Wie man ein 'Weltfest des Pferdesports' erfindet - Das Aachener Spring-, Reit- und Fahrturnier 1924 bis 1939
The ‘Concours Hippique International Officiel’ (CHIO) organised by the Aachen Laurensberger Rennverein (A.L.R.V.) and self-appointed ‘world festival of equestrian sport’ constitutes until today the largest riding and driving event of the world. The key to a story of success has been the ability of the organisers to adapt and prevail over all economic and political turmoils and to maintain its character of a cultured public festival ever since its beginnings. A decisive factor for this was the city council’s and the organisers’ joint ambition to increase symbolic capital and prestige for Aachen. The event qualified from the start to launch independent symbols with a unified definition and new, unrelated connotations. During both political systems - the Weimarer Republic and the ‘Third Reich’ - the city council as well as the association (A.L.R.V.) proved to be capable of using the symbolic capital of the tournament for their own concerns, to foster them and to obtain financial benefits from them. An important aspect of this achievement was, that for the Aachen riding and driving event the symbols and the personal world of the aristocracy, the middle classes and the working classes all existed and interacted at the same time to create a community festival of which the bourgeois elites of Aachen took guidance. In order to give a clear survey of the situation, the dissertation is structured into four chapters: Equestrian sport before 1924, the Weimarer Republic, the ‘Third Reich’ and post World War 2. This dissertation focuses on the years 1924, the beginning of the Aachen equestrian event in its present form, to the year 1939, when the last tournament before the war took place. The first part of the text examines the origins of equestrian sport in Aachen pre 1924 with an emphasis on its origins in the 19th century as well as on the political and socio-economic structures of the region between 1918 and 1924. Both of the two main chapters commence with an investigation on the journalism on horse riding and the Aachen tournament, before describing the course of the events themselves. In addition, the history of the A.L.R.V. and the support conferred by the city for this sports festival have been analysed. Furthermore, the sequence of events within the tournament and the way certain elements of it interact and interconnect are depicted: the preparation and progression of the tournament, the festive speeches, the spectators’ responses to the winners of the competitions and the connotations and effects of the symbols and pictures. The thesis also explains the meaning and influence of certain groups, such as politicians, civil servants of the city of Aachen, prominent officials and outstanding horsemen. The Aachen horse riding championship is in a cursory manner used as a model to identify changes in the mentality of the middle classes, their bourgeois self-confidence, values and goals in the 20th century. The tournament can be seen as a micro historical model or a burning glass for the political and social self-esteem of the regional citizens in the first half of the 20th century. Its success stems from its character as a ‘public festival’ and the high degree of self-identification of the citizens of Aachen with their annual event. Throughout the following decades the riding and driving event took its position as the ‘world festival for equestrian sport’ in the communal recollection of the city. To the present day, the celebrations of carneval, the presentation of the Karlspreis and the ‘calvalcade’ form the established highlights of the cultural life of Aachen.
info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/796, Sport, Reiten, Turnier, Aachen, Weimarer Republik, Drittes Reich, Fest, Symbolpolitik
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