Sport and politics chapter 1: The English national team giving the Nazi salute.

Welcome to the series of sport and politics. I graduated in political science and I also like to follow sport. I therefore decided to write a series of articles about the role of sport in politics.
It comes as no surprise that sport is having an important impact on many people, which means that sport can be a useful tool for politicians.

Chapter 1: The English national team giving the Nazi salute.

How would you react if you saw that the English national team gave the Nazi salute? Well, it actually took place May 14th 1938 in a friendly game between Germany and England.

The English players were not fans of the Nazi ideology, but they simply followed orders given to them by their own politicians who wished to show a goodwill gesture towards the regime of Adolf Hitler.
The orders were clear even before leaving England but the players were considering not following the order, since Nazism didn't represent their own believes.
When the team arrived in Germany the ambassador to England in Germany had to explain the players why giving the salute would help the foreign policy of England.
After the efforts of of the ambassador the team was finally convinced.

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had for a long time tried to assure peace and good relations between England and Nazi Germany, and respecting the Nazi traditions on German soil in front of 110.000 spectators gained him more popularity among the leaders in the Nazi regime. Adolf Hitler himself was not present at the game, but other leaders of the regime were there such as Goering and Hess.

Despite raising their right arm and doing the salute, the players disagreed with this political move and never felt this was their choice, so once the game started the English team defeated Germany by 6-3.
Rumors have it that during the game the normally gentle captain insulted the referee by telling him that he could put his Nazi salute you know where.

At the time the efforts of Chamberlain seemed to have assured peace between the two nations. Four months after the friendly game he returned back to England after negotiations in München with the Anglo-German declaration where a non-aggression pact was achieved. Not being able to hide his joy he waved the paper of the declaration as one of the first things when he arrived back in London.

Unfortunately the salutes of the national team and the diplomatic efforts of Chamberlain did not assure peace, since the plan of Hitler only was to win time in order to prepare his nation for WW2.