Barney P. Hartston

Pigeon sport changed dramatically in Central Europe between 1870

and 1914 due to the rapid development of networks of

poultry-breeding clubs, the expansion of homing pigeon use by

European military forces after the Franco-Prussian War, and attempts

to promote pigeon racing as a modern sport rather than just a

hobby. Although military leaders coordinated closely with pigeon

clubs and encouraged them to align their activities with military

priorities, individual club members also celebrated their status as

independent modern sportsmen, used racing events as loci for

male sociability, and touted their own individual skill and expertise.

In Germany, the Association of German Pigeon Fancier Clubs

became an influential interest group that defended the sport –

including advocating for laws to protect homing pigeons from

farmers and hunters. After 1900, however, as homing pigeon sport

spread to the working class populations of the Ruhr, local farmers

increasingly complained about damage to their crops. In response,

the leaders of the Association of German Pigeon Fancier Clubs

would forge an alliance with Prussian military officials to resist calls

by powerful agricultural interest groups to limit pigeon-keeping

and racing.

"Berlin Sports: Spectacle, Recreation, and Media in Germany's Metropolis presents a series of case studies that explore the history of sports in Berlin from the late nineteenth- to the early twenty-first century against the backdrop of the city's sharp political shifts, diverse populations, and status as a major metropolis with both regional and global resonance. Focal points include a long-distance equestrian race in the 1890s; the role of media in discourses around urban life, gender, and celebrity from the 1890s to the 1920s; the intersection of grassroots participation and spectatorship with international diplomacy at the elite level in the postwar and divided period; the relationship between recreational associations, immigration, and youth counterculture; and the use of the 2015 European Maccabi Games, an international Jewish sports festival, to grapple with the infamous 1936 Nazi Olympics and cast Berlin as a post-anti-Semitic city. Through these thematic lenses of spectacle, recreation, and media, these essays provide important insights about sport and urban space, Berlin sport as both unique and typical of Germany, and sport as a vehicle through which Germany has engaged with the wider world"--

"Although largely forgotten now, the 1885 trial of German artist Gustav Graef was a seminal event for those who observed it. Graef, a celebrated sixty-four-year-old portraitist, was accused of perjury and sexual impropriety with underage models. On trial alongside him was one of his former models, the twenty-one-year-old Bertha Rother, who quickly became a central figure in the affair. As the case was being heard, images of Rother, including photographic reproductions of Graef's nude paintings of her, began to flood the art shops and bookstores of Berlin and spread across Europe. Spurred by this trade in images and by sensational coverage in the press, this former prostitute was transformed into an international sex symbol and a target of both public lust and scorn. Passionate discussions of the case echoed in the press for months, and the episode lasted in public memory for far longer. The Graef trial, however, was much more than a salacious story that served as public entertainment. The case inspired fierce political debates long after a verdict was delivered, including disputes about obscenity laws, the moral degeneracy of modern art and artists, the alleged pernicious effects of Jewish influence, legal restrictions on prostitution, the causes of urban criminality, the impact of sensationalized press coverage, and the requirements of bourgeois masculine honor. Above all, the case unleashed withering public criticism of a criminal justice system that many Germans agreed had become entirely dysfunctional. The story of the Graef trial offers a unique perspective on a German Empire that was at the height of its power, yet riven with deep political, social, and cultural divisions. This compelling study will appeal to historians and students of modern German and European history, as well as those interested in obscenity law and class and gender relations in nineteenth-century Europe"--

Historians have generally assumed that the French Dreyfus Affair had no counterpart in turn-of-the-century Germany. However, while no single anti-Semitic trial in Germany had the social and political impact of the Dreyfus Affair, a series of sensational court cases did have a significant influence on the growth and development of anti-Semitism in Imperial Germany. These trials, which included prominent libel cases and several ritual murder accusations, frequently spurred debates in the German press about the nature of Judaism and the role and influence of Jews in German society. This book examines the nature of these anti-Semitic affairs, assesses their role in German politics, and evaluates their effect on the overall development of German anti-Semitism.

In 1900, Prussian government officials sent special police commissars to intervene in a sensational ritual murder investigation in the West Prussian town of Konitz. Despite occasional displays of incompetence, these special investigators generally held themselves aloof from popular anti-Semitic pressure and worked diligently to secure an acquittal for the Jewish defendant. But was this intervention by outside investigators an isolated case in Imperial Germany? Did it represent a trend of "responsible" government behavior in dealing with anti-Semitic incidents? This article will attempt to answer these questions by examining government actions in four additional anti-Semitic causes célèbres in the early Kaiserreich.