With the appointment of Adolf Hitler to Reich Chancellor (Reichskanzler) in January 1933, the path was cleared for his rise to dictatorial rule. In the following years the NSDAP established a brutal regime of terror, controlling every aspect of public life and without mercy prosecuting and murdering especially Jewish citizens.

Especially the sports clubs became swiftly controlled by the NS regime because they were particularly suitable for dissemination of right-wing ideology. Also the German and Austrian Alpine Clubs were “aligned”. How did day-to-day club activities develop under these circumstances? And how did the Frankfurt section treat its members prosecuted because being Jewish?

Antisemitism was not only a phenomenon of the 1930s and 1940s, but had gained traction within the German and Austrian Alpine Clubs already before. It culminated in 1924 with the so-called Donauland-Affair (Donauland-Affäre), when a section founded by Jewish mountaineers was excluded from the Alpine Club. Which influence had the increasing nationalistic atmosphere on the Frankfurt section and its routine club activities?

The so-called “Aryan paragraph” as part of the individual sections’ statutes defined the handling of Jewish members. First “Aryan paragraphs” existed, caused by rising antisemitism, already in the early 20th century. In the year 1933 there were only a few sections left without such a paragraph – amongst those also Frankfurt. What exactly was the content of this “Aryan paragraph” and how was it applied?

The team “Spurensuche Nazi Era” (Tracing our History in the Section) on mountain hiking tour: Some members of our group hiked in summer 2024 parts of the Berliner Höhenweg (Berlin Mountain Trail) in the Zillertal Alps (Tirol, Austria). On this tour we of course also stayed at the historically significant Friesenberghaus. Because this alpine hut at almost 8,200 ft (2500 m) altitude plays an important part in the history of antisemitism within the Alpine Clubs, and for the assertiveness of Jewish mountaineers against same.