1:1Sportbehörde-Gründungsort

Friedrichstraße 71

Many initiatives for establishing sports associations had their start in Berlin.

Since the late 19th century, players have tried to organize their sport and to pool their interests. Among their ambitious goals were standardizing rules, operating regular game schedules, and helping football take root in society. Many initiatives and impulses for establishing associations started in Berlin, and Georg Demmler and Fritz Boxhammer in particular are very involved even on the national level in their efforts to gain ground for football. Initially active as member in the DFB’s game committee, Boxhammer held the post of vice chairman from 1905 until 1911. In 1907, when in the run-up to the First World War nationalist and militarist tendencies increasingly also make themselves felt in the DFB, he wrote the following in the DFB’s yearbook regarding international matches: “In sport’s international activities we find an extraordinarily important element for bridging the gulf between political and national opposites, and in this sense sport is one of the most successful promoters of the idea of peace. That the DFB, its associations, and clubs remain always aware of the part they have to play in this important international cultural and peace mission—that is what all of us sincerely wish for.”

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