add site
services
publishers
database
health videos
toolbar
stats
live show
health store
more stuff
JOIN/LOGIN
| advertise add site services publishers database health videos
| | about toolbar stats live show health store more stuff JOIN/LOGIN |
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.
[edit] History[edit] Division of GermanyAfter 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. [edit] United German TeamThey 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 EUA by the IOC. [edit] Success of East GermansDuring 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. [edit] Germany undividedThe 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. [edit] Medal tablesSee also: All-time Olympic Games medal count [edit] Medals by Summer Games
[edit] Medals by summer sport
[edit] Medals by Winter Games
[edit] Medals by winter sport
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ↑ top of page ↑ | about thumbshots |
