- East Germany at the Olympics
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East Germany at the Olympic Games 
Flag of the German Democratic Republic – Flag bearersIOC code GDR NOC Nationales Olympisches Komitee für Ostdeutschland Olympic history Summer Games 1952 • 1956* • 1960* • 1964* • 1968 • 1972 • 1976 • 1980 • 1984 • 1988 Winter Games 1952 • 1956* • 1960* • 1964* • 1968 • 1972 • 1976 • 1980 • 1984 • 1988 *With FRG as the Unified Team of Germany
Other related appearances 
Germany (1896–1936, 1992–)The German Democratic Republic (GDR), often called East Germany, had founded a separate National Olympic Committee for socialist East Germany on 22 April 1951 in the Rotes Rathaus of East Berlin, as the last of three German Olympic committees of the time. It was not recognized by the IOC for over a decade.
Contents
History
Division of Germany
After the division of Germany following World War II, three separate states had been founded under occupation. After attempts made in 1947 to continue the tradition of Germany at the Olympics, which had started before 1896, were denied by the Allies, no German team could participate in the 1948 games. Finally, in 1949, the National Olympic Committee for Germany was founded in the Western Federal Republic of Germany, later recognized by the IOC to cover both larger German states. The small, French-occupied Saarland and its NOC (SAA) had, for about a decade, not been allowed to join the German counterparts, but joined the Federal Republic of Germany after 1955.
East German authorities of the Nationales Olympisches Komitee für Ostdeutschland refused to send their athletes to the 1952 games in an all-German team while demanding a team of their own, which was denied by the IOC.
United German Team
They agreed to participate for 1956, German athletes from the two remaining states competed at the Olympic Games in 1956, 1960 and 1964 as the United Team of Germany. While this team was simply called Germany at the time, it is currently designated by the IOC as EUA, standing for Équipe unifiée d'Allemagne.
Success of East Germans
During the Cold War, the socialist GDR erected the Berlin wall in 1961, and renamed their NOC to Nationales Olympisches Komitee der DDR in 1965. It was recognized as an independent NOC by the IOC in 1968. Thus, the GDR left the United Team of Germany and started to send a separate East German team between 1968 and 1988, being absent in Summer of 1984 in support of the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics.
While the history of the GDR, a small state with a population of about 16 million, is short, and even shorter at the Olympics, it was rather successful. From 1976 to 1988, they came second in all of their three summer Olympics, behind the Soviet Union, and well ahead of larger West Germany. This was even bettered at five winter games, with 4 second place rankings, and even a first in the 1984 Winter Olympics.
It is widely believed that doping (predominantly anabolic steroids) allowed East Germany, with its small population, to become a world leader in the following two decades, winning a large number of Olympic and world gold medals and records, with a number of athletes subsequently failing doping tests or suspected of taking performance enhancing drugs.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] However, in many cases where suspicions existed, no proof of wrongdoing was uncovered - thus the majority of records and medals won by East German athletes still stand. Aside from an extensive doping programme, East Germany invested with zeal in sport - particularly Olympic sport, for reasons of prestige, propaganda and rivalry with West Germany - with an extensive state bureaucracy to select and train promising athletes and world-class coaches; thus it is difficult to attribute cases where no physical proof exists to doping rather than exceptional performance.
An important figure in the GDR was Manfred Ewald (1926–2002), member of SED central committee since 1963. He was 1952 to 1960 president of the "Staatliches Komitee für Körperkultur und Sport" (Stako). Since 1961, he became president of the "Deutscher Turn- und Sportbund" (DTSB), governing all sport in the GDR, and in 1973 also of the NOC. He is considered the organiser of the "GDR sports miracle". His post-1990 autobiography was titled "I was the Sport". He fell from grace in 1988, being removed from the DTSB office. In 2001, he was sentenced for his role in doping.
Doping of the East Germans
For three decades, East Germans ran, swam and shot-putted their way to glory, winning Olympic gold medals, setting world records and - so it seemed at the time - demonstrating the superiority of communism. But the human cost of East Germany's extraordinary sporting success was laid bare in a courtroom in Hamburg. Some 190 East German competitors launched a case against the German pharmaceutical giant Jenapharm. The claim was that the East German firm knowingly supplied the steroids that were given to them by trainers and coaches from the 1960s onwards until East Germany's demise in 1989. Jenapharm, now owned by Schering, argues it was not responsible for the doping scandal and blames the communist system. Germany's athletics federation announced that it was checking 22 national records set by East German athletes. The investigation came after Ines Geipel, a member of the record-holding East German women's 4x100 meters relay team, asked for her record from 1984 to be struck off. She revealed she had been doped. In a separate case another former East German swimmer Karin König is today suing the German Olympic committee for damages. König claims that she was also a victim of doping between 1982 and 1987. This state-sponsored doping regime played a decisive role in the dazzling success of East German athletes in international competitions - most notably at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and the 1980 Moscow games. But it also left a terrible legacy, the athletes' lawyers argued. The victims all received Oral-Turinabol - an anabolic steroid containing testosterone made by Jenapharm. The "blue bean" had astonishing powers - accelerating muscle build-up and boosting recovery times - but its subsequent side effects were catastrophic: infertility among women, embarrassing hair growth, breast cancer, heart problems and testicular cancer. An estimated 800 athletes developed serious ailments. The most public face of the doping scandal is Andreas Krieger - a shot-putter who took so many male hormones she decided to have a sex change. One of the few other victims to have spoken publicly about her plight is the swimmer Rica Reinisch, who at the age of 15 won three gold medals in the 1980 Olympics. "The worst thing was that I didn't know I was being doped," she told the news papers. I was lied to and deceived. Whenever I asked my coach what the tablets were I was told they were vitamins and preparations." According to Prof Dr Werner Franke, a microbiologist who exposed the doping scandal after the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany's secret police (Stasi) kept meticulous records of the impact the drugs had on performance. A top-secret sporting medical committee including members of the Parteibüro, East Germany's communist leadership body, met to decide which members of the national squad were to be given the drugs. The aim was to show the superiority of the communist regime to its capitalist neighbor West Germany. The strategy worked. In the 1972 Munich Olympics, East Germany - a country of 17 million - reached the top three in the medals table with the United States and the Soviet Union. Four years later, East German women won 11 of the 13 swimming events. To date no East German Olympic medals have been recalled by the International Olympic Committee.
Germany undivided
The German Democratic Republic ceased to exist after 1989, with their states joining the Federal Republic of Germany in the process of German reunification in 1990. Accordingly, the "NOC of the GDR" joined the "NOC of Germany" on 17 November 1990. The German athletes competed at the Olympic Games in a single team again from 1992 onwards. Especially in the first decade after reunification athletes from the Eastern part of Germany contributed far above average to the medals won by Germany. This would indicate that doping was not the only reason East Germany was so successful in the Olympics (and more successful than West Germany in particular), but professional training conditions were at least as significant. Exposure of doping was done by a different state system (a former rival, who was far less successful), one thing that never happened in other countries. The medal scores after 1990 came closer to that of East Germany than to that of West Germany before 1990. For example of the 29 medals won by Germany in the 2006 Winter Olympics 14 (6 gold) have been by athletes born in East Germany (one-fifth of the population of Germany) and only 9 (3 gold) by athletes from West Germany (6 medals won in mixed teams). In recent years some centers of German top-class sport are relocating to the West (for example in Winter sport to Bavaria) but the East is still above average strong. Trainers from East Germany like Uwe Müßiggang were important in establishing successful sport conditions in many fields of United Germany. Also many German top-class athletes who today live in the western part of Germany started their professional sport career in the eastern part and can be seen as part of the large-scale exodus of young people from the East to the West since reunification.
Medal tables
See also: All-time Olympic Games medal countMedals by Summer Games
Games Gold Silver Bronze Total 1952 Helsinki did not participate 1956 Melbourne/Stockholm Part of the United Team of Germany 1960 Rome 1964 Tokyo 1968 Mexico City 9 9 7 25 1972 Munich 20 23 23 66 1976 Montreal 40 25 25 90 1980 Moscow 47 37 42 126 1984 Los Angeles did not participate 1988 Seoul 37 35 30 102 Total 153 129 127 409 Medals by summer sport
Sport Gold Silver Bronze Total Athletics 38 36 35 109 Swimming 38 32 22 92 Rowing 33 7 8 48 Canoeing 14 7 9 30 Gymnastics 6 13 17 36 Cycling 6 6 4 16 Boxing 5 2 6 13 Shooting 3 8 5 16 Wrestling 2 3 2 7 Diving 2 2 3 7 Sailing 2 2 2 6 Weightlifting 1 4 6 11 Judo 1 2 6 9 Football 1 1 1 3 Handball 1 1 1 3 Volleyball 0 2 0 2 Fencing 0 1 0 1 Total 153 129 127 409 Medals by Winter Games
Games Gold Silver Bronze Total 1952 Oslo did not participate 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo Part of the United Team of Germany 1960 Squaw Valley 1964 Innsbruck 1968 Grenoble 1 2 2 5 1972 Sapporo 4 3 7 14 1976 Innsbruck 7 5 7 19 1980 Lake Placid 9 7 7 23 1984 Sarajevo 9 9 6 24 1988 Calgary 9 10 6 25 Total 39 36 35 110 Medals by winter sport
Sport Gold Silver Bronze Total Luge 13 8 8 29 Speed skating 8 12 9 29 Bobsleigh 5 5 3 13 Biathlon 3 4 4 11 Figure skating 3 3 4 10 Nordic combined 3 0 4 7 Ski jumping 2 3 2 7 Cross-country skiing 2 1 1 4 Total 39 36 35 110 References
- "Olympic Medal Winners". International Olympic Committee. http://www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/results/search_r_uk.asp. Retrieved 2006-12-09.
Notes
- ^ Tagliabue, John. - "Political Pressure Dismantles East German Sports Machine" - New York Times - February 12, 1991
- ^ Janofsky, Michael. - "OLYMPICS; Coaches Concede That Steroids Fueled East Germany's Success in Swimming" - New York Times - December 3, 1991
- ^ Kirschbaum, Erik. - "East German dope still leaves tracks" - Rediff from Reuters - September 15, 2000
- ^ Ungerleider, Steven (2001). Faust's Gold: Inside The East German Doping Machine. Thomas Dunne Books ISBN 0312269773
- ^ "Little blue pills and a lot of gold..." - Shorel.com
- ^ Culture & Lifestyle: "Sports Doping Statistics Reach Plateau in Germany" - Deutsche Welle - February 26, 2003
- ^ "The East German Doping Machine" - International Swimming Hall of Fame
- ^ Culture & Lifestyle: "East Germany's Doping Legacy Returns" - Deutsche Welle - January 10, 2004
- ^ Longman, Jere. - "East German Steroids' Toll: 'They Killed Heidi'" - New York Times - January 26, 2004
- ^ Harding, Luke. - "Forgotten victims of East German doping take their battle to court" - The Guardian - November 1, 2005
- ^ Jackson, Guy. Winning at Any Cost?: "Doping for glory in East Germany" - UNESCO - September 2006
- ^ "Ex-East German athletes compensated for doping" - Associated Press - (c/o ESPN) - December 13, 2006
- ^ "East German doping victims to get compensation" - Associated Press - (c/o CBC Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) - December 13, 2006
- ^ Starcevic, Nesha. - "East German doping victims to get compensation" - Associated Press - (c/o San Diego Union-Tribune) - December 13, 2006
- ^ "Germany completes $4.1M payout to doping victims" - USA Today - October 11, 2007
- ^ "East Germany’s Secret Doping Program" - Secrets of the Dead - Thirteen/WNET - May 7, 2008
External links
Categories:- Sports history of East Germany
- Germany at the Olympics
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