In 1929 he joined the
Nazi Party and became a member of the Party's paramilitary organization, the
SA, with the rank of SA-
Standartenführer. In March 1932 he took over the leadership of the SA-
Gruppe Mitte (Center Group) headquartered in
Dessau and was promoted to SA-
Gruppenführer. At the
July 1932 German federal election, von Tschammer und Osten won a seat as a member of the German
Reichstag from electoral constituency 10 (
Magdeburg). He would retain this
Reichstag seat until his death. After
Adolf Hitler's accession to power, von Tschammer was named
Reichskommissar für Turnen und Sport (Reich Commissioner for Gym and Sports) of the German Sports Office
Deutscher Reichsausschuss für Leibesübungen (DRA) in April 1933. Although he had been a relatively unknown figure in German sports, von Tschammer saw as his goal the use of sports
"to improve the morale and productivity of German workers." Sporting skills were made a criterion for school graduation as well as a necessary qualification for certain jobs and admission to universities. Von Tschammer disbanded the DRA, branded as a "
bourgeois entity", on 5 May 1933 (officially 10 May). He was then elevated to
Reichssportführer on 19 July and the whole sports sphere in Germany was placed under his control. In January 1934, he was named the head of the
Sportamt (Sports Office) of
Strength Through Joy, the Nazi recreational organization. He replaced the DRA with a Nazi-oriented organization, the
Deutscher Reichsbund für Leibesübungen (DRL) on 27 July 1934, to serve as the official sports governing body of Nazi Germany. Von Tschammer was an active and able promoter of sports in Nazi Germany. He instituted the present-day German Football-Federation Cup. He also commissioned the publication of
Sport und Staat (Sports and State), a massive four-volume
Nazi propaganda report on the organized sports activities in the Third Reich.
Sport und Staat was made by Arno Breitmeyer and Hitler's personal photographer
Heinrich Hoffmann. This lavishly illustrated work had many pictures and information about the various Nazi organizations, i.e.
SA,
NSKK,
Bund Deutscher Mädel,
Hitler Jugend, etc. Printed in 1934 by the publishing house of the German Sports Aid Funds, a branch of the DRL, only volume one and two of a planned series of four volumes were published. The aims of the promotion of sports in the Third Reich included hardening the spirit of every German as well as making German citizens feel that they were part of a wider national purpose. This was in line with the ideals of
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, the "Father of physical exercises", who connected the steeling of one's own body to a healthy spirit and promoted the idea of a unified, strong Germany. A more controversial aim was the demonstration of
Aryan physical superiority. Under von Tschammer's leadership, German Jewish athletes were systematically hindered by being denied adequate facilities and the opportunity to compete. Hans von Tschammer und Osten enjoyed the Nazi sports festivals in which he took a keen interest as organizer. He appears often as a spectator in a white suit during the massive displays of Nazi pageantry. On 17 August 1936, von Tschammer was appointed to the
Prussian State Council by Prussian
Minister President Hermann Göring. The 1936
Summer Olympics in
Berlin were held during von Tschammer's tenure as
Reichssportführer and President of the German Olympic Committee. He played a major role in the structure and organization of the Olympic Games together with
Carl Diem, who was the former secretary of the Deutscher Reichsausschuss für Leibesübungen (DRA). Von Tschammer entrusted the organization of the
Fourth Winter Olympics in
Garmisch-Partenkirchen to
Karl Ritter von Halt, whom he named President of the Committee for the organization of the games. Von Tschammer would be later blamed by historians for enforcing a ban on non-
Aryans in Germany's Olympic team, a fact that was condemned internationally as a violation of the Olympic ethical code. But it is doubtful that he was the only one of the NSRL leaders behind that decision. Despite his major role in the Olympics and in the world of sports of his time, von Tschammer never became a member of the
International Olympic Committee (IOC), a post he craved. In 1937 Karl Ritter von Halt was elected as member of the Executive Committee of the IOC instead of him. In January 1937, he was made head of the Sports and Physical Exercise Department in the
Reich Ministry of the Interior and, in 1938, he was given the rank of
State Secretary there. The same year he was promoted to SA-
Obergruppenführer. However, von Tschammer's influence began rapidly eroding, as war preparations diminished the influence of sports in Nazi Germany in favour of
militarism. Von Tschammer would never see the end of the organization he had led for so long, nor Germany's defeat in
World War II, for he died from
pneumonia in
Berlin in 1943. The assets he left behind were negligible for a man of his position. Von Tschammer was succeeded as
Reichssportführer by
Arno Breitmeyer. ==See also==