Hans Wilhelm Gäb

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Hans Wilhelm Gäb (born March 31, 1936 in Düsseldorf ) is a former German automobile manager and table tennis player . After the end of his active time, he remained connected to sport as a sports official. Gäb was a member of the board of the German Sports Aid Foundation from 1999 , and has been honorary chairman of the supervisory board since 2009.

Professional / career

After graduating from high school in 1956 at the Düsseldorf Görres-Gymnasium, he studied law / German studies in Cologne and Bonn, during which time he completed training as a journalist and editor in his hometown. After mainly journalistic activities for various German daily newspapers, including Formula 1 reporting, Gäb founded the “ Auto Zeitung ” in 1968 together with Hans Günther Lehmann from Cologne and took over the chief editor. From 1973 to 1981 he worked for Ford-Werke AG in Cologne , initially as a press spokesman and later as a member of the board for public relations and government contacts. In 1982 he moved to Opel in Rüsselsheim in the same position and in 1986 (until 1998) took over the position of Vice President of General Motors Europe AG in Zurich. From 1987 to 1998 Hans Wilhelm Gäb was a member of the supervisory board of Adam Opel AG, and from 1997 and 1998 also chairman of this body. From 1992 to 1996 he coordinated the treatment of the Lopez affair with politicians and the media for GM and Opel . At the end of 1998 he resigned from his position as chairman of the supervisory board of Adam Opel AG in protest against the business course of the parent company GM. Since 1999 he has been working in communications / marketing consulting.

Sporty

Hans Wilhelm Gäb was one of the best German table tennis players, was appointed to the national table tennis team 13 times between 1958 and 1961 and started for Germany at the 1959 World Championships in Dortmund's Westfalenhalle. He won four national titles in doubles with Horst Langer and Jutta Kruse / Teller as well as various championships with his team Borussia Düsseldorf , which is the most successful table tennis team in the world with 51 national and international titles and is now known as the "Bayern Munich" of this sport . Among the best-known players of this club, of which Gäb is the chairman of the board today, were Eberhard Schöler , with whom he was German university champion, Jörg Roßkopf , Steffen Fetzner and now Timo Boll , for whom Gäb has worked as a consultant for years.

For years, Hans Wilhelm Gäb has been advocating fairness in sport and business as well as the respectful treatment of sponsors with athletes and sport institutions. He once expressed his own idea of ​​fair play in the sentence: "Learn to lose decently and win modestly".

Sports politics

From an early age, Hans Wilhelm Gäb became involved in sport beyond his own sporting activities. Initially in the Borussia Düsseldorf club , later as President of the German Table Tennis Association (DTTB) and in management positions at the Deutsche Sporthilfe Foundation and the National Olympic Committee (NOK). Not least of all his initiative arose from the experiment to offer young table tennis talents such as Ralf Wosik and Hans Joachim Nolten as well as Jörg Rosskopf and Steffen Fetzner ( Ralf Wosik / Hans-Joachim Nolten ) a professional environment for their sport and to offer them a professional environment for their sport through cooperation between the training company and To promote the table tennis club as best as possible. As a board member of Adam Opel AG, Hans Wilhelm Gäb was also the initiator of the Georg von Opel Prize for deserving athletes and voluntary helpers in sport.

During his work for Opel, Gäb established the Group's sports sponsorship and associated the Opel brand with names such as Bayern Munich, Steffi Graf and AC Milan, always with the express aim of maintaining the independence and integrity of the sport.

2006 Gäb was awarded the Olympic Order . In protest that the IOC did not exclude Russia from the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio after the state doping was discovered, he returned the medal.

Private

Gäb has been married since 1962. He has a son and a daughter. After four years of waiting for a donor organ, Hans Wilhelm Gäb survived a life-threatening illness in 1994 only through a liver transplant. In the following years he founded the clubs "Sportler für Organspende" and "Kinderhilfe Organtransplantation eV". In both associations, prominent personalities from sports and the media campaign for the idea of ​​organ donation, including Franz Beckenbauer, Rosi Mittermaier, Steffi Graf, Reinhold Messner, Günther Jauch, Johannes B. Kerner, Reinhold Beckmann, Michael Schumacher, Franziska van Almsick, Timo Boll, Jürgen Klinsmann and numerous other world and Olympic champions.

successes

  • German youth championship
    • 1953 in Mörfelden: 1st place doubles (with Horst Terbeck)

Awards

  • 1990: Sports Official of the Year
  • 1994: Honorary President of the German Table Tennis Association DTTB
  • 1996: Election of Sports Marketing Man of the Year
  • 1996: Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany
  • 1998: "Golden Bridge" of the German Public Relations Society (DPRG)
  • 2004: Honorary Award North Rhine-Westphalia "Lifetime Achievement in Sport"
  • 2005: LAUREUS Media Prize Laureus Media Prize "Media Person of the Year in Sports"
  • 2006: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
  • 2006: Admission to the "Hall of Fame of Sponsoring" (Association for Sponsoring)
  • 2006: Olympic Order of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), returned in 2016
  • 2008: Sponsor's honorary award "Lifetime Achievement in Sport"
  • 2008: January: " Goldenes Band " Berliner Sportpresse
  • 2008: German Public Relations Award "PR Head of the Year"
  • 2009: German Fundraising Prize
  • 2009: Horizont-Fachverlag "Player of the Year" - "Lifetime Achievement in Sport"
  • 2009: "Badge of Honor of Sports" by DOSB
  • 2015: Honorary member of the European Table Tennis Association ETTU
  • 2015: Award for "Integrity" from the German "Values ​​Foundation"

Results from the ITTF database

Association event year place country singles Double Mixed team
FRG  European Championship  1962  Berlin  FRG   last 16  Quarter finals     
FRG  World Championship  1959  Dortmund  FRG   last 64  last 64  last 128  9 

literature

  • Willi Baur: There is still a lot to do , tischtennis magazine , 1986/3 page 23.
  • Norbert Wolf: A stroke of luck for sport , table tennis magazine , 1996/3 pages 30–32.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b DTS magazine , 1999/2, page 18.
  2. ↑ Michael Reinsch: “In the IOC, conditions prevail like at Fifa”. In: FAZ.net . July 26, 2016, accessed October 13, 2018 .
  3. ↑ DTS magazine , 1996/12 page 35.
  4. ↑ tischtennis magazine , 2015/10 page 6.
  5. ^ Hans Wilhelm Gäb Results from the ITTF database on ittf.com (accessed on September 7, 2011).
personal data
SURNAME Gäb, Hans Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German table tennis player
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf