GDR Ski Championships 1957

The 9th GDR ski championships took place from February 17th to 20th, 1957 in Brotterode , Thuringia . After six consecutive events in Oberhof , the German Sports Committee decided to award the championships to another location for the first time. BSG Stahl Brotterode was in charge of the organization. In seven decisions of the Nordic ski disciplines cross-country skiing , ski jumping and Nordic combined , two of which were team competitions, athletes competed. The championships were originally supposed to take place between February 13th and 17th. However, they had to be postponed first due to lack of snow. Then it was announced in the newspaper on February 17, 1957 that the special jumping event would be held on February 17 in Brotterode, the remaining disciplines in Oberhof. In a message in the Berliner Zeitung, the Presidium of the Ski Section of the German Sports Committee even asked the athletes of the remaining competitions to arrive in Brotterode by February 17 at 12:00 noon and in Oberhof by 8:00 pm. In the end, however, it can be seen from the press reports that all competitions took place in Brotterode. This can also be seen as an indication of the hasty implementation of the championships. While the men’s decision over 30 km was unsubstituted, the 50 km champion was not chosen until March 10, 1957 in Schierke .

Cross-country skiing

Men

15 km

In a cold east wind, the runners were sent over the Kleine Inselsberg from 1 p.m. Title favorite Kuno Werner had the handicap that all promising medal candidates started behind him. But that didn't challenge the series champion and even a ski breakage couldn't dissuade Werner from achieving his goal. Ultimately, he was able to safely walk home the victory.

Date: Monday February 18, 1957

space	athlete	team	Time (h)
1	Kuno Werner	ASK forward Oberhof	1:05:05
2	Werner Moring	ASK forward Oberhof	1:06:18
3	Adolf Jankowski	ASK forward Oberhof	1:06:28
4th	Hermann Forkel	SG Dynamo Zinnwald	1:06:40
5	Rudolf Dannhauer	ASK forward Oberhof	1:06:42
6th	Alfred Recknagel	ASK forward Oberhof	1:07:09

50 km

The holding of the long-distance competition got caught up in the mills of the complicated German-German sporting relations at the time. Probably due to the zeitgeist of the time, which included talks on the formation of the all-German teams for the 1956 Winter and Summer Olympics , the German DSV met with the DVSL, the GDR's ski association, for a working conference in October 1956 in Frankfurt (Main) . At the end of the meeting, a communique was published, which contained that 1956/57 all-German championships in the 50 km endurance run would take place in the territory of the GDR and 1957/58 all-German championships would be held in all Nordic ski disciplines. This was subsequently torpedoed by politics in the form that West German athletes from formations of the Bundeswehr, Customs and the Federal Border Guard were forbidden from taking part in competitions on GDR territory. The fact that the GDR's aggressive rhetoric about the introduction of conscription in the Federal Republic made a significant contribution to this is also part of the historical truth. Ultimately, the competition took place on March 10, 1957 in Schierke without West German participation and serial champion Kuno Werner was able to win another championship title with an eight-second lead over club mate Werner Haase. However, after the political skirmish of the SED central organ Neues Deutschland, the outcome of the competition was not even worth reporting, of all things the CDU newspaper Neue Zeit satisfied the chronicler's duty.

Date: Sunday March 10, 1957

space	athlete	team	Time (h)
1	Kuno Werner	ASK forward Oberhof	3:16:50
2	Werner Haase	ASK forward Oberhof	3:16:58
3	Werner Moring	ASK forward Oberhof	3:23:45

4 × 10 km relay

Already during the line-ups it became clear that the title would be between the two strongest Oberhofer and the first Klingenthal representation, as there were players in these teams who had already competed internationally. If the Klingenthal relay was in second place after the first change, almost a minute behind Oberhof I, this placement was in enormous danger after the second change, as the second Oberhof representative with Rudolf Dannhauer was only one second behind the Dynamo team. And the Oberhofer II continued to make powerful steam. On the third change, their runner Egon Fleischmann was only 20 seconds behind the leader Werner Moring. The Klingenthalers were already three minutes behind. But now final runner Kuno Werner intervened in the action. He quickly increased the gap to Alfred Recknagel and ultimately led the first Oberhof representative to victory with a lead of over one and a half minutes. Despite a courageous race from goalkeeper Enno Roeder, only third place remained for the Dynamo representation.

Date: Tuesday February 19, 1957

space	team	athlete	Time (h)
1	ASK forward Oberhof I	Werner Haase Adolf Jankowski Werner Moring Kuno Werner	3:00:27
2	ASK forward Oberhof II	Kurt Hinze Rudolf Dannhauer Egon Fleischmann Alfred Recknagel	3:02:13
3	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	Erich Lindenlaub Heinz Seidel Werner Stubenrauch Enno Röder	3:04:36

Women

10 km

Date: Monday February 18, 1957

The competition on the individual route lived mainly from the duel between the two Olympians Sonnhilde Kallus and Elfriede Spiegelhauer. Another runner caused the surprise. The BSG athlete Christa Göhler presented a house brand with a time of 49:59 minutes, which was ultimately only undercut by Sonnhilde Kallus by a minute. Third-placed Elfriede Spiegelhauer finished third, one and a half minutes behind Göhler.

space	athlete	team	Time (h)
1	Sonnhilde Callus	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	49:58
2	Christa Göhler	BSG tractor Nassau	49:59
3	Elfriede Spiegelhauer	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	51:31
4th	Margot Drechsel	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	51:36
5	Eva chair	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	54:43
6th	Edith Thiel	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	55:23

3 × 5 km relay

Date: Tuesday February 19, 1957

A total of seven teams competed in the women's relay race. From the start it was expected to be a duel between the SC Motor Zella-Mehlis squadrons with Olympian Elfriede Spiegelhauer, who had moved from SC Dynamo Klingenthal to Thuringia before the season, and SC Dynamo Klingenthal with Olympian Sonnhilde Kallus. The Thuringians already took the lead with their starting runner, and Edith Thiel was able to increase the lead from one minute to almost three minutes. In the eagerly awaited duel between the former club mates, Kallus had nothing more to add after her victory on the individual route the day before, so that Elfriede Spiegelhauer won the relay with a lead of around three and a half minutes.

space	team	athlete	Time (h)
1	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis I	Margot Drechsel Edith Thiel Elfriede Spiegelhauer	1:26:45
2	SC Dynamo Klingenthal I	Gerda Kaden Christa Harzer Sonnhilde Kallus	1:30:20
3	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis II	Hannchen Moring Geissler Marlies Liebau	1:31:50

Nordic combination

Date: cross-country skiing 15 km Monday, February 18, 1957; Ski jumping Tuesday, February 19, 1957

The Nordic Combined competition was carried out pragmatically. Contrary to the usual order, the combiners first took part in the championship run of the cross-country skiing specialists over 15 km. The next day, jumping was completed on the large Inselsbergschanze, which was characterized by numerous falls. Once again it became clear that the best combiners came from Klingenthal at that time. Last year's winner Siegfried Böhme was able to defend his title, followed by his club mates Mross and Paul.

space	athlete	team	Points
1	Siegfried Boehme	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	450.0
2	Horst Mross	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	414.0
3	Manfred Paul	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	411.2

Ski jumping

The championships that were only called up for a short time in Brotterode started with ski jumping. The duel between the two Olympians, the local hero Werner Lesser and the bronze medalist from Cortina , Harry Glaß, was a particular attraction for the spectators . Both had also finished fourth and fifth in the overall ranking at the previous Four Hills Tournament . In addition, there was a whole group of young jumpers, of whom Helmut Recknagel had reached tenth place in the said Four Hills Tournament. The up-and-coming Steinbach-Hallenberger had already won silver and bronze at the previous two GDR championships. After Recknagel had jumped 84 m on the Inselsbergschanze in the first round, Werner Lesser countered in the second round with the new hill record of 86 m. For the local Lesser this meant the second GDR championship title. Harry Glass came in third.

Date: Sunday February 17, 1957

space	athlete	team	Points
1	Werner Lesser	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	231.0
2	Helmut Recknagel	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	223.5
3	Harry Glass	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	212.0
4th	Manfred Brunner	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	198.1
5	Kurt Schramm	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	190.2
6th	Siegmund Pabst	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	185.2
7th	Siegfried Haeckel	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	184.1
8th	Siegfried Boehme	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	180.4
9	Lothar Glaß	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	176.6
10	Willi Wirth	ASK forward Brotterode	172.8

Medal table

The army athletes from Oberhof ultimately owed it to the cross-country skiers around the three-time GDR champion Kuno Werner that they came off as the best sports club in 1957.

Medal table (after all 7 competitions)
space	team	gold	silver	bronze	total
1	ASK forward Oberhof	3	3	2	8th
2	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	2	2	3	7th
3	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	2	1	2	5
4th	BSG tractor Nassau	0	1	0	1

Individual evidence

1. ^ New Germany of February 12, 1957 p. 6
2. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of February 17, 1957 p. 2
3. ↑ ^{a b} NZ of February 20, 1957 p. 5
4. ↑ Neues Deutschland, March 8, 1957, p. 8
5. ↑ Neue Zeit of March 12, 1957 p. 5
6. ↑ ^{a b c} ND of February 20, 1957 p. 6
7. ↑ Neue Zeit of February 19, 1957 p. 5

literature

• Manfred Seifert, Roland Singer, Hans-Jürgen Zeume: Great love for skiing . Sportverlag, Berlin 1979, pp. 203-204;