Description

Bicycle racing made an important contribution to Austria's belated nation-building after 1945. Sport played an integral role in the formation of narratives about "homeland", "state" and "nation". Because Viennese soccer and alpine skiing tended to emphasize opposites, cycling offered itself as a unifying element, becoming a "people's sport" with high emotional activation potential in the post-war years. The "Osterreich-Radrundfahrt" made it possible to experience the territory of the country with one's finger on the map. Based on the history of the Tour d`Autriche and its heroic figures, this book illuminates continuities and ruptures with the First Republic, Austrofascism, and the Nazi era, as well as the contributions of cycling to nation-building.