From soccer player Franz “Bimbo” Binder to world-class athlete Ivona Dadic, the range also spans with St. Pölten participation in the exhibition “I wer ‘narrisch! The Century of Sports ”in the Lower Austria Museum. Born in 1911, Bimbo Binder had his footballing home with Sturm 19 and became world famous with Rapid Wien and the national team in the 1930s and 1940s.
Sport is becoming a mass phenomenon
Back then, sport had become a mass phenomenon. The introduction of the eight-hour day after the First World War gave people the opportunity to spend their leisure time actively. Industrialization and growing prosperity were the basis for increased health awareness. “The history of sport always interacts with societal developments,” explains sports historian Bernhard Hachleitner, who curated the exhibition. Politics, media and business play a major role in this. “But we also take a look behind the scenes of the sporting business: What is behind great achievements, what makes the fascination?”, Says Hachleitner, who also highlights political instrumentalization, exclusion, gender equality and inclusion in the show.
And sport, of course, also needs staging and media. In the exhibition this is illustrated, for example, by photos of motorcycle world champion Rupert Hollaus from Traisen and acoustically by Edi Finger’s legendary sentence “I wer ‘narrisch!”, Which gave the exhibition its title, about Austria’s victory against Germany at the 1978 World Cup.
In order for athletes to go higher, faster and further, the equipment is perfectly adapted to the body by athletes and brought up to date with the latest technology – this can also be seen in the different shoes that Ivona Dadic wears in the heptathlon. The athlete, who competes for Union St. Pölten, was at the top of the world in 2020.
The exhibition “The Century of Sports” can be seen until January 2022 in the House of History. During the Easter lockdown from Thursday April 1st to Tuesday April 6th, the digital museum is open around the clock, under www.museumnoe.at/digitalesmuseum
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