Prof. Dr. Otto Schantz

Professor im Ruhestand


Curriculum Vitae
Selected Publications
Research interests and projects

Curriculum Vitae



Professor Otto J. Schantz specializes in Physical Cultural Studies with particular emphasis on the olympic and paralymic movements and their ideologies. He has studied Modern Literature, Philosophy, Sciences of Education, and Sport Sciences at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, the University of Hagen, and the University of Paris IV – Sorbonne (1975-83). He received his Ph.D. (summa cum laude) and his Habilitation (highest degree, qualifying for a full professorship in France and Germany) from the University of Mainz, Germany.

Professor Schantz started his academic career as an assistant professor in history and sociology within the University of Sport at Cologne and the Johannes Gutenberg University at Mainz, Germany (1983-1991). In 1991 he declined the offer of an associate professorship at the University of Caen, France, and accepted an associate professor position within the Department of Sport Sciences at the University of Franche-Comté, Besançon, France. Three years later he moved to Strasbourg, France, where from 1994-2012 he held an associate professorship at the University Marc Bloch. From 2001 to 2004 he taught as visiting lecturer in sociology and in history of sport at different universities in Germany and Switzerland (Frankfurt, Koblenz, Mainz, and Lausanne). After his appointment in 2004 as full professor at the University Koblenz-Landau, Germany, he served two terms as dean of the School of Sport Sciences in Koblenz. In 2021 he retired from the University Koblenz-Landau, but still works as a lecturer at different universities, among others at the Sports University in Cologne and at the University of Peloponnese in Sparta.

He was invited as visiting professor at the Sport University of Beijing (2006, 2007), at the University of Spirito Santo, Vitória, Brazil (2012), and as lecturer and supervising professor of post graduate seminars at the International Olympic Academy in Ancient Olympia, Greece (1996-present). In 2012 he accepted an adjunct research professorship in the research team “Sport and Social Sciences” at the University of Strasbourg, France.

In 1999 he became a founding-member of the research council of the International Olympic Committee, and he is now board member of the International Pierre de Coubertin Committee, and director of the academic Pierre de Coubertin Prize. He serves on different editorial boards of international academic journals and as co-editor of different book series.

For his research he has been awarded numerous grants (e.g. Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach Foundation Grant of Excellence) and academic prizes (e.g. Olympic Order of the International Olympic Committee in 1997; distinction of the General German Sports Federation; award of the University Johannes Gutenberg for the best doctoral dissertation etc.).

Amongst his research interests are the history of ideas, the olympic and paralympic ideologies, Pierre de Coubertin, the cultural history of the olympic and paralympic movements, the inclusion of marginal groups in/through sports and leisure, the ethics of human enhancement, the sociology of science and knowledge related to sport sciences, and the social representations of the extraordinary body (persons with (dis)abilities). In these fields he has published and edited in more than ten languages numerous books and over two hundred papers and scholarly articles in international journals.