Democracy Destroyed The First 100 Days of Nazi Rule

Day 84, Sunday 23 April 1933: Tennis federation bars 'non-Aryans' from national teams, shutting out Daniel Prenn

Day 84 of 100

Tennis federation bars ‘non-Aryans’ from national teams, shutting out Daniel Prenn

After the Davis Cup trials in Berlin, the board of the German Tennis Federation resolved that ‘non-Aryans’ (the regime’s term for people of Jewish descent) could no longer be picked for the Davis Cup or other representative teams and that Jews should leave club boards, which shut out the Jewish player Daniel Prenn. In the plenary hall of the Prussian Landtag, the Nazi press chief Otto Dietrich told journalists the press must become a ‘sharply honed weapon’ of German politics, and Protestant leaders announced work on a new constitution for a single German Evangelical Church. Max Planck turned 75, and in Monaco Achille Varzi won the Grand Prix in record time.

A racing car with the number 10 and its driver on a waterfront road, with the harbour and hills of Monaco behind.
Achille Varzi in his Bugatti at the Monaco Grand Prix, 23 April 1933, which he won in record time. Press photograph, Agence Rol. Photographed on this day Agence Rol. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The tennis resolution was adopted, its text said, to settle pending questions until a final decision by a Reich state commissioner for sport, whose appointment was expected shortly. ‘Non-Aryan’ board members had already resigned; clubs were asked to remove Jews from leading positions, membership and participation were left to ‘local conditions’, and a club of ‘pronounced Jewish character’ was declared unacceptable in the federation. For Daniel Prenn, a former member of the Berlin club Tennis Borussia, it meant exclusion from the national team; the press had been discussing his replacement for days, and two days earlier he had partnered the King of Sweden on a Berlin court.

Politics and power

Government, terror and persecution

  1. Propaganda midday, Berlin, Prussian Landtag, Prinz-Albrecht-Straße

    ‘The press as a weapon of German politics’

    At a well-attended rally on ‘The German Press’, held at midday in the plenary hall of the Prussian Landtag by the Berlin branch of the Reich Association of the German Press together with the Fighting League for German Culture, the NSDAP’s press chief Otto Dietrich spoke on ‘The German press as a weapon of German politics’. The government would respect press freedom, he said, if the press gave the state what was the state’s.1

  2. Churches Berlin

    A new constitution for German Protestantism

    Leading church circles announced that the reform of the constitution of German Protestantism must begin at once, with the aim of a federal German Evangelical Church built on the existing state churches and their confessions. The president of the German Evangelical Church Federation, Kapler, appointed the Lutheran bishop of Hanover, Marahrens, and the Reformed pastor Hesse of Elberfeld to work with him on a new constitution.1

  3. Opposition Berlin

    The People’s Party debates its own end

    The central committee of the German People’s Party (DVP) met for several hours in Berlin to discuss the future of the party, now much reduced; all present agreed it was their duty not to stand aside but to help in the ‘reconstruction of the Reich’.2

  4. Propaganda 16:35, Cologne

    Goebbels lands in Cologne

    Coming from the NSDAP leaders’ conference in Munich, which had culminated the day before in a speech by Hitler, Goebbels landed at Cologne airport at 16:35 for the city’s ‘German Week’, greeted by more than 2,000 men of the SA, SS and motor corps and several thousand spectators.2

Everyday life

What else was happening in Germany

  1. Sport Berlin

    The Tennis Federation adopts ‘Aryan’ rules

    After the Davis Cup trials on the Blau-Weiss courts, the board of the German Tennis Federation met in Berlin and resolved that ‘non-Aryans’ could not be selected for representative matches such as the Davis Cup, internationals or the Meden team championships; that ‘non-Aryan’ board members had resigned; that clubs should ensure ‘non-Aryans’ did not remain in leading posts; and that a club of ‘pronounced Jewish character’ was not acceptable as a member. The decision shut Daniel Prenn out of the national team. In the trials themselves von Cramm and Nourney beat H. Bartelt and Dr Kleinschroth in the main doubles.2,3,6

  2. Science Berlin

    Max Planck at 75

    The physicist Max Planck celebrated his 75th birthday; the Hamburger Fremdenblatt marked it with his portrait on its picture page.4

  3. Sport Hohen Neuendorf, near Berlin

    Berlin keeps the cross-country titles

    The 16th German cross-country championship was run over about 10 km of woodland at Hohen Neuendorf, north of Berlin, where local knowledge favoured the Berlin runners. Kohn won the individual title again and his club, Polizei SV Berlin, the team title, with Victoria Hamburg second.1,2

Voices

We German journalists... want to prove ourselves worthy of the honour of standing in the front line of the nation’s struggle for life, and to make the German press in future a sharply honed weapon of German politics.

Otto Dietrich, NSDAP Reich press chief Speech at the rally ‘Deutsche Presse’ in the Prussian Landtag, Berlin, 23 April 1933, as reported by the Hamburger Fremdenblatt; the party’s press chief was setting out the role journalists were now expected to play. Translated by this site.1

Elsewhere in the world

  • Monaco

    Varzi wins the Monaco Grand Prix in record time

    In the fifth Monaco Grand Prix, 100 laps of a 3.18-km circuit through the town, the Italian Achille Varzi won in a Bugatti at a record average of 91.808 km/h after a long duel with Tazio Nuvolari in an Alfa Romeo, who was leading two laps from the end when his oil supply failed. 1,2

In Berlin today

The symmetrical stone front of a parliament building with flags and a statue on a plinth in the forecourt
The former Prussian Landtag on Niederkirchnerstraße, seat of Berlin’s Abgeordnetenhaus, in August 2020, with the statue of Freiherr vom Stein in the forecourt. Gunnar Klack / CC BY-SA 4.0. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Prussian Landtag (now Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin)

Niederkirchnerstraße 5 (formerly Prinz-Albrecht-Straße), 10117 Berlin

Then
In the plenary hall of the former Prussian Landtag, the Berlin press association and the Fighting League for German Culture held their rally ‘Deutsche Presse’ at midday on 23 April 1933, with Otto Dietrich as the main speaker.1,5
Today
The listed parliament building of 1892–1899, heavily damaged in the war and later altered, was restored and has housed Berlin’s state parliament, the Abgeordnetenhaus, since 1993.

Open in OpenStreetMap

More pictures

A long neo-Renaissance parliament building with a sculpted central gable, seen across an empty street
The Prussian Landtag on Prinz-Albrecht-Straße in 1932. On 23 April 1933 it hosted the rally on ‘The press as a weapon of German politics’; since 1993 it has housed Berlin’s Abgeordnetenhaus. For context Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R98038 / CC-BY-SA 3.0. CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons
Head-and-shoulders portrait of a bald man with a moustache and rimless glasses, wearing a bow tie
The physicist Max Planck, president of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, who turned 75 on 23 April 1933. The archive dates the portrait to January 1933. For context Unknown author Unknown author. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Sources

  1. Hamburger Fremdenblatt, 24 April 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 2 ('Berlin, 23. April': rally in the Prussian Landtag; church constitution); p. 11 ('16. Deutsche Waldlauf-Meisterschaft'; 'Autopreis von Monaco')
  2. Kölnische Zeitung, 24 April 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, Morning edition, p. 1 (DVP central committee), p. 2 (Goebbels in Cologne); sports page, p. 3 (Tennis Federation resolution; Davis Cup trials; Monaco; cross-country)
  3. Hamburger Fremdenblatt, 20 April 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, Sports page: Davis Cup prospects and the need to replace Prenn
  4. Hamburger Fremdenblatt, 22 April 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, Evening edition, p. 17, picture page: 'Geheimrat Prof. Dr. Max Planck vollendet am 23. April das 75. Lebensjahr'
  5. Architektur (Der Gebäudekomplex des ehemaligen Preußischen Landtags) Abgeordnetenhaus Berlin
  6. Aus dem Spiel genommen taz, die tageszeitung, 31 October 2018, on Jan Buschbom's exhibition about Jewish members of Tennis Borussia Berlin

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