n
o
34, 94-
96, 15 avril 1935.
Kienn de Mongeot. Marcel. La nudit ou dix ans de lutte contre les prjugs.
Paris: Editions de Vivre intgralement, 1936.
Kneipp, Sebastian. Ma cure deau ou hygine mdicale pour la gurison des
maladies et la conservation de la sant. Paris: Retaux, 1891.
Lagneau (Dr.). Sur le surmenage intellectuel et la sdentarit dans les coles.
Bulletin de lAcadmie de mdecine. Paris: Massin, 1887.
Gaston. Lemonier. Le comit national franais des E.P.A.. Ses origines et son
action durant 27 ans. Lhygine sociale, n
o
123, 2723-2724, 10 juillet 1934.
Gauthier. Maurice. Un tape dans la lutte social anti-tuberculeuse : les coles
de plein air. Thse de mdecine et de pharmacie de Lyon. Lyon: Imprimerie
Jules Jeannin, 1911.
Hbert. Georges. Lducation physique ou lentranement par la mthode na-
turelle - historique documentaire. Paris: Vuibert, 1920, 4e dition.
Hervieu. Marcel. Piti pour la jeunesse! Linstruction publique tueuse denfants.
Vivre intgralement, numro spcial, 1-14, mai 1936.
Pathauld (Dr.). Naturisme. Une base. Un programme. Cinquante ans de sana-
torium comportent-ils des enseignements? Lesquels?. Paris: Baillres, 1937.
Planchon (Dr.) (1778). Le naturisme ou la nature considre dans les maladies et leur
traitement conforme la doctrine et la pratique dHippocrate et de ses sectateurs.
Imprimerie Chez Varle, Tournay.
Poucel (Dr.). Le naturisme et la vie. La joie dtre sains. Paris: Baillre, 1933.
Rikli, Arnold, Mdecine naturelle et bains de soleil. Paris: Bridel, 1905.
Rollier (Dr.). Quarante ans dhliothrapie. Paris: Masson, 1944.
Saint-Martin. Jean-Philippe. Laugmentation du capital sant des jeunes
parisiens laube du Front Populaire. In Terret. Thierry (d). Sport et sant
dans lhistoire. Proceedings of the IVth ISHPES Congress, Lyon (France),
16-22 juillet). Sankt-Augustin: Acadmia Verlag, 409-418, 1999.
Sandoz, Fernand (Dr.). Introduction la thrapeutique naturiste par les agents
physiques et dittiques. Thse pour le doctorat de mdecine. Paris : G.
Steinheil, 1907.
Trlat. Sur la ncessit dclairer les salles des coles par un jour unilatral.
Paris. 1875.
Villaret. Sylvain. Hbertisme et naturisme. D.E.A. STAPS, Universit de Lyon I,
1997.
Villaret. Sylvain. Delaplace. Jean-Michel. Introduction une approche com-
pare du naturisme en France et en Allemagne (1881-1939). In Gleyse.
Jacques. (d). Lducation physique au XXe sicle. Approches historique et culturelle.
Paris: Vigot, 119-125, 1999.
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Villaret, S., Delaplace, J-M. (1999). Lapport du naturisme aux conceptions
de la sant dans lentre-deux-guerres. In Terret. Thierry (d). Sport et sant
dans lhistoire. Proceedings of the IVth ISHPES Congress, Lyon (France),
16-22 juillet). Sankt-Augustin: Acadmia Verlag, 20-28, 1999.
Notes
1
Le Dr. Planchon lui confre ses titres de noblesses en lui consacrant un
mmoire pour le concours de lAcadmie Royale des Arts et des Belles
Lettres de Dijon: Le naturisme ou la nature considre dans les maladies et leur
traitement conforme la doctrine et la pratique dHippocrate et de ses sectateurs.
Imprimerie Chez Varle, Tournay.
2
Cit dans Dr. Fernand Sandoz, 1907, p. 30.
3
Voir pour plus de dveloppement: Sylvain Villaret, 1997; Sylvain Villaret,
Jean-Michel Delaplace, 1999 (a).
4
Arnold Rikli, 1905.
5
Sebastian Kneipp, 1891.
6
Citons entre autres: Lcho Kneipp publi par A. Sandoz de 1892 1896.
7
Voir galement: Sylvain Villaret, Jean-Michel Delaplace, 1999 (b).
8
On peut citer ce propos Trelat dnonant le mauvais clairage des salles
de classes et ses consquences nfastes sur la sant de lenfant: Lenfant se
tient mal et se dvie parce quil devient myope, et il devient myope parce quil se tient
mal et se dvie. Trelat, 1875, p. 4.
9
Dr. Brouardel, 1886; Lagneau, 1887.
10
Dr Baradat, 1904, p. 854.
11
On peut citer par exemple les travaux du Dr. Malgat Nice, ceux du Dr.
Rollier Leysin, en Suisse, ou encore les recherches de lcole de mdecine
de Lyon.
12
Citons par exemple le cas du Dr. Monteuuis, qui aprs stre occup de
tuberculeux lhpital maritime de Berck, souvre au traitement naturiste
et publie de nombreux ouvrages de vulgarisation destination du grand
public.
13
Cit par Maurice Gauthier, 1911, p. 10.
14
Lemonier signale nanmoins quune ralisation proche des E.P.A., sorte de
premire bauche, aurait t ralise Saint Ouen en 1890, grce au
dvouement dun instituteur et sous linspiration des Drs Mry, Dufestel et
Mathieu. Gaston Lemonier, 10 juillet 1934, pp. 2723-2724.
15
Comme lindique Pierre Arnaud: Depuis la rvolution franaise, la rivalit
entre Paris et Lyon est une grille de lecture essentielle pour comprendre les initiatives
des lus municipaux de la capitale des Gaules dans tous les domaines de la vie
politique, conomique, sociale et culturelle. Arnaud P., paratre.
VILLARET SYLVAIN
180
16
Cest Grnenvald, en 1904 que la commission dducation de Berlin-
Charlottenburg cre la premire cole en plein air. Lcole de Mulhouse
est ouverte quant elle au dbut de lanne 1906.
17
Maurice Gauthier, 1911, p. 28.
18
Lcole au soleil les noisetiers fonctionne ds 1910 Cergnat, prs de
Leysin.
19
Cest grce lutilisation judicieuse dun riche support iconographique
tmoignant des rsultats obtenus sur des malades gravement atteints, que le
Dr. Rollier va dclencher un engouement du corps mdical en faveur de la
cure de soleil. Les photographies avant-aprs des patients vont marquer
les esprits lors des diffrents congrs de mdecine auxquels le Dr. Rollier
participe.
20
Rollier, p. 127.
21
On peut lire ainsi dans le communiqu de lAcadmie de mdecine con-
cernant le Collge dAthltes de Reims et la Mthode Naturelle de Hbert:
Cest une sorte de rgnration de la race qui se prpare par laction simultane des
exercices physiques bien rgls et de ces bains dair et de soleil o la peau et les
poumons respirent largement, nous pourrions dire joyeusement. Bulletin de
lAcadmie de mdecine, sance du 4 novembre cit dans Georges Hbert,
1920, p. 104.
22
Dr. Armand-Delille, 1931, p. 126
23
Le Dr. Armand-Delille nous rapporte les rsultats obtenus chez les enfants
de ltablissement de Chavagniac-Lafayette, ouvert sur le modle de celui
de Fontaine-Bouillant: Nous avons vu des petits Parisiens dbiles, envoys
Chavagniac-Lafayette, sy transformer radicalement dans lespace de dix-huit mois,
augmentant de 15 20 kilos, et passant du stade denfants malingres celui
dadolescents robustes et resplendissants de sant. Ibid, p. 126.
24
Dr. Armand-Delille, Dr. Wapler, 1920.
25
Dr. Armand-Delille, p. 140
26
Ibid, p. 182
27
Cit dans Marcel Kienn de Mongeot, 1930, p. 150
28
Poucel, 1933.
29
Dr. Pathauld, 1937, pp. 30-31.
30
Aujourdhui, il existe 500 coles de cette espce dissmines dans toute la France.
Les unes sont de simples baraques en bois, les autres de somptueuses constructions
amnages suivant les donnes les plus modernes. Toutes rendent les mmes services.
Cinq cents coles, dira-t-on, cest bien peu encore. Oui, si lon songe aux besoins de
plusieurs millions de petits Franais. Cest beaucoup dj si lon songe toutes les
entraves quil a fallu briser pour en arriver l : les prjugs des parents, la routine des
ducateurs, les rsistances des municipalits, le manque dargent enfin. Suzannes
Desternes, 15 avril 1935, p. 96.
31
On peut lire dans ce numro spcial les propos jusquau-boutistes du nudiste
Marcel Hervieu: Un mdecin du dpartement du Nord, le docteur Violette, sest
cri un jour: Toute Ecole devrait tre une cole de plein air. Mais combien y en a-
t-il? Cest peine si lon pourrait citer quelques institutions denseignement secondaire
la campagne (...). En voil assez. La coupe est pleine. Parents et ducateurs ne
181
continueront pas tolrer que des ministres sans nergie, des parlementaires somnolents,
des directeurs denseignement primaire et secondaire esclaves dtroites consignes,
maintiennent courbs sur des tches sans joie, dans un confinement peu peu mortel
(...) llite et le commun des coliers franais. Marcel Hervieu, mai 1936, pp. 12-
13.
32
J.P. Saint-Martin, IHSPES juillet 1997, paratre, p. 2.0
Professeur Agre VILLARET Sylvain, doctorant STAPS,
C.R.I.S., Universit de Lyon I.
832 Mas Blanc, chemin de Russaud.
ALES 30100. FRANCE
E-mail : Vill.histoire.nature@wanadoo.fr
Hbertisme et naturisme. D.E.A. STAPS, Universit de Lyon I. (1997).
Introduction une approche compare du naturisme en France et en
Allemagne (1881-1939). in Lducation physique au XXe sicle. Appro-
ches historique et culturelle (coordonn par J. Gleyse). Paris: Vigot, pp.
119-125, 1999. (with Delaplace, Jean-Michel)
Lapport du naturisme aux conceptions de la sant dans lentre-deux-
guerres. In Sport et sant dans lhistoire. Proceedings of the IVth ISHPES
Congress, Lyon (France), 16-22 juillet 1997 (coordonn par T. Terret).
Sankt-Augustin: Academia Verlag, pp. 20-28, 1999. (with Delaplace, Jean-
Michel).
Une stratgie opportuniste dveloppe par G. Hbert pour imposer la
Mthode Naturelle : lassociation entre le sport et le naturisme. Dans
Delaplace, Jean-Michel. Lhistoire du sport. Lhistoire des sportifs. Le
sportif, lentraneur, le dirigeant 19E et 20E sicles. Paris: LHarmattan,
295-309, 1999. (with Delaplace, Jean-Michel).
THOMAS SKOVGAARD
182
183
FROM FRUGALITY AND CANON TO WELFARE AND CHANGEABLENESS
SCHOOL, HEALTH AND SPORT
From Frugality and Canon to Welfare and
Changeableness School, Health and Sport
Thomas Skovgaard
University of Southern Denmark
Introduction
The issue of whether or not sport is healthy is probably still open to
discussion. However, the fact that sport and health are often mentioned
and used together is not. It is customary to emphasise a connection
between the concept of sport and the concept of health. This connection
has also been stressed regularly in relation to schools. One of the more
recent examples of this is from the early and mid 1990s, at which time
a number of European countries expressed an interest in participating
in the World Health Organisation (WHO) project Health Promoting
Schools, which was a joint initiative directed at primary and secondary
schools which have had sport and health as priority areas.
Naturally, it should be taken into consideration that the connection
between sport, health and schools is in no way unique. During the last
decades it has become increasingly fashionable to relate various issues
to health. Thus, today concepts like health psychology, health economy
and health education exist, and university faculties which used to be
called medical science faculties are now referred to as health science
faculties, whatever the consequences of this may be.
The fact that the fields of sport, health and schools cannot be looked
upon in isolation, but must be considered in a larger social context,
does not make the issue less interesting on the contrary.
This is also the case if sport, health and schools are examined in a
historical perspective. There are a huge number of issues which can be
raised in that connection.
THOMAS SKOVGAARD
184
What importance was previously attached to health in school sport?
In what ways and to what extent did people believe that there was a
connection between health and sport? What qualities and functions
were assigned to sport and health in schools? What and who decided
how much, how and why? And how and to what extent was there an
interchange between the trinity of school, sport and health and the
society in which this has operated in different eras?
All of these issues are interesting, but it is obvious that they cannot
all be answered satisfactorily at once. Thus, the art of limitation is vital
- and it must be applied in terms of both time and space.
The purpose of this article is to focus on the teaching of sport in
Danish primary and lower secondary schools and the debate in rela-
tion to this in the periods around the time of the adoption of three
fundamental revisions of the entire Danish school system, which took
place in 1937, 1958 and 1975, respectively. This focus will form the
basis of an assessment of the part played by the health issue in this
connection.
Thus, the entire space of time from A (1937) to B (1975) will not be
subjected to analysis. However, three historical sections have been
created, which represent dynamic time intervals, in which the Danish
Education Acts of 1937, 1958 and 1975 are the centres of rotation. The
perspective is thus comparative in a diachronic sense.
1
Discourse and institutionalism
Based on the stated purpose of this article, the aim is to account for
statements and opinions concerning sport, health and the interaction
between these two issues in a school context. The starting point is, that
the central issue in connection with understanding the concepts of sport
and health, and the contexts in which they have been used and
incorporated, can be found in the discussion of them,-in other words
through an investigation of the discursive activities and formations
which the notions of sport and health are embedded in. Thus, the issue
that will be examined is the way in which sport and health as concepts
have been constructed via discussion and as a consequence of the
circumstances making the above mentioned discursive formations
possible. Discourse analysis, and the way it deals with concepts and
phenomena, focuses on the ways in which specific historical condit-
185
ions and/or relations have been discussed and dealt with and the deve-
lopment of practices for and the creation of knowledge about such
conditions and/or relations.
The primary theoretical starting point of this article is discourse
analysis as described and used by Michel Foucault and in the British
tradition of discourse analysis.
2
The task will be partly to assess the formulation and conception of
the problems to be solved by central social actors (teachers and their
organisations, politicians, civil servants and (natural) scientists,
physicians in particular) and their model solutions, and partly to attempt
to determine the prevailing conceptions of what was considered possible
and right in the area of sport and health.
At this point it is appropriate to emphasise that statements and opi-
nions made by individuals or groups which are included in this article
should not necessarily be considered as guided by a conscious aim.
Frequently, unconscious use of rhetorical means to promote a specific
point of view may occur. Thus, the important issue is not only whether
the things said and the way they were said express a conscious or
unconscious strategy. The main issue is that the things said can even
be discussed and considered by the participating actors as effective in
the ideological context in which they are presented. In short, the main
issue is the definition of the framework which qualifies or disqualifies
statements made in the discussion and/or discourse.
As described here, it is evident that the concept of discourse is like a
wide ideological concept to be perceived as a set of values, justifications
and visions which guide the awareness and actions of people. It has
also been established that both ideology and discourse cannot be con-
sidered as pure thought and speech systems. They should be conside-
red as a kind of praxis which do not gain any real importance until the
moment they form the basis of ways of life and comprehension.
Most of the actors mentioned in this article represent institutions.
The task will therefore also include consideration of the mutual
dependence which is thought to exist between discourse and instituti-
ons. For historical reasons, it is considered vital to consider issues which
can be defined as the social structure and influence on discourse, and
which, by the two Danish historians Uffe stergaard and Jan Ifversen,
are referred to as the spatial dimension of discourse. By doing so, the
two writers are referring to the issue that the function or field of use of
discourse has been included in an institutional system which is condi-
THOMAS SKOVGAARD
186
tional historically on the institutionalisation
3
of discourse, which begins
in the 19th century and accelerates drastically in the 20th century.
4
To
a great extent this happened as a consequence of the implementation
of the Danish welfare project, which experienced its growth and con-
solidation stage from the 1930s to some time in the 1960s.
Several writers prove that the above-mentioned process has resulted
in the general development of a number of positions from which it is
possible to intervene in the discursive order and culture with special
force by promoting, providing access to and status for specific tasks
and problems, specific conflicts and types of interests, specific
preferences, ideas and conducts and by blocking the way for others.
5
This article will consider whether this tendency to the creation of
structural differences in the chance to influence discourse due to
development at an institutional level can be traced in the framework
of the Danish primary and secondary school system. Central elements
of discourse analysis such as hegemony and strategy, as formulated by
the neo-Marxist Bob Jessop, are thus brought into the foreground.
6
It is apparent that the conditions and prospects of an institution such
as the school have also been moulded and determined by some objec-
tive conditions of macro socio-economical nature, but the point is that
these have subsequently been used in a particular way determined by
the way in which they were interpreted and translated into concepts
and subsequently included in political and industrial processes and
decisions. The focus is on the discursive aspect.
School Health Sport
The first decades of the period included in this article were not exactly
a bed of roses. Neither for the Danish school sector and the people
involved in it, nor for Danish society in general. First, there was the
severe social and economic depression, which persisted throughout
most of the 1930s. Then there were the war years, which in many ways
led to a complete standstill.
7
In relation to primary and secondary
schools, this meant that the extensive, and in its spirit quite pioneering,
Education Act which was passed in 1937, could not be implemented
immediately. The school discussions and legislation of the 1930s were
thus mainly important on an ideological level. However, it should be
emphasised in the same breath that the inter-war period is central to
187
understanding initiatives of the post-war era.
8
In general, the Act of
1937 was not implemented until after World War II, and the develop-
ment speeded up in the period from the passing of the following Danish
Education Act in 1958 and up to 1975. There are many reasons why
development was not rapid until this period, but the most important
reasons should be sought in a number of fundamental circumstances
which characterised Danish society after the war.
Expansion and welfare
Firstly, the period from the late 1950s in particular until the start of the
1970s was characterised by strong economic growth unparalleled in
Danish history. This strong growth was in no way an isolated Danish
phenomenon. It was paralleled by similar trends in some of Denmarks
most important co-operating and trading partners. Slowly but surely
the western world was moving towards ever-increasing international
financial and political co-operation and integration, which in Denmarks
case led to a definitive movement away from a society of shortage
towards a society of abundance.
9
Most of the 1960s actually constituted
a boom period.
10
The steady growth, combined with the simultaneous increased level
of activity in the public sector, also benefited the educational sector. In
1953/54 approximately 2% of the gross domestic product at factor cost
was spent in this sector, in 1958/59 this figure was 3%, and by the late
1960s the figure had increased steadily to approx. 6% of the total na-
tional income.
11
Another important issue was that the years following 1960, in
particular, were characterised by a marked political intention to create
the welfare society.
12
An important issue in relation to the perspective of this article
concerning the welfare aspect, is that the modern Danish welfare mo-
del, as it was formulated and created after World War II focusing on
increased growth, high employment combined with a strongly increa-
sing effort in the social, educational and health sectors, gradually became
a hegemonic consensus-creating project whose core areas were never
debated seriously. Sometimes it was necessary for the right wing par-
ties the Liberals and the Conservatives at first to emphasise their
ideological dissociation from the guardian welfare state, but when it
THOMAS SKOVGAARD
188
came to the crunch, they supported the system. However, the Conser--
vatives were more cautious, and this had an effect in the school sector.
13
Schools and Sport
The Conservatives voted against the extensive revision of the Danish
primary and lower secondary school system in 1958, and they did not
participate in the compromise on a similar initiative in 1975.
14
The Act
of 1958 was obviously the decisive step towards the comprehensive
school system, and can thus be considered an important example of
one of the principal elements of the Danish welfare model univer-
salism, which means providing the same service to all citizens.
15
The
comprehensive school system was implemented de facto in many areas
of the country in 1958, but it was not introduced de jure until the Act
of 1975, in which primary schools with very few exceptions introduced
one single stream for all pupils.
The primary and lower secondary school was considered a possible
forum for the realisation of the core ideological ideas which charac-
terised the broad political majority behind the welfare ideology.
The aim of the school was to strengthen the childrens and young
peoples interest in and accept of democracy and equality. Furthermore
school should stimulate and promote the theoretical and practical skills
needed to qualify for a complex and rapidly changing labour market.
Whether focus primarily was on democracy/equality or on the
qualification perspective variated with where one was to be placed on
the political continuum. The Social-Liberals and the Social Democrats
emphasised that education was a factor which created equality, while
the non-socialist parties gave higher priority to the vocational element.
16
However, it is worth mentioning that already in the 1950s, the Social
Democrats broke with the former dogmatic socialisation line and adop-
ted a more pragmatic line, which decreased the emphasis on equality
and the redistribution principle in favour of focus on an increase in
production and economic growth as the means to achieve more equal
distribution.
17
A natural consequence of this was, that the party, which
has been in government in Denmark for longer periods of time than
any other party after World War II conformed to an increasing extent
to the vocational and qualifying element in connection with discussions
of the educational sector. The schools did not escape this turn of events,
189
and educating the population for democracy and striving for schooling
everybody along with providing qualified labour for businesses be-
came the most important tasks of primary schools in the post-war era.
The subject physical education was also included in this strategy,
and it seems that the people involved in the teaching of physical
education looked favourably on the tasks and opportunities which were
made available. One example can be found in the work of Johan
Johansson, who was head of the Danish inspectorate of gymnastics in
the period 1953-74. The fundamental task of this organisation was to
supervise the subject gymnastics/physical training in Danish schools
and teacher-training colleges.
18
In 1958, Johansson wrote that the subject
which at this particular point in time changed its name from
gymnastics to physical training had a number of clear tasks to fulfil
in both the schools and society in general. Firstly, Johansson emphasised
that Today we speak of educating for democracy. Also in this area the subject
possesses practical potential. This potential consisted in developing the
childrens understanding of fair play .... and their abilities to co-operate
and through the educating yes even disciplining potential to teach pupils to
obey orders and to accept a well-founded no without argument.
19
Naturally
this version of the democratic potential of physical training does not
sound quite right today, but Johanssons words can also be interpreted
as the way people in the late 50s talked about freedom with responsi-
bility and the right of the individual to act in consideration of the good
of the community. According to the above-mentioned statement, the
limitations that were established, and which the child had to obey, had
to be well-founded. The unreflective duty to obey was not desired. If
this interpretation of Johanssons statements is accepted, they can be
seen in direct continuation of the most marked educational currents
which have been argued both in Denmark and abroad throughout
most of the 20th century. These have been widely inspired by the estab-
lishment of liberal democracy.
20
The central messages, for instance,
has been Teach the child to live its own life, Teach the ability to
learn, Education for Democracy and The Human Being in the
Centre. The two latter statements are titles of books which played a
central part in the Danish school debate after 1945.
Elsewhere, Johansson touched upon issues such as self-teaching and
independence, etc. in connection with a discussion of the qualities of
physical training in relation to working life. The business community is
looking for young people who will turn up with the right attitude to work and
THOMAS SKOVGAARD
190
who understand that they need teamwork in which the efforts of the individual
are a necessity to ensure a good end result. Everywhere people are needed who
are capable of assuming the responsibility of management. These people should
be able to earn the trust and respect of their staff. It was therefore part of
the important contribution of the subject to develop the childrens de-
termination, courage, stamina, initiative and ability to co-operate.
21
However, putting ideology and beautiful thoughts into words was
not sufficient. If the aim was to achieve equal conditions for everybody,
the framework and conditions of the school for and by the people
had to be strengthened considerably. This strengthening took place
mainly by establishing centralised schools, and this was connected in
turn with increased centralisation of the educational system of especially
the Danish rural districts.
22
In connection with the new Education Act of 1937 it had become
possible for a number of rural municipalities to join forces in school
unions. This opportunity, however, was not widely used in the few
years between 1937 and the outbreak of World War II or in the first
few years after the war. As a result, in 1948 a total of 84% of Danish
village schools had not been expanded according to the guidelines of
1937.
23
The period from the late 1940s onwards was, however, charac-
terised by extensive building of centralised schools.
24
In the period 1946 to 1956, the number of Danish schools decreased
from 4200 to 3900, and in the period up to 1965, a further 1100 schools
were closed mainly in the rural districts. In addition to the desire to
gather the children in larger schools the centralised schools this
was also due to the migration from the rural areas, which was mainly
caused by the extensive commercial changes of the 50s and 60s, which
converted Denmark into an industrial and early service society.
25
This
migration did not lead to an increase in the population of the old ur-
ban centres. For example, the number of inhabitants of the central
municipalities in the Copenhagen area from 1950 up to today has been
decreasing or stagnant.
26
However, the residential suburbs grew
considerably, and the 1960s became the decade of the suburbs and the
single-family houses.
27
The Danes had become motorised. In 1953 there
were 150.000 passenger cars, but in 1973 this number had increased to
1.233.000. In other words, 2/3 of all households had their own cars.
Thus, the basis was created for the drastic migration from both rural
areas and urban centres to the newly built single-family houses in the
residential suburbs.
28
191
Naturally, the residents of these new, densely inhabited areas desired
an extension of their childrens schooling options. Teaching and educa-
tion were considered social and financial insurance policies by the
generation of parents who had experienced the crises, unemployment
and class struggle of the 30s. As these pioneering settlers to a large
extent represented the people who the Danish writer and social critic
Jrgen S. Dich referred to in 1973 as the ruling class i.e. the fast-
growing group of salaried employees this desire for better schooling
was realised.
29
In 1975, which is the end point of this article, the result was evident.
The slow development in improving and extending the physical
framework of the primary and lower secondary school, which can be
traced to the period before and immediately after the Act of 1937, and
which during the war years sometimes came to a complete standstill,
was succeeded by an increased building speed in the post-war era,
which became particularly marked in the period around the passing of
the Act of 1958 and onwards.
Thus, in 1975, the majority of Danish children attended schools which
were built in the period from the late 50s to the early 70s. However,
the new and improved facilities, which also benefited the subject
physical training, were distributed very unevenly. In particular in the
rural areas, where schools were closed down or given lower priority,
and in the older parts of the large cities, the number of facilities such as
swimming pools and gyms was extremely limited.
30
Nevertheless, it seems fair to conclude that in the period 1937-1975
an increasing number of Danish school children had been offered
various activities, both indoors and outdoors. The overall level of faci-
lities had increased considerably.
As for the role of physical training in connection with the general
hygiene of the pupils, it would seem that this has been toned down in
the period following the passing of the Act of 1958. In 1937, 1958 and
1975 the schools were under an obligation to teach the children how to
take care of their own hygiene and that of others later in life. Both the
report of the hygiene committee of 1938, which was published imme-
diately after the Education Act of 1937, and the Act of 1958 contain
detailed accounts and guidelines on the hygiene issue. With Foucault
it can be said, that central authorities in the 30s and up to the period
just before the 60s played an important part in constructing and imple-
menting a considerable number of discursive formations concerning
THOMAS SKOVGAARD
192
personal and general hygiene. The starting point of these were either
formulated directly, or at least legitimised, by scientific experts. In 1975,
the hygiene perspective still exists, but not to the same extent.
More than one explanation of this development can be given. The
first explanation takes its starting point in discourse analysis. The
discovery of bacteria as a contaminant towards the end of the previous
century led to an apparently endless number of hygienic precautions
and orders which affected everyday life radically including life in the
schools. Natural science and medicine issued many such precautions,
and the closer, in the sense of time, people were to the discovery of the
influence of a factor say hygiene on human health, the more focus
was attached to it. In time formulated orders are integrated into an
everyday practice in which they are not primarily considered a means
of preventing disease or promoting health, but instead considered an
end in themselves. This is what has happened to hygienic precautions
such as the prohibition of spitting on the floor, washing your hands
after using the toilet, and holding a hand in front of your mouth when
you sneeze. The thesis here is that the same development occurred
with regard to showering after physical activity in the years following
World War II. It should, however, be emphasised that according to
some observers, it was a problem making both teachers and pupils
understand or perhaps accept showering as a natural part of physical
training. The problem was considered particularly serious in the rural
areas.
31
Another issue which also meant that schools considered it less
important to have pronounced rules for the basic hygiene of the children
in the period after the passing of the Education Act of 1958 was the
constant improvement of real living and housing conditions in Den-
mark, which for example meant that the majority of Danish households
had or acquired their own bath or shower facilities during the 60s.
32
The Act of 1958 resulted in a change of name from gymnastics to
physical training. Thus, the subject gymnastics became equal in
principle to the other disciplines: athletics, ball games and swimming.
This development leads Danish sports historians like Jrn Hansen and
Else Trangbk to the conclusion that gymnastics, which had dominated
in the schools, in particular since the end of the 19th century, and
mainly in the form of the Ling exercise system, had now become
subject to serious competition.
33
In general, the two writers are right,
but it should be emphasised that more recent studies prove that
193
gymnastics still had a special status in Danish school sports in the late
50s and early 60s. It seems apparent that gymnastics to a great extent
was able to maintain its prominent position in official teaching and
professional publications due to a continued high status in the institu-
tions. The reason given for this was the prevalent assumption that exer-
cises were particularly suitable for providing thorough and rational
physical training for the children. It is apparent that central players
such as the above-mentioned gymnastics inspector, Johansson, and the
chairman of the Danish Association of Physical Education Teachers,
Ernst Mller, used their positions to intervene for the benefit of gym-
nastics. However, the maintenance by the heads of institutions and
organisations of gymnastics as the actual focus of the subject had been
in the process of being phased out for years.
The result of this phasing-out is clear in the Education Act of 1975,
after which the name of the subject is changed again - from physical
training to sports. It is, however, hard to say how this development
should be interpreted. The Danish pioneer of sports history research,
Ove Korsgaard, thinks that the Act of 1975 represents the discarding of
gymnastics (if not formally then at least practically) in favour of games
and the new expressive activities.
34
There can be no doubt that the Act
of 1975 constituted the ultimate end of the era of traditional gymnastics.
This is not to say that considerable amounts of unambiguous documen-
tation cannot be found in literature which support Korsgaards state-
ment in toto. For example, it is difficult to ascertain whether the term
expressive activities was evermore than a few words in the teaching
guidelines. It is, however, certain that the change to the name sports
represented a desire to include a larger number of activities and disci-
plines in the lessons, and it also seems fair to conclude that the central
element in this subject as from 1975 was to be ball games/games. Ernst
Mller attributes this change to a lack of qualified teachers in the Danish
primary and lower secondary school system.
35
However, this does not
seem a very satisfactory explanation.
It seems more likely that the increasing number of young teachers
in the schools, which was a result of reforms of the Danish teacher
training colleges after World War II and the generation change which
according to Peter Ussing Olsen took place in the teaching profession
in the 60s,
36
resulted in an increased and perhaps more conscious
inclusion of sports in physical education. By now, the majority of
teachers had grown up in a world in which games/sport set the trend
THOMAS SKOVGAARD
194
in the Danish sports world. Naturally, this was even more true of the
pupils who the teachers were teaching.
Thus, the change from gymnastics to sports happened on a grass
root level before it succeeded through the official regulations and
teaching guidelines. This development was supported by the above-
mentioned improvements in facilities, which in reality made an
increased number of activities possible.
The above emphasises two issues. Firstly, the fact that much education
legislation and many guidelines are a result of a reaction to develop-
ments which have actually been going on for a while. Secondly; heads
of institutions, such as Johan Johansson and Ernst Mller, attempted to
maintain gymnastics as the core area of sports. However, this appeared
to be impossible, which serves as a reminder that there is a limit to the
reign over what can be said and meant i.e. the power over discursive
formations or simply discourse. This can be expressed as follows: The
influence of for example institutional discourse only has a value as
long as people are interested in listening and obeying.
37
A discourse analysis model like Foucaults, which is often characte-
rised by neglect of the actor aspect and corresponding guidance for
structural relations, will be insufficient when the individual or a group
of individuals use their option to act independently. This point illustrates
the fact that even if the institutionalisation of the 19th century and of
the 20th century in particular of various types of discourse has resulted
in the fact that the people who govern the institutions are also given
the opportunity to further certain opinions and perceptions, this is only
important if active people integrate these and use them in their under-
standing of and influence on reality.
Ideas and discourse have no inherent meaning or effect on history.
They are only important when they form the basis of social practice.
Health and Sport
The role of health in connection with sport in the Danish primary and
lower secondary school can be described by means of three main
themes.
1) Both in the years around 1958 and 1975, general agreement existed
that there was a positive connection between physical exercises/sport
and health. However, the debate in connection with the Act of 1937
195
was more ambiguous. On one hand, the teachers themselves emphasi-
sed that gymnastics was suitable for maintaining and strengthening
health. On the other, the teachers did not receive much support for
these opinions, at least not for arguments which extended beyond the
general interaction between hygiene and gymnastics.
38
The most interesting issue in the debate in the 30s concerning health
in connection with gymnastics lessons is the recurring theme of edu-
cating for health, in which health was often replaced by hygiene, which
to some extent united health and cleanliness under one heading.
39
It was important that the children were given good, correct and thus
healthy habits and values. This took place not only in the gym but also
in the changing room before the lesson and by means of the shower
after the lesson. All three elements, the physical exercises, changing
and washing should take place according to carefully formulated, ra-
tional, systematic and orderly guidelines. The purpose of this was to
teach the children the difficult art of self-discipline, whether the context
was sport or any other situation in life. Gymnastics was considered a
way to strengthen both the spiritual and moral virtues of the individual.
It is an obvious option to consider the debate and orders of the
gymnastics teachers of the 30s concerning health or hygiene as a
continuation of the extensive focus on this very subject both in Den-
mark and the rest of the Western world from the final decades of the
19th century onwards. As for specifically Danish issues, according to
Per Jrgensen, the focus mainly existed in the middle class/bourgeoisie,
who were the repository of culture from the end of the last century.
Later, however, it spread to other strata of the population, among other
reasons due to the attempts of the middle class themselves to educate
and discipline the working class in particular, who eventually took
over middle class values and attitudes in a modified form.
40
In the
20th century, hygiene and light, air and cleanliness developed into an
extensive educational project, with responsibility for this project
eventually being considered a social task to be carried out by public
institutions including (obviously) the schools, which therefore
developed practices for this purpose.
In the years surrounding 1937, the supporters of gymnastics in schools
had clearly assumed this hygienic task with great enthusiasm. Their
ways did, however, deviate from previous practices. Firstly, the lan-
guage used in the discussion of hygiene and health in the late 30s was
more moderate than in previous discussions. For instance, no-one
THOMAS SKOVGAARD
196
seemed interested in arguing in favour of strengthening hygienic
practices based on the assumption that it would be almost life
threatening not to wash, in particular following physical exercise. Jr-
gensen draws attention to the fact that such argumentation was con-
sidered wholly appropriate in the 1890s.
41
Secondly, due to the partial take-over by the schools of education
for health, the pupils who were unable to look after their own health
were taken better care of. For example, the individual schools had to
ensure that gymwear was provided for children whose parents could
not afford this.
The above-mentioned case concerning the problems in connection
with convincing both teachers and pupils in certain rural municipalities
that a shower is a natural way to end gymnastics lessons as late as the
1960s shows just how long it may have taken for education for health
and the right hygienic practices to reach those parts of the country
where the middle class influence, which was at first restricted to the
cities, was less powerful.
2) In connection with the debates of 1958 and 1975, health was used to
a large extent as a weighty factor of conviction and argumentation.
Various occupational groups and organisations used the scientifically
proven positive relation between physical training/sport and health
in their campaign to increase the amount of time spend on physical
education. The argument was that more physical education lessons
would strengthen this positive relation, while a smaller number would
lessen or completely remove the positive influence of physical education
on the health of the children. The rational and scientifically proven
legitimisation was highly important in the dialogue with the increasing
number of technocrats and scientific experts who came to influence
central administrative and political posts in the Danish state apparatus,
both before, but particularly after, 1945.
42
Not surprisingly, among the group of experts who were asked (or who
themselves wanted) to emphasise the above-mentioned assumed positive
relation between sport and health was a number of scientists from the
world of sport, who all had their own standpoint in natural science.
Otherwise, it was doctors that had the greatest influence on the debate.
The reason that the opinions of doctors was given such great impor-
tance was the high prestige and status of doctors (the ultimate guardians
of health) among decision-makers, administrators, the media and the
197
general public. According to the Danish-Swedish medical historian,
Signild Vallgrda, medical statements and recommendations have
hardly ever been subject to discussion for the majority of the present
century, because medicine has appeared to be an expert field.
43
The
technical and scientific development in this area happened so fast that
it had to be left to the experts, i.e. by and large doctors, to determine
the right course of action. It could be argued that this trend can not
have been very predominant in the schools, as to a large extent this
was considered a field in which the man in the street could, and had a
right to, express his opinion. It is certain that the dominance of medical
science has not been quite so absolute in the school sector as in the
health sector itself, but on the other hand, it should be emphasised that
precisely in a subject such as physical training/sport, the chance to
gain influence was particularly great, as physical education concerned
itself with the subject, which was and remains the entire core area of
medical science the human body as a biological/physiological entity.
Even if medical science like numerous other authorities - became
subject to increasingly harsher criticism during the 1970s, the opinions
of the representatives of this science remained in focus, and in 1975,
great importance was still attached to these opinions.
44
3) The wording of the Act of 1937 concerning the subject of gymnastics
contains no considerations (apart from hygienic) which refer to the
role of the subject in relation to health. It thus differs from the two Acts
of 1958 and 1975, respectively, which deal with health in a more
pronounced form. This is the case for the Act of 1958 in particular.
In spite of the fact that the declared aims of the Acts of 1958 and
1975 adopted a fairly wide perspective of health in including both
physical, mental and social aspects, the debaters primary occupation
was with the physical health of the pupils, while mental health (1958)
and social and mental development (1975) was given far less attention.
However, a comparison of the declared aims does show that the Danish
primary and lower secondary schools, like other institutions, did expand
their view on health and its origin in the period 1937-1975.
Based on a comparative analysis of the change in the declared aims
of physical education, the Danish sports researcher, Helle Rnholt,
concludes that health lost ground in the period 1958 to 1975.
45
This
viewpoint is not supported by the results of other research, which point
to the opposite, namely that, firstly, health maintained its central posi-
THOMAS SKOVGAARD
198
tion in the debate of sports in schools, and secondly that in 1975 it was
closer to the broad definition of the concept as it is used in general
today.
46
It may be beneficial to understand the development of the concept
of health in the wider social context, which was discussed previously.
Here a central issue was the final establishment of the welfare society.
It could be argued that this process meant that the population through-
out the 1960s increasingly expected and demanded that efforts should
be made by the decision-makers of society in order to strengthen,
maintain and protect the health of the people. So social aspects were
also apparent in this issue. According to leading Danish social historians
like Svend Aage Hansen and Ingrid Henriksen, it was the fast-growing
and mainly well-educated groups of employees in the social, educational
and health sectors who were the main sources of both the wording and
the implementation of these strengthened efforts in the health area.
The politicians were unable to oppose them, as they were based on a
humane ideology which everybody supported.
47
The development of both the health sector and the concept of health
can thus be considered as a demonstration of the fact that a formulated
strategy becomes hegemonic due to its ability to create consensus and
legitimacy. The conditions required for this development were initially
a number of structural changes, both financially, politically, socially
and culturally, as described in the first section of this article.
It is also possible that other concurrent and in some ways connected
factors helped to change attitudes to the source of health in the groups
(e.g. doctors and politicians, who were the primary creators of opini-
ons in this connection) who were able to strongly influence and change
the predominant public opinion and debate.
Firstly, the radical and increasingly complicated structural changes
in all sectors of Danish society, which were partly a result of the migra-
tion from the rural areas to the urban areas, developments in industry
and the service sector, and social mobility meant that an equivalent
concept or level of health had to be developed on a level of complexity
which was reasonably proportionate to these general social develop-
ments. Therefore, from approx. 1950, health was associated with some
of the most important key words of the post-war era such as; dynamism,
increasing flexibility, self-teaching and self-activity.
Secondly, the acknowledgement by medical science that the etiology
of widespread diseases such as cancer and cardio-vascular problems
199
was multi-causal and perhaps even consisted of an infinite number of
variables, meant that the view on the sources of both illness and health
was strongly expanded, first among professionals and then among the
people in general, which in turn may be said to have contributed to
the undermining of the above-mentioned rather uncritical faith in
authorities.
48
If medical science could continue to find causes for illness
and health, it was likely that other professional and non-professional
groups could contribute in the form of new knowledge and guidelines.
In the 70s illness/health became a political subject which everybody
could discuss. It is partly in this perspective that we should view the
renewed interest in illness-prevention which took place in the same
decade.
49
This outline only makes sense if we accept firstly that health is a
concept which is considered a social ideal, and which to a great extent
is created through complex interaction between individual and
collective variables. The new social demands create a need for a new
social health ideal which should be adapted individually, but the gene-
ral themes of which must be accepted by (almost) everybody.
Secondly, it is assumed that illness and health are perceived as
concepts which only have meaning when seen in contrast to each other.
Furthermore, the concept of illness is determinative due to the argu-
ment that the more the broad causes of illness are recognised, the wider
the concept of health.
Thus, the above-mentioned arguments together bring out the argu-
ment that general displacements of Danish society as a whole, which
were particularly evident and effective in the period following World
War II, as well as new recognitions in certain social and scientific groups
resulted in fundamental changes in the perception and discussion of
health at all levels, including the schools. In other words; different
governmental or social structures pose and formulate different (health-
related) demands to their individuals.
This interpretation is not unique to this study. It has been presented
on several occasions, not least in recent years, in which the interest in
humanistic health research in both Denmark and abroad has been
increasing.
50
One shared feature of much research in this area is that, like this
study, Michel Foucaults discourse analysis has been included in the
theoretical and methodical basis, subject, however, to the important
condition that adopting an approach such as discourse analysis, which
THOMAS SKOVGAARD
200
belongs under the heading history of ideas, does not mean that con-
cepts such as health, democracy and progress obtain a life of their
own. The main issue is to determine which people and environments
created, used and changed them.
51
As for the conclusions concerning the role of health in connection
with physical education in the Danish primary and lower secondary
school and the general movements in the concepts of body and health,
it must be emphasised that the hypotheses concerning the direction of
development of the social discourse in these areas are at present based
on a limited amount of research. This is the case in particular for the
period following World War II. A task for the future should therefore
be to attempt closer analysis of these developments, for example in
combination with an assessment of the influence exerted by and on
the Danish school and sports environments.
Finally, I would like to add that Denmarks participation in the project
Health Promoting Schools could be perceived as a natural result of
many years development in which the focus on health has grown and
has involved an increasing number of groups and individuals.
Furthermore, the inclusion of the subject of sport in the project could
be viewed as a contemporary example of interaction between sport
and health in a school context.
Notes
1
Kjeldtstadli, Knut: Nytten av sammenlikne. Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning.
1988, p. 437.
2
Foucault, Michel: L'Archologie du savoir. 1969; Foucault, Michel: L'Ordre du
discours. 1971. Laclau, Ernesto and Mouffe, Chantal: Hegemony and Socialist
Strategy. 1985. Thomsen, Jens Peter Frlund: Moderne Politikbegreber - Intro-
duktion til systemanalyse, Marxisme, Diskursanalyse. 1997.
3
It should be noted, that this article makes no clear-cut distinction between,
on the one hand, institution in a formal organizational sense of the word
and, on the other hand, the concept of institution as it is defined and under-
stood in connection with descriptions of social institutions. Another way of
putting this is; that no water-tight barriers are placed between a perspective
founded on organizational theory and a point of view, which is based on a
more sociological tradition. This lack of precision is somewhat a conse-
quence of the overall situation within the social sciences, where the divi-
sion between sciences such as anthropology, economics, political science,
201
human geography and sociology are not exact, and all share a certain range
of common interests, concepts and methods.
4
stergaard, Uffe and Ifversen, Jan: Europisk civilisation, begrebshistorie og
diskursanalyse prsentation af et nyt forskningsnetvrk in Den Jyske Histori-
ker nr. 73. 1996, p. 135.
5
March, James G. and Olsen, Johan P.: Rediscovering Institutions The
Organizational Basis of Politics. 1989; Hansen, Karin: Institutioner betyder
noget. 1994.
6
Jessop, Bob: State Theory. Putting Capitalist States in their Place. 1990.
7
Mller, Ernst: Trk af skoleidrttens historie i Danmark. 1980, p. 81. Laursen,
Per Fibk et al.: Uddannelse og Samfund i historisk belysning. 1975, p. 52-53.
8
Olsen, Peter Ussing: Skolen for samfundet. 1986, pp. 65-83.
9
Hansen, Svend Aage and Henriksen, Ingrid: Dansk Social historie 7 Vel-
frdsstaten 1940-78. 1980, pp. 113-114.
10
Johansen, Hans Chr.: Danmarks Historie bind 16 - Danmark i tal. 1991, pp.
157-160.
11
Hansen, Svend Aage and Henriksen, Ingrid: Dansk Social historie 7 - Vel-
frdsstaten 1940-78. 1980, p. 116.
12
The will to welfare is, for instance, reflected in the fact that public spending
spending, which in 1940 accounted for 22,2% of the Danish Gross National
Product, swelled to 40% around 1970 and approximately 60% in 1990.
Source: Vallgrda, Signild: Sygehusvsenet i dansk politik 1930-1990 in Arbejder-
historie. 1996:4, p. 50.
13
Petersen, Klaus: Om formuleringen af velfrdsstaten som et politisk projekt i
1950'erne in Arbejderhistorie. 1996:4, p. 73 and Thomsen, Jens Peter Frlund:
Moderne Politikbegreber Introduktion til Systemanalyse Marxisme Diskurs-
analyse. 1997, pp. 75-81.
14
Ibid., p. 73 and Olsen, Peter Ussing: Skolen for samfundet, p. 89.
15
Kolstrup, Sren: Kommunesocialismen et studie i kommunale velfrdspionerer
in Arbejderhistorie. 1996:4, p. 41.
16
Rasmussen, Hanne and Rdiger, Mogens: Danmarks Historie Tiden efter
1945. 1990, pp. 173-176.
17
1950'erne in Arbejderhistorie. 1996:4, pp. 66-67.
18
Barfod, A.: Hndbog i lovgivningen om den Danske folkeskole. 1950, pp. 20-27.
19
Annual report of the national committee of physical education in schools.
1959, p. 8.
20
21
Annual report from the national committee of physical education in schools.
1959, p. 8.
22
Olsen, Per: Skolebyggeri i 1940-1980'rne begrnsninger eller muligheder in
At lre og vre i hvilke rammer? 1990, p. 27.
23
Olsen, Peter Ussing: Skolen for samfundet. 1986, p. 78.
24
Hansen, Svend Aage and Henriksen, Ingrid: Dansk Social historie 7 Vel-
frdsstaten 1940-78. 1980, p. 221; Kruchov, Chresten et al.: Bidrag til den
danske skoles historie 1898-1984. 1985, p. 147.
THOMAS SKOVGAARD
202
25
Haue, Harry et al.: Skolen i Danmark 1500 til 1980'erne. 1986, p. 65 and
frdsstaten 1940-78. 1980, pp. 221-223.
26
Johansen, Hans Chr.: Danmarks Historie bind 16 - Danmark i tal. 1991, p. 62.
27
Rasmussen, Hanne and Rdiger, Mogens: Danmarks Historie - Tiden efter
1945. 1990, pp. 147-149.
28
frdsstaten 1940-78. 1980, pp. 131-132.
29
Ibid., p. 134 og pp. 146-149.
30
Ministry of Cultural Affairs: Betnkning om Idrtten og Friluftslivet. 1974, p.
140-144.
31
Danish National Archives: Archives of the Danish inspectorate of gymnastics.
Index Number R-1710.
32
In 1965 63,6% of all Danish households had a shared bathroom or one of
their own. In 1970 this number had risen to 76,8% and in 1977 81,2% of all
households had a bathroom of their own. Source: Statistics Denmark:
Statistical 10-year review 1980. 1980, p. 18
33
Hansen, Jrn: Velstand og fritid in Dansk Idrtsliv II. 1996, p. 10 og Trang-
bk, Else: Fra folkeforlystelse til folkebevgelse in Dansk Idrtsliv II. 1996, p. 27.
34
Korsgaard, Ove: Kampen om kroppen. 1982, p. 190.
35
Mller, Ernst: Trk af skoleidrttens historie i Danmark. 1980, p. 120.
36
37
A similar discussion can be found in Jrgensen, Per: Ro, Renlighed,
Regelmssighed - Dansk Idrts-Forbund og sportens gennembrud ca. 1896-1918.
1997, p.280.
38
Skovgaard, Thomas and Worm, Charlotte Hy: Fra den gode til den funktio-
nelle holdning? En komparativ studie af idrt og sundhed i den danske folkeskole
anno 1937, 1958 & 1975. 1997, pp. 69-72.
39
Jrgensen, Per: Ro, Renlighed, Regelmssighed Dansk Idrts-Forbund og spor-
tens gennembrud ca. 1896-1918. 1997, p.82.
40
Ibid., p. 61 og 80.
41
Ibid., pp. 223-224.
42
1950'erne in Arbejderhistorie. 1996:4, pp.62-75.
43
Vallgrda, Signild: Sygehusvsenet i dansk politik 1930-1990 in Arbejderhistorie.
1996:4, p. 54.
44
Pedersen, Poul Poder: En postmoderne nutid? in Klassisk og moderne samfunds-
teori. 1996, pp. 437-443.
45
Rnholt, Helle: Forml for faget idrt - set gennem udviklingen i fagets formls-
formulering in Tidsskrift for Idrt. 1994, pp. 126-132.
46
Skovgaard, Thomas and Worm, Charlotte Hy: Fra den gode til den funktio-
nelle holdning? - En komparativ studie af idrt og sundhed i den danske folkeskole
anno 1937, 1958 & 1975. 1997, pp. 126-135.
47
frdsstaten 1940-78. 1980, p. 148.
203
48
Pedersen, Poul Poder: En postmoderne nutid? in Klassisk og moderne samfunds-
teori. 1996, pp. 437-455.
49
Vallgrda, Signild: Sygehusvsenet i dansk politik 1930-1990 in Arbejderhistorie.
1996:4, pp. 57-59.
50
A few good examples of the research-literature on this topic could be
Frykman, Jonas: Pure and rational. The Hygienic Vision: A Study of Cultural
Transformation in the 1930s in Etnologia Scandinavica . 1981. Vallgrda, Signild:
Hospitals and the poor in Denmark in Scandinavian Journal of History. 1989,
pp.95-105. Porter, Roy: History of the body in Burke, Peter (ed.): New per-
psectives on Historical Writing. 1991. Park, Roberta J.: A decade of the
body: Researching and writing about the history of health, fitness, exercise
and sport, 1983-1993 in Journal of Sport History, 21 (1994), 1, 59-82. Park,
Roberta J.: History of research on physical activity and health: selected
topics 1867 to the 1950s in Quest, 47 (1995), 274-87. Snapshots from danish
research should include Schmidt, Lars-Henrik and Kristensen, Jens-Erik:
Den forebyggende tanke in socialkritik I. 1988. Schmidt, Lars-Henrik and Kri-
stensen, Jens-Erik: Lys, Luft og Renlighed. 1986. Elsass, Peter: Sunhedspsykologi.
1992.
51
Kjeldstadli, Knut: Fortida er ikke hva den en gang var. 1992, p. 176.
Thomas Skovgaard PhD scholar
University of Southern Denmark (SDU) Odense.
E-mail: skovgaard@sportmed.sdu.dk
Fra Atlanta over Sydney til Olympia en olympisk Tour de Force tilbage
til fortiden. in Idrtshistorisk rbog 1998. Odense Universitetsforlag.
1999, pp. 9-33 (From Atlanta to Sydney via Olympia an Olympic Tour
de Force back to the past)
Krig, fred og velfrd. in Een Time Dagligen skoleidrt gennem 200 r.
Odense Universitetsforlag. 1998, pp. 151-206 (War peace and welfare in
One hour a day Danish Schoolsports in 200 years). (with Charlotte
Worm)
Idrt og identitet En undersgelse af det danske foreningsliv i Sydsles-
vig specielt med henblik p Flensborg Bys Hovedkreds. 1998. pp. 1-158
(Sport and Identity national minorities in the Danish/German border
area). (with Jrn Hansen, Anebine Danielsen)
MIKE CRONIN
204
205
SCHOOLING THE REVOLUTION:
SPORT AND EDUCATION IN THE IRISH INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT 1912-22
Schooling the Revolution: Sport and Education
in the Irish Independence Movement 1912-22
1
Mike Cronin
De Montfort University, Leicester, England
It is clear that the genesis of physical education has been closely linked
to debates that circulate around the health of the nation. In the UK the
overwhelming victories of touring Rugby and Cricket sides from the
Southern hemisphere at the turn of the century, coupled with the
struggles of the Boer Wars, sparked bitter arguments over the state of
the health of the nation. Within such arguments was a clear rationale
that if a nation were to be ready for, and victorious in war, or even in
the morale boosting international sports match, then the manhood of
the nation had to be fit.
2
The same process can be observed in the
origins of the modern Olympics. Baron de Courbertins stated aim
was to bolster the morale of French youth after the debacle of the
Franco-Prussian War.
3
Finally, and in a similar vein, the spread of
Friedrich Ludwig Jahns ideal of Turnen, as a form of gymnastic exercise
as a method of bolstering German self-esteem fits into the same cate-
gory.
4
Put simply, physical education and the ideological encourage-
ment of youthful participation in sport can often be seen as a direct
product of fear. A fear that the nation may not be fit enough to fight
and win a war. Fear that the manhood of the nation, for this is often a
gender specific debate, would not be strong enough to fight against an
enemy. A fear that without constant readiness, alertness and constant
training and exercise the central spirit of the nation could be easily
defeated by some opposing power of invading force. In all this, I would
argue, we should see physical education, the product of such fears as
the result of a nineteenth century mindset. Physical education springs
directly from the larger European concerns over the stability of the
continent, the size and extent of each others empires and the aspirations
of nation builders.
MIKE CRONIN
206
Within this big picture, where does Ireland fit? I will argue through-
out this paper that while Ireland can be neatly slotted in alongside
many of the reasons behind the move to physical education, it also
breaks many of the rules and, I would suggest, provides a unique case
study. Ireland develops an ideal of physical education that is nation
specific during the years of British occupation in a school system that
is unofficial and often unrecognised by the British authorities. That the
physical education system is unofficial gives it credence during the
years of revolution in Ireland, and allows it to present unblemished
nationalist credentials at the time of state formation. During the period
of revolution, those who began the moves towards a specific scheme
of Irish physical education played a key role in the fighting against the
British, and they reached the point of martyrdom when they were exe-
cuted. With the founding of the new Irish Free State in 1921, the me-
mories of the martyred cast such a shadow over the new government
that they had no choice but to enshrine an Irish form of physical edu-
cation within the school system. This train of events is different for a
number of reasons from the usual history of a physical education move-
ment. While physical education movements are usually representative
of nationalism, nationhood and masculinity, I would argue that the
Irish case is one of the few in the world where the believers and
proponents of physical education go and actually fight for their beliefs.
For the Irish, physical education is not merely an ideological construct,
a passing fad or a paying of lip service, it is instead a central and firm
held belief that is acted upon.
To place this paper in context, a brief history is required. Ireland
was, until 1921 and the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty that created
the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, all part of Great Britain. In
principle therefore, for the period of this paper, Ireland had the same
laws, the same political system, the same educational processes and
the same sporting values as Britain. This was not, however, the case.
All the laws of Britain were applied to Ireland on a separate basis, and
as a result of the post famine struggles over land ownership and a variety
of other issues, many parts of Ireland were ungovernable with respect
of the strict letter of the law.
5
Compulsory education was not introduced in Ireland in 1892 as
part of the Irish Education Act. Education did not, however, become
compulsory as a result of the act.
6
Although all children between three
and fifteen were supposed to attend state-aided elementary schools,
207
the numbers who regularly attended such schools was woefully inade-
quate. The reasons behind the relative failure of the 1892 act are many.
Primarily the problem was that the act did not sanction Catholic schools,
a complete anomaly in a country that was 75% Catholic. The other
problems were that the standard of education offered in the schools
was low, the curriculum limited and the fact that the entire system was
seen as British and therefore unpalatable to the majority of Irish natio-
nalists. For most local authorities that were supposed to administer the
1892 act, the exclusion of Catholic schools and teaching (and also of
teachers that had been trained in Catholic colleges), meant that they
refused to apply the act to their locality. In 1900 one million Irish school
children attended school. While that figure sounds impressive it needs
placing in context. To be counted as having attended school a child
need only have attended a single day of school in the calendar year.
7
As Ireland approached the end of the nineteenth century it had only
the most basic educational system, and one that had still not eradicated
illiteracy. The system was rejected in Ireland as it denied the rights of
the majority religion, and because it was seen by the growing numbers
of nationally minded Irish men and women as a British tool. Most
importantly for the context of this paper, the Irish education system
that was brought into official existence under the terms of the 1892 act
did not contain any reference to, or provisions for the teaching of phy-
sical education. Physical education was not added to the school day
until the 1900 Revised Programme of Instruction in National Schools,
and yet even by 1910 school inspectors could only find regular drill in
approximately 40% of boys schools (although interestingly 82% of girls
schools practised drill).
8
Within the historiography of sport this is, I
would argue, a vital point. Britain is held up as the home of modern
codified sport. From the playing fields of Eton, Rugby and elsewhere
the colonial adventurers spanned the world and spread their games.
Can we really accept such a view in the context of Ireland? It seems
quite staggering that we still maintain that sport is spread through British,
or to be more specific, English education, as writers such as J.A. Man-
gan and Allen Guttmann have argued.
9
Such arguments are based on
a study of a small colonial, organised and literate elite. While not de-
nying the value of the work that has produced such an interpretation,
I would question that the elite public school ethos is the major ratio-
nale behind the spread of modern sports and games. The spread of
games to Ireland, or rather if we are to be legalistic, the internal and
MIKE CRONIN
208
domestic spread of games to an Ireland that was part of Britain, was a
failure. While elites such as the young men at Trinity College Dublin
were immersed in British sports and inculcated with both a games and
empire ethic,
10
such a process as that championed by Mangan and Gutt-
mann did not take place in Ireland. School based physical education did
not happen in Ireland, and thus there was no concomitant spread of English
sports within Ireland. The evidence for the failure of school based
physical education is evidenced by the total failure of the English games
of Association Football, Rugby Union and Cricket within Ireland with
the exception of the few schools and colleges of the Anglo-Irish elite in
and around Dublin, and across Protestant and Anglicised Ulster.
So if we can understand the absence of a mainstream and established
school system through which physical education can be spread within
Ireland, what was there? Should we line ourselves up with Patrick
Pearses gloomy view of 1912,
The value of the national factor in education would appear to rest
chiefly in this, that it addresses itself to the most generous side of
the childs nature, urging him to live up to his finest self. If the
true works of the teacher be, as I have said, to help the child to
realise himself at his best and worthiest, the factor of nationality
is of prime importance.
It is because the English education system in Ireland has deliberately
eliminated the national factor that it has so terrifically succeeded.
For it has succeeded succeeded in making slaves of us. And it has
succeeded so well that we no longer realise we are slaves.
11
Pearse understood and vocalised well the effects of the British schooling
system on the fortunes of Irish nationalism. In the place of an Irish
system had come the system of the outsider, the foreigner and the
oppressor. For Irish nationalists there had to be a truly Irish system,
not only of education generally, but of physical education specifically,
so that the nation could rise.
The date of Pearses comments on the English domination of the
education system that were quoted earlier are central to this paper.
1912 is seen by many commentators as a key date in Irish history, as it
is the time when the demands for a change in the status of Ireland
reach the point of irredeemable crisis. The Irish Parliamentary Party
had been rejuvenated under the leadership of John Redmond since
his accession to party leadership in 1900. The 1910 election had given
209
his party the balance of power, and Redmond traded his support for
the minority Liberal government in return for an Irish Home Rule bill.
The bill was forced through the House of Commons in 1912, and passed
over by the House of Lords until 1914 when it would become law. The
prospect of Home Rule had brought the Ulster Unionists to the posi-
tion where they were raising private armies dedicated to fighting against
their own British government if Home Rule was ever brought into
being. As a reaction, the forces of nationalism, which had rallied behind
Redmonds constitutional vision of an Irish nation achieved through
parliamentary legislation, became increasingly radicalised. Patrick
Pearse was at the forefront of such radicalism and the nationalism that
he stressed was rooted in an appreciation of the power of both education
and of the need for Irish sports and games to prepare the manhood of
the future Gaelic nation.
Pearse believed that a genuine national education that would form
the bedrock of the revolution and ultimately the foundations of a true
Irish state, would be a system based on a commitment to the Irish
language and to Irish culture. The realisation of the beginnings of his
dream was the opening, in 1908, of St. Endas School in Rathmines,
Dublin. St. Endas was an institution that was to be free of what Pearse
called the murder machine, shorthand basically for the British presence
in Ireland. The school was bilingual and based, in all areas around the
ideals of the Irish revival. Most important, in the context of this paper,
is the physical education regime of the school. All the games played at
St. Endas were Irish games, or to be more specific the games of the
Gaelic Athletic Association, hurling and Gaelic football. In February
and March 1908 Pearse sought sponsors for his new school. In doing
so he had to produce a clear rationale of why such an Irish school was
needed and what its educational philosophy was to be. Alongside his
demands that the St. Endas education should be from an Irish stand-
point and in an Irish atmosphere, Pearse was explicit in his demands
that the school develop physical culture, Irish games, etc., and above
all, form the character.
12
Later in 1908 the actual prospectus which
was sent to prospective parents outlined even more explicitly the types
of virtues that the boys would develop thorough their sport, and to
what ends such virtues would be used. The prospectus stated:
A manly self-reliance and a healthy ambition to plan and achieve
will be not only inculcated in theory but fostered in practice by the
system of organisation and discipline that will be adopted in the
MIKE CRONIN
210
schoolroom and on the playground. Patriotism will be
systematically taught, and an effort will be made towards the
formation of a sense of civic social duty.
13
Pearse firmly believed that without a genuinely Irish education that
combined a study of the language and history of the nation with a
physical expression of manliness, Ireland could never free itself from
British rule. To inspire the pupils the following words were placed over
the entrance to St. Endas,
I care not though I were to live but one day and one night, if my
fame and my deeds live after me.
14
The words, commonly attributed to the ancient Irish warrior king, C
Chulainn, summed up Pearses own ethos and that which he wanted
instilled in his boys. The young men of St. Endas were to play their
games and to learn their lessons with an eye on the future. It was not to
be a future of imperial servitude, but would be a future of glorious
freedom, of fighting to the death, as C Chulainn had done, against
the invaders of his country. As Pearse himself wrote in 1913,
Some of those who have come to St. Endas from other schools
have played alien games, but we shall play only Irish games here.
I am certain that when it comes to a question of Ireland winning
battles her main reliance must be her hurlers. To your cmans, O
boys of Bamba.
15
The link between Pearses educational mission in the early years of the
twentieth century, and an ancient Irish warrior may seem tenuous at
best. C Chulainn was important to Pearses message as he was a boy,
little different in age from the boys under his care, who had fought to
free Ireland. The sporting deeds of C Chulainn were not only set
forth as an ideal model to follow on the playing field, but were embraced
on the stage at St. Endas. In 1909 the boys of St. Endas, directed by
Pearse himself staged Mac-Ghniomharta Chuchulain or The Boy-Deeds of
C Chulainn. The play was a huge success, not only within the school,
but it was also well received by theatrical critics from some of the lea-
ding Irish nationalist newspapers of the time. As with the playing of
Gaelic games, the staging of such a play reinforced the link between
education, youth and revolution. In 1910 and 1911 the success that St.
Endas had achieved on the stage was replicated on the playing field.
211
It was as if the boys had taken the lessons of C Chulainn from the
stage direct to the hurling and football pitches. In both years and in
both versions of the Gaelic games, St. Endas with a mere 130 pupils,
managed to win the Dublin and Leinster championships. As Ruth
Dudley Edwards has commented, there seemed no limit to the poten-
tial of the young Gaels.
16
While not suggesting that one school makes a revolution, Pearses
project at St. Endas has to be understood in the chronological run of
Irish history in the period following 1912. Pearse was representative of
a strand of opposition to the occupation, as he saw it, of Ireland by the
British. Although his opposition was formalised in the shape of a school
to educate a future generation of Irish patriots, his use of Gaelic games
as part of physical education, was part of a much wider, albeit informal
growth of the games of resistance.
The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) had been founded in 1884
to promote native Irish sports. It spread rapidly around Ireland and
achieved great popularity. Part of its appeal was based on the popularity
of its sports (achieved in part by the adoption of the English model of
codification), but its main thrust was that it was an Irish, and thus by
nature a nationalist organisation. Gaelic games however, were excluded
from the Irish school system. In 1916 one of the first books that
attempted a history of the GAA explored how vital this sporting body,
despite its exclusion from the state run schools, had been to the force
of Irish nationalism. Its author T.F. OSullivan wrote,
It [the GAA] has had a stormy, eventful and chequered career, but
it has achieved lasting work for Irish athletics and Irish nationality.
It has helped not only to develop Irish bone and muscle but to
foster a spirit of earnest nationality in the hearts of the rising
generation and it has been the means of saving thousands of young
Irishmen from becoming mere West Britons The Association
revived athletics, popularised the ancient game of hurling and
nationalised football. It brought a new spirit to Irish life.
17
The GAA had been at the heart of the Irish cultural revival since the
1880s, and as Ireland had become increasingly politicised behind the
forces of nationalism, it had been infiltrated by the radically minded
Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). The IRB utilised the GAA as an
instrument in the war against the British, a war that would begin in
earnest in 1916 with the Easter Rising. It is here that we return to Pa-
trick Pearse and the boys of St Endas.
MIKE CRONIN
212
Patrick Pearse was one of the leading lights in the planning and
execution of the 1916 Rising. 1916 is a key date in the annals of Irish
nationalism. While the British, and over 100,000 Irishmen were fighting
a war against Germany, a small band of rebels staged the 1916 Rising.
The Rising was a small-scale affair, but it lasted a week, led to the
destruction of large parts of Dublin, and the deaths of several hundred
people. Importantly the insurgents were able to proclaim the Irish
Republic on the steps of Dublin Post Office, their headquarters for the
week. What is central here is the forces that were brought together
under the flag of the Republic that was hoisted in 1916. The Rising had
at its heart the members of the IRB, the movement that had infiltrated
the GAA, and many of the key figures of the Rising (indeed of Irish
history) had very public links with the GAA such as Cathal Brugha
and Michael Collins. The signatories of the Proclamation of the
Republic in Easter 1916 included Patrick Pearse, and it was the sig-
natories that were the first to be executed by the British at the end of
Easter Week. In amongst the men and women who took control of
Dublin Post Office and other parts of Dublin during the Rising were
many young men who had recently graduated from St. Endas. In the
period prior to the actual execution of the Rising two former pupils of
St. Endas, Desmond Ryan and Eamonn Bulfin, were hard at work
making bombs for Easter week. Their bomb factory was located in the
basement of St. Endas school. The lessons that these two men had
learnt on the playing field in their physical education classes, that fitness
was equated with national pride and military action, were played out
in practice in their old school buildings.
The Rising, it is clear, was driven by the demands of a group of
men, from Pearse and his pupils, through to the IRB and the GAA,
who were linked together by a very Irish perception of physical
education which lay at the heart of the Rising. Some of the young men
of Ireland had proved themselves, in 1916, as worthy of the title Irish
nationalist. Those were the men who had rejected the degenerate for-
ces of West Britonism and had, instead, developed a Gaelic physical
culture that manifested itself in rebellion. While awaiting his court
martial and subsequent execution in Arbour Hill Barracks on 1 May
1916, Pearse wrote to his Mother. Pearses Mother had worked alongside
her son at St. Endas school and knew all the boys who had chosen to
fight with him during Easter Week. To ease her worried mind, Pearse
wrote that,
213
All here are safe and well. Willie [Pearses younger brother] and
all the St. Endas boys are here. I have not seen them since Saturday,
but I believe they are well and that they are not now in any danger.
18
Pearses letter, which explicitly linked the boys of St. Endas with himself
as leader of the Rising, was a foolhardy exercise. He was understandably
trying to reassure his Mother about the conditions in which people she
cared for were being kept, but his letter, like all communications was
read by the military authorities that held him. The prosecutor in Pearses
court martial used the letter as evidence, and had underlined the section
quoted as evidence for Pearses key role in the Rising, and as a way of
implicating the boys of St. Endas. As a result of being named Willie
Pearse was executed, and the boys of St. Endas shipped off to prisons
in mainland Britain.
The exploits of the 1916 insurgents were commemorated by a whole
host of poets, most notably W.B. Yeats. One poem that is often (and
given its literary merits unsurprisingly) overlooked is that of Crawford
Neill. He wrote a poem extolling the virtues of the Gaelic athlete and
demanded that the future generations of Gaelic athletes recognise the
role of the glorious dead of 1916.
So fashion a hurl from the fine young tree
And give it the grace of your blessing,
Twiss fair right glad in the whirl of play
When the Southern lads are pressing;
And honour bestow on the lads below
The meadow our heels are spurning,
Who fought for the fame of the Gaelic game
When their fire of youth was burning.
19
While those Gaelic athletes who died in 1916 were venerated, the sur-
vivors were shipped off to prison camps in England and Wales. The
most notable camp was based at Frongoch in North Wales. In a camp
of several hundred men it was likely that they would, as with all prisoners
in such an environment, play sports and games. The Frongoch regime
was specifically run however by men such as Michael Collins and others
who had been followers of Pearse. The camp was organised by the
Irish Republican Army (IRA) and ran by men such as Collins who
were great believers in the value of physical education.
20
One of the
major pastimes within the camp was thus the pursuit of sport and physical
MIKE CRONIN
214
education. The rationale was identical to that of St. Endas, the
revolutionary of tomorrow had to be fighting fit by playing native games.
21
It was the men from Frongoch who would form the central core of
an effective IRA that was able to wage war against the British from
1919 until the truce of 1921. Their nationalist education, whether gained
through bodies such as the GAA or the Gaelic League, at institutions
such as St. Endas or in radical bodies such as the IRB, engendered in
them a revolutionary zeal that, in part, led to the expulsion of Britain
from Ireland. At the base of all their experience were the Gaelic games
and a sense of the value of physical education. In 1921 the graduates of
St. Endas and other revolutionaries that had accompanied them to
the point of truce and treaty, witnessed the creation of an independent
Ireland. As the new state was a nation that many could not accept
because of partition, they fought a two-year civil war. As a result state
building in many sectors did not begin in earnest until the mid 1920s.
In 1926 an education act that overhauled the old system was enacted.
In the first instance it promoted only physical drill as a necessity of the
educational programme. However, by 1932, the more radically min-
ded and Gaelic orientated Fianna Fil party were in office and they
instigated a far more vigorous investigation into the nature of school
based physical education. With the passage of the years the programmes
of the schools across Ireland came to mirror the values of St. Endas
and the preservation of traditional native Irish sports. In taking such
steps, Fianna Fil, as with other areas of government, formalised the
work of the revolutionary period, enacted much of the 1912-21 agenda,
and formally linked sport, schooling and the revolution.
22
In 1966 the GAA published a piece that commemorated the spirit
of the 1916 insurgents. The article asked whether Irishmen were still
prepared to lay down their lives for their country (a fascinating question
considering this was the period during which the modern troubles of
Northern Ireland were emerging), and ended with a demand that the
virtues of native sport and games be understood as part of a wider
agenda. It is an agenda I will end on, and one which I would suggest,
encapsulates the links between the promotion of physical education
by the Irish revolutionaries and the moves towards home rule.
[there is a need] to call the Irish back to the knowledge that they
have a country of their own. Only true everyday patriotism can
give life: To a dream that was dreamed in the heart, and that only
a heart could hold.
23
215
Bibliography
Akenson, D.H., A Mirror to Kathleens Face: Education in Independent Ireland,
1922-1960 (Montreal 1975)
Carlow GAA, Official Brochure of the GAA 1184, 1934, Jubilee Commemoration
Month (Longford 1934).
Collins, M., The Path to Freedom (Dublin 1922).
Coogan, T.P., Michael Collins. A Biography (London 1990).
Coolahan, J., A History of Irish Education (Dublin 1981)
Cronin, M., Sport and Nationalism in Ireland: Gaelic Games, Soccer and Identity
Since 1884 (Dublin 1999).
de Brca, M., Michael Cusack and the GAA (Dublin 1989)
Dudley Edwards, R.., Patrick Pearse. The Triumph of Failure (Swords 1990).
Farris, B., The Politics of Irish Education, 1920-1965 (Belfast 1995).
Fitzpatrick, D., The Two Irelands, 1912-1939 (Oxford 1998)
Guttmann, A., Games and Empires. Modern Sports and Cultural Imperialism (New
York 1994).
Harkness, H., Ireland in the Twentieth Century: Divided Island (London 1997).
Lee, J.J., Ireland 1912-1985: Politics and Society (Cambridge 1989)
Lyons, F.S.L., Ireland Since the Famine (London 1971).
Mangan, J.A., (ed.), The Games Ethic and Imperialism (New York 1986).
Mangan, J.A.,Athleticism in the Victorian and Edwardian Public School (Lewes
1989).
McLua, B., The Steadfast Rule. A History of the GAA Ban (Dublin 1967).
Moran, S.F., Patrick Pearse and the Politics of Redemption: The Mind of the Easter
Rising. 1916 (Washington 1994).
Nauright, J., Colonial Manhood and Imperial Race Virility: British Responses
to Post Boer War Colonial Rugby Tours in John Nauright and Timothy J.L.
Chandler (eds.), Making Men. Rugby and Masculine Identity (London 1996),
pp 121-139.
Ceallaigh, S., Story of the Gaelic Athletic Association (Limerick 1977).
O Mahony, S., Frongoch. University of Revolution (Killiney 1987).
ODonoghue, T.A., Sport, Recreation and Physical Education: The Evolu-
tion of a National Policy of Regeneration in Eire, 1926-48 in British Journal
of Sports History, 3, 2, 1986, p. 216-32.
OSullivan, T.F., Story of the GAA (Dublin 1916).
Pearse, P., The Murder Machine in Political Writings and Speeches (Dublin
undated).
Tatz, C., The Corruption of Sport in Current Affairs Bulletin, 59, 4, 1982, pp 1-8.
West, T., The Bold Collegians. The Development of Sport in Trinity College, Dublin
(Dublin 1991).
MIKE CRONIN
216
Notes
1
For full coverage of many of the themes in this paper see Mike Cronin,
Sport and Nationalism in Ireland: Gaelic Games, Soccer and Identity Since 1884
(Dublin 1998).
2
For coverage of UK responses see John Nauright, Colonial Manhood and
Imperial Race Virility: British Responses to Post Boer War Colonial Rugby
Tours in John Nauright and Timothy J.L. Chandler (eds.), Making Men.
Rugby and Masculine Identity ( London 1996), pp 121-139.
3
Colin Tatz, The Corruption of Sport in Current Affairs Bulletin, 59, 4, 1982,
p. 6.
4
For a broad coverage see Allen Guttmann, Games and Empires. Modern Sports
and Cultural Imperialism (New York 1994), pp 141-56.
5
For a general coverage of the period of revolution in Ireland see David
Fitzpatrick, The Two Irelands, 1912-1939 (Oxford 1998), J.J. Lee, Ireland 1912-
1985: Politics and Society (Cambridge 1989) and David Harkness, Ireland in
the Twentieth Century: Divided Island (London 1997).
6
Earlier attempts at an Irish model of schooling that contained specific Irish
sports and pastimes were rare. The only major exception was Michael Cu-
sacks Academy opened in 1877. Primarily a place where young men were
intensively trained for entrance into the Civil Service, Cusack developed a
physical education curriculum based loosely around the Gaelic games. In
1884, Cusack was the prime mover behind and founder of the Gaelic Athletic
Association. For details see Marcus de Brca, Michael Cusack and the GAA
(Dublin 1989), pp 36-53.
7
F.S.L. Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine (London 1971), p. 87.
8
For details see Thomas A. ODonoghue, Sport, Recreation and Physical
Education: The Evolution of a National Policy of Regeneration in Eire,
1926-48 in British Journal of Sports History, 3, 2, 1986, p. 217.
9
J.A. Mangan, Athleticism in the Victorian and Edwardian Public School (Lewes
1989), J.A. Mangan (ed.), The Games Ethic and Imperialism (New York 1986)
and Guttmann, Games and Empires.
10
See Trevor West, The Bold Collegians. The Development of Sport in Trinity Col-
lege, Dublin (Dublin 1991)
11
Patrick Pearse, The Murder Machine in Political Writings and Speeches (Dublin
undated), pp 23-4
12
Quoted in Ruth Dudley Edwards, Patrick Pearse. The Triumph of Failure
(Dublin 1990), p. 114.
13
Ibid., p. 116. My italics.
14
Quoted in Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine, p. 332.
15
Pearse, 1913, quoted in Samus Ceallaigh, Story of the Gaelic Athletic Asso-
ciation (Limerick 1977), p. 72.
16
Dudley Edwards, Patrick Pearse, p. 131.
17
T.F. OSullivan, Story of the GAA (Dublin 1916), p. 1.
18
Dudley Edwards, Patrick Pearse, p. 313.
217
19
Crawford Neill The Story of the Hurl (1916) quoted in Official Brochure of
the GAA 1184, 1934, Jubilee Commemoration Month (Longford 1934), p. 81, my
italics.
20
To understand Collins commitment to physical education see Michael
Collins, The Path to Freedom (Dublin 1922), pp 131-42.
21
For details see Sean O Mahony, Frongoch. University of Revolution (Killiney
1987) and Tim Pat Coogan, Michael Collins. A Biography (London 1990), pp
50-53.
22
For a general discussion of education in the Irish Free State see the following:
John Coolahan, A History of Irish Education (Dublin 1981), D.H. Akenson, A
Mirror to Kathleens Face: Education in Independent Ireland, 1922-1960 (Montreal
1975), and Brian Farris, The Politics of Irish Education, 1920-1965 (Belfast
1995).
23
Penned by Alf Muir, President of the GAA in 1966 as part of the 50th
anniversary commemoration of the 1916 Rising, in Brendan McLua, The
Steadfast Rule. A History of the GAA Ban (Dublin 1967), p 119.
Senior Research Fellow Dr. Mike Cronin
De Montfort University in Leicester.
E-mail: mjcronin@dmu.ac.uk
Sport and Nationalism in Ireland. Four Courts Press, Dublin, 1999.
Sporting Nationalisms. Frank Cass, London, 1998. (ed. with David
Mayall)
WOLFGANG BUSS
218
219
PHYSICAL EDUCATION, TEACHER TRAINING AND SPORT SCIENCES IN THE EARLY YEARS
OF THE GDR THEIR IDEOLOGICAL BASE AND THE POLITICAL FUNCTION
Physical Education, Teacher Training and Sport
Sciences in the Early Years of the GDR their
Ideological Base and Political Function
Wolfgang Buss
University of Gttingen, Germany
Introduction
Physical education, the training of physical educators and the sport
sciences fulfill, in each society and all the time, a political function
based on an ideological basis. The above holds true in a democratic-
pluralistic society as well as in a centralistic socialist structure, the two
typical social systems of recent times. The above functions are well
established integral parts of the field of education and are based on the
higher ranking concepts of development, as well as upon the transla-
tion of these into reality. In the centre of these concepts the individual
and the development of his personality or the good of the society can
be found.
The ideological and political basis of physical education, the training
of physical educators and of sport sciences can also be analysed in
post-war Germany, divided into the Federal Republic and into the
Democratic Republic (GDR). However, both social systems bad one
thing in common, namely the need to overcome the experiences of
the Nazi era. In physical education and sport the so-called political
physical education of that system was based on a racist philosophy and
had militaristic political goals. Peiffer (1987) has called that educational
system education for war. The anti-fascist philosophy after the war was
unified at the beginning by the Allied Occupation, but it diverged quite
soon into opposite directions. In the Federal Republic, the ideology
was based on the good of the individual, as can clearly be seen from
the first two paragraphs of the constitution (which deal with the dignity
of man as well as with the inherent right to develop ones personality).
WOLFGANG BUSS
220
This resulted in a pluralistic approach to education and in an outlook
on physical education as a means to promote health and the joy of
movement. In the GDR the ideological concept of Marxism-Leninism
soon became the only directive. The goals were determined by the
state and the central one was the realisation of socialism. The citizens
were considered equal in a society that had no social classes, which
had as its supreme goal the good of the society (and not of the indivi-
dual). The above goals required an educational system that would
integrate all citizens towards the goals of the state and of the state party
the SED. For physical education, as a subsystem, that meant the
preparation of the citizens towards meeting the demands of society
and of the state, namely the preparation of healthy and strong citizens
(...) who are capable and ready for socialist labour and to defend their
homeland (Erbach, et al. 1972: 117).
The following paper intends to supply a basic overview of the GDR
system pertaining to physical education, the preparation of physical
educators and to sport science in their initial phase. The era we are
dealing with is up to approximately the year 1960. The General Se-
cretary of the SED, Walter Ulbricht had demanded in 1955 that the
movement of sports should achieve a socialist content. This was now
(Bernett 1994:34)
1
achieved and only needed more intensification. The
date 1961 is also considered the end of the so-called early years of the
GDR.One must further subdivide the time between 1945 and 1960.
The initial phase, which can be considered one of improvisation and
orientation, lasted up to about the year 1950, a time at which a
centralized system of physical education was established. In the initial
period there was a certain place for a pluralistic approach based on the
principles of reform pedagogy. In spite of the diversity of the methods
of the time, there was a clear anti-fascist approach by everybody. The
acceptance of Soviet centralist structures was impossible at that time
due to international developments.
Following the establishment of two German states in 1949 and the
creation of two political blocks, all obstacles for the sovietisation of
the GDR were removed and a period in which the organisation of the
state resembled very much that of the Soviet Union began (Hinsching
and Hummel 1997:18). I prefer, however, to name that period the period
of centralisation, as the GDR did not follow the Soviet Union blindly
and kept certain characteristics of is own, some of these being based
on the influences of the great and hated brother, the Federal Republic.
221
The political environment
With the end of World War II in May 1945 the occupation of Germany
through the four Allies began. In the Soviet occupation zone the Soviet
Military Administration became the major political power, a role which
it fulfilled de facto until the end of the GDR in 1989.
2
Together with
the Communist Party and as of 1946 with the SED, which was created
through the unification between the communists and the social-
democrats, the Soviet Military Administration began, following the
model of Stalin, with structuring a socialist state in East Germany. In
1949 the German Democratic Republic was created paralleling the
Federal Republic of the West.
The SED soon became the leading power in East Germany, and as
of 1948 the internal structures of the Soviet Communist Party were
being applied. Following the acceptance of the political principle of
democratic centralism, which is based on directives moving down-
wards, East Germany was completely separated from the democratic
processes of the West.
3
The SED became the state party and thus the
dictatorial centre for decisions pertaining to the state and to society.
The state-controlled youth organisation, the Freie Deutsche Jugend, and
the Free German Trade Unions became major tools in the construction of
a socialist society. There was no place anymore for open pluralistic
discussions. This does not mean however that no conflicts and
controversies existed within the ruling block. The unlimited power of
the SED in the state and in society was never put on a serious test due
to the backing of the Soviet Military Administration.
4
As of 1950, the systematic inclusion of all social and national areas
in the centralistic structure of the state took place, the goal being the
establishment of a socialist state in Germany. The Soviet Union naturally
served as model for these procedures. The creation of organisations
and institutions according to accepted international standards was
complemented with the creation of specific bodies that were needed
for the fulfilment of the political goals.
In the area of sports the above-mentioned inclusion meant, for in-
stance, the founding of a national roof organisation, the Deutsche Sport-
ausschuss in 1948, as well as a National Olympic Committee in 1951 which
was to serve parallel to its Western counterpart in dealing with interna-
tional relations. In 1952 a State Committee for Physical Culture and Sport
(STAKO) was created to serve as a leading and as controlling institu-
WOLFGANG BUSS
222
tion by the state. In 1950 the Deutsche Hochschule fr Krperkultur (the
German University for Physical Culture) in Leipzig was founded to
promote the development of Sport sciences as well as the systematic
training of sport teachers. At the same time the traditional Institutes
for Physical Education at the various universities continued to exist.
All off these steps were taken with a consequent policy as far as the
personnel was concerned. Staff members who were considered to have
oppositional attitudes lost their jobs, young party members, who
excelled in anti-fascism feeling, were promoted to take their place.
These steps were taken in order to overcome the lack of a traditional
leading elite. In the areas of sport organisation and education this meant
the promotion of young sport functionaries, especially out of the ranks
of the youth movement, as well as young teachers and sport scientists.
5
This step of the creation of a closed political framework and the
introduction of changes in the society according to socialist principles
was completed, more or less, by the year 1961. Already at the fifth
convention of the SED in 1958 the future major duty of the party was
defined as the completion of the socialist production relations. One
year later a new seven-year plan, according to which all state and so-
cial organisations were to begin with the next phase towards socialism
wew passed. As far as sports were concerned, the creation of a new
leading organisation the DTSB (Deutscher Turn- und Sportbund) meant
a final form of organisation. The goal of physical education was defined
as the strengthening of the intensity of instruction in the direction of
a social orientation towards labour, and the preparation of physical
educators was to be based on a scientific, i.e., socialist basis.
Functions of ideology and politics
In ideologies we have to recognize two functions: They serve as super
structures in the mind and as a well as a form to establish justifications
and legitimacy. Political activities are the pragmatic level of carrying
out ideology. The ideology thus creates the frame within which politics
are being acted and reacted. The same holds true for the GDR. The
ideological principles related to the formation of state and society
according to the teachings of Marx, Engels and Lenin were to serve as
a directive for the rulers in the Soviet Military Administration and in
the SED. The level of political actions were the end-result of the
223
development of a revolutionary process that created the dictatorship
of one class, the so-called proletariate. As a result of presumed historical
necessities that way was preferred over a pluralistic development of
society. As a consequense of the conditions in German life in the post
World War II era, and especially in the period between 1945 and 1949,
the development of the state and social structures in the Soviet zone of
occupation and later in the GDR were much more differentiated as
was presumed for a long time by Western observers.
The initial goal of the Communists, who at first dominated and later
ruled the SED, was the realisation of socialism as a step towards commu-
nism. The political application of that policy was, as a result of necessary
reaction to political developments, never a simple one. The relationship
between ideology and politics underwent changes to secure political power.
Politics oriented themselves only formally on the ideological basis and
had to bend ideological legitimacy in order to fit political activities.
The same model held true, to a large extent, for the general develop-
ment of physical culture and sports in the GDR, and especially for the
development of physical education. This explains the often repeated
demand of the first General Secretary of the SED, Walter Ulbricht,
that our sport movement has to achieve a socialist content (Bernett
1994:34).
It was logical that the paradigm of socialism, as an ideological concept
as well as a model of behaviour, was considered to be related to gene-
ral politics. Naturally it included the area of education, especially as
education was a central topic of Marxist ideology. As a result of this, all
the dogmatic followers of the socialist concept had made the educati-
ability of man an axiom of their conviction. Thus the educational area
of sports, namely physical education, was especially influenced by the
principles of socialism. Physical education was an integral part of the
general concept of the creation of a personality, this being based on
the belief in the principle of unity of mind and body. According to
Marx the human capabilities were equal in value and should be
developed in three dimensions: the mental education, the physical
education, and the polytechnic education.
6
The self-realization of the
personality should be achieved through physical labour, existence
creating production, as well as physical culture with its related hygienic,
military and social functions (see also Kirchhoefer 1987:67-71).
The relationship between labour as a means of the shaping of achieve-
ment and a means that contributes to the strengthening of the indivi-
WOLFGANG BUSS
224
duals identity as a socialist citizen, serves as an explanation of the
special tie of the sport system of the GDR to the place of employment.
Naturally the place of employment is at the same time considered to
be the place of the creation of political consciousness, a place were
influence and discipline can be fostered. That meant of course that it
was extremely difficult for a selfemployed person to join the sport sy-
stem. As such it is of utmost importance for a centralistic society
undergoing an educational process. Furthermore the acceptance of the
Soviet model with its structures played an important role in the
development of the GDR, whether these were in accordance with the
teachings of Marx or not.
7
As a whole Sport activities, including, physi-
cal education, were a social activity, the nature of which was determined
by the society, which had to serve society and which had to have a
social nature (Kirchhoefer 1997:70).
The above-mentioned demand by Ulbricht concerning the achieve-
ment of a socialist content for physical culture stems from the year
1955, which is to say from a phase of development ten years after
World War II and the takeover of the Communists. This points in the
direction of the difficulties in achieving the ideological goals even in a
centralistic state. Those difficulties stemmed from social restrictions, as
well as from a differential process of discussions. Besides a lack of
materials and adequate personnel in the first decade following the War
and in spite of the lack of an opportunity for an open ideological and
political opposition, especially on the basic level of society, a lack of
trustworthiness existed that prevented the appearance of an original
humane and emancipatory concept in the spirit of Marxism.
8
For this
the dominance of the efforts to gain and to retain power of a political
nature was responsible. The level of ideology began to serve mainly as
a means of obtaining legitimacy for the political activities of the lea-
dership. Ideology was based on politics, whereas theory demanded
the opposite.
Examples from school sports, training of physical educators
and from sport sciences
The structural relationship between ideology and politics and its changes
shall be dealt with now in relationship to the three dominant factors in
physical education: school sports, the training of physical educators
225
and sport sciences. By dealing with the central political decisions and
processes pertaining to sport you have to keep this in mind. For the
area of school sports the slogan and directives for the Sport badge, that
was created in 1950 and changed in 1956, can be considered as being
characteristic. In 1950 the law about the participation of youth in the
construction of the GDR was passed and as a result of it the first Badge
for the achievements in sports in the GDR came into being with the slogan
Ready for labour and for the defence of peace. By ministerial decision it
was renamed Sport Badge of the GDR in 1956, its contents changed and
a new slogan Ready for Labour and for the Defence of the Homeland
adapted. The ideological legitimacy was the basic understanding of
the Marxist principle of the role of labour in the self-realisation of man.
The component of peace was included in order to emphasise the
basic peaceful character of international socialism, whereas the
component of homeland was a result of the necessary patriotism in
order to establish a socialist society on German territory. That the reality
determined political background can be seen unequivocally. Children
and youth were to be introduced early in life to structures of labour, as
the success of the socialist society also depended on its economic capabi-
lities. These were, at a time when the economic miracle was taking place
in West Germany, still quite deficient. A major function of socialist
education is to combine the gaining of knowledge with the education
for labour. The preparation of youth for an active participation in so-
cialist industry and agriculture will be supported through the obtaining
of polytechnic knowledge and basic experience in production. (Erbach
1972:117).
The emphasis on peace in the slogan of 1950 is clearly based on the
German political situation. In this era the Soviet Union and the GDR
were active in the direction of the reunification of Germany on the
basis of international neutrality and the GDR was expected to document
its pacifism on each occasion. By 1956, following the joining different
blocks (NATO, West Germany and the Treaty of Warsaw, GDR), the
politics of the GDR had changed. Now the main goal was to gain in-
ternational recognition, to separate itself from the Federal Republic,
and to create a GDR identity. The love to the GDR homeland was to
be documented at all times and to be entered into the consciousness of
the citizens, in order to secure internal stability.
The Law for Youth, passed in 1950, strove, in addition to dealing with
physical education according to the socialist ideal, also in the direction
WOLFGANG BUSS
226
of a new orientation towards personnel. The creation of a new leaders-
hip was to be emphasized in the coming years. The initial problem
was to overcome the lack of physical educators, caused by the great
number of war casualties among that profession, as well as the need to
get rid of teachers who had a fascist ideology (Beuschel 1992:211).
Liberal teachers, who were definitely anti-fascists, could also not escape
criticism, as they did not concentrate their work around the Marxist
theory of society. The deeds of those were defined as being based on
accidental results (Wonneberger, et al. 1967:107) that were unaccep-
table for socialist education.
The political background for the above steps rested on the desire to
reach a personal forcing into line among the educators. As in all realms
of state and of society, the field of education was cleansed of the few
remaining old-timers which were replaced by young personnel that
was following the party line. The old generation tended to cater to the
autonomy of the child and the individual, an approach that could not
be controlled by the state and therefore was considered dangerous to
the system. The teacher now became the most important dispenser of
the interests of the political leadership. Steps were taken in spite of a
shortage of personnel, even if those steps seemed to hurt the credibility
of the political leadership.The communists preferred no education over
false education.
The controversy pertaining to the theory of education could also be
felt in the area of sport sciences, which was considered an integral part
of the Marxist theory of society. At the end of 1952 and the beginning
of the following year a so-called discussion on theory developed at
the Deutsche Hochschule fr Krperkultur in Leipzig, which had the status
of being the elite university in the field. The discussion started when
young sport scientists began to criticize the theoretical basis of the work
of an older staff member. It centered around the claim that the profes-
sor of kinesiology, Dr. Kurt Meinel, did not base his teachings on the
so-called laws of development of socialism, which were the base for a
complete concept of society according to Marx and Lenin. Dr. Meinel
preferred to approach his subject from the organic development of the
human body and its education. The political background of the discus-
sion, that was decided in the direction of the adaptation of the socialist
theory of society, was the attempt to limit scientific autonomy and
individual freedom. The focal point was the wish to follow the decree
of the Central Committee of the SED from January 1951, which con-
227
sidered Marxism-Leninism the only acceptable doctrine. At the same
time it was a controversy between the old generation, even when that
generation applied dialectical thinking, and the young wolves, whose
thinking was determined consequently by the party line. As doctoral
students (so-called aspirants) those young wolves represented the
coming generation that was interested in establishing a sport science
according to the needs of a socialist state and the party. Their criticism
of Meinel and his elderly colleagues was based on the claim that their
theories stemmed from bourgeois science and lacked a Marxist scientific
base. They demanded to give preference to collective work and discus-
sions at the expense of an approach preferring individuality and
sectarianism. What was really meant was the control of science in this
as in any area through state and party.
Summary
If something can be considered successful in the GDR, it was certainly
its system of the organisation of sports. The success of its elite sports at
later stages was definitely made possible also through the use of so-
called supporting materials, namely doping. However, doping should
not be considered the only reason for success. At least the same value
should be given to the unique selection and support system. In this
system physical education, the training of physical educators and sport
science fulfilled a dominant role. It was in those spheres in which the
concept of a politically and ideologically based physical culture could
be translated into reality. Even though it were the results of the athletes
that drew the attention towards the sports in the GDR, one should not
forget the ideological foundation and the political shaping of the sport
movement in the GDR. These were of utmost importance especially
during the early years of the GDR in which the system was established.
The transition from a traditional system of physical education into an
integral part of a socialist society created political breaks as well as
personal cases of elimination. In order to make these socially accepta-
ble, a constant obtaining of legitimacy through ideological reasons was
needed. In the Stalin-era this could be done without consequences
even though it did not fit into the original Marxist theory. As far as
ideology and politics related to physical education are concerned it
can be seen, according to Hinsching (1997:8) that the superficially
WOLFGANG BUSS
228
seen monolithical and consistent system of state-socialism in the GDR
had ambivalent and contradictory phenomena in its internal structure
in which political power always dominated science.
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Notes
1
The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the SED, Walter Ulbricht,
made this cardinal demand concerning the shaping of sports in the GDR at
the third convention of the State Committee for Physical Culture and Sport
from November 25-27 in Karl-Marx-Stadt.
2
The Soviet Military Administration had formal complete political control
up to the creation of the GDR in 1949 and up to 1955, when the GDR was
granted complete sovereignty, control over foreign affairs. As a result of the
creation of the Warsaw Treaty, the Soviet Union remained the supreme
power in relationship to the GDR.
3
The most important principle and means of the political structure was the
democratic centralism which was based on the belief that the leadership
elite had a better understanding of the societal needs. This was considered
an application of Hegels formula that freedom means the understanding
of necessities. Subordinate bodies were meant to carry out decisions of the
leadership, as well as foster the creation of a new consciousness.
4
As an example the defeat of the peoples mutiny in 1953 through the Soviet
army can be seen.
5
Significant losses of leadership personnel were caused by the war, by the
removal of ex-Nazis, through political cleansing and through emmigration
to the West. As a compensation young anti-fascist climbers, mostly from
lower social strata, were motivated. See Niethammer 1994:104-108.
6
In his publication from the year 1866 concerning the educational princip-
les of children from the labour class, Karl Marx defined polytechnic
education as follows: Polytechnic education supplies the general scientific
principles of all processes of production, and at the same time prepares the
child and the youth for their practical use and for the handling of all
elementary deals (Quoted by Bernett 1994:20).
WOLFGANG BUSS
230
7
Reference is made to the process of stalinisation, during which the Soviet
Union, hiding behind the cover of Marxism-Leninism, carried out the bru-
tal dictatorship of a group around Stalin.
8
Until the late 1950s a lack of facilities and teaching personnel as a result of
World War II could be observed. Resistance could be felt, in the first years
following the war, from supporters of reformist pedagogical principles. The
lack of trustworthiness can be seen as a result of the fact that teachers who
did not follow the party line were rigorously removed from the teaching
profession.
9
See, for instance, the special edition of the journal Theorie und Praxis der
Krperkultur that dealt with the topic of Theoretical problems of physical
culture and physical education in March 1953.
231
Dr. Wolfgang Buss
Institute of Sport Science, University of Gttingen/Germany.
One of the senior lecturers in the department of Sport and
Society.
E-mail: wbuss@gwdg.de
Die Entwicklung des deutschen Hochschulsports vom Beginn der
Weimarer Republik bis zum Ende des NS-Staates. Gttingen. 1975.
Die Entwicklung des Sports in Nordwestdeutschland 1945-1949. (ed.)
Duderstadt. 1984.
Von der Ritterlichen Exercitien zur modernen Bewegungskultur - 250
Jahre Sport und Leibesbungen an der Universitt Gttingen. (ed.)
Duderstadt. 1989.
Sport, gesellschaftliche Integration und nationales Selbstbewutsein Zur
politischen Funktion des Sports im Westdeutschland der Nachkriegszeit.
in: A. Krger/A. Teja (Hg.), La Comune Eredita dello Sport in Europa, Atti
des 1 Seminario Europeo di Storia dello Sport. Roma, 302-310. 1997.
CARLA BONELLO
232
233
PHYSICAL CULTURE AND THE FASCIST REVOLUTION
Physical Culture and the Fascist Revolution
Carla Bonello
Torino, Italy
To reinvent the Italians
Fascist Italy proclaimed herself heir to the Risorgimento, and defined
many things in the country anew. It emphatically took up the project
of the previous liberal governments to reinvent the Italians. It was in
the process of forming a fresh national identity with the help of material
and cultural means. Mussolini had expressed it this way: The Italian
people is a bloc of precious minerals. I have to dig it up, clean it, cut
it
1
In this fusion of different interests and political motives a new
political climate and style was formed. The fasces of imperial Rome
created a certain vanity, a mystical heroism, a strong nationalism, and
a cult of the eternal Italy.
The futurist movement left its imprint, but it was soon to loose its
explosiveness. Armed bands (squadrismo) were roaming Italy, anarchy
was avoided but a certain violent tone was kept. Bourgeois behaviour
was rejected, yet the bourgeois norms were considered useful for the
social pacification of the nation. The force of ritualism was taken over
from the Church, from Socialism it was learned that you had to mobil-
ise the masses and to enchant them by demagogy. Fascism itself by
taking over traditions of the past, claimed that it had achieved a revo-
lution and that in itself gave the sign for changes that were to come.
At any rate, it was necessary to make the multitude of ideas accessible
and to materialise them in concrete guidelines and examples so that
they could be followed and would create a certain immediacy in the
fields of emotion and imagination. Therefore, the ideal of the New Man
was created who had obvious and recognisable characteristics which
CARLA BONELLO
234
were to be the end product of an educational process. The myth of the
New Man, which was constantly repeated, served the political affirma-
tion of the regime in various stages.
The modelling of the new Italy could not neglect the body of the
citizens, the symbolic language and the attitudes. The first impression,
purely from the outside, had already to convey the message of being
new and show a high degree of vitality. To some extent the Italians had
to feel themselves new, invigorated. They had to internalise the feeling
of being delivered from a period of stagnation and to be on the move
in a constant process of transformation.
The dynamic external attitude was supposed to be supported by an
interior sensation as the words of Alceo Toni in the journal Il Popolo
dItalia indicate:
Life in the new Italy has to be liberated from the remainders of
the previous epoch, which stagnated and was narrow now the
new Italy provides open roads, with fresh air and plenty of sun. To
move physically, signifies for many persons to move also
spiritually.
2
To belong to a new behavioural and even aesthetic model, was for
many people the first step of integration into the new regime, in fact,
the fascist propaganda never left out this aspect. By the new emphasis
in the education of the new generation we create the type of the physically
and morally new Italian,
3
said the Duce, who proposed himself implicitly
as model and example of the new man. More than one generation of
young people sang, almost without reflection, in unison the hymn
Giovinezza, which had been redone by Mussolini.
DellItalia nei confini son rifatti gli Italiani, li ha rifatti
Mussolini...
(In the borders of Italy the Italians are recreated, recreated by
Mussolini...)
Physical Education and sport within
the project of national education
The warm wind which was blamed by the philosopher Benedetto Croce,
that it created an interest in the growth and also addressed the physical
person
4
had created but meagre results in Italy. This country, which
235
was still mainly rural, had severe economical, social and sanitary pro-
blems, there were simply not enough facilities for the spontaneous
increase in the amount of people who were to practice gymnastics and
sport and develop a regular habit of it. In the school system the require-
ment of physical education classes had often been neglected and out-
side the school system physical education and sport was seldom
practised with the exception of some traditional bourgeois societies,
patriotic and often monarchist, some mountain and rambling societies
often of catholic origin, some Socialist workers sport societies, and finally
some efforts of the avant-garde futurists.
At any rate, in the climate following the Great War and increased by
the military events which were always visible for the masses, agitated
by the simple mode of activism there was a simple intellectual mode
which became quite depressed
5
and favoured anew a fermenting ac-
tion in all directions. Fascism used these tendencies and nourished
them through a wide spectrum of interventions which also touched on
the physical self of the Italians. Sport had recently become a field on
which different ideological currents were combating and Fascism tried
to make use of it for its own benefits. It amalgamated general public
orientations of the time with original solutions of some of the pro-
blems; in addition it catalysed them with the help of propaganda and
through its very wide spread party system.
The fascist mentality, explained the philosopher Giovanni Gentile,
was a particular conception of philosophy in that it negated the intellect
and praised the physical action and the body, thus it can be called a
philosophy of action, not a philosophy which you do by thinking but by
doing.
6
Consequently, the fascist educational system did not base itself
exclusively on theoretical instruction but wanted to address the whole
individual, spirit, soul, body without staying exclusively in the school
as the medium for education. As the object was to train all of the popu-
lation in a national educational project, it should ideally address all of
the people in all of their life situations. That is why there was also a
campaign for the promotion of physical culture to assure a widespread
distribution of fascist mentality and its realisation on every social level.
The regime also used operational and short range goals to assure its
long range aims. The aims were quite divers and would only be specified
as they developed in a lengthy evolution.
After a short period of various attempts, the regime found its own
way in opening specific organisations which were to provide
CARLA BONELLO
236
recreational possibilities and soon were to open channels of communi-
cation and penetration on a very large scale. The first organisation the
Fascist created served the needs of the very young, i.e. the Opera
Nazionale Balilla (ONB)
7
and afterwards the Giovent Italiana del Littorio
(GIL). In these, the co-ordination between school physical education
and summer holiday camps was achieved, thus the narrow educational
approach of the school system was overtaken by a wide approach to
occupy the whole space between state and family. The Opera Nazionale
Dopolavoro (OND)
8
was created with the purpose to harmonise the
different social classes and layers of society in that it addressed the
workers, the employees, the artists and the farmers. It provided
entertainment but also sporting facilities. One should also not forget
the university milieu in which the future class of leaders were formed
and for which the Gruppi Universitari Fascisti (GUF) were shaped.
9
In
these, sport sections were installed, making it agreeable to have a spor-
ting point of view and to include thus sport into the traditional culture.
At the same time, the regime made full use of the possibilities of the
sport and gymnastic structures that existed already. It created a mono-
poly organisation making use of the authority of the state. This did not
succeed without opposition, as all of the independent federations and
associations had to loose their independence for the benefit of a unified
national body. Training for competition came under the guidelines of
the National Olympic Committee (CONI). Although the CONI could
maintain some of its formal independence, it was under complete direct
control of the Fascist Party.
10
The sport system did not really mind, as
the government provided a remarkable amount of financial support
for physical education and sport. A large number of sporting facilities
was constructed all over the country. Courses for physical education
instructors were initiated. Two Academies of Physical Education were
founded, one for men and one for women. The profession of the
physical educator was considerably upgraded an event unthinkable
of in previous times.
Physical Education and sport as a function of the State were supposed
to incorporate into the Italian people a new way of feeling their proper
place in the national society.
11
They were supposed to take a role that
was an authentic service and a civic duty, avoiding social conflicts,
giving up the mentality of individualism, and make each citizen an
integral part of the Italian people and a dynamic coefficient of the
State.
12
237
While a considerable material organisation had to be put into place,
the State did not stop to preach physical education as an education for
action,
13
a high form of moral, social and patriotic education which
was instilled by the beneficent activities of the muscles
14
thus putting
much emphasis on the new spiritual content and the new national
function which had been placed upon sports.
15
Ageless Youth
Fascism was conceived internationally as the struggle of active and
young people against those who had become sterile, weak and
degenerated.
16
Just like other totalitarian systems it planned the con-
solidation of the patterns of society with the help of the new genera-
tion. The theme of youth was, therefore, particularly emphasised and it
became the topic which was characterised best by the hymn of Fascism:
The young are the symbol for a new epoch, projected towards the
future, dynamic, with plenty of volition, but at the same time disciplined
and full of idealistic tension. The sporting personality, its image and
characteristics were well adapted to the myth of Youth, to Victory, and
to the ideal of a dangerous life.
In the field of physical education and sport and the milieu in which
it was exercised, created and controlled by the Regime, which was a
fertile ground for propaganda, it was attempted to instil the values of
Fascism into the young, such as discipline, a fighting spirit, will power,
and the belief in the future of the Nation. The spirit of physicality
characterised by the youthful age became a catalytic element of ener-
gies. Youth was not only understood as an age or a civil stage, like
being under age, but it was considered in a much wider spiritual sense.
17
The world of sport was considered a symbol for the capacity to become
newly enthusiastic and to regenerate quickly. Here is the youth, they
sing, their hearts vibrate, their brains direct...
18
As a negative example the old man of the liberal society was shown
who considered sport a black phantom a source of corruption of
the intelligence. The man of the old system does not move, does not
wash himself, walks with the help of a cane, covers up his instincts
with his intellect, drags a useless bag, dying off among the living
men...
19
CARLA BONELLO
238
The adjective old is put as antithesis to new, but also to young, and
almost to living. Therefore, physical exercise is recommended to men
of all ages and under any condition, as it was supposed to guarantee
eternal youth and could prolong the live span.
20
The Italian people
was, therefore, capable of becoming healthier and stronger and live a
more dynamic life according to the directives of the Duce. A people,
wrote Guido Piovene in Il Corriere della Sera, that can leave the house
night and day and start immediately to run ... a people that is not
afraid of moving along running and which is always on first place.
21
For Italians it became a patriotic duty to be fit, active, and dynamic.
Physical education and sport as means to insure a culture of
consent internally and a positive image externally
To organise all of the young people in organisations of the state was a
carefully planned action and it also helped the propagation of physical
education and sport. The socialisation agents of the youth assured that
the young turned mainly towards such physical activities which
provided a strong leadership and accompanied it with a number of
elements which provided a high degree of satisfaction. Sport also helped
to break out from the close guard of the family, to meet with friends
and comrades and to measure ones strength in youthful team compe-
titions. Although there were many contradictory elements, as Fascism
was fundamentally a conservative movement, it helped in particular
the young girls in their feminine emancipation as physical education
and sport offered them many new opportunities.
Mario Pomilio, teacher and writer, tells that at the time of his youth
GIL offered him a real help against the monotony of the school,
answered to his desire for sport, provided the chance to live with friends
and most of all with girls and young women. It is interesting to note
that only from the age of about 16 or 17 onward did he distinguish
between service for the Party, in uniform, and those activities which
he considered then only sporting.
22
It should be noted that the youth
activities were so much intervened, that it was next to impossible for
the young to distinguish which was for the Party and which for the
sport organisation. This coincides with the sources of the time which
make it almost impossible to distinguish which were services for the
Party and which for sports, as the demarcation line was almost impossi-
239
ble to draw. It was just this incapability to distinguish between sports
and public and party service which served to penetrate the spheres of
the young.
During gymnastics spectacles there were marches of university
athletes, competitions of the OND and there were always representa-
tives of the Party present. In all manifestations a huge number of flags
of Italy, of the King and of the Duce were raised.
23
There were many
banners and standards of various organisations, the Roman salute,
hymns jointly sung by the athletes in the field and the spectators in the
stands. So the differences between Party and non-Party, athletes and
non-athletes became almost indistinguishable. There were choirs, fancy
dresses, and everything seemed to touch the imagination of the people.
A number of members of the Party hierarchy was always present at
sporting events and the Duce himself came personally to the most
important meets to stress the importance of the occurrence by his app-
lause. These events helped, to emphasis the unity of the Duce with the
active Italian people. It created a sense of cohesion and was a useful
means of propaganda, well presented by the political organisers. Many
commentators have stressed the fact that the Fascists were more efficient
with their words than with their deeds.
24
But, looking at the situation
of sports, it is obvious that at least concerning the very young the fa-
scist were very successful by their deeds in their efforts to activate the
young Italians. Anyway, with the help of practical activities, the gene-
ral mental disposition of the young was efficiently changed. A different
culture for physical education and sport was created as the young had
exercised either personally, or they had at least taken part in ceremonies
where others have taken part as sportsman or sportswoman as part of
their daily life. The dynamic and sporting had become an indicator for
modernity. The Regime took charge in a paternalistic fashion and thus
showed that it was the creator of innovation and that helped to
reinforce its popularity.
Maurizio Gribaudi has remarked concerning the situation of the
workers in Turino that sport very often had as its objective to reduce
the direct effects of pressure applied by the government. The young
began to accept the regime and its ideology after it became involved in
its sports and its new habits.
25
Fascism was thus praised for their hopes
and expectations. The Regime which had emphasised at the beginning
mass participation in physical education and sport, stressed elite sport
in the 1930s to find and develop internationally successful athletes, to
CARLA BONELLO
240
show to Italians and to citizens of foreign countries the vigour and
strength of the Nation. The international image of Italy changed also
by the international victories of the Italian athletes, which became
ambassadors for our renewed life.
26
Sports in motor car and aeroplane factories could also show the skill
of the Italian work force and the progress of Italian industry. Men and
machine all in steel
27
was a favourite propaganda expression. It was
over and over repeated that any sporting record was a record of the
Italian people
28
and that every sporting victory was accompanied by
the political judgement about Italy, the Duce and Fascism.
29
Sport
records became heroic gestures. The champion in sport and the hero
in general elevated themselves above the masses as superior models,
having become similar and correlative categories.
30
The new emerging archetypes
The myth of sport was diffused into the common mentality by a series
of actions. The image of the sporting Italian roamed through the sports
pages of the press, was ever present in public speeches, on bill boards,
was the theme of a number of pieces of Art of the Second Futurism and
of the 900 Movement. The Regime intervened sometimes under cover,
but often quite openly in defining how the new Italian should behave,
what aesthetic style should be preferred to conform with the new,
vigorous, young Italy.
The news in the press were synchronised with the help of the press
agency LUCE.
31
This helped in popularising the image of the new
Italy in a very distinct way. The historian Edward Tannenbaum re-
marked in this respect that the style and the form of the news were
very similar to those in the Western democracies, but that the images
the Regime was portrayed by, the glorification of the Duce, and the
marked emphasis on sport was quite different.
32
Other efficient vehicles
for propaganda were radio transmission of sport, special radio reports
and the daily fifteen minutes of chamber gymnastics transmitted every
morning. Even certain mural inscriptions portrayed a dynamic life,
e.g., we fascists do not use the lift, or fascists walk up on foot,
33
painted on the interior walls of House of Fascism. Several popular songs
also reflected an enthusiastic sporting climate.
241
At the same time, an aversion against the sedentary, the sluggish, and
the lazy was publicly spread, encouraged by the image of an hyperactive
Duce.
34
The sporting exploits of Mussolini, reflecting his grandeur by
an extensive propaganda, the proverbial frugality of his meals and his
well reported exclamation I dont have pity for the fat,
35
pronounced
when he saw his fat and tired fellows in the commemorative March to
Cardello.
36
With the help of the efficient propaganda this sounded like
a dishonour at all those who preferred the comfortable life over the
tough life of a young Fascist.
Although the Head of the Press Bureau of the CONI, Raniero Nico-
lai, hoped to create a new humanism, which celebrates the fighting
spirit of man against himself according to the myths created by the
sports,
37
the Secretary of the PNF, Achille Starace, put much more
emphasis on fascist style. He made use of much more direct aims of
propaganda, when he invited the Italian artists and caricaturists to
ridicule the sedentary habits of their fellow countrymen.
A fascist was supposed to be recognisable also by his exterior prof-
ile, and other stereotypes. The Italian sports leader Lando Ferretti wrote:
The outside and the inside, the spirit, and the body, and even the
clothing of the young Italian should be a model of an inimitable and
inalterable national conception.
38
Margherita Sarfatti, art critique and
friend of Mussolini already in the 1920s, tells how much she was sur-
prised by the different exterior signs a certain fashion to dress, to
look, to march a fashion, a style, and even a fascist physique
39
was
born.
In 1932, in an interview he gave to the writer Ludwig, after the ob-
servation that it looks as if Fascism changes the visage of the Italians,
Mussolini answered: The will for action changes the character traits
as it naturally changes the sport and physical education.
40
When
addressing athletes, the Duce underlined their image as new man:
Those who have seen your defiler have the profound and almost
plastic impression of the new race which Fascism is potently
modeling and which becomes visible in all competitions.
41
The information media underlined the unity of the new image:
.... where are the antagonists of this youth? A dragging column,
not too hygienic of Latin quarters, dirt in their faces, the eyes
blurred by the third International. Ours are the young, so beautifully
young, uninfected by the bacillus of Koch and not yet blinded by
CARLA BONELLO
242
the beard of Karl Marx, look at the blue city of Naples, how the
Mussolini boys are passing!
42
The fascist masculine ideal figure, is characterised by the presence of a
splendid physique which unites the virility, a manifestation of a healthy
vitality, full control, the result of an active and sporting life, far from
the comforts and sweetness of life. In their manual on the sporting
practice, the medical doctors Guido Mantovani and Luigi Bassi praised
the gymnast as a well balanced individual, as antithesis of those who
drag up their legs to the canaps .... impotent, soft and fat, they invite
the girls of Italy not to doubt in their choices between the colourless
and pale good for nothings and the boys educated for the beautiful
struggles which provide for a vigorous youth.
43
The ideal for the young girl, even more so than for the young man,
pointed to the Fascist model: Educated by a vigorous spirit, of a
physicality and beauty,
44
robust, active, uninhibited,
45
they may
be called little swallows because of their black and white uniform, they
left easily behind a long tradition of fragility. The Fascist sport and
Party leader Augusto Turati hoped that Fascism could give to Italian
women a distinguished figure in relation to the women of different
nationalities
46
, by providing her with a new sporting authenticity:
.... you have replaced the red of the lipstick with the red of the
blood flow after an 80 metre sprint race; you have given up the
effort of putting too big feet in too small shoes, and you take pride
and joy now in showing more of your nude legs to be able to race
faster.
47
According to the ideal of a demographic development which was
demanded by the Duce, the young guardians of health and strength
of the nation and of the race,
48
had to prepare themselves with the
help of sport to serene maternity without a physical decline. In the
pages of the revues one is constantly reminded that the perfect mo-
ther is not necessarily fat.
49
On the other hand, the feminine figures
that were too thin and meagre did no longer reflect the new course,
and in 1931 Gaetano Polverelli, chef of the Press Bureau of Mussolini,
ordered the journals to ignore them.
Photographs which represented the sports moments always found
their ways into the daily or weekly illustrated press. Even in high fashion,
the familiar images were those that praised the dynamism, like those
243
of the stylist and publicist Marcello Dudovich, who was linked to the
futurists, and those designed by Gino Boccasile which covered reviews
like Le Grandi Firme or Annuaires Sportifs of GIL, solid figures, dynamic,
and often with dark hair, with the typical Latin characteristics. The
idea of a decadent beauty was contrasted with the fighting spirit
50
of the time. For the two sexes the beautiful body was always identified
with the healthy body. The Minister for National Education, Balbino
Giuliano, reminded the Medical Congress of the ONB in 1930, that
the residuals of a false science and the errors of a false romanticism
were an anachronism a compliment towards a certain delicacy as a
mark of an intellectual superiority.
51
Implicitly with the positive models went the negative stereotypes,
underlining insufficient hygiene, a precarious health situation, an arti-
ficial character. The opposite to the desired form could be seen in the
meagre artist, weak and fickle, a sympathiser of Bolshevism, narrow in
a physical sense of the word, but it was understood also in a mental
way, the woman fat and neglected, the girl pretentious and with heavy
make-up. With the bias in favour of physical culture confirmed Doctor
Poggi Longostrevi we have banned ugliness in the New Italy.
52
A new aesthetics was about to take over which mixed itself naturally
with the impulses that had arrived from abroad, in spite of the aspira-
tion of the Regime to appear as the original inspiration. This was also
reflected in the way people dressed, became more sporting, practical
and functional. The new ideas of masculinity and femininity, diffused
and illustrated, gradually penetrated the collective fantasy, even if it
was not completely gone in certain milieus of society that resisted pole-
mically the new fascist trends.
Particularly, the new figure of women which is best symbolised by
her opening towards sport, and especially towards competition had a
strong social impact, as this was connected with the notion of emanci-
pation and of giving up chastity. This notion of Fascism brought about
a number of frictions in the relationship with the Church and the
Catholic milieus, controversies among scientists, and confusions in
public opinion.
The Great Council of Fascism tried to find strategic support by the
right medical opinion, and delegated the problem to the Sport Medical
Federation to find limits for female athleticism. After having confirmed
that maternity is the nature and basis
53
from which women should
not be detracted, the Regime followed its way with some minor
CARLA BONELLO
244
adjustments. All citizens, men and women, young and not so young,
were reminded of the new orientation, efficiently synthesised by Critica
Fascista:
We wanted to identify the spirit of the Revolution with that of
physical culture.
54
Notes
1
Benito Mussolini, Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista, Firenze, 1956; cf. also
Umberto Silva, Ideologia e arte del fascismo, ed. Mazzotta, Milano 1973, 89.
2
Alceo Toni, Il Littoriale Polisportivo, Il Popolo dItalia, 28 August 1926.
3
Benito Mussolini, Speech pronounced in Torino 14 May 1939, Dizionario
mussoliniano, 1500 affermazioni e definizioni del DUCE su 1000 argomenti, ed.
by Bruno Biancini. Hoepli, Milano, 1940, 141.
4
Benedetto Croce, Storia dEuropa nel secolo decimonono, Laterza Roma-Bari,
1965, 1st edition 1932, 298 and 303.
5
Adrian Lyttelton, La Conquista del Potere. Il Fascismo in Italia 1919-1929, Laterza
Roma-Bari 1982, 592. Original title: The Seizure of Power: Fascism in Italy
1919-1929, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1973. Transl. Giovanni Ferrara
& Rambelli.
6
Giovanni Gentile, Origini e dottrina del fascismo, Istituto Nazionale di Cultura,
Libreria del Littorio, Roma 1929, p. 58.
7
The ONB was created as a non-profit voluntary organisation in April 1926
for the assistance in the field of physical and moral education and sport of
the youth. It addressed the very young boys between 8 and 12 years (Balilla)
and between 12 and 18 year (Avanguardisti). In 1929 it absorbed the female
organisations of Piccole et Giovani Italiane and in 1934 the small boys and
girls aged 4 to 8 years (Figli et Figlie della Lupa). In October 1937 the ONB
was joined with the Fasci Giovanili di Combattimento (FFGGC) which had
been organised in 1930 for the boys between 18 and 21 who did not continue
with their Studies. Then there was also GIL, as a direct sub-organisation of
the Fascist Party.
8
The OND was established by Royal Decree on 1 May 1925 to offer its
members cultural, recreational and sporting opportunities.
9
The GUF was founded in different universities from the beginning of the
1920s onward as local chapters and stayed all through the 1920s under the
direct control of the fascist Party.
10
In 1925, the President of the CONI was still officially elected, but the Party
intervened in the choice of the candidates. In December 1926 the CONI
was officially co-ordinated, the choice of functionaries was officially
abolished, and it was placed under direct control of the Fascist Party.
11
Eugenio Ferrauto, Leducazione fisica nelleducazione giovanile fascista, Paravia,
Torino, 1939, 2, 5, 1, 61, 1, 7-8.
245
12
Cf. Raniero Nicolai, Sport, PNF, Dizionario di politica, vol. IV, 343; cf.
Emilio Gentile, Il culto del Littorio, Laterza, Bari-Roma, 1995, 179.
13
Eugenio Ferrauto, op. cit. 1, 48.
14
ONB, Cahier n 1, Programma Balilla, Part I, Degree 1, 3.
15
Lando Ferretti, Il Fascismo e leducazione sportiva della nazione, ..., 612.
16
Benito Mussolini, Opera Omnia, by Edoardo and Duilio Susmel, La Fenice,
Firenze, 1972 -1978, Vol. XXIX, 404.
17
Cf. Paolo Orano, Il Segreto della giovinezza, Giovent Fascista, 1931, n.1.
18
ZAM, Ciclismo, LIllustrazione Italiana, no. 26, Milano 25 June 1933, 1007.
19
Corrado Sofia, Cultura e Sport nella Rivoluzione Fascista, op. cit.
20
Cf. Paolo Orano, Il Segreto della giovinezza, op. cit.
21
Guido Piovene, La giornata di Pescara. Il Duce tra il popolo che vive in
piedi, Il Corriere della Sera, 25 November 1938.
22
Testimonial of Mario Pomilio, quoted in Edward Tannenbaum, op. cit., 154.
23
Saggio di educazione fisica della Scuola Agraria Salesiana, Corriere di
Saluzzo, n. 25, 19 June 1937.
24
Cf. for example the interviews with Nino Nutrizio and Donato Martucci, in
Manlio Cancogni and Giuliano Manacorda, Libro e Moschetto, Dialogo sulla
cultura italiana durante il fascismo, ERI, Torino, 1979, 128-132.
25
Maurizio Gribaudi, Mondo operaio e mito operaio, Spazi e percorsi speciali a
Torino nel primo Novecento, Einaudi, Torino, 1987, 152.
26
Lo spirito della nuova Italia e gli atleti di Mussolini, interview with Adolfo
Cotronei, in Il Popolo dItalia, 4 September 1932.
27
ZAM, Sport, LIllustrazione Italiana, no. 25, 18 June 1933, 970.
28
Lando Ferretti, Il Libro dello Sport, op. cit., 229.
29
Lo spirito della nuova Italia e gli atleti di Mussolini, Il Popolo dItalia, 10
September 1932.
30
Heroism has taken up the name of records today, cf. Edgardo Sulis, Sport,
Il Popolo dItalia, 4 August 1934.
31
Luce: Unione Cinematografica Educativa. Insitute was founded in 1924
and received subventions by the State, it was nationalised in 1925. The
production of news reel and documentaries characterise the vulgarisation,
with images of propaganda even if it appeared not to be essentially political.
In 1926 a government regulation made it obligatory to show films of LUCE
in each cinema show.
32
Cf. Edward Tannenbaum, op. cit., p. 262.
33
Cf. Giordano Bruno Guerri, Fascisti, Gli italiani di Mussolini il regime degli
italiani, Mondadori, Milano 1995, p. 129.
34
Adolfo Cotronei, Cesare Gladiatore, Il Popolo dItalia, 28 October 1934.
35
Franco Ciarlantini, Il Capo e la Folla, Sonzogno, Milano, 1935, p. 91.
36
This was a pilgrimage to the tomb of Oriani who was considered a precursor
of fascism.
37
Quoted in Sisto Favre, Civilt, Arte e Sport, Dante Alighieri Roma, 1969, p.
501.
38
Lando Ferretti, Il Libro dello Sport, op. cit., p. 100.
39
Margherita Sarfatti, Dux, Mondadori, Milano 1926, p. 245.
CARLA BONELLO
246
40
Emil Ludwig, Colloqui con Mussolini, Mondadori 1932, Ed. I Record, 1965,
p. 94.
41
Benito Mussolini, Words addressed to the Italian athletes in Rome, 1934,
Dizionario mussoliniano, op. cit., pp. 9-10.
42
Il Mattino, 3 April 1937, p. 3; cf. Giovanni Lazzari, op. cit., p. 59.
43
Guido Mantovani and Luigi Bassi, Come praticare gli sport, Lo sport nellarte,
nella storia e nella vita moderna, Hoepli, Milano, 1933, pp. 97, 360.
44
Gino Giuliani, Una scuola di Educazione Fisica, La Rivista Illustrata del
Popolo dItalia, June 1930, pp. 77-79.
45
Maria Coppola, La donna del millenovecento in Cordelia, 1934, pp. 93-
94; cf. Victoria de Grazia, Le donne nel regime fascista, Marsilio, Venezia,
1993, p. 302.
46
Giornale della donna, 10, n. 12, 8-15 April 1930, p. 1; cf. Victoria de Grazia,
op. cit., p. 330.
47
Augusto Turati in Il Popolo dItalia, 8 May 1928, cf. Le Giovani Italiane, La
Scuola Fascista, 1928, n. 61.
48
O.S., Battaglie Sportive Lidea fascista nello sport. Compiti e direttive
del CONI, Il Popolo dItalia, 13 November 1930.
49
Mantica Barzini, La Rivista Illustrata del Popolo dItalia, April 1933.
50
Gino Giuliani, Una scuola di Educazione Fisica, La Rivista Illustrata del
Popolo dItalia, June 1930, pp. 77-79.
51
Il Primo Congresso Nazionale dei Medici dellONB, Il Popolo dItalia, 4
February 1930.
52
Giuseppe Poggi Longostrevi, Cultura fisica della donna ed estetica femminile,
Hoepli, Milano, 1933, p. 187.
53
I Lavori del Supremo Consesso del Regime, also reported under
Latletismo femminile, Il Popolo dItalia, 17 October 1930.
54
Corrado Sofia, Cultura e Sport nella Rivoluzione Fascista, op. cit.
247
Carla Bonello:
Corso Salvemini 46
10137 Torino - Italy
Tel. 0039-011-6964558 / 3099837
E-mail: u.mensa@studenti.to.it
Carla Bonello is graduated from the ISEF, Turin
ANGELA TEJA
248
249
LE FASCISME ENTRE DUCATION PHYSIQUE ET SPORT
Le fascisme entre ducation physique et sport
Angela Teja
ISEF di Roma
ISEF di Cassino
Le rgime fasciste met lducation physique des italiens au premier
plan de son projet totalitaire. Nous connaissons dj les finalits de la
pratique de lactivit physique pour le rgime: forger lindividu, lutter
contre les dgnrations du corps et de lesprit causes par le vieux
gouvernement libral, bonifier la race, construire lhomme-nouveau,
crer du consensus, unifier les diverses composantes de la population
autour dun intrt commun. En outre, il est ncessaire de le transfor-
mer en soldat, de crer parmi les citoyens un esprit de corps tous les
niveaux et pour tous les ges. Dautre part, il est vident que, en
contrlant les activits physiques, les loisirs peuvent aussi se dvelopper
compltement sous la surveillance fasciste: le rsultat est le
conditionnement complet des individus, soit dans leurs rapports
personnels, soit dans leur dimension prive. Et pour atteindre ce but,
il est trs important dagir ds le premier ge.
Cette tude veut synthtiser lintrt du rgime pour un aspect de la
socit nglig par le gouvernement libral et dont le fascisme avait
compris lnorme force de propagande et le rle trs important quil
pouvait jouer dans la politique internationale.
1
Il faut dabord souligner que le thme sport et fascisme a seulement
t tudi rcemment. Il savre donc intressant den aborder quelques
aspects. La recherche prsente dans ce congrs par Terret-Vescovi
pose lhypothse quil ny a pas de diffrence entre lducation physique
enseigne en France et celle organise en Italie cette priode. Il
semblerait que des gouvernements diffrents, lun libral et lautre
dictatorial, aient eu des perspectives semblables dans lutilisation du
sport.
ANGELA TEJA
250
Dans sa phase initiale, le fascisme poursuit probablement la politique
en faveur de lducation physique que le gouvernement libral avait
entame sans russir totalement la mettre en place. Elle visait en
priorit les aspects militaires et hyginiques. Lide de sortir lducation
physique de lcole avait, par exemple, dj t voque par Romano
Guerra. Toutefois, il semblerait que lducation physique de lItalie
pendant lEntre-deux-guerres soit exclusivement soumise lidologie
fasciste, lexclusion dautres influences. Ainsi, malgr lexistence des
bataillons scolaires franais la fin du XIXme sicle, il savre
impossible de prouver que Renato Ricci sen soit inspir pour
lorganisation de ses Balillas. Bien que sa bibliothque soit riche de
publications franaises en psycho-pdagogie,
2
il ne faut pas oublier
que la tte pensante de lONB est Eugenio Ferrauto (...) qui crit
successivement tous les programmes de lONB et de la GIL. Il
reprsente un personnage important qui nous permet de comprendre
les grands modles ayant inspir lONB, parmi lesquels nous trouvons,
davantage que les bataillons scolaires, un souvenir des Sokols de lEst
europen et surtout lAcadmie dducation physique de Berlin, ne
avant celle de Rome, que Ferrauto comme Ricci connaissaient tra-
vers des visites et des publications.
3
Dautre part, on sait que lcole allemande de gymnastique a
dillustres racines historiques en Europe. Elle a t un exemple pour
dautres nations. Il est donc probable que la base de lONB trouve son
origine dans la pense pdagogique de Ferrauto qui envisage de for-
mer les jeunes gnrations partir de supports militaires. De plus, la
pense sociale de Ricci est vivement imprgne de lidologie fasciste
en ce quelle voit dans lEtat la seule possibilit de raliser son dessin
totalitaire. En imposant la population une vaste entreprise militaire,
elle favorise lmergence de lItalien-Nouveau, fort, sain dans son corps,
parfaitement valide pour le travail. Ainsi, cet homme entran la
dfense de la patrie peut tre assur en contrepartie de la protection et
de la mutualit de la socit qui laccueille.
La pense de Ferrauto repose sur une grande connaissance de la
pdagogie en Europe
4
. Celle de Ricci lgard de lducation physique
a trait au contraire la structure administrative de lONB et son
architecture. Nous savons quil se sert de jeunes architectes
5
quil envoie
en Grce et dans le Sud de lItalie pour observer les constructions
classiques de stades, de gymnases et de thermes anciens, mais aussi
dans lEurope entire pour connatre les structures sportives. Il labore
251
alors des projets quil ralise selon lexemple du Foro Italico pour lequel
il prendra chaque matin son cheval.
Sil est vrai que le fascisme reprend le dessin original du gouverne-
ment libral pour entraner physiquement la jeunesse des fins militaires
(tendance qui se diffuse dans toute lEurope du XIXme sicle), il nen
demeure pas moins que les objectifs de lducation physique italienne
restent spcifiques au rgime fasciste durant ses vingt annes dexistence.
Sport et ducation physique sont videmment des activits diffren-
tes. En effet, jusqu la fin des annes Trente, le fascisme ne soutient
pas les activits sportives, mais il canalise son attention sur lducation
physique des Italiens, pour les raisons dj rappeles.
Dans cette priode a lieu une transformation de lducation partir
de la rforme de Gentile (1923); le rgime transforme le systme de
lcole et lui donne une forme contre le monopole des cerveaux abtis
6
.
Mussolini a confiance en la jeunesse et songe lorganiser sur une base
unifiante. Dans ce projet, que le Partito Nazionale Fascista (PNF) veut
fortement conditionner, la rforme Gentile a seulement un rle
secondaire.
Les enseignements drivs de la premire guerre mondiale sont plus
efficaces sur lducation de la jeunesse que ceux de la rforme Gentile.
Les hommes dcds lors de la Grande Guerre sont en grande majorit
des jeunes et mme des trs jeunes gens. Les rescaps sont des hros et
ceux qui taient trop jeunes pour partir les regardent avec jalousie ; ils
se laissent volontiers militariser dans lespoir dtre mis en condition
de dfendre leur Patrie. Les ardeurs des futuristes inspirent le modle
pdagogique fasciste. Sans parler des consquences des tranche qui
aont homognis les Italiens et presque suprim les diffrences entre
nord et sud, entre jeunes et vieux, entre classes sociales. De tout cela
nat lOpera Nazionale Balilla (ONB, L n.2247 du 3 avril 1926).
Lchec de lENEF
De la rforme Gentile nat lEnte Nazionale di Educazione Fisica (ENEF,
RDL n.684 du 15 mars 1923), une erreur pdagogique et dorganisation
qui, dune part, donne du retard la politique pour la jeunesse et,
dautre part, donne un lan lONB, qui, ds 1926, devient un champ
dexprimentation.
ANGELA TEJA
252
Lducation physique, et non le sport, caractrise donc les dbuts du
fascisme. Ce sont des annes intenses pour cette discipline. Elle est
perue comme salutaire. On analyse les statistiques sur la mortalit et
la morbilit de lItalie librale, qui sont tragiques pour la dmographie
future de la nation. Il en est de mme pour les nombreux rforms:
28% des jeunes, en 1906, ntait pas accepts dans larme,
7
linstitution
considre comme la plus apte la rgnration physique et morale de la
race, selon un essai publi sur la Rivista Militare Italiana au dbut du
sicle
8
. Le fascisme va encore au-del en la rapprochant de la rforme
de lcole, de lorganisation des loisirs des Italiens et dune ducation
militaire presque permanente.
En effet, les deux institutions qui, au dbut du rgime, se proccupent
de la formation des Italiens, en particulier du corps et de lentrainement
militaire, sont lENEF et la Milizia Volontari Sicurezza Nazionale (MVSN),
qui naissent la mme anne, en 1923.
La Milice obtient un succs modeste: ses membres sont gs de 18
21 ans; viennent sy ajouter les soldats qui ont termin leur priode
sous larme. Il sagit donc de sujets moins jeunes, dont lactivit est
facilement contrlable et quon peut considrer comme des militaires.
LENEF, au contraire, na pas cette chance. Elle ne russit pas sadapter
au grand nombre dlves quelle doit duquer, en dpit de son but
fondamental, le dveloppement de lducation physique des jeunes.
Lexclusion de lducation physique de lcole, voulue par la rforme
Gentile, fut une erreur,
9
mme si les rsultats obtenus par cette discipline
dans les programmes scolaires demeuraient bien maigres en raison de
la faiblesse des structures et de lencadrement. En confiant la renaissance
de lducation physique des Italiens aux socits sportives locales, le
rgime ne cherchait dailleurs pas rsoudre les anciens problmes de
structures et dencadrement. En effet, une centaine dlves sentrai-
naient parfois ensemble dans des espaces limits; en outre, ils ne seront
plus guids par les anciens enseignants experts, mais par des jeunes,
insuffisamment prpars, mais qui sont en mesure de courir et de sauter
avec leurs lves. Bref, lducation de lesprit restait coupe de celle du
corps.
Lerreur structurelle et pdagogique est vidente.
10
Mme la
philosophie de Gentile ne sy reconnat pas. LENEF, ds ce moment,
commence dailleurs rechercher des solutions moins dcevantes. Elle
est dabord confie au prof. Franzoni, proviseur de lEcole Normale de
Milan. A cette poque, laversion pour le sport est rpandue parmi les
253
organisations des enseignants dducation physique qui refuse le sport
en tant quactivit de comptition, en ce quil ne respecte pas les limites
physiologiques des individus. Les activits obligatoires indiques ne
rpondent pas des critres rationnels et dhygine, contrairement
Franzoni qui prescrit des activits pr-sportives (ds 10 14 ans),
sportives (14-16 ans) et sportives et militaires (16-18 ans). On se souvient
des dclarations des pres de lducation physique italienne, opposs
lintroduction du sport dans lcole (Baumann, Pagliani, Jerace)
ct de ceux qui ont dfendu la mme cause ltranger: Lagrange,
Demen, Tissi en France, tandis que les Anglais ont adopt la
gymnastique de drivation sudoise par une loi qui la rend obligatoire
au collge de Eton.
11
A Franzoni succde un Commissaire, le prof. Gino Salvi, professeur
dAnatomie Naples, qui veut rcuprer les aspects hyginiques et
salutaires de lducation physique. Le programme de lENEF change
encore, mais il reste insuffisant. La direction revient alors un militaire,
le Gnral Grazioli. A ce moment, lENEF est dpasse par trop de
tches: la prparation des cadres la Scuola Superiore di Educazione Fisica
dans la facult de Mdecine de lUniversit de Bologne, lducation
physique des tudiants, celle des socits sportives, lentranement
militaire et post-militaire, tout cela sans un organe technique central.
La tendance de lENEF est la dfense de lducation physique au
dtriment du sport car, comme laffirme le Groupe de Rference pour
lducation physique, manation du Directoir du Faisceau de Milan:
Si la gymnastique doit tre ducative et adresse aux enfants et
aux adolescents, lintrieur et au dehors de lcole, les sports ne
peuvent pas en faire partie. Il nexiste pas un seul sport qui peut,
tout seul, dvelopper le corps avec harmonie. Au contraire, il ny a
pas un sport qui ne pousse pas lindividu la grande fatigue, qui
nerve, en produisant les soi-disantes fivres de surmenage dune
forme typhode que les mdecins relvent frquemment chez les
adolescents qui font du sport, de mme que beaucoup de maladies
respiratoires et celles quon pourrait appeler des crimes du sport.
12
Cette tendance est confirme dans la lettre de Franco Bruno, Directeur
de la revue Leducazione fisio-psichica, Lando Ferretti, Prsident du
CONI, dans laquelle le premier souhaite une collaboration entre les
deux organisations contre la suprmatie du CONI, avec limposition
du sport dans lcole. En 1924, lENEF, malgr sa priode de crise,
ANGELA TEJA
254
regroupe tous les enseignants dducation physique; Ferretti vient de
rentrer des Jeux Olympiques de Paris, o les Italiens nont pas connu
un grand succs. On peut en rechercher la cause dans labsence de
diffusion du sport lcole. La collaboration souhaite sera donc longue
venir.
Le passage lONB
13
est invitable mme si, en mai 1927, le Gnral
Grazioli essaie de ranimer lENEF. Il crit Renato Ricci, le crateur
de lONB:
... je vois les meilleurs rsultats dans une trs troite et fconde
collaboration entre les deux institutions
14
. Mais pour y arriver il
faut nous entendre nous-mme et il faut que quelquun de trs
influent, mme du point de vue politique, parle de cette situation
S.E. Mussolini. Cette personne, mon avis, peut tre S.E. Turati,
aprs avoir appris de notre voix la vritable situation. Sans trop
de bavardage et sans trop dinterfrences.
15
En novembre 1927 sont confies l ONB toutes les tches qui
dependaient de lENEF et, le 12 dcembre 1929, Renato Ricci, son
Prsident, devient sous-secrtaire au Ministre de lEducation Natio-
nale.
De nombreux travaux ont t raliss sur lONB. Nous voudrions
seulement souligner des aspects concernant le passage de lENEF
lONB, en novembre 1927, aprs une anne de coexistence et aprs
une dernire tentative de rorganisation de lENEF confie Grazioli.
En effet, le rgime laisse cette organisation Grazioli en juin 1926,
alors quil pense dj sen dfaire. Il ne faut pas oublier que lONB
parat en avril de la mme anne.
En novembre 1926, les partis et les syndicats sont mis hors-la-loi.
Un tribunal spcial vient dtre institu et les condamns politiques
sont relgus. Lextrmisme fasciste va se transformer en une pratique
politique normale. Avec les Corporations
16
et la Carte du travail (1927),
le rgime va vers une rforme totalitaire de lEtat, o le renouvellement
des Italiens passe par lassainissement des hommes et la propagande
dmographique. Lducation physique occupe alors une place de
premier plan.
Dans la mme anne, le parti prend le contrle de lducation
physique et du sport car:
Puisque toute ou presque toute la jeunesse italienne tait fasciste,
il semblait juste que mme le monde du sport fut lombre du
255
Littorio (faisceau), ainsi que tout ce qui est italien fut sous le
drapeau national. Mais aussi parce que le sport ne permet pas
seulement le dveloppement physique et quil a des fonctions morales,
politiques et dintrts conomiques qui mritent dtre suivis et
surveills.
17
En revenant la lettre du Gnral Grazioli cite ci-dessus, il est
intressant de constater que le Gnral lui-mme rappelle les valeurs
positives du scoutisme (mauvais mot exotique), cest--dire
lducation et le dveloppement du sens des responsabilits
conscientse individuelles et de la saine et rationelle discipline
collective, qui sont fondamentales pour acqurir une solide capacit
civile et militaire.
18
Mme sil rfuse le mouvement de B. Powell, trop exotique et interna-
tionaliste, Grazioli invite accueillir ses aspects positifs en les replaant
dans la nouvelle organisation des Balilla et des Avanguardisti; il naurait
pu les cultiver lENEF cause des esprits ankyloss et triqus des gymna-
siarques. A cet effet, il invite Ricci marcher ses cts, pour assurer
lducation physique aux jeunes. Il le convie aussi un vibrant esprit
patriotique, sur fond de responsabilit et discipline, comme prparation la vie
civile et militaire, et enseigner toute sorte de pratiques (du scoutisme)qui
constituent la vraie sagesse de la campagne. Si lENEF pense lducation
physique, lONB pense au reste
19
.
LENEF subit une vritable dfaite. La nouvelle organisation de
Balilla aura du succs grce un comit technique central et une
intelligence, celle de Eugenio Ferrauto (1888 -1976), qui coordonnera
les activits techniques de ses nombreux associs: 5.500.815 en 1936,
la veille de sa transformation en Giovent Italiana del Littorio (GIL).
Dans ces conditions, le transfert de lautorit ne se fait pas sans douleur:
de Ricci Starace, les deux personnages sont trs diffrents.
Pour le Balilla pas de sport!
LONB accentue lentranement militaire des jeunes. Son premier
Rglement technique et disciplinaire, dat du 19 janvier 1927, est sign par
Mussolini avec laccord du Ministre de la Guerre et de la Milice. Les
ANGELA TEJA
256
Notes explicatives, soulignent trs clairement le point de vue du
gouvernement (voir celui de Ricci et Ferrauto) par rapport au sport:
En valuant les diffrents exercices ncessaires une comptition,
il faut suivre le critre qui adapte lintensit et la dure du travail
prsum chaque performance, laptitude physique des sujets
visant surtout lamlioration de la personne et non pas le maximum
du rendement physique et technique. Conformment au principe
selon lequel les activits gymnico-sportives doivent tre considres
non pour elles- mmes mais comme un moyen pour lducation
virile et pour une saine formation physique de la jeunesse [...]. En
effet, 100 mtres peuvent tre parcourus par un athlte qui a dpass
18 ans, mais ils peuvent constituer un danger srieux pour lintgrit
physique dun adolescent [...]. La comptititon prvoit toujours
un maximum deffort, mais le rsultat salutaire est obtenu quand
on russit tablir une proportion entre la qualit et la quantit
des exercices [...] dlibrmment (ce rglement) limine toutes les
courses rapides qui dpassent certaines limites, en quilibrant pour
chaque ge le temps et la vitesse [...]. Le coefficient psychique, trs
variable dun sujet lautre, comme celui dordre technique et
physique, est un facteur trs important mais souvent oubli [...]
(lONB) interdit les comptitions nationales aux moins de 14 ans
et donne aux meetings un but seulement formatif des qualits
physiques et psychiques. Ainsi lOpera Balilla [...] exclut toute
tendance la comptition, parce quelle est considre soit comme
prmature soit comme dangereuse la sant et aux finalits
suprieures de lducation physique.
20
Certaines spcialits prsentent des rgles particulires. Les
comptitions de cyclisme, par exemple, sont organises de faon telle
que soit prvu un temps maximum et un minimum pour chaque
spcialit. Le football est interdit aux moins de 14 ans
21
, tandis que la
volata est recommande aux jeunes car elle prvoit un ensemble de
rgles drives du football, rugby et basket, un jeu riche dimplications
didactiques rsum en 9 pages de rglement
22
. Le baseball peut tre
jou par les Avanguardisti de plus de 16 ans et physiquement trs robustes
23
.
Renato Ricci poursuit la lettre les directives du rgime et met la
jeunesse italienne sous sa complte dpendance. Mais laction de
lOpera est encore plus vaste parce quelle touche les adultes. En effet,
les parents se rendent compte des soins du rgime envers leurs fils et
257
ils donnent leur consentement cette farce quotidienne qui est joue
dans tout le Pays.
Pas de sport pour les Balilla!, affirme Ricci dans le journal Il Popolo
dItalia
24
et le professeur Versari, recteur de lAcadmie de Rome
25
,
rappelle que la culture scientifique de lducation physique aurait pu
compenser les excs du sport.
LONB est dsormais au service du rgime pour construire lhomme
nouveau, projet dans lequel il ny a pas de place pour le sport, qui est
rellement critiqu. Au contraire, les comptitions des Balilla ont
exclusivement une signification de propagande et elles se droulent
essentiellement pour clbrer des ftes civiles et pour exalter la na-
tion: 24 mai (le commencement de la premire guerre mondiale pour
lItalie), 28 octobre (la prise du pouvoir par les fascistes), 4 novembre
(la victoire en 1918).
Pour limiter les performances du champion, le Rglement de lONB
est absolument diffrent de celui des Fdrations sportives; il fixe le
temps et les mesures selon les catgories dges
26
et cherche viter le
phnomne dexploitation des jeunes dous. Le mme Rglement
souligne limportance du service sanitaire dont dispose lOpera et
dun service photographique qui permet de rendre compte de la
manifestation, dexprimer dune faon trs nette son importance et de susciter de
l intert parmi tous les participants
27
. Mme le systme de score est tabli
pour faciliter lexpression didactique et ducative des meetings: dans
les comptitions de vitesse, par exemple, le classement de lquipe est
effectu partir de la moyenne entre le moins bon et le meilleur temps;
en saut en hauteur, chaque athlte a cinq tentatives et, en cas de parit,
il en a encore trois. Si la parit persiste, le vainqueur est le plus petit en
taille ou, en cas de nouvelle parit, le plus jeune.
Les trs nombreux btiments sportifs, construits par Renato Ricci,
ne prsentent pas toujours les dimensions prvues par les rglements
officiels. La piste dathltisme de lAcadmie fminine dOrvieto est
de 313 m. et sa piscine est infrieure de 20 mtres.
La revanche du sport
Au dbut des annes Trente, merge une premire revanche du sport
sur lducation physique. Les comptitions ltranger, la croissante
rnomme du football suite la victoire de lquipe nationale dans
ANGELA TEJA
258
deux Championnats du monde successifs, le transfert de la prsidence
du CONI en 1928 Turati, favorisent une premire prise de conscience
du potentiel de propagande du sport, et dterminent un changement
de route du rgime.
La Carte du sport rdige la fin de 1928 est un premier pas vers les
nouvelles exigences du sport que la jeunesse commence sentir. Elle
prvoit des comptitions pour les jeunes (entre 14 et 17 ans), quelle
confie aux socits sportives adhrentes au CONI, mme si lONB
garde ses rglements et ses preuves. On ne peut pas sinscrire au CONI
sans sinscrire lONB. Turati comprend limportance du sport et lui
donne une juste place auprs de diffrentes organisations.
28
Ricci ralise son rve et construit le grand projet de la cit du sport
au Foro Italico, mais les rapports entre lONB et le CONI sont de plus
en plus prcaires et lducation physique cde la force et la modernit
du sport.
Entre temps, les Fdrations se sont multiplies et le CONI devient
leur coordonnateur. Il les concentre Rome en 1929. Ds ce moment,
on commence officiellement dfendre le sport et Ricci et lONB sont
de plus en plus marginaliss pour leur dfense de lducation physique
contre la comptition pour les jeunes. Par ailleurs, les comptitions
internationales deviennent nombreuses et lItalie ne peut pas renoncer
aux Championnats du monde, dEurope ou autres meetings. Le chan-
gement est invitable: les Italiens doivent participer et ne pas faire
pitre figure. Ils doivent donc sentraner en finalisant leur activit dans
la recherche des meilleurs rsultats.
Le rgime montre cependant son opposition au sport fminin
29
. Le
Grand Conseille sexprime dune faon modrment favorable au sport
des femmes, et sous contrle des mdecins sportifs. Leandro Arpinati
30
ne constitua pas dquipe fminine pour les Jeux de Los Angeles.
Dauter part, la commandante de lAcadmie dOrvieto se refuse
entraner une quipe fminine de gymnastique pour les Jeux de Ber-
lin, en considrant que le programme y trop lourd pour des femmes
31
.
A Berlin, toutefois, le sport fminin italien remporte ses premiers succs
avec Ondina Valla et Claudia Testoni, qui ouvrent une heureuse srie
dexploits.
La Federazione dei Medici degli Sportivi (FIMS), qui nat la fin de
1929, prvoit une visite didentit physique pour tous les athltes,
amateurs ou professionnels. Laction des mdcins sportifs aurait servi
dmystifier les prjugs contre le sport.
259
Cette tendance dtermine aussi lisolement progressif de Ricci et ses
contradictions deviennent toujours plus fortes avec certaines Fdrations
sportives, notamment avec la Federazione Ginnastica Italiana (FGI).
La FGI est, dans cette priode, la plus reconnue en Italie et ses
rglements contrastent fortement avec ceux de lONB. A ses meetings
participent des jeunes de moins de 18 ans, ce que Ricci considre
comme une grave eurreur pdagogique. En 1932, il tente dabsorber
la FGI, mais son prsident, M. Bevilacqua, dfend nergiquement son
autonomie. Les spcialits sportives que les organisations du rgime
peuvent pratiquer, sont cites dans un procs-verbal du CONI de
1933.
32
LONB est finance par la Fdration de cyclisme; les
propritaires des vlos paient 10 lires pour la vignette annuelle dont
50 centimes sont destins lONB.
33
Du ct de lOpera, il ny a pas seulement une opposition thorique
au sport, mais surtout la crainte de voir ses adhrents quitter ses rangs
au profit des socits sportives. Des rapports du Conseil du CONI
tmoignent que le Prsident du Club Alpino Italien (CAI) essaie de
dfendre les adhsions ses clubs et, sil ne demande pas une inscription
massive son organisation, il cherche toutefois ce que lONB
ninterdise pas les incriptions des tudiants.
34
On peut ajouter aussi les oppositions entre Ricci et Starace. Ce der-
nier, dj Secrtaire du Parti, tait devenu Prsident du CONI en 1933.
A partir de cette date, le sport se rpand de plus en plus. A cet gard,
les rapports des sances du Conseil du CONI sont trs clairs. Dans le
Conseil National du 4 octobre 1933, M. Ridolfi, Prsident de la Fd-
ration dathltisme, soutient que la politique dorganisation des jeunes
auraient pu pnaliser le dveloppement des socits sportives; Starace
lui rpond que son but est la poursuite dune harmonie des rapports
entre la Fdration et les organisations des jeunes et celles prposes
aux loisirs des travailleurs. Lui mme aurait donn des directives
dtailles ce propos.
35
Dans la mme sance, le prsident de la Fd-
ration Gymnastique, M. Bevilacqua, demande pour lui-mme la direct-
ion technique des meetings de gymnastique des organisations et la
possibilit pour les gymnastes daccder plus tt la comptition (13-
14 ans) car: A 19 ans ce serait trop tard pour en faire des champions.
36
Cette querelle revient en 1934, quand le secrtaire du CONI, le
Gnral Vaccaro, soutient la mme thse:
ANGELA TEJA
260
... en particulier pour ce qui concerne les agrs, si le gymnaste ne
commence pas lentranement quand il est trs jeune, il ne peut
pas devenir un champion.
37
Cest encore le Gnral Vaccaro qui soutient, dans la perspective des
Jeux de Tokyo, en 1940, la ncessit davoir des athltes de moins de
18 ans. Il remarque qu Berlin, il y a eu des champions ags de 14 ans.
Il soutient aussi quil faut organiser des entranements conjoints, de
plus en plus intensifs, pour une slection des champions
38
. Quelques
jours aprs, lONB est regroup avec la GIL.
Starace, dcid parcourir dautres routes, affirme que le CONI a
finalement atteint le point de jonction avec lONB: 14 ans, lge qui
permet aux athltes de participer aux meetings
39
. Le Gnral Vaccaro
est du mme avis et appelle le sport une ducation intensive, sous le
contrle des mdcins.
Le succs de la FIMS ltranger, la participation des Italiens un
grand nombre de meetings nationaux et internationaux, la popularit
des personalits du monde du sport, une meilleure organisation du
CONI, sa rnomme internationale reconnue par le CIO, tout cela
tmoigne de lexaltation du sport par le fascisme, domaine bien connu
de la recherche historique.
Dans le cours polycopi de Domenico Bettacchi pour la R.
Acadmie Fasciste dducation physique de Rome (anne acadmique
1934-35), sous le titre Dottrina e metodi di educazione fascista
40
, lAuteur
crit propos des ides qui inspirent lONB:
1) Elle alimente des sentiments et des propos gnreux et virils.
2) Elle est populaire car elle prsente, dune manire chre
limagination du peuple, la vrit de la raison: la patrie.
3) Elle ralise la rgle ducative aime des anciens, rechercher
lme et donner la vie aux sentiments.
De cette faon lOB doit tre comprise comme une discipline mo-
rale qui rgle toute conduite.
41
En ce qui concerne le sens du sport, le prof. Bettacchi crit pour
souligner quil est un phnomne qui, malgr tout, se dveloppe et
saccrot en Italie, et quil faut donc le regarder dun oeil attentif:
La guerre nous a donn le veritable sens de notre vitalit: le sport
garde mme en temps de paix, le got de la comptition qui prpare
261
mieux le caractre national affronter des luttes plus srieuses et
dcisives.
42
Cest lacceptation du sport avec des connotations tout fait
particulires, guerrires et de propagande au moment o sopre le
transfert de lONB la GIL et o Ricci est en train dtre remplac.
De la GIL la guerre
La naissance de la GIL caractrise ce processus de transformation,
tout comme le remplacement de Ricci tmoigne de la victoire du sport
sur lducation physique. Ds ce moment, on dveloppe la recherche
mdicale qui aide et rassure les athltes et leurs familles. Dautre part,
on accrot laspect militaire, depuis toujours prsent dans les mthodes
ducatives fascistes, mais qui maintenant trouve une nouvelle impuls-
ion: le sport, symbole de puissance virile et guerrire dun peuple.
Les annes qui vont de 1937 1943 ne prsentent aucune nouveaut
au regard des difices et du dveloppement de lducation physique.
Au contraire, on donne une grande aide au sport de comptition auquel
le rgime reconnat une considrable valeur de propagande. Les athltes
se voient dfinis comme une nouvelle race virilement forge par le fa-
scisme et endurcie chaque comptition. Il leur est confi lhonneur et
le prestige de la nation.
43
De nouvelles tendances saffirment comme lexpansionnisme dans
les colonies et la conqute de lEmpire. Le sport na plus une place de
premier plan, car les sanctions et lautarcie poussent les Italiens vers
dautres penses. Lexaltation de la race demeure tandis que le sport
est un instrument trs fort dassainissement. Dans le mme temps, le
CONI gagne de limportance jusqu devenir le plus grand rgulateur de
la vie sportive du pays
44
tandis que le sport reprend sa fonction de loisir.
Le spectacle du dimanche au stade sert diluer les problmes sociaux,
conomiques et politiques grandissants, apaiser lanxit dj prsente.
Bartali gagne le Tour de 1938 et lquipe dItalie les Championnats du
Monde de football; les Italiens cherchent se distraire dans ce mo-
ment difficile pour lEurope, o lhgmonie de Hitler simpose, et ils
peuvent mme anticiper cette impression en voyant le Fhrer visiter
Rome.
45
ANGELA TEJA
262
Toute la politique du rgime, dont le sport fait partie, vise une pr-
paration des jeunes la vie militaire. En 1939, Starace qui, en six annes
de Secrtariat du PNF, avait concentr dans ses mains les principales
charges sportives (il tait Prsident du CONI, de la GIL et de lOND),
renonce la prsidence du CONI. Il confie ce Comit et la GIL le
contrle des disciplines sportives pour lentranement des futurs
champions en rduisant 14 ans lge pour commencer les meetings.
Il voit la comptition comme une activit qui amliore ltat physique,
donne de la vigueur la race, afin de former un soldat efficace. Comme crit
le Foglio di disposizioni n.38 de 1939, on confie au CONI la finalit de
diriger les forces slectionnes du sport fasciste afin daffirmer de plus en plus
laudace spirituelle, la valeur du physique et le gnie combattif des Italiens de
Mussolini non seulement dans les comptitions nationales mais aussi interna-
tionales (id.).
Si le CONI devient lmanation intelligente et diligente du PNF
46
, la
GIL, avec le GUF et lOND, reoit des indications techniques par le
mme Comit, qui va prendre un rle de premier plan dans la politique
sportive du rgime.
Dans le grand projet du rgime, qui va standardiser les gens sous un
gouvernement totalitaire et imperialiste, le sport devient un des
symboles du pouvoir le plus populaire.
Conclusions
En conclusion, nous pouvons dire quil faut dmystifier la conviction
selon laquelle le fascisme a exalt le sport, conviction qui correspond
en vrit seulement au climat des annes Trente. En outre, le rgime
ne considre jamais lducation physique comme un but mais comme
un moyen pour construire lhomme-nouveau. Le sport est vu aussi
comme un moyen de propagande politique. Le fascisme reprend les
erreurs du prcdent gouvernement libral en valorisant lentranement
du citoyen-soldat des fins mlitaires, sans regarder limportance du
mouvement pour lindividu.
On peut faire une seconde observation en analysant le double pas-
sage de lENEF lONB et de lONB la GIL. On y voit le rle
prminent de Ricci, plus important que celui dautres cadres du parti
ou de Mussolini lui-mme. Ricci russit obtenir les biens et les difices
de lENEF car son projet incarne parfaitement lexigence du rgime
263
de soigner surtout la jeunesse.
47
Il cre des structures leur disposition:
des Maisons de Balilla, un service des mdecins de lONB, des Aca-
dmies dducation physique pour la formation des cadres, des Collges,
des colonies et des batiments sportifs. En dix annes, il russit canaliser
la masse des jeunes dans une organisation rigide qui est finance par
des simples rglements. LEtat peut donner de largent lONB avec
des mesures extraordinaires, sans recourir aux lois. Ricci se sert dans
son projet de la pense de Ferrauto.
En 1937, Starace, qui prend la prsidence de la GIL, peut seulement
complter le projet de Ricci pour les btiments sportifs, sans rien ajouter
de nouveau. En effet, la GIL ne dispose plus des mmes moyens
financis de lEtat. Le contexte est diffrent au lendemain des sanctions,
mais Mussolini semble regarder avec plus de rticences la nouvelle
organisation. Il accepte la remise en question de certains chefs qui sont
jaloux de la popularit de Ricci. Mussolini lui confie en tout cas le
Ministre des Corporations, une charge importante. Pendant la Rpu-
blique de Sal, nous savons que Ricci tentera dorganiser de nouveau
lONB.
Starace a certainement un rle important dans le passage la GIL,
comme scretaire du PNF et prsident du CONI. Il remarque lexcs
de popularit de Ricci et il est aussi press par les prsidents des
fdrations, nous lavons vu, qui dnoncent des rapports de plus en
plus difficiles et conflictuels avec lONB cause de son aversion pour
le sport. Aprs les victoires italiennes Berlin, apparat au contraire un
grand enthousiasme pour le sport de comptition et non pour le sport
ducatif dsir par Ricci.
Notre dernire observation concerne les rapports problmatiques
entre le CONI et lONB, lis naturellement des conceptions diff-
rentes du sport: comptition et recherche du rsultat pour le premier,
moyen de formation pour la personnalit pour la deuxime. Ces rap-
ports difficiles entre les deux organisations se dgagent clairement la
lecture des deux volumes des procs-verbaux de lAssemble Natio-
nale du CONI. Il sagit presque uniquement de ratifications de budget
des annes 1933-34-36-37-39. Lassemble extraordinaire du 4 octobre
1933 est la premire dans lhistoire du Comit Olympique, comme si
la venue de Starace sa prsidence tait un moment fondamental pour
la remise en marche de toute lorganisation sportive italienne.
48
Le nouveau
prsident apporte tout de suite des modifications aux Statuts du CONI,
dont la suppression de lapprobation des dcisions de lAssemble par
ANGELA TEJA
264
la majorit des personnes. Starace dfinit ce systme comme
appartenant au rgime libral pass, en concluant dans le procs-ver-
bal de runion: Et en outre on sera toujours daccord.
49
Starace commence
ainsi sapproprier le CONI avant de se tourner vers les grandes orga-
nisations de la jeunesse. Il est intressant de remarquer que, dans les
procs-verbaux du CONI, souvent, lONB napparat pas dans les or-
ganisations des jeunes cites, car il ne soccupe pas de comptition.
50
Enfin, il existe une motivation gnrale qui traversent toutes ces
conclusions. Pendant les premires annes de son rgime, le fascisme
doit sassurer une stabilit et surtout un consensus dans le Pays. Il doit
soccuper de politique intrieure et dconomie. Il ne pense pas au
sport, mais la dfense de la sant et la formation de lhomme
nouveau. Il fait confiance Ricci et son projet pour la jeunesse, mais
ds quil se sent plus fort et plus sr, il se tourne vers la politique
extrieure, pour laquelle le sport reprsente un rle de premier plan.
Notes
1
Pour cet argument voir loeuvre rcente de P. Arnaud & J. Riordan (ed.s),
Sport and international politics. The impact of fascism and communism on sport,
London NY 1998, en particulier A. Teja, Italian sport and international
relations under fascism, pp.147-170.
2
Jai eu la fortune de visiter la bibliothque de Renato Ricci dans la maison
de son fils Giulio. Il existe beaucoup de livres dhistoire, darchitecture,
psychologie, pdagogie, romans, textes alemans, anglais, et surtout franais.
3
De lAcadmie, dans les papiers de lArchive de Ferrauto il existe un
document dactylographi avec une description dtaille qui devrait tre la
traduction dun texte allemand que Ferrauto connaissait bien.
4
La bibliothque de Eugenio Ferrauto aussi tait particulirement riche de
livres, dans de nombreuses langues, sur lducation physiques et les sports.
Ces livres comprenaient aussit des textes qui venaient de la proprit de
Michelangelo Jerace et qui sont passs Michele Di Donato, qui me les a
transmis.
5
Setta.....M. Caporilli, Il Foro Italico, Roma 1990.
6
M. Intorcia, Scuola di Stato, en Giovinezza 2 febbraio 1921, p.3 cit par C.
Betti, LOpera Nazionale Balilla e leducazione fascista, Firenze 1984, p.42 n.51.
7
V. Ilari, Storia del servizio militare in Italia. v.II La Nazione Armata (1871-
1918), Roma 1990, p. 310.
8
P. Consiglio, Rigenerazione fisica e morale della razza mediante lEsercito,
en Rivista Militare Italiana 1916, n.1, pp.23 ss, cit. en Ilari p.346, n.34.
265
9
M. Di Donato, Educazione fisica e sportiva. Indirizzi fondamentali, Roma 19983,
pp. 212-214.
10
Teja 1998 cit.pp. 148-149.
11
Relazione sulla prima applicazione della riforma delleducazione fisica nelle
Scuole medie, en LEducazione fisio-psichica VI (1924), n.2, pp.1-12.
12
PNF Gruppo di competenza....cit., p.9.
13
LONB nat en 1926 et, lanne suivante il voit le passage dans ses mains de
toute lorganisation physique, morale, religieuse, politique, hyginique et
militaire des jeunes Italiens. Voir Di Donato cit. pp. 213-216; Teja 1998 cit.
pp. 149-151.
14
Le Gnral allusionne lENEF et lONB, mais cette date, le 20 mai
1927, lENEF est dj remplace par lONB et il voit sa fin le 20 novembre
de la mme anne (R.D.L. n.2341).
15
Archive de M. Mario Gotta, lettre du gn. Grazioli Renato Ricci date
Bologna 20 mai 1927.
16
Les Corporations, selon la dfinition de la Carte du Travail, taient un instru-
ment pour raliser, sous lgide de lEtat, la discipline intgrale, organique et unitaire
des forces de production pour le dvloppement, la richesse, la puissance politique et
du bien-tre du peuple.
17
Leducazione fisica e lo sport inquadrati, en LEducazione fisio-psichica, ans
VIII (1927), n.4, p.57, cit par Teja 1998, p.149.
18
Lettre de lArchive de M. Gotta cit. p. 4. Le soulign est dans le texte.
19
Id. p.5.
20
Opera Balilla, Regolamento tecnico di educazione fisica, Roma s.d. [1929], pp.
8-12.
21
Neuf pages de rglement ddies la volata tmoignent de lintert de Filippo
Turati, qui la invente, et du rgime, imposer ce nouveau jeu pour les
jeunes de toutes les classes et dans tous les lieux. Voir M. Impiglia, The
volata game. When fascism forbade italians to play football, en A. Krger
& A. Teja, La comune eredit dello sport in Europa. Atti del 1 Seminario europeo
di Storia dello sport, Roma 1997, pp. 420-426.
22
Opera Balilla, Regolamento cit., p. 144.
23
Id. p.177.
24
Id. pp. 153-154.
25
Voir A. Teja & T. Gonzalez Aja , Lducation physique, le sport et lart dans
lItalie de Mussolini et dans lEspagne de Franco pendant lentre-deux-
guerres, dans A. Kruger & J. Slusarczyk, The Common Heritage of Sport in
Europe. The History of Sport and Tourism as a part of the History of European
Culture, Proceedings of Second Seminar of the History of Sport and Tourism 17-21
September 1997, en cours de presse.
26
ONB, Regolamento....cit. p.12
27
Les concurrents sont partags en quatre catgories: a) de 11 14 ans; b) de
14 16 ans; c) de 16 18 ans; d) gradus. Voir le Regolamento cit (p.33).
28
A. Teja, Educazione fisica al femminile, Roma 1995; L. Motti & M. Rossi
Caponeri (dit par), Accademiste a Orvieto. Donne ed educazione fisica nellItalia
fascista 1932-1943, Ponte S. Giovanni (Pg) 1996; G. Gori, Latleta e la Nazione,
ANGELA TEJA
266
saggi di storia dello sport, Bologna 1996, pp.61-77; R. Frasca Isidori, Particolari
aspetti delleducazione femminile e del movimento femminista tra 800 900,
LAquila 1988.
29
ONB, Regolamento cit., p.29.
30
Leandro Arpinati (1892-1945) a t le prsident du CONI de 1931 1933.
Il incouragea la recherche surtout mdicale sur le sport fminin.
31
Teja 1998, p.151; A.Teja, CONI e fascismo, en Ludus, I (1996), n.2-3, pp. 57-
67.
32
Archivio CONI, Verbali della seduta straordinaria del Consiglio Nazionale del 4
ottobre 1933 - XI EF, pp. 16-17.
33
La Federazione dei Medici degli Sportivi (FIMS) est de la fin de 1929. Pour son
histoire voir A. Teja, La scienza in campo. Nascita e sviluppo della
Federazione Medico Sportiva Italiana, en Lancillotto e Nausica, XIV (1997),
n.2-3, pp. 54-71 et id., .......en course de presse.
34
Archivio CONI, Verbale ... cit, p.19.
35
Id. pp.19-23.
36
Le deliberazioni prese ieri nella seduta del Congresso del CONI, en Il
Littoriale du 20 maggio 1932, p.6 cit par Teja 1998 cit. pp. 152-153.
37
Archivio CONI, Verbale della seduta ordinaria del Consiglio Generale del 31
marzo 1934 - XII EF, p.25.
38
Ces procs-verbaux sont les seuls documents qui existent encore dans les
Archives du CONI qui ont presque compltement disparu.
39
Archivio CONI, Verbale della seduta ordinaria del Consiglio Generale del 28
novembre 1937, p.36.
40
Les leons sont donnes aux lves de 1re annes de lAcadmie. Les
chapitres VIIIme et IXme des cours polycopis cites sont ddis lONB.
41
D. Bettacchi, Dottrine e metodi di educazione fascista. Appunti di lezioni tenute
agli Allievi del 1 Anno dellAccademia Fascista di Educazione Fisica d Roma, a.a.
1934-35-XIII, Roma s.d. pp. 143-144. Le texte soulign est originel.
42
Id. pp.153-154.
43
Discorso agli atleti dItalia, en B. Mussolini, Scritti e discorsi, VIII, Milano
1940, p.142.
44
L. Ferretti, La legge per il finanziamento del CONI attraverso le relazioni
degli onorevoli Mosconi e Ferretti, en Il Littoriale, 24 febbraio 1932.
45
A. Teja, Coni e fascismo, en Ludus, I, n.2-3, pp. 57-67.
46
A. Cerreto (ed.), Annuario dello sport italiano, Roma 1936, p.102
47
Sur le mythe de la jeunesse pendant le fascisme, voir T. Gonzalez Aja&
A.Teja, Mussolini and Franco Sportmen: Two Contrasting Fascist
Conceptions of Sport, in A. Krger & A. Teja, Atti del I Seminario CESH,
Roma 29 novembre - 1 dicembre 1996, pp. 413-419.
48
Archivio CONI, Verbale della Seduta ordinaria del 20 dicembre 1933 - XI EF,
p.4.
49
Archivio CONI, Verbale della Seduta straordinaria del 4 ottobre 1933 - XI EF,
p.10.
50
Id. p.16.
267
Professor Angela Teja, Docente
ISEF st. di Roma
via dei Gabbiani 12
00060 Catelnuovo di Porto (RM) Italy
tel.fax+ 39 (0) 6-9078491 cell. 0368991422
Email: anteja@tin.it
She is the chairperson of the Italian section of CESH, CESH Secretary,
and has organised the 1st CESH congress in Rome 1997.
Some recent publications:
Laddestramento ginnico-militare presso lEsercito italiano (1861-1945),
Roma 1993.
Educazione fisica al femminile. Dai primi corsi di ginnastica femminile
(1867) a Andreina Gotta Sacco, Roma 1994.
Lo sport in uniforme. Atti del Convegno di studi sulla storia dello sport
militare, (ed.) Roma 1998.
THIERRY TERRET & ROBERTA VESCOVI
268
269
LDUCATION PHYSIQUE LCOLE PRIMAIRE DANS LENTRE-DEUX-GUERRES
UNE COMPARAISON DES SYSTMES FRANAIS ET ITALIENS
Lducation physique lcole primaire dans
lentre-deux-guerres. Une comparaison des
systmes Franais et Italiens
Thierry Terret, CRIS et IUFM Lyon (France)
& Roberta Vescovi, ISEF Urbino (Italie)
Les approches comparatives en histoire du sport et de lducation
physiques sont encore peu frquentes
1
. Elles semblent dautant plus
pertinentes mener, pourtant, que les diffrents pays produisent des
discours parfois radicalement diffrents pour cacher des ralits bien
proches. Ainsi, en 1923, en France, de nouvelles instructions dfinissent
lducation physique lcole primaire. La mme anne, en Italie,
sengage une rforme scolaire qui en modifie galement les programmes
dans le cadre de lEnte Nazionale Educazione Fisica. LENEF ne survit
cependant pas la fascisation de la vie italienne et est remplac en
1926 par lOpra nationale Ballila.
La simultanit des dcisions institutionnelles et la prgnance dun
contexte daprs-guerre qui sensibilise lopinion et les autorits
politiques aux thmes de la reconstruction nationale et de la
rgnrescence de la race pourraient laisser supposer que de fortes
similitudes traversent ces deux grands programmes dducation
physique lcole primaire, la seule institution qui, avec lArme, touche
lensemble de la population de manire obligatoire. Cependant, la re-
lative proximit du projet de reconstruction doit saccommoder de la
grande diversit des situations politiques nationales dont nous sommes
ds lors fonds poser la question du poids relatif.
A partir dune analyse comparative des lois, manuels officiels et
rglements scolaires, nous mettons lhypothse quentre les nouveaux
programmes dEP labors en Italie et en France la fin des annes
vingt existent de nombreux points communs dordre didactique et
pdagogique et que, dautre part, les diffrences sont au moins autant
lies aux oppositions idologiques des systmes politiques dmocrati-
270
ques et fascistes, qu la spcificit des deux systmes scolaires con-
cerns.
Lcole, la nation et lducation physique:
deux systmes diffrents pour deux discours proches
En France, les lois organiques relatives lcole primaire sont rdiges
entre 1881 et 1887, et ni ses structures, ni ses programmes, ni ses m-
thodes, ni mme ses effectifs (autour de 4,5 millions dlves de 6 13
ans) ne connatront de grands changements pour prs de trois quart de
sicle.
2
Lcole primaire est alors autonome, coupe du systme secondaire.
Elle est construite lintention du peuple et seulement pour lui.
Strictement utilitaire, elle produit des individus qui ne doivent pas
entretenir dinutiles illusions sociales ou professionnelles en limitant
leurs connaissances ce quil nest pas permis dignorer.
3
Lducation
physique ne saurait droger cette rgle: elle sera un moyen de
rentabiliser un temps les forces du soldats, mais surtout celles de louvrier
et de la mre au foyer
4
: Lcole primaire peut et doit faire aux exercices
du corps une part suffisante pour prparer et prdisposer, en quelque
sorte, les garons aux futurs travaux de louvrier et du soldat, les filles
aux soins du mnage et aux ouvrages de femmes.
5
Dautre part, la stabilit institutionnelle de lcole touche galement
lducation physique des lves concerns par lobligation scolaire
6
,
mme si la diversit des situations locales en donne vraisemblablement
une image moins uniforme.
7
Bref, ses grandes lignes semblent alors
dessines pour longtemps et ses programmes ne subiront pas de trans-
formations notables dans les ditions successives du Manuel de gymna-
stique et de jeux scolaires.
8
Le modle dfini plus gnralement par lcole lmentaire franaise
est en tout cas suffisamment conforme aux attentes de la Rpublique
pour quen 1923, les nouvelles instructions officielles rendent explicite-
ment hommage aux prcdentes: Chaque fois quon relit lexpos
des instructions de 1887, on est rempli dadmiration (...). Nous entendons
rester fidles aux principes fondateurs.
9
Ces instructions, bien que
conformes lesprit des prcdents programmes, se veulent pourtant
plus adapts aux trs fortes proccupations sanitaires de laprs-guerre
10
et plus conformes aux connaissances sur lenfant. Le principal change-
271
ment repose finalement sur la place prpondrante accorde aux d-
marches actives, pratiques et inductives et au nouvel quilibre instaur
entre mthode concentrique (chaque cours est repris dune anne sur
lautre pour lapprofondir) et progressive (les acquis sont juxtaposs). Ldu-
cation physique devrait en tenir compte, mais le texte, aprs en avoir
rappel les caractristiques gnrales, renvoie les instituteurs au Projet de
rglement de la mthode franaise labor lcole militaire de Joinville en
1919 et dont la rdaction dfinitive schelonnera entre 1925 et 1932.
11
On sait que le projet joinvillais puise largement dans les expriences
antrieures et quil constitue surtout une synthse de lexistant.
12
Lducation physique confirme par l pleinement ses formes davant-
guerre, en abandonnant simplement les positions nationalistes telles
que les socits scolaires de tir avaient pu un temps les dvelopper.
13
Son caractre obligatoire est confirm, seul un certificat mdical pouvant
dispenser llve de sa pratique. Ses objectifs sont fondamentalement
compensatoires et hyginiques puisquelle doit la fois corriger les
attitudes dfectueuses quimpose trop souvent au corps de lenfant le
travail scolaire et dvelopper ses qualits physiques, sa force, son
adresse, son agilit.
14
Ses moyens sont globalement identiques avec
deux heures hebdomadaires organiser en sances quotidiennes de
20 30 minutes, si possible en plein air.
On ne peut que rapprocher le Projet de rglement de la mthode franaise
de 1919 de Leducasione fisica italiana militare, premilitare, civile, de Cesare
Tifi en 1922.
15
Mmes objectifs, mmes organisation gnrale en trois
grandes formes hirarchises (ducation physique de dveloppement,
dapplication puis sportive) dont seule la premire est recommande
pour lcole primaire.
16
Toutefois, cette orientation sera de courte dure.
La dictature Mussolinienne commence en effet vritablement en 1925,
un peu plus de deux ans aprs lappel du Duce comme chef du gouver-
nement. Ds lors, le pays senfonce dans le totalitarisme sous la forme
dune concentration toujours plus forte du pouvoir. Lembrigadement
de la jeunesse samorce trs vite et sappuie sur un systme administratif
performant avec la mise en place de lOpra National Ballila (ONB)
par la loi nE2247 davril 1926. LONB prend en effet en charge ldu-
cation physique scolaire en phagocytant lEnte Nazional per lEdu-
cazione Fizica dont ctait la mission depuis 1923 et en imposant de
nouveaux programmes.
17
LONB ne se veut pas une simple rponse au besoin de consolidat-
ion et dexpansion des organisations de jeunesse par leur intgration
272
dans un systme administratif officiel mais, au contraire, il reprsente
un aspect important du processus de renforcement du poids du parti et
de ltat et la concrtisation de la stratgie totalitariste du fascisme.
Son but est lassistance morale et physique et lducation de la
jeunesse.
18
Les rgles technico-disciplinaires sont charges de spcifier
les caractristiques et les comptences de lorganisation: lducation
des jeunes doit les rendre digne du nouveau style de vie italien
19
et
les imprgner du sentiment de discipline et dducation militaire.
20
Les comptences largies de lONB sont la prparation militaire et
lducation gymnastique et sportive, lducation spirituelle, culturelle
et religieuse, lducation professionnelle et technique.
Linstitution que lONB tente de pntrer avec le plus de constance
est sans aucun doute lcole. Lune des tapes dcisives de ce mcanisme
est le transfert lOpra de toutes les attributions relevant antrieure-
ment de lENEF, un institut tabli en 1923 par Gentile pour prendre
en charge lducation physique dans lenseignement secondaire.
Cependant, dans la mesure o le rgime se proccupe galement de
lenseignement primaire, le seul concerner lensemble de la jeunesse
populaire, Ricci sassure que lONB promeut lcole lmentaire et sy
occupe surtout du dveloppement de lducation physique, un formi-
dable terrain pour la propagande et le proslytisme. Son plan recevra
une totale approbation du gouvernement fasciste en 1927.
21
En mars 1928, les instructions pour les horaires dducation physique
dans les coles lmentaires et les instituts du secondaire sont publies
et signes par le prsident de lONB avec laccord du ministre de
lducation nationale. Aux deux heures hebdomadaires dj prsentes
est ajoute une demi-journe de plein air,
22
suivant dailleurs en cela
un texte franais peu appliqu de 1925.
Par cet effort, les valeurs fondamentales que le systme souhaite faire
intrioriser aux enfants sont la discipline et lobissance.
23
La mre de
Mussolini est une institutrice et nul ne sait mieux que lui limportance
que peut prendre lcole dans la normalisation des comportements et
la mise en ordre des esprits. Dans cette optique, habituer lindividu
lexactitude du mouvement, la ponctualit, lexcution rapide des
ordres, au sens de la propret, de la responsabilit, de labngation et
la soumission aveugle la hirarchie sont autant de principes progres-
sivement distills pendant les leons. Ces modles de comportements
et dactivits physiques sont mis en relation avec la prparation militaire
et lducation pro-militaire souhaite pour la jeunesse par les fascistes.
24
273
Deux systmes sont ainsi mis en place simultanment en France et
en Italie, tous deux au service de la nation, mais lun en continuit,
lautre en rupture avec leurs origines respectives. Dautre part, pour la
mthode franaise, lducation physique doit dabord privilgier la sant
individuelle, le renforcement du capital humain.
25
Au contraire, pour
lONB italien, lducation physique est un instrument politique destin,
au-del du dveloppement des organismes, renforcer le capital de la
nation, la doter dune jeunesse plus forte et plus aguerrie.
Des didactiques identiques
Si lordre des priorits nation-individu semble diffrent en France et
en Italie, les programmes respectifs prsentent pourtant de fortes simi-
litudes qui renvoient notamment la permanence dune conception
clectique de la formation, la manire dont est pens le rapport au
mouvement et aux rgles de son apprentissage.
Ainsi, la mthode franaise est initialement destine tablir une
mthode gnrale dducation physique applicable tous les Franais
sans distinction dge ni de sexe et adapte au temprament natio-
nal.
26
Elle prolonge les rglements davant-guerre en combinant tous
les procds lgitimes connus permettant un travail physique (p. 21):
jeux, assouplissements, exercices ducatifs, applications (composes
de sept familles dexercices inspires de la mthode naturelle de Ge-
orges Hbert), sports individuels et collectifs, les sports ne relevant
toutefois pas du programme de lcole primaire.
Quant lONB, tout en brandissant une mthode qui fait table
rase de tous les concepts jugs rtrogrades, il reprend la plupart des
instruments pdagogiques utiliss antrieurement dans divers contextes,
le scoutisme et la gymnastique par exemple.
27
La France a eu Dmeny
; lItalie a eu Mosso.
28
On retrouve dans les deux cas une intgration
clectique allant du jeu aux applications sportives ou pr-sportives en
passant par la travail des attitudes et des mouvements.
En France comme en Italie, le mouvement demeure dailleurs lunit
de base de lducation physique. Il est travaill dans le cadre de post-
ures et dattitudes quil sagit dintrioriser avant de pouvoir les coor-
donner et les intgrer dans une situation plus authentique. Que cette
rfrence analytique soit peu cohrente avec les pdagogies globalistes
dont se rclament les textes importe peu. Il demeure que la vision du
274
fonctionnement du corps humain dpasse les frontires et ne saurait
dpendre des contextes politiques. Les gestes sont conus daprs leur
bases anatomiques et physiologiques et les apprentissages reposent sur
une logique lmentaire allant du simple au complexe et de labstrait
lutile, pour un usage ternellement diffr des acquisitions.
La simplicit du mouvement est un gage de transfrabilit ; sa na-
ture ne lest pas moins. Dans le projet de Joinville comme dans les
manuels de lONB,
29
les exercices les plus recommands en dehors
des assouplissements et renforcements musculaires et articulaires ne
sont-ils pas les marches, les courses et les lancers ? On comprend
dailleurs aussi pourquoi, dans ces conditions, lathltisme sera bientt
jug dans les deux pays comme lun des sports les plus ducatifs, ses
techniques rappelant trangement les gestes dits naturels.
30
La mise en oeuvre de lducation physique lcole primaire rpond
enfin aux mmes rgles du jeu en France et en Italie. Que lon
compare les leons-type de Georges Demeny, de Philippe Tissi, de
Georges Hbert
31
ou de la mthode franaise pour la premire, avec
les travaux de Michele Rinella
32
, pour la seconde, par exemple, les
contraintes qui psent sur elles sont les mmes. La leon doit tre utile
et efficace. Pour cela, elle sera complte et envisagera lensemble de la
personne. Elle doit tre continue pour rentabiliser le dispositif ducatif
et viter les moments de libert. Elle doit tre gradue et programme
en obissant une progression, dose et adapte au niveau des enfants,
attractive pour tre l aussi plus efficace. En dfinitive, la leon
dducation physique dpend dun double principe de surveillance et
defficacit pdagogique: le premier se traduit par un contrle du
fonctionnement du groupe en le soumettant lautorit du matre, le
second par un encadrement du moment de la transmission et une
rationalisation de la gestion humaine, spatiale et temporelle.
Les rgles de lorganisation pdagogique procdent ainsi dune gest-
ion rigoureuse permettant lducation physique de se conformer aux
usages disciplinaires de linstitution scolaire. Tout comme la percep-
tion du corps, la norme disciplinaire nest pas une spcificit natio-
nale. Elle aussi transcende les frontires au bnfice dun principe de
surveillance et de contrle dautant plus coercitif que les enfants sont
jeunes et donc susceptibles de davantage de dviances. La jeunesse
demeure une ternelle coupable pour les pdagogies et le corps de
lenfant un risque potentiel omniprsent pour son propre salut.
33
275
Une mme conception du sport pour deux usages politiques
Dans le cadre de la conception officielle clectique de lducation phy-
sique qui se dveloppe en France et en Italie depuis la fin du 19me
sicle, deux grandes catgories dexercices sont systmatiquement rete-
nus. Les premiers constituent une gymnastique de base, lABC du mou-
vement qui sert des objectifs disciplinaires et hyginiques, les seconds
une gymnastique plus fonctionnelle largie davantage dactivits.
Lune vise le perfectionnement de la coordination dans les mouvements
par la rptition lente et frquente dactes musculaires simples et par la
dcomposition des mouvements complexes; lautre relve de lap-
plication utile.
34
Cest cette dernire partie qui, apparemment, ferait
lobjet des plus grandes oppositions la fin des annes vingt entre les
deux pays, en sarrtant l o le sport commence pour la France, en
lintgrant largement et de plus en plus exclusivement pour lItalie.
Ainsi, en France, les plus jeunes enfants (6-9 ans) bnficient des
jeux et des exercices respiratoires, ceux de 9 11 ans ralisent moins
de jeux au profit des assouplissements et des ducatifs, et les plus gs,
de 11 13 ans, voient le mme programme avec des exercices plus
difficiles et quelques applications de faible intensit dont sont
systmatiquement rejetes les pratiques sportives.
35
Le sport apparat
en effet comme une anti-gymnastique
36
et les valeurs quil promeut
sont perues comme incompatibles avec celles de lcole: plaisir, don,
exotisme britannique, individualisme, tout loppose lascse, la
discipline, la culture nationale et la collectivit.
A lvidence, entre la gymnastique de dveloppement et la gymna-
stique dapplication, lcole lmentaire franaise a choisi. Pourtant,
la fin des annes vingt, la France ne rejette dj plus aussi catgorique-
ment le sport. Un courant se dveloppe notamment pour un sport
ducatif et certains ducateurs et pdagogues convaincus de ses
bienfaits travaillent rapprocher ses valeurs de celles de lcole, moins
dailleurs en reprenant les discours difiants des dfenseurs de
lolympisme quen sappuyant sur des principes de compatibilit lisibles
et visibles de tous. Ainsi Bellin du Coteau, en 1930, jette-t-il les bases
dune vritable mthode sportive en affirmant que le sport, pur de
ses perversions, donne du caractre, dveloppe lesprit dinitiative, ap-
prend lhumilit, favorise lauto-didactisme et les mthodes rationnelles
dentranement intellectuel et physique.
37
Ds lors, des pratiques sociales
sont prconises (sport, danse, boxe, natation...), mais au prix dun
276
travail de dcontextualisation qui les privent de tout sens culturel afin
de mieux en rentabiliser les effets disciplinaires, moraux et physiques.
38
Plus srement, seuls ceux dont lorganisme est cens pouvoir
supporter lintensit des efforts de lentranement et de la comptition
pourront accder aux applications sportives, cest--dire gnralement
aprs 15 ans, voire davantage pour les filles.
39
Or en France, la scolarit
nest obligatoire prcisment que jusqu 13 puis 14 ans en 1936. Deux
systmes coexistent, lun rserv aux classes populaires, qui sachve
par le certificat dtude ou le brevet 14 ans, lautre, le secondaire, est
payant puisque non obligatoire et reste lapanage des classes favorises.
les deux systmes sont tanches et mme le secondaire dispose de son
primaire. Ds lors, pour la plus large part de la jeunesse, lEP primaire
nest pas conue comme propdeutique lEP du secondaire mais a
ses fins en elle-mme: elle servira donc soit au renforcement du capital
humain dans un but sanitaire et conomique (professionnel), soit
assurer la rentabilit de lcole en jouant un rle compensatoire au
surmenage intellectuel. La distribution par lge rejoint ici la division
institutionnelle des deux coles en laissant le sport, certes sous des
formes adoucies et expurges de tout risque, au secondaire. Les lycens
peuvent dvelopper les qualits de dbrouillardise et dinitiative
associes au sport; les coliers, eux, doivent rpter des mouvements
abstraits et scientifiquement irrprochables pour mieux rentabiliser leur
capitale sant. Le sport nintgrera mme officiellement lcole primaire
franaise qu la fin de lentre-deux-guerres,
40
et dans un cadre qui
nest pas celui de la leon mais de la demi-journe de plein air en
1938
41
et de lassociation scolaire en 1939 avec la cration de lUnion
Sportive de lEnseignement Primaire (USEP).
42
En Italie, le sport est trait de manire radicalement diffrente. Ltat
diffuse trs largement limage dune nation dynamique et sportive, le
Duce lui-mme en incarnant, ds 1924,
43
la figure idologique. Comme
le fait remarquer Pressolini, Mussolini pousse les Italiens vers une
civilisation de comptition
44
dont il escompte tirer des profits symboli-
ques internationaux. Dans lItalie fasciste, lesprit de combat et de com-
ptition devient de plus en plus intense en ce quil constitue et reprsente
la manifestation du pouvoir de la race et de la puissance de la nation.
Le sport devient alors un instrument destin renforcer la race et
construire des soldats potentiellement capables de passer de la scne
sportive aux champs de bataille dans un contexte marqu par un dsir
dexpansion coloniale et de dfense de la nation.
277
La politique sportive fasciste inclue quatre plans
45
la base dont le
premier prcisment la diffusion de formes lmentaires dactivits
physiques. Cette pratique de masse dont on retrouvera lide quelques
annes plus tard en France travers le Brevet sportif populaire (1936),
est voue remplir plusieurs fonctions: le maintien de ltat sanitaire
des individus, la prparation du soldat-citoyen, linstitutionnalisation
du temps-libre, la socialisation de la jeunesse et la re-socialisation des
adultes, la slection des meilleurs lments. Cependant, cet accs la
pratique sportive ne repose pas vraiment sur le libre choix mais bien
davantage sur lintervention coercitive. Dautre part, faire du sport un
outil de normalisation suppose une mthode centralise o prime la
rptition alinante de gestes et de mouvements collectifs. Ainsi, si
lItalie fasciste produit un discours emblmatique sur le sport pour
cultiver son image, elle confirme nanmoins le choix dune ducation
physique initiale plus fondamentale, o linitiative sportive est sacrifie
au nom des intrts suprieurs de ltat et des classes dominantes.
De ce point de vue, le programme de lONB nest pas toujours aussi
radicalement diffrent de celui que proposait Tifi antrieurement.
Diffus plusieurs milliers dexemplaires, par le biais de deux sries
de livret-guide sur les rgles et mthodes pour jeunes gens et jeunes
filles, il prvoit, tout comme dans la Mthode franaise, une ducation
physique pour les diffrentes ges quil divise en priodes selon les
niveaux de dveloppement. Par cette proposition, Eugenio Ferrauto
russit l o beaucoup avaient chou en synthtisant lapproche
scientifique de Baumann et la perspective plus hyginiste et rcrative
de Mosso.
46
Lensemble constitue une ducation physique gymnastique,
rcrative, pr-sportive et sportive. Cependant, le sport nest gure
prsent dans la premire priode (8-11 ans) o sont privilgis les jeux
simples, de petites comptitions, des marches, courses et sauts divers
(avec quelques variantes pour les filles), coupls des exercices
densemble, sur place ou avec dplacement. La seconde priode (11-
14 ans) est une suite logique de la premire avec, notamment, des
activits de patinage, descalade, de natation, de lutte pour les garons,
de tir larc et dexercices pour la poitrine pour les filles. Dans la
priode suivante (16-18 ans) est propos en revanche un entranement
athltique. Des comptitions individuelles et collectives sont galement
organises avec des activits sportives varies. Cet accroissement
progressif de la place du sport avec lge est bien entendu corrl
une diminution relative des exercices dordre.
278
Sur lensemble du programme, le culte que lItalie voue au sport ne
lamne finalement pas avoir une prsence beaucoup plus manifeste
quen France; lducation physique est toujours soumise dans les deux
cas un principe de progression entre une partie plus traditionnelle
plus prcoce car prsente comme plus fondamentale, et une partie
applique qui sera plus ou moins sportive. En dfinitive, dans les deux
contextes nationaux, les diffrences ne proviennent donc pas du
positionnement du sport qui demeure toujours une application
particulire supposant dj acquis les fondamentaux posturaux. En
revanche, ce sport intgr dans le systme ducatif se voit attribu des
fonctions sociales et politiques propres. En France, il jouera un rle de
distribution sociale ; en Italie, il jouera un rle de propagande fasciste.
Conclusion et essai dinterprtation
La France et lItalie produisent toutes deux des programmes dducation
physique pour la jeunesse dans les annes vingt. On sait dautre part
que les influences rciproques entre les diffrents pays sont alors
nombreuses
47
ou, du moins, quune connaissance des autres modles
existe et est explicite, ne serait-ce que pour en dnoncer les limites ou
les dangers, comme la par exemple montr Jean-Philippe Saint-Mar-
tin propos de la perception franaise de lducation physique fasciste.
48
Les rapprochements entre les deux programmes ne semblent
pourtant nullement relever dune quelconque complicit ou reproduc-
tion directe. Ils proviennent dabord des invitables carts entre la tho-
rie et la pratique, entre les volonts politiques et la mise en oeuvre de
lenseignement. Ni en France, ni en Italie, les instituteurs nappliquent
simplement et directement les textes. Ainsi le sport est-il dj prsent
dans les coles de lhexagone en dpit de la rgle institutionnelle
49
et il
nest pas toujours exclusif dans celles de la botte italienne.
50
A ce premier rapprochement dans le choix de contenus clectiques
sajoutent des points communs encore plus manifestes. Le poids des
contraintes didactiques semble ainsi dfinitivement indpendant des
impulsions politiques: la discipline des individus, le contrle des
groupes, la rationalisation des espaces-temps peuvent satisfaire le
pouvoir; ils nen sont pas moins des outils crs dans et pour lcole.
Quant aux conceptions de la motricit et de lapprentissage chez
lenfant, elles relvent de courants plus larges que les frontires
279
nationales et conduisent valoriser lunit gestuelle et le mouvement,
au dtriment de la globalit et de la complexit. Elles produisent une
vision linaire dans laquelle lducation physique fondamentale prcde
toujours lducation sportive.
A coup sr, pourtant, on ne peut nier les diffrences. Celles-ci
proviennent de la diversit des projets politiques qui font notamment
assujettir le sport lembrigadement en Italie et la sant la mise en
ordre corporelle en France, tout en dbouchant sur la mise en oeuvre
dans lcole primaire dapplications radicalement diffrentes dans
les deux contextes nationaux. Le sport sert de propagande fasciste dans
un cas, destination de ltranger, mais aussi du peuple italien lui-
mme dans un subtil processus dintgration mentale dimages stratgi-
quement dtermines. Pour leur part, les Franais, aliments par le
mythe de la dgnrescence de la race, expriment leurs inquitudes
dans ltat sanitaire de la jeunesse en repoussant la pratique sportive
dans le second cycle du systme ducatif. Pourtant, le sport nest-il pas
devenu des deux cts de la frontire un formidable instrument politi-
que dautant plus efficace quil touche des populations en formation ?
Agent de distribution sociale en France et traduction de lidentit na-
tionale impulse par le Duce en Italie, il permet finalement toujours de
stabiliser et de renforcer les pouvoirs en place.
Dans tous les cas, la norme sociale est bien prsente, qui modle
lenfant, son corps et son esprit, conformment aux ambitions des
dirigeants pendant que la norme institutionnelle de lcole scrte ses
propres outils de contrle.
Notes
1
A titre dillustration, nous avons comptabilis moins de 15% darticles
dimension historique publis entre 1991 et 1996 dans le Journal of Comparative
Physical Education and Sport.
2
A. Prost, Histoire de lenseignement en France. 1800-1968, Paris, A. Colin, 1968;
G. Avanzini, Immobilisme et novation dans lducation scolaire, Toulouse, Pri-
vat, 1975.
3
Affirmation dOctave Grard (1868) reprise dans les Instructions officielles
de 1923.
4
Sur les dbuts de lEP des filles lcole primaire, cf. T. Terret, Un dbat
passionn: lintgration de lducation physique des filles la fin du 19me
sicle, in P. Arnaud, T. Terret, sous la dir. de, ducation et politiques sportives,
Paris, Ed. du CTHS, 1995, pp. 87-95.
280
5
Arrt du 27 juillet 1882.
6
T. Terret, Lidentit de lducation physique lcole primaire, in P. Arnaud,
dir., Histoire de lducation physique, Spirales, n
o
13-14, 1998.
7
P. Arnaud, Le militaire, lcolier, le gymnaste, Lyon, Presses Universitaires de
Lyon, 1991, pour lexemple de la rgion lyonnaise.
8
J. F. Loudcher et C. Vivier, Les manuels de gymnastique et dducation
physique officiels et officialiss (1869-1931), in J. P. Clment et M. Herr,
Lidentit de lEP scolaire au 20 me sicle, AFRAPS, 1993, pp. 327-348.
9
Instructions du 20 juin 1923 relatives au nouveau plan dtudes des coles
primaires lmentaires, Bulletin Administratif du Ministre de lInstruction
Publique, 1er aot 1923.
10
S. Fauch, La sant de lcolier aprs la premire guerre mondiale, in P.
Arnaud et T. Terret, Sport, ducation et art. XIXme-XXme sicles, Paris, CTHS,
1996.
11
Ministre de la Guerre, Rglement gnral dducation physique. Mthode franaise,
Premire partie, Paris, Charles-Lavauzelle, 1925-1932.
12
Voir notamment J.P. Saint-Martin, Lexemplarit des ducations physiques
trangres en France, Thse de doctorat, Lyon I, 1997.
13
J. Thibault, Sport et ducation physique, Paris, Vrin, 1972, et pour un exemple
plus prcis, J. L. Gay-Lescot, Les socits scolaires et postscolaires de tir en
Ille-et-Vilaine, in P. Arnaud, sous la dir. de, Les athltes de la Rpublique,
Toulouse, Privat, 1987.
14
Instructions du 20 juin 1923, op. cit.
15
Cesare Tifi, Leducasione fisica italiana militare, premilitare, civile, Torino, 1922.
16
Sur Tifi, voir M. P. Ulzega et A. Teja, Laddestramento ginnico-militare nellesercito
italiano (1861-1945), Roma, Ufficio Storico SME, 1993, p. 64 et suiv.
17
R.D.L. 20 Novembre 1927, nE 2341, Soppressione delEnte Nazionale per
lEucazione Fisica e passaggio allO.N.B. delle funzioni gi ad esso attribuite,
in O.N.Balilla, Leggi Regolamenti Decreti, Societ Editrice La Scuola, Brescia,
1931; Anonyme, Estratto delle norme legislative e regolamenti dellOpera Nazionale
Balilla per lassistenza e leducazione fisica della giovent, Sinatti, Arezzo, 1927;
O. N. Balilla, Norme e programmi dellO.N.Balilla, Tip. Vicentina, Vicenza, 1930.
18
Cf. la loi du 3 Avril 1926 nE 2247, Istituzione dell Opera nazionale Balilla
per lassistenza e leducazione fisica e morale della giovent_, in Gazzetta
Ufficiale, 11 Janvier 1927 ; Anonyme, Estratto delle norme legislative e regolamenti
dellOpera Nazionale Balilla per lassistenza e leducazione fisica della giovent,
op. cit.; O.N.Ballila, Norme e programmi dellO.N.Balilla, op.cit.; O.N.Ballila,
Leggi Regolamenti Decreti, op. cit.; E. Campagnuolo, LOpera Balilla e leducazione
fisica, Bellavista, Portici, 1937.
19
Instituzione dellopera nazionale Balilla per lasistenza e leducazione fisica
e morale della giovent, Legge 3 aprile 1926, n
o
2247, Art. 1.
20
Idem.
21
Dcret n
o
2341 du 20 novembre 1927.
22
M. Sacchetti, Diario delle lezioni giornaliere per gli insegnanti delle scuole elemen-
tari, vol. I, II, Vita Scolastica, Milano, 1929; M.P. Ulzeca, Leducazione
fisica in Italia tra il 1922 ed il 1943, STEF SpA, Cagliari, 1980, p. 22.
281
23
Voir pour des exemples B. Mussolini, Dottrina del Fascismo, in Scritti e
discorsi dal 1932 al 1933, vol.III, Hoepli, Milano, 1934, pp. 67-69; A. Cam-
marata, Pedagogia di Mussolini. Alla scuola dellOpera Balilla, Trimalchi, Paler-
mo, 1935, p. 28 et 89; R. Ricci, Libro e moschetto. Dalla generazione della
guerra a quella del Fascismo, in Associazione Nazionale Volontari di guerra. Il
Decennale per Anniversario della Vittoria. Anno VII dellEra Fascista, Vallecchi,
Firenze, 1929, pp. 319-328; Domeneghini-Jovine, Il manuale del Balilla e
dellAvanguardista, Libreria del Littorio, Roma, 1929; A. Nasti, Calendario
Politico. 14th June Educazione Fascista, a.X, fasc.VII, Juillet 1932, p. 585;
Cultura e sport nella rivoluzione fascista, in (editoriale) Critica Fascista, a.XII,
nE 2, 15 Janvier 1934, pp. 21-23; R. Malfa, Leducazione fisica: sua influenza
sulleducazione intellettuale e morale dei giovani, Le Mantellate, Roma, 1927; G.
Gori, Delleducazione fisica come istituzione politica, morale e sociale, Ben-
venuti, Livorno, 1930; A. Zoli, Educazione fisica-contributo alleducazione del
coraggio nella famiglia e nella scuola, Bemporad, Firenze, 1929; I. Campietti,
Limportanza delleducazione fisica nel fanciullo, Cavalleri, Como, 1931; M. Car-
pentieri, Il dolore nelleducazione fisica ed intellettuale, Giordana, Torino, 1923.
24
Cf. G. Scalise, Laddestramento sportivo e leducazione guerriera, in I Com-
mentari dellazione Fascista, a.I, nE 3, 1er Mars 1934, pp. 4-6; LOpera Balilla
alla Mostra Nazionale dello Sport, in Il Rubicone, a.IV, n.8, Juin 1935, pp. 8-
9; Anonyme, Manualetto per listruzione premilitare, Pietrobon, Treviso, 1930;
A. Zoli., op. cit.; Anonyme, Leducazione fisica nella famiglia, nella societ,
nellesercito, nella scuola, Bortoli, Venezia, 1923.
25
G. Andrieu, Lducation physique au XXme sicle: une histoire des pratiques,
Paris, Actio, 1990.
26
Ministre de la Guerre, Rglement gnral dducation physique. Mthode franaise,
Premire partie, Paris, Charles-Lavauzelle, 1925, avant-propos, p. 5.
27
M. Riou, Lducation sportive de la jeunesse dans lItalie mussolinienne.
Figures emblmatiques et homognisation idologique, in P. Arnaud et T.
Terret, Sport, ducation et art. XIXme-XXme sicles, Paris, CTHS, 1996, p.
142.
28
Sur limportance de Dmeny dans lhistoire de lducation physique en
France, en particulier pour les travaux quil dirige en 1888 avec Marey, cf.
notamment C. Pociello, Dmeny et la rationalisation scientifique de lducation
physique, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1998. Sur linfluence des
propositions de Mosso en Italie (voir A. Mosso, Leducazione fisica della donna,
Milano, Fratelli Treves, 1891 et Leducazione fisica della giovent, Milano, Fratelli
Treves, 1894).
29
ONB, Educazione fisica. Quaderno I. Maschile. Eta 8-11 anni, ATENA, Roma,
1930; ONB, Esercizi a corpo libero per balilla e piccole italiane delle scuole elemantari
obbligatori per lanno XIII E.F., a cura dellAccademia Fascista Foro Mussolini,
Roma, anno XIII, XIV, XV; ONB, Piani di lezione per linsegnamento
delleducazione fisica nelle scuole elementari, Quadri, Bergamo, 1930; Programmi
particolareggiati di Educazione Fisica, in I Diritti della Scuola, n
o
2, 1934;
Programmi particolareggiati di Educazione Fisica, n
o
4, 1934; Anonyme,
282
Esercizi a corpo libero per lanno X per balilla, piccole italiane, avanguardisti e
giovani italiane, Operaia Romana, Roma, 1923.
30
T. Terret, ducation physique et sport de base, in J. Gleyse, Lducation
physique au XXme sicle: histoire et culture, Paris, Vigot, 1998.
31
Georges Dmeny, Les bases scientifiques de lducation physique, Paris, Alcan,
1904; Philippe Tissi, Prcis de gymnastique rationnelle, Bordeaux, Bire, 1902;
Georges Hbert, Leon-type dentranement complet et utilitaire, Paris, Vuibert,
1913.
32
Michele Rinella, La tecnica dellinsegnamento nell nuova scuola primaria italiana,
Brescia, Giulio Vannini editore, 1928.
33
Sur la prennit de la mfiance envers le corps de lenfant, cf. P. Garnier,
Ces preuves qui font lenfant, Thse de doctorat en sociologie, cole des Hautes
tudes en Sciences Sociales, 1992.
34
Ministre de lInstruction Publique et des Beaux-arts, Travaux de la commission
de Gymnastique, fasc. n
o
77, Paris, Imp. Nat., 1887, p. 46 et 48 et pour lItalie,
A. Mosso, op. cit.
35
Rglement gnral dducation physique., op. cit., pp. 30-31.
36
Sur les raisons plus larges de ce rejet, cf. P. Arnaud, Les deux voies din-
tgration du sport dans le systme ducatif, in P. Arnaud, T. Terret, sous la
dir. de, ducation et politique sportives, Paris, Ed. du CTHS, 1995.
37
M. Bellin du Coteau, La mthode sportive, in E. Labb, Trait dducation
Physique, Paris, 1930.
38
Pour quelque exemples plus prcis, voir J. F. Loudcher, La mise en forme
militaire et scolaire de la boxe franaise: le modle de Joinville (1852-1943),
in A. Krger, A. Teja (Eds), La comune Eredit dello Sport in Europa, Rome,
CONI, 1997, 174-179; T. Terret, Le corps en rythme. Danse et ducation
physique au dbut du sicle, in P. Arnaud, T. Terret, ducation physique,
Sports et Arts. XIXE-XXE sicles, Paris, Ed. du CTHS, 1996, pp. 465-477; T.
Terret, La natation scolaire la fin du XIXE sicle. Ralits et difficults
dune intgration, in STAPS, 39, fvrier 1996, pp. 71-82.
39
P. Arnaud, T. Terret, Histoire du sport fminin, Paris, LHarmattan, 1996.
40
Sur les adaptations scolaires lintgration de lducation physique cette
priode, voir T. Terret, Sport et valeur, in Confluence, IUFM Lyon, 1998.
41
Instructions relatives aux arrts du 23 mars 1938 et du 11 juillet 1938,
Journal officiel du 30 mars 1938.
42
Circulaire du 1er fvrier 1939 relative la cration de lUnion Sportive de
lEnseignement du Premier Degr.
43
Selon S. Pivato, Sport et rapports internationaux : le cas du fascisme italien,
in P. Arnaud et A. Wahl, Sport et relations internationales, Actes du colloque
de Metz, Metz, 1994.
44
L. Passerini, Mussolini immaginario. Storia di una biografia. 1915-1939, Rome-
Bari, Laterza, 1991, p. 65. Sur cette attitude du Duce, voir aussi T. Aja-
Gonzales et A. Teja, Mussolini and Franco Sportmen: Two Contrasting Fa-
scist Conception of Sport, in A. Krger, A. Teja (Eds), La comune Eredit
dello Sport in Europa, op. cit.
283
45
L. Ferretti, Il fascismo e leducazione sportiva della nazione, UTET, Torino, 1928.
Dans le cadre restreint de cet article, nous ne dvelopperons pas lensemble
de cette politique, renvoyant pour cela F. Felice, Sport e fascismo. La politica
sportiva del regime, 1924-1936, Rimini, Firenze, Guaraldi, 1976 ansi que, du
mme auteur, Storia dello sport in Italia. (Dalle societ ginnastiche allassociazio-
nismo di massa), Guaraldi, Firenze, 1977. Voir aussi G. Germani, Autoritarismo,
fascismo e classi sociali, Il Mulini, Bologna, 1975 ; P. Bartoli, C. Pasquini, C.
Romizi, R. Romizi, La organizzazione del consenso nel Regime Fascista : lOpera
Nazionale Balilla (O.N.B.) come istituzione di controllo sociale, SMAC, Perugia,
1980.
46
M.P. Ulzeca, LEducazione fisica in Italia tra il 1922 ed il 1943, op. cit. ; M. Di
Donato, Indirizzi fondamentali delleducazione fisica moderna, Universale Stu-
dium, Roma, 1962.
47
J.M. Delaplace, C. Treutlein, G. Spitzer (Eds), Le sport et lducation physique
en France et en Allemagne. Contribution une approche socio-historique des relati-
ons entre les deux pays, Clermont-Ferrand, AFRAPS, 1994.
48
J. P. Saint-Martin, op. cit.
49
Voir Spirales n
o
13-14, 1998, op. cit., sur les entretiens raliss auprs danciens
matres.
50
J. P. Saint-Martin, op. cit., p. 118-119.
Professor Dr. Thierry Terret
University of Lyon, France, Vice-president of ISHPES
E-mail: cp-lyon@lyon.iufm.fr
Among last books published :
Linstitution et le nageur. Lyon, Presses universitaire de Lyon, 1998.
Le sport et ses espaces. XIX-XX sicles. Paris, Ed. du CTHS, 1998.
(avec Pierre Arnaud).
Sport and Health in History. (ed.) Sankt Augustin, Akademia Verlag, 1999.
Assistant Roberta Vescovi, INEF Urbino, Italy
Has published several papers on the fascist period in Italy.
284
Illustrations
Frontpage
The young running boy illustrate the beginning
of physical education in Denmark in the back-
ground a gymnastic- and playground at the
Christinis Institute can be seen. The institute
was one of the first Danish Schools to pratice
gymnastics. Painted by Jens Juel 1802.
Page 6
The first copperplate in J.C.F. GutsMuts Gym-
nastik fr die Jugend, 1793.
GutsMuths mentions it as a starting copperplate
with the idea of the contents: The gymnos-chil-
drens dance around and tribute to health,
personificed in a statue of the Greek goddess
of health Hygieia. The children wear the sym-
bol of physical exercises: Bow and arrow, jave-
lin and discus.
Page 14
Copperplate in J.C.F. GutsMuts Gymnastik fr
die Jugend, 1793.
285
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page 80
The woodcut illustration were designed for
Mercuriale by Pirro Ligorio and cut by Christo-
foro Coriolani, a celebrated Nuremberg artist
living in Venice. In: Kinetic Jottings, Rare and
Curious Books in Library of the old Royal Central
Institute of Gymnastics, Stockholm 1995.
Page 26
A days exercise (dagsvelse). In: C. H. Lied-
beck, Gymnastika Dagfningar, Stockholm 1881.
Page 46
Backwards skating. In: Viktor Hansen, Illustre-
ret Idrtsbog, Bd. 1, Kbenhavn 1890.
Page 66
die Jugend, 1793.
286
Page 96
A handball player. In: Holger Nielsen, Haand-
bold, Kbenhavn.
Page 110
A football player. In: Fr. Knudsen and Ahrent
Otterstrm, Lrebog i Fodboldspillet, Kbenhavn
1909.
Page 122
die Jugend, 1793.
Page 136
An acrobat. In: Arcangelo Tuccaro. Trois Dialo-
gues. Paris 1599.
287
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page 182
Copperplate in J.C.F. GutsMuts Gymnastik fr die
Jugend, 1793.
Page 150
Cricket players. In: A. G. Steel and Hon. R.H.
Lyttelton, Cricket, London 1893.
Page 166
Diving. In: Abbo Pietro Vittorio, Manuale del Nuo-
tatore, Milano 1896.
Page 204
Cricket players. In: A. G. Steel and Hon. R.H.
Lyttelton, Cricket, London 1893.
288
Page 232
Copperplate in J.C.F. GutsMuts Gymnastik fr die
Jugend, 1793.
Page 218
Diving. In: Hermann Ladebeck, Lehrbuch der
Schwimmkunst fr Anfanger und Gebte, Leipzig 1878.
Page 248
From De motu animalium, of G. Alfonso Borelli,
1685 here taken from Angela Teja, et al. From
the Art of Gymnatics to the Science of Movement, Biblio-
graphic Explorations, Rome 1999.
Page 268
The illustration were designed for Mercuriale by
Pirro Ligorio and cut by Christoforo Coriolani.
In: Kinetic Jottings, Rare and Curious Books in Li-
brary of the old Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics,
Stockholm 1995.

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