Direction: Rudolf Müllner (Center for Sports Science Univ. Vienna), Matthias Marschik (Univ. Vienna), Gherardo Bonini (European University Institute, Florence)

Otto Herschmann (1877-1942) is a key figure of the Austrian Olympic Movement and Austrian sport in its constituent phase before the First World War.

He participated as an athlete in the first Modern Olympic Games in Athens, winning a silver medal in swimming. In 1912 he won silver in fencing in Stockholm. He was an effective functionary (ÖOC president 1912-1914; founder of the traditional club WAC; president of the Austrian Swimming Federation). To this day, Herschmann is the only president of a National Olympic Committee to win a medal during his tenure. Herschmann was a lawyer. He was deported to the Sobibor death camp in January 1942 and died the same year in the Izbica transit camp. Internationally, Herschmann is a well-known and respected figure. To date, he has been largely underrepresented in the broader Austrian public.

Project Objectives:

Herschmann is one of the most remarkable personalities of the Austrian Olympic Movement. His outstanding life achievement and his tragic story have been insufficiently researched and are hardly known to a broader public until today. This is where our project comes in:

1. detailed research, presentation and popularization of the biography, which is so important for Austrian sports history.

2. investigation of the history of Herschmann's impact in the constituent phase of the Austrian Olympic movement. Here, the main focus is on the tension between nationalism and transnationalism.

Project duration: June 2020 - September 2021

Project Team: Interdisciplinary team including the Austrian Academy of Sciences (D. Hecht), legal historians from the Univ. of Vienna (I. Reiter-Zatloukal/B. Sauer), historians from the European University Institute Florence (G. Bonini).

Funding: Univ. Vienna; Austrian Olympic Committee

Photo credit: Bonini, G. Otto Herschmann: A Biographical Reassessment, In Day, D. (ed), Playing Pasts (Manchester: MMU Sport and Leisure History, 2020), 89-105.

Fotocredit: Bonini, G. Otto Herschmann: A Biographical Reassessment, In Day, D. (ed), Playing Pasts (Manchester: MMU Sport and Leisure History, 2020), 89-105.