Helmut Behrendt (sports official)
Helmut Behrendt (born January 18, 1904 in Koenigsberg ; † September 4, 1985 in Berlin ) was a German sports functionary in the GDR and from 1952 to 1973 General Secretary of the National Olympic Committee of the GDR .
Life
Behrendt, son of a Verputzers, learned after the primary school the profession of electrician and worked until 1922 as a fitter in Königsberg. Behrendt was a lawn athlete in the Concordia Königsberg club from 1919 and for the workers lawn sports club from 1922 . In 1925 he attended a school of the Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Association in Leipzig and moved to Berlin in 1928 . From 1929 to 1933 he was a regular player at the football club Fichte Südost Berlin .
In 1931 Behrendt joined the KPD and the local Red Sports Unit . After the handover of power to the National Socialists , Behrendt first emigrated to the Soviet Union , but returned illegally to Berlin in autumn 1934. In 1935 he was arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison for “preparation for high treason ” , which he served until 1942 in the Luckau and Brandenburg penitentiaries. From 1942 to 1945 Behrendt was held in the concentration camps Sachsenhausen and Mauthausen . In Mauthausen he belonged to the illegal resistance camp organization.
From the end of the war until 1948, Behrendt worked at the main sports department in Berlin and in 1949 became an employee of the German Sports Committee (DS) in the football department . In 1952, Behrendt rose to the highest level of sports officials in the GDR and became department head for international connections at the State Committee for Physical Culture and Sport , Vice President of the German Football Association and, as successor to Heinz Dose , Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee of the GDR (NOK). 1973 Behrendt went into retirement and became an honorary member of the NOK of the GDR. In 1978 he was the first GDR citizen to receive the Olympic Order of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in bronze. Behrendt died in 1985.
Honors
- 1978 Olympic medal of the IOC in bronze
- Karl Marx Order
- Patriotic Order of Merit
- Gold medal for the Patriotic Order of Merit (1972)
- Labor Banner (1964)
- In September 1986, on the first anniversary of his death, the swimming pool at Springpfuhl in Berlin-Marzahn was named after Helmut Behrendt. In front of the swimming pool, a bust of Helmut Behrendt created in 1963 by the Berlin sculptor Prof. Wieland Förster was unveiled. Both the name and the bust were removed in 1990, in the days of the fall of the Wall . On September 4, 2005, the 20th anniversary of Helmut Behrendt's death, the swimming pool was given its name back and the bust was now placed in the entrance area.
literature
- Volker Kluge and Olaf W. Reimann: Behrendt, Helmut . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
Web links
- Helmut Behrendt (PDF; 693 kB) at www.dkpbrandenburg.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Leaflet on naming on www.sporton.de (PDF; 53 kB)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Behrendt, Helmut |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German sports official (GDR) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 18, 1904 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Koenigsberg |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th September 1985 |
| Place of death | Berlin |