In this thesis, I have examined the Danish-German Sports Collaboration under the German occupation of Denmark in 1940-1945. The goal of this thesis was to determine how to explain the Danish-German Sports Collaboration with the collaboration term.
The first step in my analysis was to look into the Danish newspapers from the late thirties. The selected Danish newspapers were Jyllands-Posten, Socialdemokraten, Politiken and Berlingske Tidende. This analysis would give an understanding of the general Danish public attitude towards the Danish-German sports relation in the pre-war times. The next step was to analysis the Danish athletes’ attitude towards the Danish-German Sports Collaboration under the Second World War. This would give an understanding of, how the athletes experience the Danish-German Sports Collaboration. This part of the analysis would focus on why the athletes choose to be a part of the Sports Collaboration or not to be a part of it. The last part of my analysis was focused on DIF’s role in the Danish-German Sports Collaboration and how DIF explained their own role in the Dan- ish-German Sports Collaboration. DIF’s version of the Danish-German Sports Collaboration would be compared with the research made by Hans Bonde.
In my analysis, I discovered that DIF and the athletes explained the Danish-German Sports Collaboration as a passive and forced collaboration in which DIF tried to stall the German occupation. On the contrary, Hans Bonde suggests that DIF acted very differently from what they claim. After research by Hans Bonde DIF was actively reaching out in relation to the collaboration with Germany. The main view was that DIF tried to create the best possible situation in the sport-policy field under the German occupation. Therefore, there is a big variation of the Danish-German Sports Collaboration and how DIF acted in the relation to the German occupying power.
DIF’s own explanation of the Danish-German Sports Collaboration was very similar to the traditional story about the Danish Collaboration under the German occupation in 1940-1945. In the post-war period, the traditional story was used to explain and justify why Denmark accepted the German occupation without much resistance. This thesis
contributes to the general discussion about the Danish collaboration under the German occupation focusing on perspectives from the sports-policy field and community.