Henry Hempel

Henry Hempel (born January 18, 1933 in Dresden ; † November 22, 2015 ) was a German judoka and head coach of the German Judo Association .

Judo fighter (1950–1959)

Henry Hempel, along with Felix Krysiak , Helmut Bark , Günter Kästner , Arno Frank and Manfred Schneider, is one of the outstanding judo fighters who won several championship titles at GDR individual championships in the 1950s. In 1949 he started judo together with his one year younger brother Helmut Hempel in Dresden. The brothers trained together, but did not compete in judo tournaments and championships. Henry started in the lightweight, his brother Helmut in the featherweight. When SC Dynamo Berlin was founded in 1954 and a high-performance judo team was put together by Ewald Schönrock , he and his brother moved from Dresden to the sports club in Berlin. In 1954, Henry Hempel won the GDR championship for the first time. He was able to defend the individual championship title three times in 1955, 1956 and 1957. In July 1957, he and his brother took the 1st Dan exam in Leipzig. In 1958 and 1959 he was runner-up in the GDR. With the team from Dynamo Berlin he won the GDR team championship in 1958. During his active time, he completed a sports degree and trainer training at the German University of Physical Culture . With the trainer qualification, the chairman of the German Judo Association's coaching council, Horst Wolf , gave him the opportunity to switch to the German Judo Association as a trainer.

Judo trainer of the German Judo Association of the GDR (1960–1988)

After Henry Hempel had passed the 2nd Dan exam in January 1960, he ended his time as an active judo fighter at the age of 27 and started his coaching career with the German Judo Association. At the European Judo Championships for men in 1960 in Amsterdam , he was part of the coaching staff of the GDR national team. In 1961 Horst Wolf was elected President of the German Judo Association as the successor to Lothar Skorning . In the course of the associated structural changes in the association, Henry Hempel became head coach in 1962. In his role as association trainer and member of the performance committee of the German Judo Association, he always placed high demands on judo trainers and athletes. In the 1960s he played a decisive role in the development of the graduation system in the GDR. During his long tenure as a trainer, he led many GDR judoka to international successes until 1988. Examples are the world champions Detlef Ultsch and Andreas Preschel , the Olympic champion Dietmar Lorenz and the multiple European champions Dietmar Hötger , Harald Heinke , Rudolf Hendel , Torsten Reissmann , Günter Krüger and Henry Stöhr .

Medal balance (GDR judo men 1961–1988)

Individual competition	gold	silver	bronze
Olympics	a	two	six
World Championship	three	two	14th
European Championship	26th	19th	64

The DJV team appointed by him and Dietmar Hötger, which competed at the European Championships in Helsinki in 1978 , went down in European Championship history as a miracle team . The DJV judokas won five of the eight gold medals in Helsinki and all participating DJV judokas achieved a medal rank. In addition, the GDR team under the aegis of Henry Hempel won the bronze medal at the European Championships in 1964, 1965, 1966, 1974, 1976 and 1977.

With the election of Gerhard Lehmann as President of the German Judo Association in 1988 there were personnel changes in the DJV's coaching staff. Frank-Michael Friedrich took over the management of the DJV coaching team and Henry Hempel resigned from the head coach position at his own request. Hempel became head of the sports school of the German Gymnastics and Sports Association in Lindow in the Potsdam district .

President of the Brandenburg Judo Association

The German reunification brought among other things very radical changes for the sports officials of the former GDR. In 1990 Henry Hempel kept the management of the Brandenburg State Sports School in Lindow. In this position, which he held until his retirement in 1999, he organized and directed a large number of judo courses at state level and for the German Judo Association . In 1991 Henry Hempel was one of the founding members of the Brandenburg Judo Association (BJV) and took over the office of BJV President. After the union of the German Judo Association and its branches with the German Judo Association , Henry Hempel was appointed to the DJB Honorary Council in 1992 as the first judo functionary from the new federal states . Henry Hempel experienced the high point of his judo career during the 2001 Judo World Championship in Munich. There he was honored with the award of the 9th Dan by the International Judo Federation (IJF) for his life's work. After 12 years, his term of office as BJV president ended in 2002 . Since then he has been associated with the Brandenburg Judo Association as honorary president for life. When he was over 70 years old, he held training courses on various occasions and was regularly invited to larger judo events. He was also able to follow the development of judo through his son Andreas Hempel , who was an IJF referee. On the occasion of the Judo Grand Prix 2013 in Düsseldorf he was awarded the IJF gold medal for his services to the international judo sport. For health reasons, Henry Hempel was unable to attend this honor personally, so his son Andreas accepted the medal for him.

Publications (selection)

• Training methodical knowledge and experiences for the development of competitive technical-tactical abilities and skills in judo. ; Theory and Practice of Competitive Sports , Volume 11, 1973, Issue 3, pp. 34–56 (co-author: H. Müller-Deck )
• Performance physiological examinations as part of complex performance diagnostics for long-term control of physical performance in judo. ; Theory and practice of competitive sport, year 12, 1974, issue 6, pp. 55–82 (co-authors: H. Müller-Deck, H. Geisler)
• Selected problems of the education and training process in the German Judo Association of the GDR in preparation for the 1976 Olympic Games ; Theory and Practice of Competitive Sports, Year 13, 1975, Issue 2, pp. 53–73 (co-author: H. Müller-Deck)
• To increase the technical-tactical performance. ; Theory and Practice of Competitive Sports, Volume 21, 1983, Issue 5, pp. 52–56
• For the development of a modern fighting style and for the implementation of individual fighting concepts in judo. ; Theory and Practice of Competitive Sports, Volume 21, 1983, Issue 11, pp. 54–59
• To structure the load in the Olympic year under the aspect of coping with higher demands in the competition-related training of the judokas. ; Theory and Practice of Competitive Sports, Volume 25, 1987, Issue 5, pp. 34–39 (co-author: H. Müller-Deck)

literature

• Volker Kluge : The great lexicon of GDR athletes. The 1000 most successful and popular athletes from the GDR, their successes and biographies. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-348-9 .

Web links

• GDR lightweight champion
• Award of the IJF gold medal
• The DJB mourns Henry Hempel
• Henry Hempel on Judoinside (English)