Memorial plaques for Jewish FCB members

The curious question arises again and again: “Why is FC Bayern represented here today?” A delegation from the German record champions was present at the two commemorative events held by the City of Munich’s department of culture, where memorial plaques for Lina and Armand Oster, Margarethe and Alfred Strauß, Richard Einstein, Israel Wolff as well as Martha and Herbert Maier were installed. On the one hand because Dr Armand Oster and Alfred Strauß were FCB members and the club, through its former president Kurt Landauer, has a special responsibility in the fight against antisemitism. On the other hand because we should all stand together when it comes to preserving the memory and standing up to the forces that downplay or deny the horrors of the past and undermine democracy.

The history of the Jewish members murdered by the Nazis is not only part of the history of Munich, but also part of the history of FC Bayern, said Benny Folkmann, managing director of FC Bayern München eV and, together with Andreas Werner, head of the FCB initiative ‘Red against Racism’. He added in his speech in the presence of Dr h. c. mult. Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, and Rabbi Shmuel Aharon Brodman: “The crimes of National Socialism run deep into our club’s history, which gives FC Bayern a clear mission. It is our task to address this history, to highlight the connections and to remind people of what happened – so that exclusion, the deprivation of rights and persecution will never happen again.”

The City of Munich’s memorial plaques are a constant reminder that we all bear responsibility, Werner said at the commemorative event for Alfred Strauß. We must never close our eyes or minds. It is about giving a face to those who were persecuted. Not detached – but standing tall, on an equal footing with our times. FCB president Herbert Hainer repeatedly stresses at such events: “Not today, not tomorrow – and certainly not with us! Those who exclude others lose – in sport as in life.”

During the events, it was outlined how people were torn out of their everyday lives: Armand Oster had joined FC Bayern in 1929, Alfred Strauß in 1932. Research by the FC Bayern Museum revealed that neither of them played football actively and probably saw in the club what is important to many people still today: a community, a place for exchange and socialising.

But this is where the historical tension lies: FC Bayern had about ten percent Jewish members in 1933, well over 100 Jewish women and men who loved, supported and shaped the club. At the same time, Munich was the city that became Hitler’s first home in Germany and later the so-called ‘capital of the movement’. It was a distressing conflict for Jewish members like Oster and Strauß: on the one hand a club that offered a sense of belonging and community – on the other hand a city and a political development that stripped them of their rights, marginalised and eventually killed them.

It is also telling that in 1932, for example, men such as Karl Ritter von Halt and Karl-Heinz Oettinger joined FC Bayern at the same time as Alfred Strauß. Von Halt became a prominent official in the Nazi sports system, while Oettinger became president of FC Bayern and was responsible for the club’s first ‘Aryan clause’ in 1935. This, too, is part of the German record champions’ history.

Memorial plaques are being installed throughout Munich at locations where people lived who were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945. They come in two forms – as wall plaques on building facades and as steles on public property. These memorial signs give the victims of Nazi persecution – most of whom are forgotten today – a place back in our urban community. They include key biographical details, information about their fate, and a photograph if available. For more information, visit www.erinnerungszeichen.de/en.