Sports in the Wendel World: The Case of Lorraine from 1906 to 1978

This study of the sports policy of the Wendel company, one of France’s two largest steel manufacturers, challenges the long-held belief that sports were entirely controlled by employers, who imposed their decisions on employees. Drawing on archives held at the French National Archives, the ArcelorMittal Archives Centre, and the Moselle and Meurthe-et-Moselle departmental archives, as well as sports and news publications, this article shows that the Wendel family’s paternalism towards sport in Lorraine differed on many occasions between the various production sites, depending on the views of sport held by different members of the family and factory managers. Even the lowest-ranking employees could take initiatives in sport, either by taking control of clubs or by creating football teams within the factories.