Successful conference on sport politics in Germany and Korea
On June 6 and 7, the International Conference on Sport, Politics and History in Germany and Korea took place in the Schloss Münster. The German-Korean conference was organized by the Department of Sport Pedagogy & Sport History at the Institute of Sports Science in cooperation with the Willibald Gebhardt Institute. The conference program as well as organizational administration was managed by Prof. Dr. Michael Krüger, WGI vice president and head of the AB Sport Pedagogy and Sport History, as well as Prof. Dr. Roland Naul, Prof. Dr. Andreas Niehaus from Ghent and Cand. Phil. Yoonkyu Song.
The speakers from Korea and Germany were greeted by Prorector Prof. Dr. Michael Quante and the Korean Consul General Huh Seung-jae. Both guest speakers emphasized that sport contexts in many ways reflect overall social processes – and thus also the chance for diplomacy in sports science at a time when political dialogue is difficult or impossible.
How topical and relevant the conference theme of sport, peace, values education through sport and exercise is, especially in the context of the discussions about the Ukraine war and the participation in the Olympic Games 2024, became clear through the intensive discussions following the respective presentations. Around the scientific exchange on the topic of sports policy in Germany and Korea in the context of divided nations, the Korean guests Prof. Na Young-il, Dr. Cho Hyunjoo and Prof. Kwon Sun-Yong, hosted by the Korean PhD student at WWU Yoonkyu Song and WGI project partner Prof. Roland Naul, also embraced the opportunity for an extensive cultural program. The program included a visit to the Peace Hall in Münster and the German Olympic Museum in Cologne.
As a result, further forms of exchange and cooperation were agreed upon to explore the role of sports in the process of unification of Germany and divided Korea. In the course of further cooperation, it was also discussed to specifically address the anniversary theme “140 Years of German-Korean Relations (1883-2023)” through a joint research project on the development of bilateral sports relations.