Ice hockey in the GDR
 Ice hockey in the GDR
|
|
|---|---|
| Association: | German Ice Skating Association of the GDR (1958 to 1990) |
| IIHF member since: | June 9, 1954 |
| 1st World Cup participation: | 1956 |
| 1st OL participation: | 1968 |
| Medals won: | |
| EM: 1x bronze | |
| 1st championship : | 1949 |
| 1st national champion : | SG Frankenhausen |
| Record champions : | SG Dynamo Weißwasser (25 ×) |
| last GDR champion : | 1990: SG Dynamo Weißwasser |
| 1st international match: | January 28, 1951 in East Berlin against Poland (3: 8) |
Ice hockey was a popular sport in the GDR . The sport decision of the Politburo did not change anything, after which the sport had to accept a drastic reduction in funding. Organizationally, ice hockey was initially assigned to the ice and roller hockey section of the German Sports Committee , from 1958 it was part of the area of responsibility of the German Ice Skating Association . After the social upheaval in the GDR, the German Ice Hockey Association of the GDR (DEHV) was foundedin April 1990, which on September 11th joined its West German counterpart, the German Ice Hockey Federation .
History of ice hockey in the GDR
Formation of the upper league
The German Sports Committee , founded in 1948, scheduled the first "Eastern Zone Championship" for February of the following year. In addition to a representative from East Berlin , the respective champions from the states of Saxony , Thuringia , Saxony-Anhalt , Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania were eligible to participate. Among four opponents - in Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania there were no state championships - the Saxon representative SG Frankenhausen was able to prevail. A year later, the first champion of the newly founded GDR was determined at the 1st winter sports championships . Since neither Brandenburg nor Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania sent any teams, the next-placed Saxon teams took part with the BSG Kristall Weißwasser and the Frankenhausen neighbors BSG Textil Crimmitschau . As in the previous year, the tournament winner was SG Frankenhausen.
In the fall of 1950, the German Sports Committee decided to form a league , the founding members of which were the four winners from the previous year (SG Frankenhausen, BSG Ostglas Weißwasser, BSG Textil Crimmitschau, BSG Empor Berlin ). After completing all of the games that were played on three weekends in the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle in Berlin - the only ice rink in the GDR - the team from Weißwasser prevailed for the first time . 1951/52 the field of participants of the league with the reigning champions of Saxony, Thuringia and Berlin ( BSG Einheit-Süd Dresden , BSG Progress Apolda , SG DVP Berlin ) was increased again. Here too, the team from Weißwasser, now known as BSG Chemie, won.
In the period that followed, ice hockey, like other sports, became increasingly effective in its competitive sports structure. This included the establishment of a second division, whereby the previous league was continued under the name Oberliga . In addition, the organization of sport on the basis of sports sponsors , which was initiated according to the Soviet model, was continued by subordinating all teams to one of the newly founded sports associations . From the mid-1950s, resources were pooled again, with the strongest teams being accepted as ice hockey sections in the sports clubs that would function as future performance centers . In the course of the foundations, mergers and relocations of teams resulting from these measures, the field of participants in the Oberliga changed constantly. Over the years, new teams such as SC Motor Berlin , HSG Wissenschaft HU Berlin , SG Dynamo Rostock , ASK Vorwärts Berlin have been added. Although already represented by two cadre teams, the majority of the players came from the Crimmitschauer / Frankenhausen region, which was called "Little Canada" by the then Reich coach "Bobby" Bell in the 1930s due to the seemingly infinite reservoir of young talent . Nevertheless, over time, the two representatives of the Dynamo sports association ( SC Dynamo Berlin and SG Dynamo Weißwasser, successors to SG DVP Berlin and BSG Chemie Weißwasser) proved to be the dominant league teams that without exception made the title decisions among themselves.
The competitive sport resolution of 1969
In September 1970, ice hockey experienced the effects of the sports classification carried out by the GDR government and the German Gymnastics and Sports Association (DTSB) in 1969 , according to which ice hockey was only listed in Category II ("funded") along with other sports. The official reason for this was the cost and foreign exchange intensity of this sport, since most of the equipment such as clubs and ice skates were not manufactured in the GDR and had to be imported. The statement made at the time by the State Secretary for Physical Culture and Sport, Rudolf Hellmann, is indicative of this : “We need every mark to build the socialist economy. In order to play ice hockey, one needs the finances of around two deep-sea fish-processing refrigerated vessels every year. So, dear athletes, what do we need more urgently: ice hockey or refrigerated ships? ” (Quoted from Lachmann) In addition, in the course of the increasing (Olympic) medal focus as a team sport, ice hockey had a clear disadvantage compared to individual sports.
The resources freed up by the cuts were immediately sent to the performance centers of the remaining “specially funded” sports. The skaters benefited primarily from the elimination of the ice hockey sections in the form of additional training times (“ice times”).
The "smallest league in the world"
The competitive sport resolution resulted in the dissolution of the ice hockey centers after the 1969/70 season. The only exception were the two Dynamo teams, which were allowed to continue to exist due to an intervention by the Minister for State Security and Chairman of the SV Dynamo , Erich Mielke . After considerations to integrate the two remaining teams into the top division of Poland - GDR champions should be the higher ranked team in the end - the game operations of the now reduced league were continued. The game mode provided for an even number of games that were to be played in equal parts in Berlin and Weißwasser. The award of the title was based solely on the points achieved.
In the first few years, the previous subscription master from Weißwasser was able to hold its own against the Berliner Dynamos. In the mid-1970s, the balance of power finally changed in favor of the capitals, who only failed to emerge as winners three times in the subsequent 15 championship rounds. Their continued dominance in connection with the conditionally short ice hockey season led the Berliners to the situation over the years that the spectators increasingly stayed away from the championship games in the home sports forum Hohenschönhausen . In contrast, the supposed outsider from Lusatia continued to enjoy unbroken enthusiasm and often held his encounters in the open-air stadium with a capacity of 15,000 in front of a sold-out house. Persistent rumors about an alleged preferential treatment of the Berliners by the referee led to the occasional game abandonment due to spectator riots after disputed referee decisions.
To increase the attractiveness of the championship series, a new mode was introduced in the 1986/87 season. This included a play-off system with three series in the best-of-five mode, with tied encounters being decided in sudden death or penalty shoot- outs. The championship decision was made as soon as one of the two major division clubs had won two series.
In the course of the political change in the GDR, the club chairmen from Berlin and Weißwasser Dieter Waschitowitz and Rüdiger Noack made contact with the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) in December 1989 to clarify the inclusion of the GDR clubs in the West German league structure. Originally, admission to the 2nd Bundesliga North was planned, but after the clubs there could not agree on admission, the two clubs were accepted into the Bundesliga . The two successor clubs - the ice hockey section of SC Dynamo Berlin was spun off as EHC Dynamo Berlin on March 21, 1990 , SG Dynamo Weißwasser had become PEV Weißwasser - were founded on May 10, 1990, almost five months before the state reunification, accepted into the DEB and were able to start in the Bundesliga in the 1990/91 season .
The determination of the best
After GDR ice hockey was downgraded from the group of specially funded sports, the teams from the disbanded high-performance centers sometimes came together under the umbrella of the popular company sports associations , where in the future they had to get by without central grants and, as a rule, were no longer able to maintain junior teams . Game operations continued at the district level , not least thanks to the voluntary work of numerous ice hockey fans, and the district champions, in turn, played the “GDR amateur champions” in an annual final tournament. Since this designation would automatically raise the "rest" upper league to the status of professional sport - as in the other socialist countries, the GDR sports management insisted on the exclusive amateur status for its athletes - the official name of this event was best determination .
For the first time the determination of the best was held in March 1971 in Crimmitschau , which the host BSG unit was able to convince with confidence. The West Saxons were also able to prevail in the subsequent events, which was not least due to the unusually high density of young players. In the mid-seventies, Monsator Berlin established an opponent who ultimately proved to be too strong for the Crimmitschauer team and with a total of 13 successes (including the successor SG Dynamo "Fritz Lesch" Berlin ) advanced to the absolute record holder. In contrast to the Crimmitschauer sports community, which consists of "after-work players", the capital team was primarily recruited from former SC Dynamo squad players.
Like Dynamo Berlin and Weißwasser, several amateur teams were able to participate in games in the FRG before or shortly after reunification: The ETC Crimmitschau (previously EHC) in the Bayernliga (5th division), the ESV Schierke in the Landesliga Niedersachsen (6th division ), the Rostocker EC (merger of BSG Chemie 70 and BSG Schifffahrt / Hafen) at the Landesliga Hamburg / Schleswig-Holstein and the Berliner SV AdW at the Regionalliga Nord .
GDR ice hockey in international comparison
Despite the support of the Ministry for State Security and the Ministry of the Interior as the sports organization of SV Dynamo, the squad area in GDR ice hockey was subject to far-reaching restrictions. The GDR teams were only allowed to continue competing in the European Cup thanks to the advocacy of the Soviet and Czechoslovak ice hockey associations . There, the SC Dynamo Berlin four times and the SG Dynamo Weißwasser twice moved into the round of the last four and thus repeatedly caused a stir.
The same was true for the national team , which achieved a respectable result, judging by the external circumstances , just with its repeated qualification for the A World Championships . After their descent in 1985 to the B World Championship, however, the GDR selection had to lose the decisive games on DTSB instructions in order to avoid a renewed promotion. In addition, although they were athletically qualified, the right to start was waived at all Winter Olympics between 1972 and 1984. The greatest success in all of GDR ice hockey was winning the bronze medal at the European championship in 1966. After completing the competitions held as part of the world championships, the Swedes were initially awarded the plaque, since according to the conventional version, the World Cup placement of the European participants was decisive . By disregarding the games against the North American representatives USA and Canada , the GDR team was established in third place. As a curiosity on the side, the players only received their bronze medal in 1999 - nine years after the end of the GDR.
Major players
See also
literature
- Michael Lachmann: "The state needs refrigerated ships instead of ice hockey ..." The history of the GDR league championships. In: André Haase and others: Wellblechpalastgeschichte (s). The slightly different chronicle of the EHC Eisbären Berlin. Berlin: Jeske / Mader, 1997. ISBN 3-931624-06-4 .
- Horst Eckert: Ice Hockey Lexicon. Munich: Copress, 1993. ISBN 3-7679-0407-1 .
- Stephan Müller: German ice hockey championships. Libris Books on Demand. ISBN 3-8311-0997-4 .
Web links
References
- ↑ http://www.bpb.de/geschichte/zeitgeschichte/deutschlandarchiv/255842/das-ddr-eishockey-im-wiedervereinigungsprozess
- ↑ https://www.dosb.de/sonderseiten/news/news-detail/news/eine-neue-vereins-und-verbandslandschaft-entestand-nach-und-nach-in-der-unterhaben-ddr-3/? no_cache = 1 & tx_news_pi1% 5Bcontroller% 5D = News & tx_news_pi1% 5Baction% 5D = detail & cHash = 20bb755394953c009d6bac5dff3ac965
- ↑ https://www.volksstimme.de/lokal/wernigerode/eishockey-fuer-puck-jaeger-beginnt-neue-zeitrechnung
- ↑ (PDF; 24 kB) lotok.de: 50 years of ice hockey in Rostock