Abstract

Having been forgotten from 1930 until 1973, the Olympic Congresses do not have the same significance as the annual IOC sessions throughout the history of the modern Olympic movement. The present work wants to give an explanation for this. The Olympic Congresses were designed as intellectual guidance and justification. Coubertin used them to unite modern sport, science, and the arts. For a long time (until 1930), the Olympic Congresses, together with the Olympic Games, were the most important landmarks of modern Olympic history. As Technical Olympic Congresses they became the platform of encounter and balance of interests for the three pillars of the Olympic movement: IOC, NOCs and IFs. When Coubertin resigned as IOC President in 1925, the educationally orientated congresses disappeared, and soon afterwards Olympic Congresses as such. After a break of 43 years, the series of Olympic Congresses was resumed in Varna in 1973, and very successfully continued in Baden-Baden in 1981. These Congresses satisfied an urgent need of the Olympic family to communicate and foster mutual understanding. This volume tries to point out the course of the events. It attempts to highlight some of the eminent developments of the Olympic movement and the role the Olympic Congresses played for the development. Aus der Einleitung