Includes bibliographical references (p. [211]-225) and index.

Preliminary Material / M.W. Johnson -- Introduction / M.W. Johnson -- Chapter One. Between german tradition and soviet hegemony: The postwar reconstruction of sports / M.W. Johnson -- Chapter Two. Training new socialist citizens through sports / M.W. Johnson -- Chapter Three. Voluntary campaigns and socialist society / M.W. Johnson -- Chapter Four. The embodiment of east german socialism: The gymnastics and sports festivals / M.W. Johnson -- Chapter Five. Socialist spectatorship: The Friedensfahrt and champion Täve Schur / M.W. Johnson -- Epilogue / M.W. Johnson -- Bibliography / M.W. Johnson -- Index / M.W. Johnson -- Studies in central european histories / M.W. Johnson.

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Offering a counterbalance to previous scholarship on elite Olympics sports and doping scandals, this study analyzes how the East German government used participatory sports programs, sports festivals, and sports spectatorship to transform its population into new socialist citizens. It illuminates the power of the East German dictatorship over its population, the ways that citizens participated in, accommodated to, and resisted state goals, and the government’s ultimate failure to create eager socialist citizens. It also highlights the orchestration of participation in modern dictatorships, the role of mass participatory sports as both a valuable political tool and a popular leisure activity, and elements of continuity and change in twentieth-century German history.