The project aims to answer the question of how football became a mass phenomenon in the German Empire from 1875 onwards. How did it become legitimised as a game and how did its players become subjects capable of playing? Based on discourse-analytical considerations, the legitimisation of football as a "remedy" for the "degenerated body of the people" is examined with regard to a process of inscription into various discursive formations. The effects that talking about football had on its practitioners are also analysed. The thesis is that a specific subject, the "footballer", developed in the context of the numerous practical instructions for playing football "correctly".

Author: Jörn Eiben (born Esch).

The project was funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation.

Most important publication:

Jörn Eiben: The subject of football. A history of moving bodies in the German Empire, Bielefeld 2016