Abstract
This chapter presents a contextual survey of the “boom” in sport in the Weimar Republic in the years following the First World War and cites some of the cultural and intellectual responses. Drawing on a range of contemporary newspapers, journals, memoirs and films, the chapter goes on to examine the emergence of boxing in Germany as a popular sport and a form of mass entertainment and assesses the emergence of discourses of self-improvement during the 1920s, to which Germany proved especially receptive. The chapter charts Schmeling’s emergence as a star of German sport through his representation in the specialist weekly magazine Boxsport and other primary sources and analyses his portrayal in artworks by George Grosz, Ernesto de Fiori, Rudolf Belling and others. The chapter also considers the political claims made on Schmeling in the late 1920s.
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