On April 4 at 10:35 p.m. on ORF 2
Vienna (OTS) – Skiing and football – Austrian national sports as early as the 1930s. Everything changes with the “Anschluss” in 1938 – top Jewish athletes and officials are persecuted or murdered, the sports associations are incorporated into the NS Reichsbund für Leibestraining, the “Aryan” athletes are first portrayed as daredevils and heavenly dogs, then as war heroes. Martin Betz goes in search of clues for the new “Menschen & Mächte” documentary “Braune Brettln,braunes Leder” on Tuesday, April 4, 2023 at 10:35 p.m. on ORF 2: on the soccer fields in Vienna and the ski slopes of Kitzbühel and St .Anton; but also to the hidden places of flight and the repressed places of crime – to France, Holland and Greece.
The film was released yesterday, Thursday, March 30th, in the presence of ORF program director Stefanie Groiss-Horowitz, ORF radio director Ingrid Thurnher, former ORF general director and now Rapid President Alexander Wrabetz, Austria’s footballer of the century and Austria legend Herbert Prohaska, ORF-TV Head of Science Tom Matzek and the former “People & Powers” Editor-in-Chief Andreas Novak presented in the ORF media campus. In an interview with presenter Karoline Rath-Zobernig, Robert Gokl (ORF-Wissenschaft) and Gerhard Lackner (ORF-Sport), director Martin Betz, Thomas Schwarz, grandson of the then President of Austria Emanuel “Michl” Schwarz, and Franz Binder jun. Son of Rapid icon Franz “Bimbo” Binder, the special features of the ORF in-house production, which was created as an interdisciplinary cooperation between the main science and sports departments, funded by the collecting society broadcasting.
ORF program director Stefanie Groiss-Horowitz: “You have to know and understand your history in order to learn from it and to be able to classify current events and mechanisms accordingly. And this is exactly where the importance of the series ‘People & Powers’ and films such as ‘Braune Brettln,braunes Leder’ lies for the ORF and its self-image under public law.” ORF-Sport in this documentary that makes history tangible. The different specialist skills of the editors have enabled new approaches and perspectives on the topic. I would like to thank everyone involved in the creation of the documentation.”
Rapid President Alexander Wrabetz: “Part of a great club history and tradition is not only to emphasize the sunny side, but also to deal with the dark side in a differentiated way. And that is exactly where the merit of this important ‘People & Powers’ documentary lies, for which I congratulate everyone involved, because it depicts a sports story and at the same time a social area in which – very focused – everything is inside that was happening in society as a whole at the time has.”
Robert Gokl, ORF-Wissenschaft: “It is the hallmark of a totalitarian regime to bring all areas of life under its power. Also sports. Therefore, there might be no non-political sport, no non-political athletes in the Nazi system. The documentary ‘People & Powers’ shows the deep traces left by the Nazi system on soccer fields and ski slopes. And also how far these traces reach into the Second Republic.”
Gerhard Lackner, ORF-Sport: “As a long-time editorial employee of ORF SPORT, my day-to-day work was and is determined by topicality. In various functions – from reporter to program manager – reacting to current results and events has always been the special attraction of my daily work. Being able to work on the ‘Menschen & Mmachte’ documentary ‘Braune Bretteln,braunes Leder’ opened up a completely new perspective for me on how one can (also) ‘make television’. Developing a project over the course of a year and constantly driving it forward, researching the background and sources, evaluating archive material and bringing it into line with interviews with contemporary witnesses and experts – all of this along with many other work steps under one roof = in a documentary that is both worth seeing and stirring bring, extorts with the utmost respect.”
Director Martin Betz: “In recent years, historians have published commendable works dealing with the entanglement of Austrian football and skiing with National Socialism. Nevertheless, there has been hardly any cinematic treatment of the topic so far. During the research, it quickly became clear to me that this involvement was so comprehensive that a film documentation cannot claim to be complete. Too many athletes and officials became perpetrators, and the number of victims was correspondingly large. It was therefore important to me to make it clear how the upheavals in sport following the ‘Anschluss’ felt for those who were excluded, persecuted and murdered. And I also came across stories of perpetrators who also became victims: because they had to lose their lives in a bloody, senseless war as a result of the political instrumentalization of sport.”
People & Powers: “Brown boards, brown leather” – April 4, 10:35 p.m., ORF 2
Football and skiing – national sports in Austria since the 1930s. With the “Anschluss” in 1938, the sports clubs were also incorporated into the Nazi system. Jewish top athletes and officials were expelled or murdered. Nazi propaganda portrayed “Aryan” athletes as heroes, daredevils, heavenly dogs. In the “total war” they too had to go to the front, their greatest victory should have been the “final victory”. Martin Betz analyzes how National Socialism abused sport; how many well-known athletes enthusiastically participated in it; and how, following 1945, the red-white-red flags continued to be played and won as if nothing had happened.
Details on the new production of “People & Powers” are available at presse.ORF.at.
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