Exclusion policies within the VVS
The National Socialist impact on winter sports in Vorarlberg and the Vorarlberg Ski Association (VVS).
Analogous to other provincial ski associations in Austria, the Vorarlberg Skiers' Association (VVS) also stood on an "Aryan basis" according to the statutes of 4 April 1930. Only those ski associations would be admitted which were or wanted to become members of the ÖSV or DSV. Thus the way was blocked for "non-Aryan" and non-member associations. But as early as May 1926, the Vorarlberg Skiers' Association publicly spoke out in favour of the "Aryan paragraph" and thus supported the official exclusion policy of the ÖSV.
At an extraordinary general meeting in the Gasthaus zum Kreuz in Dornbirn, the participants spoke out against the deletion of the "Aryan paragraph" ordered by the FIS. They did not want to put up with "this dictatorial interference of the International Ski Federation" in internal affairs, "since the Aryan question is much more burning in our country", according to a report in the Vorarlberger Tagblatt. This statement was supported by the Turner-Skiriegen of the Turnerbund 1919, which at the same time threatened to leave the ÖSV if it deleted the "Aryan paragraph" due to the international protest. The extraordinary meeting was opened by the chairman of the VVS, Theodor Rhomberg. The chairman of the association and high-ranking ÖSV functionary became one of the central figures of the (illegal) National Socialist movement in Vorarlberg in the 1930s.
Author: Andreas Praher
Dornbirn City Archive