Sports Press as a Soft Power Tool in the Polish-German Border Plebiscite of 1921

According to the will of World War I’s victors, a plebiscite planned for 1921 would determine the border demarcation between Germany and reborn Poland. In the conflict with Germany, Poland was the weaker side, both in political, military and economic terms, and needed to use a wide range of tools to achieve a favourable result in the planned plebiscite. The Polish side used the sports press as a soft power tool which played a special role in the plebiscite’s campaign. The sports press presented Poland as a modern country that promoted democratic sports disciplines and having excellent contacts with European sports which were in opposition to Germany, the war loser excluded from the Olympic family and now unattractive in sports terms. In the soft power context, the sports press contributed to building a local community and to sports and hygienic education by using non-material energy resources.

Context (archaeology) · Democracy · Economic history · German · Opposition (politics) · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Sociology · Soft power · European Cultural and National Identity · History · Intellectual Property Rights and Media · Law · Polish Historical and Cultural Studies