Betriebssportgemeinschaft

A Betriebssportgemeinschaft (English: Company sports community) was an organizational form of sports clubs in East Germany.

After World War II, the Allied Control Commission had dissolved all existing sports structures, including the dissolution of all existing sports clubs on the basis of directive 23, dated 17 December 1945. This directive only allowed the establishment of sports organizations on a local level.^[1] In consequence, sport competitions were only permitted on a local level with loosely organized Sportgemeinschaften (sports communities) in cities and on Landkreis level. Only in the fall of 1946 were football resumed on Land level. The competition was organized by the youth organization Free German Youth (FDJ).

After the first football championship in the Soviet Occupation Zone had been held in the summer of 1948, it became clear that the loose organization would not be sufficient to organize league play. On an initiative of the Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (FDGB, the central labour union of East Germany) and FDJ, the Deutscher Sportausschuß (DS) was created as an umbrella organization for sports in the Soviet Zone. Among its first tasks was the re-structuring of the sport organizations that was tackled with the credo "rearrangement based on production". With participation of the FDGB the existing Sportgemeinschaften were replaced by newly-created Betriebssportgemeinschaften (BSG) in production and trade companies. The so-called Trägerbetriebe (supporting companies) would take over tasks of financing and logistics for their respective BSG, with the union chapter responsible for the day-to-day management. The BSG would be tasked with organizing a large spectrum of sports activities and usually would offer a range of different sports. Each BSG had its own administrative board with a chairman and heads for the different sports sections. Financial means were provided by the Trägerbetrieb. and often the infrastructure would be built by the companies as well.

To further optimize the system, the DS reorganized the BSGs again in April 1950. Central sports associations were created according to the union structure and all BSGs within such a central association were given a standard name (e.g. BSG Rotation Dresden with its Trägerbetrieb VEB Sachsenverlag, a publishing company). These central associations were tasked with promoting the BSGs in their field. This was done by organizing internal competitions within the central associations and through influencing athletes moving between individual BSGs. The following 16 sports associations were founded:

Sports association	Union section
Aktivist	Mining
Aufbau	Construction industry
Chemie	Chemical industry, glass and ceramics
Einheit	governmental and municipal administration
Empor	Trade and food industry
Fortschritt	light and textile industry
Lokomotive	Reichsbahn
Medizin	Healthcare
Motor	Engineering, vehicle construction, metalworking
Post	Postal system and telecommunications
Rotation	Polygraphic and publishing industry
Stahl	Metallurgy
Traktor	Agriculture
Turbine	Energy
Wismut	Uranium mining
HSG Wissenschaft	Universities and colleges

With the ongoing centralization of East German sports through the DTSB, founded in 1957, the central sports associations lost their importance and were hardly noticed by the public. Among the largest and most powerful BSG were Wismut Aue, Stahl Riesa, Chemie Leipzig and Motor/Sachsenring Zwickau. Chemie Leipzig were the only BSG to win the East German football championship after the creation of the sport clubs in 1957.

The nationwide sports associations Vorwärts and Dynamo were outside the BSG system. They were sports organizations of the Nationalen Volksarmee and the Volkspolizei, respectively. The local Armeesportgemeinschaften (ASG) "Vorwärts" and the Sportgemeinschaften "Dynamo" were their subunits.

After German reunification and the ruin of many Volkseigener Betrieb companies the organizational and financial basis of most BSGs vanished. weg. Only some were transformed directly to a Eingetragener Verein.^[2] Most Betriebssportgemeinschaften were dissolved and replaced by newly-founded sports clubs.

References

1. ^ "Enactments and Approved Papers of the Control Council and Coordinating Committee" (PDF). Legal Division of the Office of the U.S. Military Government for Germany. pp. 140–141. http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/Enactments/01LAW06.pdf. Retrieved 2009-05-01. 
2. ^ Andreas Luh: Betriebssport zwischen Arbeitgeberinteressen und Arbeitnehmerbedürfnissen. Eine historische Analyse vom Kaiserreich bis zur Gegenwart, Aachen 1998, S. 429-441.

See also

• Football club (GDR)
• List of football clubs in East Germany