SPORT. CROWDS. POWER.
Opening of the travelling exhibition at Kultur Kontor Hamburg

Among those welcoming guests to the opening were Dr Carsten Brosda, Hamburg Senator for Culture and Media, Prof. Dr Hans-Jörg Czech of the Foundation of Historical Museums Hamburg, Martin Fielker (Maersk North Europe Continent), Dr Andreas Kahrs (what matters gGmbH) and Silke Mülherr, Co-CEO of the Alfred Landecker Foundation.

Using football as its lens, the exhibition explores how sport was used under National Socialism as a tool of propaganda, exclusion and ideological control, and how this history continues to resonate today. It invites visitors to reflect on memory, responsibility and contemporary antisemitism through the perspective of sport.

At the exhibition opening, Silke Mülherr delivered the following remarks:

Dear Senator Dr Carsten Brosda,
Dear Professor Czech,
Dear Mr Fielker,
Dear Dr Springmann,
Dear Bella,
Dear Andreas, dear Daniel,
Dear guests,

Sport brings people together. It inspires, creates a sense of community and gives many of us the feeling of being part of something larger than ourselves – especially when a World Cup is just around the corner.

But sport is never only about what happens on the pitch.

The exhibition SPORT. CROWDS. POWER. vividly demonstrates how the Nazi regime exploited sport as a tool of propaganda, discipline and exclusion.

It also shows that clubs and sporting associations were not merely passive bystanders. Many excluded Jewish athletes long before they were required to do so by the so-called Aryan Paragraph.

The story of Walter Wächter, whose son Torkel is with us today, illustrates how painful this exclusion was for those affected. As a young man, Walter played for Hamburger SV here in Hamburg. Even before the Nazis came to power, he experienced antisemitism within the club and left in 1929 – not because he wanted to, but because he felt he had no choice.

Walter Wächter’s experience teaches us an important lesson: exclusion does not begin with laws. It begins in everyday life. It begins with people we know. And with decisions that no one challenges.

That is precisely why this exhibition matters so much. While it deals with the past, its central theme is responsibility in the present.

As millions of people celebrate football during the upcoming World Cup, we should rightly enjoy the goals, the excitement and the shared emotions.

But amid the celebrations, we should also ask ourselves: who can truly feel that they belong? Who is welcomed as part of the community, and who still experiences exclusion – including through antisemitism?

Hatred of Jews did not disappear with the end of National Socialism. In reality, it never went away.

It is up to all of us – especially those who are not directly affected – to decide how much space we allow exclusion to occupy in our society, whether at public screenings, in the stadium stands, in the changing room or on the local sports field.

At the Alfred Landecker Foundation, we support this exhibition because it addresses Holocaust remembrance beyond traditional memorial sites and beyond the classroom. It reaches people who share a common interest: football. Regardless of age, background or education.

Football can unite people. But it can also be misused to divide them.

The foundation bears the name of Alfred Landecker. He was not a famous footballer, philosopher or politician. He was an ordinary person: an accountant, a father, a colleague and a member of his community – until others decided that he no longer belonged because he was Jewish. Ultimately, they murdered him for that reason.

His fate shapes our mission: to remember the Shoah, to combat antisemitism and to strengthen democratic institutions.

This exhibition reminds us that remembrance is never a finished task. It confronts us with a question that each of us will face sooner or later in everyday life: What do we do when we see others being excluded? Do we look away and tell ourselves there is nothing we can do? Or do we pay attention, speak up and offer support?

It is not the responsibility of Jews to defend themselves against antisemitism. The responsibility lies with society as a whole. It cannot be the burden of those affected to solve the problem themselves.

My hope is that everyone who visits this exhibition leaves with new insights, or with renewed determination to act on this question.

Because belonging does not happen by itself. It is created wherever people take responsibility – especially when doing so is uncomfortable or requires courage.

What happens on the pitch does not stay on the pitch.

It extends into schoolyards, offices and public transport. And because everyone here understands that, I hope we will remain open to one another. That we will stay curious about each other, even when we are not personally affected or when we are busy with our own concerns.

For that is one of the enduring lessons of history: hatred of Jews is rarely the end point. It is usually only the beginning. That is why we must confront it as early as possible.

I would like to express our special thanks to the team at what matters – Andreas, Daniel, Julian, Nora, Annika and Kim – as well as to the team at the Berlin Sports Museum, represented today by its director, Dr Veronika Springmann.

Without your tireless commitment to remembrance and to combating antisemitism in sport, this exhibition would not have been possible.

We also extend our gratitude to the exhibition’s partners: the World Jewish Congress, the Foundation of Historical Museums Hamburg and the Hamburg Memorials Foundation.

Finally, I would like to thank my own team, represented here today by Ellen Brinkmann and Anne Scholz.

I hope this exhibition attracts many visitors and inspires many moments of reflection and discovery.

Thank you.