The Discursive Construction of National Identity through the Swiss Magazine SKI Before World War I |
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| Authors: | Peter Engel |
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| Institution: | 1. Institute for Exercise and Health Sciences, University of Basel , Birsstrasse 320 B, Basel , 4052 , Switzerland peter.engel@unibas.ch |
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| Abstract: | The media discourse is significant in terms of the spread of Nordic skiing in Europe. The term sport, however, was an imprecise translation of the Nordic ‘Idraet’. Idraet meant the combination of sportsman and scholarship. The book The First Crossing of Greenland can be seen as a trigger for the so-called ‘Nansen-Feaver’, which spread Idraet after 1890. German-speaking magazines amalgamated it with ‘Wilhelminian’ Nordic enthusiasm. It was the birth of ski clubs everywhere. A German student, Wilhelm Paulcke, intended to copy Nansen's style. Subsequently, a successful alpine winter trip stylised him to the Central European Nansen. His goal was to build a Central European ski association and to unite all German-speaking skiers. But, Swiss Ski Association (SSV) was founded one year before the Central European Ski Association (MESV) consisting of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. And the Swiss would only have joined the MESV when their magazine SKI became the association's official publication. A few German clubs were opposed and renounced. They did not want to accept neither French-speaking members nor articles. Paulcke finally accepted the SKI, but later, the SSV decided to choose their independent way and leave the MESV. A national sport was growing up. |
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| Keywords: | ski-Idraet ski sport ski magazine ski association Central European idea national sport |
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