Hans-Jürgen Voigtländer

Hans-Jürgen Voigtländer (born January 4, 1944 ) is a German former amateur boxer . From 1965 to 1968 he was four times GDR champion in individual competitions and in 1970 GDR team champion. However, he was denied participation in the 1968 Olympics by national officials because of alleged plans to flee the GDR .

Life

Voigtländer started for the SC Karl-Marx-Stadt and took third place in the light middleweight division at the GDR championships in 1964 . From 1965 to 1967 he was three times GDR champion in this weight class. In 1967 he received the GDR honorary title Master of Sports . In 1968 he won the GDR middleweight championship .

Despite these successes and good prospects for a middleweight medal, he was not nominated for the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico in February 1968 because the DTSB officials saw the danger of fleeing the GDR . After the escape of the Nordic combined athlete Ralph Pöhland in January 1968 at the pre-Olympic competitions in Les Bioux in Switzerland, the DTSB was determined to avoid further such cases. Due to rumors, the origin of which Voigtländer ascribes himself to functionaries from Karl-Marx-Stadt after inspecting his Stasi files , he was considered a potential "second Pöhland case". In addition, Voigtländer was the father of a daughter, but was unmarried and lived separately from her mother, so that the functionaries saw no motive for him to return to the GDR simply because of emotional ties.

After the decision, Voigtländer traveled with his parents to East Berlin to see Manfred Ewald , President of the DTSB, but could not induce him to change the decision. Ewald replied that the functionaries would rather forego a medal than for someone to flee the republic. Voigtlander's work colleagues (he worked part-time as an engine fitter in Karl-Marx-Stadt) then sent thousands of protest signatures to Ewald, but this turned out to be counterproductive. In retrospect, Voigtländer said literally: “That was all over. That was inner turmoil. "

Voigtländer then moved to BSG Wismut Gera . The GDR functionaries, who in retrospect apparently doubted the correctness of their decision themselves, offered him a sports scholarship of 600 GDR marks at the DHfK in Leipzig, but he refused. In 1970 he was with the Gera team, in which his friend Ulli Wegner boxed, among others , GDR champion. In 1971 he moved to Gera and studied sport at the DHfK as a distance learning course.

In the individual competitions at Gera, Voigtländer could not repeat his national successes of the 1960s due to the judges' prejudice against him. In 1971 he failed in the final on points, in 1972 before that. However, in Wegner's opinion, these two lost fights should have been decided the other way around if the scoring had been correct. Even the Junge Welt , the central organ of the FDJ , wrote of a misjudgment after the final in 1971.

Voigtländer then ended his career in resignation in 1972 and trained children and young people in Gera. After he got married and had two more children, he was allowed to travel to Helsinki with the young boxers , although he was supervised by the general secretary of the boxing association. After Voigtlander's divorce, however, the travel ban was renewed.

He then worked underground for four years, then as a physical education teacher until his retirement.

literature

Arne Leyenberg: "Voigtländer, you are not going with me" . Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of August 5, 2009, page 26.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Voigtländer turns 65 on Sunday . Ostthüringer Zeitung from January 3, 2009, Sport, page 2.
2. ↑ Boxing - GDR - Amateurs Championships (light middleweight)