Lothar Skorning

Lothar Skorning (born October 5, 1925 , † January 3, 2005 ) was a German sports historian, judoka and president of the German Judo Association of the GDR.

Life as a judoka and sports official

After the reopening of the Berlin University in early 1946, Lothar Skorning began studying German and sports science . During his studies, Skorning also dealt with the history and development of judo as a competitive sport. With interested students at the Berlin University, he tried not only to get to know judo theoretically, but also to try out suitable competition techniques and rules as a judo trainer. After the founding of the German Sports Committee (DS), Skorning campaigned in Berlin together with Hans Becker , Willi Lorbeer , Ewald Schönrock , Helmut Bark and others for the admission of judo athletes to this sports association. From the end of 1948 he took part in judo tournaments in Berlin. After the sport of judo was included in the heavy athletics department of the DS in 1949, the first individual judo championships for men in the GDR took place in Dresden on June 24 and 25, 1950 . Lothar Skorning started as the favorite in the lightweight category, but surprisingly lost to his Berlin training partner Siegmund Haunschild in the final battle . When the German University of Physical Culture (DHfK) was founded, Lothar Skorning was appointed to Leipzig as a teacher for the history of physical culture and judo . In addition to his teaching activities, he was involved in judo sport as a functionary in the DS and as a trainer and active in building up the university sports community at the DHfK. As a member of the HSG DHfK Leipzig , he won the GDR individual championships in 1951 and 1952 in the lightweight. In 1951, Lothar Skorning and Ernst Lassahn applied for membership of the GDR Judoka in the European Judo Union (EJU) on behalf of DS heavy athletics . As a judo functionary, he also took part in organizing the first GDR team championships in Görlitz in 1951 and separating the sport of judo from the heavy athletics section in the DS. On September 21, 1952, the independent Judo section of the DS was founded and Lothar Skorning was elected as president. His work in the field of sports science and as a sports functionary in the DS demanded more and more so that he was forced to give up teaching in judo at the DHfK. After he had won third place in his weight class at the GDR championships in 1953, he ended his career as an active judoka. At the Institute for Martial Arts of the DHfK, he established the judo discipline in 1953 and prompted Horst Wolf and Siegmund Haunschild to be appointed as judo teachers. The contacts of the Judo section with the German Athletes' Association (DAB) in West Germany led to all-German team championships in Berlin at the beginning of May 1954. Two years earlier, as a trainer and judo master , he had been awarded the 1st Dan by the leading Dan carriers in the DAB and in the Judo section of the DS in accordance with the graduation rules applicable in Germany. In his function as President of the Judo Section in the DS, he organized the founding of the Dan College in the GDR, which took place on May 8, 1954 in Berlin, together with the Dan sponsors Hans Becker , Ernst Lassahn, Ewald Schönrock and Karl Knoop . At the EJU Congress in Brussels in December 1954, Lothar Skorning led the delegation of the Judo Section , which was accepted as a full member of the EJU without dissenting votes. On May 21, 1955, the judo competitions for the Mitropa Cup of the EJU took place in Nuremberg, in which seven East German judoka from a DS team took part. After the international recognition of the Judo section by the EJU, the German Judo Association (DJB) broke off the relations originally agreed with the DAB with the judoka in the GDR. From 1956 to 1960 the international sporting relations of the Judo section were essentially restricted to the Warsaw Pact states due to the Federal Republic's claim to sole representation . Despite Lothar Skornings' best efforts, the sports associations of the then leading European judo nations France , Great Britain and the Netherlands saw the German judoka represented by the DJB, whose chairman Heinrich Frantzen was at the same time president of the EJU.

Under the leadership of Lothar Skornings, the German Judo Association of the GDR (DJV) was founded in Leipzig on April 19, 1958 . As president of the DJV he was able to record the participation of the GDR judoka in a European championship (EM) for the first time in Barcelona in 1958 . GDR judoka also took part in the judo European championships in Vienna in 1959 and in Amsterdam in 1960 . The sport-political work and the intensification of the relations with the EJU and the International Judo Federation (IJF) in the presidium of the DJV produced successes. On the first day of the association of the DJV in April 1961, Lothar Skorning handed over the presidency to Horst Wolf, but remained as Vice-President in the DJV Presidium. In the 1960s Lothar Skorning increasingly withdrew from work in the judo association and concentrated on his profession as a sports historian.

Life as a sports scientist

1949 Lothar Skorning was one of the first scientific aspirants with which the German Administration for National Education and in 1950 the Ministry of Education to university teachers deficiency in the German Democratic Republic wanted to fix. As a scientific aspirant at the Humboldt University in 1950, he was appointed to the DHfK in Leipzig, which was being established. From November 1950 he worked there as a university professor for the history of physical culture . He also headed a group of academic aspirants from various universities who jointly produced a publication on the history of sports that was published in 1952. The title of this book is: “Brief outline of the history of physical culture in Germany since 1800.” In the course of this collective work, he helped found the sports science journal “Theory and Practice of Physical Culture” in 1951, which was published from 1952 to 1990. From 1952 he was editor-in-chief of this magazine . From 1953 Lothar Skorning, who until then was also active as a judo trainer at the sports university, only taught the history of physical culture . Because of his work as a university teacher and as a judo functionary, from 1952 to the beginning of 1961, apart from his work as a lecturer, with the exception of a few articles in specialist journals, he had no time for further publications on sports history. After handing over the presidency of the DJV to Horst Wolf in 1961, he began to work on his dissertation at the DHfK. 1963 received his doctorate with the thesis on the topic: "The struggle of the revolutionary worker athletes for the implementation of the proletarian class policy in the Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Federation (ATSB) in the first years of the period of relative stabilization of capitalism (1923/24 to 1926/27) . ”After completing his doctorate, he participated in the elaboration and publication of the“ History of Physical Culture in Germany ”in four volumes until 1967. In 1969 he was appointed to the Humboldt University as a professor. There he headed the department of education and training in the sports science section and worked as a lecturer specializing in the history of physical culture . After the turning point and peaceful revolution in the GDR , Lothar Skorning retired in 1991. As a pensioner, he devoted himself to the sporting history of the DHfK and sport in the GDR . After his death on January 3, 2005, he was buried in the cemetery in Biesenthal .

Works (selection)

• “About the main focuses of research in the history of physical culture.” In “ Theory and Practice of Physical Culture ”, born in 1952, issue 1, pp. 59–65
• “A brief outline of the history of physical culture in Germany since 1800.” (in the collective of authors with Günter Erbach , Paul Marschner , Hans Schuster , Hans Simon , Georg Wieczisk , Günther Wonneberger ; overall management: Lothar Skorning), Sportverlag Berlin , 1952
• " Friedrich Ludwig Jahn - A patriot of our people." Friedrich Ludwig Jahn's patriotic legacy for German athletes . (in the author collective with Robert Schulz , Günter Erbach, Paul Marschner), Sportverlag Berlin, 1953
• "History of physical culture in Germany."
  • Volume 1: "The body culture in Germany from the beginnings to the modern age." (In the author collective with Gerhard Lukas , Wolfgang Eichel , Wilhelm Beier ), Sportverlag Berlin 1969
  • Volume 2: "The body culture in Germany from 1789 to 1917." (in the author collective with Wolfgang Eichel and Wilhelm Beier), Sportverlag Berlin, 1965
  • Volume 3: “Body culture in Germany from 1917 to 1945.” (in the author collective with Hannes Simon, Wolfgang Eichel, Wilhelm Beier), Sportverlag Berlin 1964
  • Volume 4: “The body culture in Germany from 1945 to 1961.” (in the author collective with Günther Wonneberger, Wolfgang Eichel, Wilhelm Beier and others), Sportverlag Berlin 1967
• "On the history of judo sport in the GDR." In " Judo " - newsletter of the DJV of the GDR, series of articles born in 1973, issues 3 to 7
• “Football in the past and present.” Sportverlag Berlin, 1978
  • Volume 1: "History of football in Germany until 1945."
  • Volume 2: "History of football in the GDR until 1976."
• “Athletics in the past and present.” ( Jaro Schafrik , editor and publisher: Lothar Skorning), Sportverlag Berlin, 1976
  • Volume 1: "History of athletics in Germany until 1945."
  • Volume 2: "History of athletics in the GDR until 1975."
• "Chronicle of Judo Sport in the GDR." In "Judo" - bulletin of the DJV of the GDR, series of articles born in 1978, issue 8 to 12; Year 1979, issue 1 to 4, year 1980, issue 1
• “Everything that wears a human face is the same.” On the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Fichte Berlin gymnastics club . (Co-author: Herbert Dierker ) In: “ Social and Contemporary History of Sports ”, Issue 2, 1990, pages 7–41
• "Chronicle of GDR Sports" (co-authors Klaus Huhn , Margot Budzisch , Hans Simon), Spotless-Verlag , Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-933544-35-1
• “History of GDR Sports.” (Co-authors: Günther Wonneberger, Helmuth Westphal , Gerhard Oehmingen , Joachim Fiebelkorn , Hans Simon), Spotless-Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-933544-62-9

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Neues Deutschland from June 23, 1950: Lothar Skorning, the trainer at Humboldt University, would have to emerge as a master in lightweight .
2. ^ New Germany of May 10, 1954.
3. ^ New Germany of December 12, 1954.
4. ↑ Arnd Krüger , Paul Kunath: The Development of Sports Science in the Soviet Zone and the GDR, in: W. BUSS & C. BECKER u. a. (Ed.): Sport in the Soviet Zone and the early GDR. Genesis - structures - conditions. Schorndorf: Hofmann 2001, 351 - 366.
5. ^ Elk Franke : Sports Science at the Humboldt University. In: History of the University of Unter den Linden 1810-2010 (Editor: Heinz-Elmar Tenorth ), Volume 6, Page 303, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG 2010.