Section’s Position Before the Nazi Era

From 1910, the main committee of the Alpine Club decided on the admission or exclusion of individual sections. It consisted of representatives from all regions of northern and southern Germany as well as Austria and was intended to represent the overall interests of the association--its members were constantly renewing themselves. The main committee was therefore also responsible for the political orientation of the association, which remained neutral until 1919. This can be seen, for example, in the fact that the introduction of a so-called "Arierparagraf" (Aryan paragraph) in the regional statutes, which would have legitimized the exclusion and non-admission of Jewish members, was consistently prevented. It was not until 1920 that the Villach and Graz sections succeeded in enforcing an "Arierparagraf" (Aryan paragraph)--anti-Jewish resentment, fueled by strong media attention across all newspapers, was already on the rise in other sports clubs. These culminated in the holding of a three-day "Antisemitenkongress" (anti-Semitic congress) in March 1921, at which anti-Semitic clubs from all disciplines exchanged views.

The Jewish members of numerous Austrian sections took the increasingly anti-Semitic mood as an opportunity to form their own section called "Donauland" (Danube land). The motion submitted by Oskar Marmorek and Guido Mayer to the main committee makes this clear:

"Damit existiert tatsächlich in der Millionenstadt Wien keine einzige Sektion des Deutschen und Österreichischen Alpen-Vereines mehr, welche Mitglieder ohne Unterschied der Nation und Konfession aufnehmen würde und in der Sektion "Austria" ist für die nichtarischen Mitglieder und für diejenigen, welche mit der neuen Tendenz und dem Hineintragen der Politik in die alpinen Vereine nicht einverstanden sind, keine Möglichkeit des Verbleibens." (As a result, there is no longer a single section of the German and Austrian Alpine Association in the metropolis of Vienna that would accept members without distinction of nation or denomination, and there is no possibility of remaining in the "Austria" section for non-Aryan members and for those who do not agree with the new trend and the introduction of politics into the Alpine associations. Marmorek and Mayer to HA of March 21, 1921; OeAV HA ZV 6.201.)

Immediately after the admission of the Donauland section at the meeting of the main committee at Whitsun 1921--by a very narrow margin of 14 votes to 12--the agitation of the other sections, particularly those based in Vienna, began. Anti-Jewish leaflets and circulars were distributed throughout the association, and members of the Donauland section were denied membership privileges at huts or even access to them.

As the Hauptausschuss (main committee) initially backed the Donauland section, the anti-Semitic sections tried to influence its composition in their favor. "Das Vorgehen dieser Sektionen ist unglaublich, und sollte in der H.-V. [Hauptversammlung] gebrandmarkt werden" (The actions of these sections are unbelievable and should be denounced at the H.-V. [General Assembly]), wrote Max Moritz Wirth in his function as representative of the Frankfurt on the Main section in July 1922. Wirth later maintained this stance: In 1924, he was the only member of the main committee to vote against putting the expulsion of the Donauland section to a vote before the General Assembly.

In addition, Eduard Pichl, one of the biggest agitators, founded the Deutsch-Völkischer Bund in the Alpine Club, to which almost all Austrian and many southern German sections soon belonged. The Bund now engaged in grueling guerrilla tactics: the exclusion of the Donauland section was put on the table at every general meeting, followed by hours of often loud and aggressive discussions. In April and May 1924, a compromise was reached between the "Deutsch-Völkischer Bund" (German Volkish League) and the main committee: The Bund would dissolve if the Donauland section could be persuaded to leave voluntarily. In addition, the anti-Semitic sections undertook to refrain from introducing a general "Arierparagraf" (Aryan paragraph) for eight years. However, by 1924, 98 of the 100 Austrian sections had already enshrined the "Aryan paragraph" in their statutes. In addition, around 20 percent of all German sections had an "Aryan paragraph" in their statutes or applied one tacitly.

When the Donauland section refused, the main committee prepared its forced expulsion in Munich on December 14, 1924. In the decisive vote, only 16 sections of the German and Austrian Alpine Club voted against the expulsion of the Donauland section, including Frankfurt on the Main, Aachen, Berlin, Essen, Gleiwitz, Leipzig, Mainz, Mannheim, Marburg, and Nuremberg.

The consequences of the expulsion shook the entire Alpine Club and caused several hundred members to resign and reorganize, for example in Berlin and Munich. It also met with a broad response in the media; in Germany in particular, the Alpine Club was seen as a pioneer of anti-Semitism. The chairman of the Association of National German Jews, Max Naumann, wrote in the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung on December 10, 1924:

"Die Vorgänge im Alpenverein gehen in ihrer Bedeutung weit hinaus über den Rahmen interner Vereinspolitik. Sie sind in kleinem Rahmen ein Abbild dessen, was heute auf jedem Gebiete des deutschen Lebens vor sich geht." (The significance of the events in the Alpine Club goes far beyond the scope of internal club politics. On a small scale, they are a reflection of what is going on in every area of German life today.)

Anti-Semitic, nationalistic and National Socialist tendencies had therefore already existed in the association before 1933. The Frankfurt on the Main section did not give these tendencies any space for a long time.

From an organizational perspective, the death of long-time president Prof. Dr. Theodor Petersen, who had led the Frankfurt section since its foundation in 1869, was a major turning point. On March 24, 1919, after a lengthy debate, an agreement was finally reached on the board members Carl Barth, August Sachsse and Max Moritz Wirth; the latter was to continue to shape the section for a long time afterwards. The year 1919 was also marked by the Section's move from Petersen's private premises to Große Gallusstraße 9/II, where the office and library were set up.

The section saw a continuous increase in membership. While there were only 840 members at the end of the First World War, by 1933 there were already 1,488. The fact that membership numbers did not increase by leaps and bounds was not least due to the galloping hyperinflation of the 1920s, which caused the subscription price to skyrocket from 25 to 1,000 Reichsmarks. Older members in particular left the section because they could no longer afford the fees. Although the section's management remained reasonably stable for a few years, the global economic crisis had already wiped out the section's good finances by 1930.

The precarious economic situation in the post-war period also had an impact on section life. It was only through frugal budgeting that the section was able to resume its lecture program, which was intended to offer members a mixture of scientific and tourist content. Particularly noteworthy are the lectures by the exceptional alpinist Eleonore Noll-Hasenclever, who spoke about her crossing of the Monte Rosa east face, and the presentations by Dr. Walter Bing, who had a Jewish background, about several ski tours. In addition, thanks to Bing's tireless efforts, the section managed to get almost every famous mountaineer or alpinist of the time to give a lecture. Another financial burden was construction work on the section's own huts, in particular the Gepatschhaus and the Rauhekopfhütte.

At the beginning of the 1920s, the hiking program was mainly limited to the greater Frankfurt area, with tours going to the Taunus mountains, the Hochspessart, the Rhoen mountains or to the city of Heusenstamm. After a climbing group was founded, the neighboring walls, such as the Eschbacher Klippen, were also used for training. It was not until the late 1920s that the focus increasingly shifted to an alpine winter program. Walter Bing also campaigned for the founding of a "Hochturistische Vereinigung" (High Touristic Association), which was financed by 1000 Reichsmark for training trips to the alpine high mountains. In order to continue to make club life attractive, not only were regular dance evenings and the winter festival, which was very popular with the local community, organized, but from 1926 the "Nachrichten-Blatt" was also published monthly, which quickly became the most popular and important communication organ.

The section was also active in the general association and was represented in large numbers at all general meetings. This was mainly due to the fact that the section was affected by many of the assembly's resolutions due to its large membership and hut ownership. These included decisions on the financial support of the lecture system, the handling of winter tourism, and the hut system. Max Moritz Wirth in particular was also active in the Southwest German Section Association, which also included the neighboring Darmstadt and Wiesbaden sections. The aim of the association was to agree on common content and organizational details, such as hut management or the amount of membership fees, in order to be able to represent a unified line to the association as a whole.

Max Moritz Wirth sat as a representative on the Hauptausschuss (main committee) several times, including from 1920 to 1924, and thus had to position himself on the "Donauland Affair" described above. Together with other southwest German and Rhineland sections, Wirth pursued a liberal line. In December 1924, he was the only member of the main committee to vote against the expulsion of the Donauland section. The internal position of the Frankfurt on the section can only be reconstructed from a few statements. For example, the report for the years 1919 to 1924 states that it "von den peinlichen Vorgängen und Erörterungen […] unberührt geblieben" (remained unaffected by the embarrassing events and discussions). At the celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the section, the first chairman Prof. Dr. Matthias Friedwagner explicitly emphasized the Frankfurt on the Main section's apolitical stance in times of great division in the association as a whole, "die es der Sektion eigentlich erst ermöglicht habe, Bergsteiger der verschiedensten Lebensanschauungen, Berufe und Herkunft zu einer mächtigen Körperschaft zu vereinigen" (which actually made it possible for the section to unite mountaineers of the most diverse views of life, professions and origins into a powerful body.)

The "Donauland Affair" therefore had no influence on the life of the club itself. The Frankfurt section maintained this orientation until 1933, and members of Jewish origin such as Ernst Meissinger, Walter Bing and Arthur Kutz were active in central positions. The statement by Privy Councillor Prof. Dr. Matthias Friedwagner in March 1930 also fits in with this:

"Wir fragen nicht nach der politischen oder konfessionellen Eigenart, sondern nur nach dem Anstand derer, die sich uns anschließen, nach dem alpinen Herzen, das Verständnis für das Große, Schöne und Ideale in sich birgt" (We do not ask about political or denominational characteristics, but only about the decency of those who join us, about the Alpine heart that harbors an understanding for the great, the beautiful and the ideal. Nachrichten-Blatt No. 3 of March 1930, p. 36).

The various denominations that Friedwagner mentions included Judaism as well as the Christian religions at this time. This attitude changed with the beginning of the Nazi dictatorship in 1933.