Everyone in Germany knows Bundesliga club Arminia Bielefeld. Everyone should know about the Jewish man who saved the club from disappearing.

Thread on Julius Hesse, #DSC's first "saviour." 1/19

#HolocaustMemorialDay #NieWeder #NeverAgain #DSC #WeRemember #HolocaustGedenktag

Julius Hesse was a Jewish businessman, born in the German region of Ostwestfalen.

He owned a successful sports shop in Bielefeld’s city center.

Hesse was an Arminia Bielefeld club member.

In 1909, he took over as the Arminia Bielefeld’s second-ever president. 2/19

As Hesse took over, Arminia was under financial stress due to some real-estate deals which came with heavy expenses.

Due to the club’s growing debts, the authorities seized a site just months after it had been bought by the club. 3/19

Some club members started leaving the club due to fears of being held liable by the authorities.

It looked like Arminia was on its way to bankruptcy. 4/19

It was Hesse who reached an agreement with the club’s creditors, an agreement which allowed the club to honor its commitments.

He also registered Arminia as an official association to prevent members from being held liable, a move which prevented members from leaving. 5/19

When he left his position in 1914, the club was in a secure financial position going forward.

In 1933, all of Arminia's Jewish members were excluded from the club, Hesse included. In 1935, the Nazis took over his successful business in Bielefeld. 6/19

The SA actively encouraged Bielefeld’s residents not to buy from Hesse’s shop.

The following sentence was written on his shop windows:

“Buy shoes from Hesse, and you’ll get beaten!” 7/19

As a result of the situation, Hesse and his wife tried to commit suicide, but did not succeed.

Their children managed to flee Germany in time. 8/19

In May 1943, Hesse and his wife Jenni were deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, and a few months later to Auschwitz. Julius Hesse was murdered by the Germans in March 1944. Jenni Hesse's date of death is unknown to this day. 9/19

It was only in 2005 that Julius Hesse’s name would return from the ashes as the club released a history book in celebration of its 100th birthday. 10/19

Back in the 30s, Arminia Bielefeld cooperated closely with the Nazi party.

As a result, the club’s Jewish members and bosses were practically erased from the club’s books. 11/19

Nowadays, however, the situation couldn’t be more different.

Arminia Bielefeld were targeted by fascists and far-righters on numerous occasions for calling for their fans to attend counter protests against far-right demonstrations held in the city. 12/19 https://twitter.com/ftamsut/status/1060963094099361792

Arminia Bielefeld also cooperates with a Holocaust memorial museum in Wewelsburg, as part of which the club takes its youth teams to learn about the region’s history under the Nazis, as well as about Hesse himself. 13/19

The Bielefeld-based Fanprojekt, where independent social workers work with young football fans, also takes part in keeping Hesse’s legacy alive.

They organize tours through important sites in Bielefeld in the context of Hesse’s story and in the context of WW2 in general. 14/19

Two stepping stones (Stolpersteine) were laid next to the address where Hesse’s sports shop used to be located. 15/19

Despite the Germans’ best efforts to erase Hesse’s legacy, a photo of the Hesse family was found in an archive in 2016.

Julius Hesse is the first person on the top right. 16/19

Many Jewish players, bosses and members were forced to leave their clubs in 1933.

Bayern Munich’s longest-serving president, Kurt Landauer, was virtually forgotten by the club.

Then came Bayern Munich’s ultras and brought his memory back to life. 17/19 https://twitter.com/ftamsut/status/1234828545945264129

In memory of Julius Hesse and the millions of others murdered by Germany, its people and their helpers in the Second World War and its aftermath.

Against LGBT hate.
Against Antisemitism.
Against white supremacy.
Against racism.
Against fascism. 18/19

Sources & photos: @arminia, Fanprojekt Bielefeld, @KreisblattHalle, Holocaust Museum Wewelsburg.

I’d like to thank @eva_bohle, my go-to source on everything Arminia Bielefeld and an all-around great person, for bringing Hesse’s story to my attention. 19/19

Here's Julius Hesse's page on the @yadvashem website.

(H/t @Sportkultur)
https://yvng.yadvashem.org/index.html?language=en&s_id=14034186