German Gymnastics and Sports Association

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Flag of the DTSB

The German Gymnastics and Sports Association ( DTSB ) was the central , mass organization responsible for sport in the GDR , based in East Berlin .

organization

Dress rehearsal by athletes as part of a program accompanying the 90th IOC session in East Berlin, 1985
10 Mark commemorative coin of the GDR on the occasion of 40 years of the German Sports Committee (Deutscher Turn- und Sportbund) from 1988
Honor plaque of the DTSB on a house wall in Bechstedt-Wagd
DTSB membership development

The DTSB was the last mass organization of the GDR on 27./28. Founded April 1957, replacing the German Sports Committee (DS). At the same time, the DTSB took over some of the important tasks of the State Committee for Physical Culture and Sport . In practice, the DTSB was instructed directly by the Central Committee of the SED . The sport department headed by Rudi Hellmann was responsible. Erich Honecker (until 1971), Paul Verner (1971–1984) and Egon Krenz (1984–1989) were the politburo members responsible for sport development in the GDR.

The sports previously represented as sections at the DS were transformed into sports associations under the umbrella of the DTSB, so the German Football Association (DFV) emerged from the football section .

The DTSB was divided into 15 district organizations, each of which was further subdivided into district, city and city district level. The army sports association Vorwärts of the NVA and the sports association Dynamo of the internal security organs ( Stasi , People's Police , Customs) officially belonged to the DTSB with the status of a district organization, but were de facto independent.

From 1961 to 1988 Manfred Ewald was president of the DTSB , who as president of the NOK , chairman of the secret competitive sports commission and a member of the central committee of the SED played the central role in the GDR sports system. However, the first president of the DTSB from 1957 to 1961 was Rudi Reichert . After Ewald was ousted in 1988, Klaus Eichler took over his position until the fall of the Berlin Wall . Martin Kilian was the last DTSB president in 1990 to lead the dissolution of the sports association. Most of the sports associations represented in the DTSB joined a sports association in the German Sports Confederation (DSB).

Popular sport

In 1989 the DTSB had around 3.7 million members, that is over twenty percent of the GDR population. The sporting activity was definitely in the interest of the government. Above all, children and young people were to be motivated to play sports and were organized across the board in school sports communities. Entire municipalities were also awarded a plaque of honor for promoting sport, as in Bechstedt-Wagd .

The trade union company sports associations were the basic organization of the DTSB in the state- owned companies , which functioned as supporting companies .

competitive sport

Popular sport also served the systematic search for talent for competitive sport, for example via the children's and youth sports schools and the children's and youth spartakiads . The sports clubs , where all top athletes from the GDR were concentrated, functioned as centers of competitive sports . The great sporting successes that the GDR has been able to celebrate since the 1970s, especially at the Olympic Games , were consistently presented as evidence of GDR socialism as a whole, both in terms of domestic and foreign policy.

Sports associations in the DTSB

The following sports associations were united in the German Gymnastics and Sports Association:

Distribution of members to the sports

In 1988, the athletes and trainers were distributed among the sports sections in the following way.

sport Number of people doing sports Number of trainers
fishing 527.696 10,942
basketball 14,644 1,243
billiards 11.009 1,361
Archery 4,668 545
Boxing 20,908 1,868
Ice sports 8,995 631
Fistball 10,779 1,345
fencing 6,584 673
Badminton 27,069 2,480
Soccer 575,667 39.207
Weightlifting 25,630 2,465
Handball 152.975 13,225
hockey 6.152 576
Judo 54,544 4,891
Canoe / kayak 26,768 2,082
Bowling 204.126 17,369
athletics 180.605 15,583
Motorsport 85.134 5,064
Equestrian sport 53,818 5,951
Cycling 27,226 2,816
Wrestling 23,686 2,106
Roller sports 4,704 381
rowing 14,275 1.103
rugby 1,213 103
chess 43,374 4,523
Sleigh / bob 3,759 447
swim 83.509 6,911
sailing 31,318 2,231
Ski / biathlon 48,438 4,100
tennis 47,274 3,185
Table tennis 126,376 12,084
do gymnastics 408.476 26,542
Disabled sports 14,080 1,249
volleyball 134.924 12,454
Hiking / mountaineering / orienteering 86.123 6,844
General sports groups 513.453 35,265
Other sections 155,756 12,920
Minstrels 17,157 1.924
all in all 3,782,892 264,689

Web links

Commons : Deutscher Turn- und Sportbund  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ German Gymnastics and Sports Association (DTSB). In: Andreas Herbst (Eds.), Winfried Ranke, Jürgen Winkler: This is how the GDR worked. Volume 1: Lexicon of organizations and institutions, departmental union management , League for Friendship between Nations (= rororo-Handbuch. Vol. 6348). Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-499-16348-9 , pp. 234-243 (239-243).
  2. ↑ Statistical Yearbook 1989 of the German Democratic Republic