The intended 1916 Olympic Games through the eyes of the German Sport University Cologne’s historical collections - The archive project “Abgestaubt und neu erforschbar” (Dusted off and re-explorable) as part of the transmission of sport history

Abstract

Various institutions of the German Sport University Cologne (GSU Cologne) have high-quality, historically grown collections of documents, photos and three-dimensional objects that reflect the complete spectrum of sport and sport sciences. In particular, this concerns the Carl and Liselott Diem Archive at the Institute of Sport History and the Central Library for Sport Sciences. In its entirety, the historical collections extend over 1.000 shelf meters.

With the objective to present an overall view of the GSU Cologne’s historical collections for the first time and to emphasize the value of primary evidence for hermeneutics in sport history, a research and publication project was started in 2013. Its work will lead to the publication of a four-volume book series entitled “Dusted off and re-explorable – The historical collections of the German Sport University Cologneâ€. The first two volumes, richly illustrated with the help of primary evidence, were published in 2014 and 2018 and dealt with the topics “Personal collections†and “The Olympic Movementâ€.

The article at hand aims to illustrate the work of the archive project group by presenting the conception and content of the book chapter about the intended 1916 Berlin Olympic Games from the book series’ second volume.