The Rebels of 1894
and a Visionary Activist

By Volker Kluge

On 23rd June, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) celebrates the 125th anniversary of its foundation, which was announced on the eighth day of an international congress at the University of Paris – the Sorbonne. Originally called the Comité International des Jeux Olympiques, its purpose was to run the Olympic Games, whose rebirth was decided after a ‘solar eclipse’ of more than 1,500 years.

The official address of the committee was an office at Rue de Saint-Honoré 229 in Paris, which the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques (USFSA) had rented. In reality, the ‘IOC headquarters’ was in the parental home of Pierre de Coubertin at 20 rue Oudinot. Its founding father also paid the remaining expenses out of his own pocket, which was to ensure the existence of the committee for a long time.

It all began with a young aristocrat who was just about to do his A-levels and was passionately interested in contemporary history.

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