Horst Wolf (judoka)

Horst Wolf (born April 25, 1917 in Freiberg , † March 23, 1988 in Leipzig ) was a German judo professor ( Sensei ), judo trainer and president of the German Judo Association .

Life

Difficult beginning (1933–1948)

As a teenager, Horst Wolf was interested in Jiu Jitsu, developed by Erich Rahn and propagated in Germany, and began to train this martial art in 1934 in the Leipzig Post Sports Club . He also got to know the fighting techniques of Jiu-Jitsu-derived judo . His ambitious training enabled him to take part in the Gau championships in 1935, where he won championship titles in the NSRL sports areas in Central and Saxony . In 1939 he attended the International Judo Summer School of the 1st DJC in Frankfurt am Main, founded by Alfred Rhode , which had a lasting impact on his later involvement in judo. Before he could choose one of the two related but competing Far Eastern martial arts, military service and the Second World War prevented him from practicing it. After the Second World War the occupying powers banned any practice of these martial arts in Germany by means of a Control Council directive. During the ban, Horst Wolf followed the international development of judo, which is more suitable for competitive sports. First he trained in so-called gymnastics groups and, as an active athlete in Saxony , campaigned for judo - "the gentle way" - to be allowed as a sport again.

German Sports Committee, Judo Section (1948–1958)

In the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ), the " German Sports Committee " (DS) was founded on October 1, 1948 , and in 1949 it included the sport of judo in its " Heavy Athletics " department . In the countries of the SBZ / GDR judo tournaments were held from the end of 1948, in which Horst Wolf participated as a judo trainer and competitor of BSG Motor Südost Leipzig . He proved his potential as an active judoka, which he had not been able to exploit because of the war and prohibition years, in 1951 when he won the state welterweight championship for BSG Motor Südost Leipzig at the age of 35 . With the judo team of BSG Motor Südost Leipzig , he was also GDR runner-up in 1951.

When the "Judo Section" was founded in the DS in September 1952, Horst Wolf took over the chairmanship of the youth and women's commission on the board . The Leipzig president Lothar Skorning and the chairman of the coaching committee Hans Becker in East Berlin later opened up the prospects for him as a judo teacher and trainer of the "Judo Section" in Leipzig, the development of judo in the GDR in conjunction with the German University of Physical Culture (DHfK) to drive forward. In February 1953 Horst Wolf took up his position on the judo coaching council of the DS. Under the direction of Lothar Skorning, the Judo department was founded at the DHfK in September 1953 and Horst Wolf was appointed as a lecturer at the university. At the 1st plenary meeting of the “Judo Section” in October 1953 in Leipzig, Horst Wolf was elected Vice President. In addition to his work in the presidium of the "Judo Section" and as a lecturer and head of the Institute for Martial Arts at the DHfK, he continued to work on the judo coaching council of the DS. The coaching council met regularly for courses at the sports university in order to improve the theory and methodology of the training and further education of judo trainers and trainers and the content of the training work and to adapt them to international requirements.

In connection with teaching at the sports university and on the coaching council, Horst Wolf was in charge of developing the theoretical and methodological foundations of judo training for the "Judo Section" in the DS, which had been a member of the European Judo Union (EJU) since August 1952 . Based on the Japanese teaching system of traditional Gokyo from 1920 and the methods developed by Mikinosuke Kawaishi and Moshé Feldenkrais in France, he created teaching material that was recognized by the EJU and the International Judo Federation (IJF).

In May 1954, the German Dan College (DDK) was founded in the GDR. In the same year the DDK carried out a Dan test in which Horst Wolf achieved the 1st Dan. Then he was one of the first 10 Dan bearers in the GDR. His judo textbooks were written between 1955 and 1958. First edition published by Sportverlag Berlin :

- 1955: Judo martial arts. The technique and methodology of the judo elementary school,

- 1957: advanced judo,

- 1958 Judo self-defense.

“Based on the Gokyo-No-Kaisetsu of the Kodokan , these textbooks became the basis for the graduation system and the training plans in GDR judo. They have appeared in over 20 editions and are still of value today for the theory and practice of judo training ”. With these textbooks, which have been translated into several foreign languages, Horst Wolf established his reputation as "one of the most famous judo athletes in Europe and in the world". The trainer courses he led at the DHfK from 1955 to 1957 were fundamental for the training of qualified judo trainers in the GDR. In addition to his work as a university teacher, he worked as a judo trainer at the HSG DHfK , where the students and athletes he supervised achieved national and international success. On behalf of the DDK, he took over the chairmanship of Dan and Kyu exams at the DHfK. In 1957 Horst Wolf was appointed to a committee of the EJU board that dealt with the technical development of judo.

German Judo Association of the GDR (1958–1988)

After the dissolution of the DS, the "Judo Section" was transferred to the newly founded German Judo Association (DJV) in April 1958 . The DJV joined the German Gymnastics and Sports Association (DTSB) as a sports association and became a member of the EJU as the successor to the "Judo Section". Horst Wolf was elected to the presidium of the DJV and took over the office of chairman in the DJV coaching council. At that time he had achieved the 3rd Dan Judo graduation, at that time still according to the examination conditions of the DDK. In May 1959 he was elected to the board of the EJU as deputy technical director. In this position, which he held for over 20 years, he contributed to the development of European judo and the international recognition of the DJV. On the occasion of his 25th anniversary of judo, the DJV awarded him the 4th Dan in 1959 because of his successful work in the service of judo. As chairman of the DJV coaching council, he convinced the DJV executive committee to transfer the duties of the Dan college under his leadership in 1960 to a graduation and Dan exam committee in the DJV. In April 1961 the 2nd Association Day of the DJV took place, which elected Horst Wolf as the successor to Lothar Skorning as President. In this role he worked with the executive committee and the commissions of the DJV to develop efficient internal structures and in 1962 handed over the chairmanship of the DJV coaching council and thus the DJV head coach function to Henry Hempel . A particular success of his association work was the first award of the European Judo Championship by the EJU to the DJV, which took place in East Berlin in 1964. As chairman of the Dan examination commission of the DJV, he ensured that the Dan exams in the GDR met international standards. An example is the composition of the examination committee for the years 1966/1967, the majority of which had completed a university degree as a qualified sports teacher or trainer:

- Chairman: Horst Wolf (5th Dan / Lecturer at DHfK / Deputy Technical Director EJU);

- Deputy Chairman: Henry Hempel (4th Dan / DJV head coach / DJV performance committee, chairman of the coaching council)

other members:

- Willi Lorbeer (4th Dan / ASK head coach);

- Helmut Bark (3rd Dan / DJV referee commission / trainer at the Humboldt University );

- Kurt Jahn (3rd Dan / EJU referee);

- Gert Schneider (3rd Dan / head coach of SC Dynamo Hoppegarten );

- Hubert Sturm (3rd Dan / ASK trainer / DJV junior commission);

- Horst Marsel (3rd Dan / DJV Sport Commission);

- Manfred Michelmann (3rd Dan / DHfK);

- Hans Müller-Deck (3rd Dan / trainer SC DHfK / DJV junior trainer);

- Helmut Hempel (3rd Dan / Trainer SC Dynamo Hoppegarten);

- Siegmund Haunschild (3rd Dan / Trainer SC / HSG DHfK).

In 1969, Horst Wolf was appointed to the IJF Sports Commission as EJU representative. In the DJV he led the preparation and implementation of the European Judo Championship in 1970 in East Berlin. In 1972 he became a member of the IJF referee commission, whose work he led as deputy chairman from 1974 . In 1973 he gave up the management of the Institute for Martial Arts at the DHfK. By then he had trained several generations of students and judoka in his professional activity, who successfully continued his life's work as trainers, sports scientists and sports officials. Because of the workload and the time required by the functions in the EJU and IJF, Horst Wolf gave up the office of DJV President to Gerhard Grafe in 1974 . For health reasons, Horst Wolf had to stop working at the DHfK, in the DJV and in the committees of the EJU and IJF in 1980. Because of his achievements at national and international level, he was awarded the 8th Dan Judo in 1981. As the first and until his death the only holder of the 8th Dan in the GDR, he was at the head of the DJV's many Dan holders.

Honors

The executive committee of the DJV appointed Horst Wolf an honorary member at the association conference in 1984. After his death, the DJV founded the Horst Wolf memorial tournament for men under the age of 21, which should be announced annually for top national and international judoka. However, only two of these high-ranking tournaments took place in Frankfurt (Oder) in 1988 and 1989 until the fall of the GDR . Since 1990 the JV Ippon Rodewisch , which emerged from the former Judo section of TSG Rodewisch , has been organizing an international judo tournament for the Horst Wolf Cup every year for young judoka in honor of Horst Wolf .

Selected new editions of the judo textbooks

• Judo martial arts: technique and methodology for beginners. (Illustration: Otto Hartmann ), Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin (1994), ISBN 3-548-27616-4 .
• Advanced Judo: From 4th to 1st Kyu . (Illustration: Otto Hartmann), Ullstein Publishing House, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin (1994), ISBN 3-548-27618-0 .
• Judo self-defense (contains an article on the legal status of self-defense by Wilfried Friebel ; illustration: Otto Hartmann), Sportverlag Berlin (1986), ISBN 3-328-00141-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ We mourn Horst Wolf (obituary of the DJV); Judo - Bulletin of the German Judo Association of the GDR, 27th year, April 1988
2. ↑ Directive No. 23 of December 17, 1945: "Restriction and demilitarization of sport in Germany".
3. ^ Judo-Base: Kodokan-Gokyo-No-Waza from 1920
4. ↑ See for example from Mikinosuke Kawaishi: Ma méthode de Judo. , Editions Cario 1951, and Ma méthode de self-defense. , Editions Cario 1952; or from Moshé Feldenkrais : Judo pour ceintures noires. Étienne Chiron, 1951 (translations from French in the library of the DHfK, Leipzig)
5. ↑ Judo textbooks by Horst Wolf in the German National Library
6. ↑ Hans Müller-Deck: On the philosophy of Dan in Judo - experiences from the German Judo Association of the former GDR. (Contribution to the Dan supporter meeting of the DJB , October 2008 in Willingen), taken from the "Accompanying material for the Dan examination program". A reference work on various topics of the Dan examination regulations in the German Judo Association, May 2011, p. 82 ff.
7. ↑ Gerhard Lehmann in the preface to judo martial arts technology and methodology for beginners. Author Horst Wolf (8th Dan), Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1994, p. 9
8. ↑ Hans Müller-Deck: On the philosophy of Dan in Judo - experiences from the German Judo Association of the former GDR. Accompanying material for the Dan examination program in the German Judo Association, May 2011, p. 85
9. ↑ We mourn Horst Wolf (obituary of the DJV); Judo bulletin of the German Judo Association of the GDR, year 27, April 1988
10. ↑ ibid, p. 16