Carl Diem (1882-1962), the organizer of the 1936 Olympic Games, is still regarded as the "father of German sports" in the tradition of sports associations. However, Diem, whose career spanned from the German Empire to the Federal Republic and who always operated at the intersection of sports and politics, became the cause célèbre of German sports. The sports educator and Olympic official had still appeared as a motivational speaker before the Hitler Youth in March 1945, but after the war, he was again seen as a moral authority. This biographical study, which also examines the environment of organized sports alongside Diem, investigates the concepts that Diem pursued in his sports policy. The focus is on Diem's little-researched initiatives in the Wilhelmine Empire, where he developed the attitudes that allowed him to collaborate with the Nazi regime.