L’idée nationale en montagne et dans l’alpinisme : le cas du club alpin austro-allemand (DÖAV)

• Main Author: Michel Mestre
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: TELEMME - UMR 6570 2002-06-01
• Series: Amnis
• Subjects: Austria; Europe; Germany; Mountaineering; nationalism
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/amnis/123

The institutionalization of mountaineering clubs belongs to each nation’s cultural history. These processes were carried out throughout ideological conflicts such as nationalisms. The Austrian-German Club being one of the most prominent examples. Right at the beginning, the club’s original members had to choose between two different types of structure, embodying either an idea of « Little Germany » or of « Large Germany ». The type of club eventually chosen, i.e. an Austrian-German Club, (in other words « Large Germany »), was not asserted by its founders as a political keystone, but much more as a fundamental act symbolizing a cultural specificity. After the first world war, the club stood for the abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles, advocating the return of the Southern Tyrol Territories into a German-speaking community. It also let its most extremist members carry out an « Aryan » policy within the club. Last but not least, the club widely supported a colonialistic policy turning mountaineers into explorers of unknown territories as well as symbols of the German Nationalism.