Building European Fraternity Through Gymnastics: The Establishment of the Bureau Des Fédérations Européennes de Gymnastiques, 1863–1913

Abstract

The historiography of ‘associative gymnastics’ has mostly focused on the ways individual countries used gymnastics in education and in the military and to build patriotic fervour. In contrast, scholars have paid little attention to the early internationalization of gymnastics in Europe and beyond. The present paper draws on original research, notably in the archives of the Swiss Gymnastics Federation and the Olympic Studies Centre, to examine the process by which Switzerland’s model of ‘federal’ gymnastics festivals spread throughout Europe from the 1860s onwards and gave rise to intense exchanges (documentation, official delegations, competitors) between the national federations that were emerging at the time. This process, together with the work of Nicolaas Jan Cupérus, from Belgium, helped pave the way for establishing the Bureau des Fédérations Européennes de Gymnastique (BFEG), whose foundation historians traditionally trace back to a meeting in Liège in 1881. Analysis of the BFEG’s early history revealed the main issues (apoliticism, secularism, amateurism) and tensions (nationalism vs. internationalism) that accompanied its development. Its relationship with the newly founded International Olympic Committee and the modern doctrine of Olympism also had a profound impact on the BFEG and its decision to create a true international gymnastics tournament.