Leopold Stastny – survivor of Nazi terror, legendary coach, and founder of the student league

fairplay prevention exhibition at Sparkassenplatz in Innsbruck (June 17–July 11)

As coach, Leopold Stastny led FC Wacker Innsbruck to the top of the domestic league in the spring season of 1966. In just his second season, an average of over 10,000 people flocked to the Tivoli Stadium. With his expertise, he then laid the foundations for later successes in Austrian football as team manager between 1968 and 1975. The school league he initiated will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2025. Parallel to soccer for boys, Stastny launched a volleyball school league for girls in 1977.

Stastny was a star player and coach in his hometown of Bratislava in the 1940s and 1950s. Still almost unknown in Austria is the fact that, as a Jew, he survived the Nazi era only by sheer luck.

The exhibition “Leopold Stastny – Survivor of Nazi Terror, Legendary Coach, and Inventor of the School League” about the legendary football coach Leopold Stastny (1911-1996) is based on an exhibition at the Museum of Jewish Culture in Bratislava from 2020. The exhibition, newly curated by Joachim Bürgschwentner, Niko Hofinger, and Georg Spitaler, deals with the history of football under National Socialism and the post-war period in Austria.
The exhibition highlights topics such as Jewish sport in Tyrol before 1938, how Austrian sport dealt with the Nazi era after 1945, Stastny's work as a coach in Austria, Stastny as a media figure, and as a pioneer of children's and youth sport in Austria.

Contact

fairplay Initiative at the VIDC
Kurt Wachter & Karim Reuß
wachter [AT] vidc [DOT] org / reuss [AT] vidc [DOT] org
Tel. +43 1 713 35 94 - 87 / +43 660 769 55 47
www.fairplay-prevention.at