Manfred Matuschewski

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Manfred Matuschewski has the starting number 240 on July 25, 1960 at the GDR Athletics Championships in Leipzig (final 800 meter battle of the men, which Matuschewski won, Jürgen Kühl with number 128 in the foreground)
Matuschewski (left) with Helmut Recknagel

Manfred Matuschewski (born September 2, 1939 in Oberweimar ) is a German athlete and Olympic participant who was successful in the 800-meter run for the GDR in the 1960s . He was European champion twice in a row, in 1962 and 1966. His victory in 1962 was the first gold medal for the GDR athletes (at that time within a joint German team). Because of his victories that were only decided on the finish line several times, he became known as the "millimeter runner" ("millimeter matu").

Life

Matuschewski, the son of a worker, lost his father shortly after his birth. He fell two weeks after the outbreak of war . Matuschewski had a difficult youth and learned the trade of a machine fitter after graduating from 8-class school. He worked as a mechanic at Optima , a typewriter factory, and began studying mechanical engineering at the engineering school for scientific device construction in Jena in 1967 , which he later exchanged for distance learning at the German University for Body Culture (DHfK) and completed with a sports teacher diploma.

Athletic career

Starting with boxing, Manfred Matuschewski came to field hockey and finally to athletics. He was discovered in 1956 by the student world champion over 80 m hurdles Siegfriede Weber-Dempe as a talent in athletics. As an 18-year-old, he ran a time of 1: 57.8 minutes in the 800-meter run. The 1936 Olympian Ewald Mertens brought him to Erfurt in 1958 . Two years later, in 1960, he finished sixth at the Olympic Games in Rome . For the victory at the European Championships in 1962, he received the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze.

1960 to 1966 and 1969 he was GDR champion in the 800-meter run, in 1969 also GDR champion in the 1500-meter run (3: 46.0 min). He escaped participation in the 1968 Olympic Games due to a kidney stone.

On July 23, 1963, he ran a world record in the 4 x 1,500 meter run in Potsdam (14: 58.0 min; together with Jürgen May , Siegfried Herrmann and Siegfried Valentin ). For a long time he was the captain of the GDR athletics team.

Manfred Matuschewski started for the SC Turbine Erfurt and trained with Ewald Mertens and Manfred Reiss . During his competition time he was 1.76 m tall and weighed 64 kg. In 1970 he was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver for "many years of extraordinary achievements and exemplary work in the athletics team of the German Democratic Republic". He was a total of 16 times GDR champion - including 10 individual and 6 season titles. At Mertens, his training group practiced interval training propagated by Woldemar Gerschler as early as 1933 , which was enriched with Soviet periodization elements.

Rivalry of systems

During the time of Matuschewski's greatest sporting successes, the rivalry between East and West was great - especially between the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany . In the years 1965 to 1967, this rivalry also came into play in the middle-distance athletics. In 1965, at the first European Athletics Cup in a pure lane race, the young Franz-Josef Kemper ( Preußen Münster ) had a surprising success over the favorite Manfred Matuschewski in 1: 50.3 min. In the two following years Matuschewski then managed a special coup: At the European Championships in 1966 he defeated about 800 meters to the last step the now clear favorite Kemper, who shortly beforehand with 1: had placed 44.9 minutes a very high quality European record, in 1 : 45.9 min by a tenth of a second. At the European Athletics Cup in 1967 Matuschewski initially repeated this success - again wafer-thin, Kemper and Matuschewski were at the same time with 1: 46.9 min. The following day, the GDR runner also won the 1,500-meter run, defeating the favored reigning European champion Bodo Tümmler from West Berlin with 3: 40.2 minutes and three tenths of a second advantage. Of course, the GDR functionaries rated this as a great success for their system and wrote it on their flags in a publicly effective manner, while in West Germany it was grudgingly noticed.

Further life

Matuschewski was a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and from 1967 to 1976 a member of the Erfurt district assembly . He was a member of the standing commission for youth and sport at the district assembly and later chairman of the active sport within this commission. After completing his active career, he became a junior coach at SC Turbine Erfurt on January 1, 1970.

From January 1974 to 1985 he was an association trainer for medium and long distance running at the Athletics Association of the GDR (DVfL). Then his coaching career came to an abrupt end - his son had married a woman from West Germany , so that he fell out of favor in his country. He was able to secure his livelihood through his friend Manfred Ewald , a sports official in the GDR , who gave him a special position in the medical service. He worked here as a liaison between sports medicine and the DTSB leadership, particularly in the area of ​​doping issues. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, this earned him a fine of 5000 DM . After his discharge from the DTSB, Matuschewski worked for a sporting goods supplier as well as in a fitness studio and, through his acquaintance with the Swiss cultural attaché in Berlin, temporarily looked after artists from Switzerland.

Physically, with now three artificial hips, he is suffering from the after-effects of a birth defect. Manfred Matuschewski has therefore been retired since October 1, 1999.,

Assignments at the most important international highlights in detail

(each in the 800 meter run)

Further awards

literature

  • Schiefelbein, Horst: Matu, the millimeter runner , Berlin, Sportverlag, 1964.
  • Volker Kluge : The great lexicon of GDR athletes. The 1000 most successful and popular athletes from the GDR, their successes, medals and biographies. 2nd updated edition. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89602-538-4 , p. 372f.

Individual evidence

  1. The Master of Europe and District Assembly Member of Erfurt - from a French point of view . In: Neues Deutschland , October 4, 1971, p. 8.
  2. Berliner Zeitung , December 18, 1962, p. 2.
  3. Neues Deutschland , January 24, 1970, p. 3
  4. Arnd Krüger : Many roads lead to Olympia. The changes in training systems for medium and long distance runners (1850–1997). In: N. Gissel (Hrsg.): Sporting performance in change . Czwalina, Hamburg 1998, pp. 41-56.
  5. Donath, Rolf, Ewald Mertens: Medium-distance and obstacle course: technology, training, tactics. Berlin (O): Sportverlag, 1960.
  6. a b c Die Welt, "They all have doped," says Manfred Matuschewski, by Knut Teske , published on July 2, 1999
  7. DER SPIEGEL, Athletics / European Cup: Pill in Tea , September 25, 1967
  8. Manfred Matuschewski: “I want to become a comrade” . In: Neues Deutschland , April 25, 1967, p. 8.
  9. Manfred Matuschewski is running for the second time . In: Neue Zeit , November 10, 1971; P. 6.
  10. New office for "Matu" . In: Berliner Zeitung , January 18, 1974, p. 11.
  11. a b Munzinger Biographien, Manfred Matuschewski , Internationales Sportarchiv 09/2004 from February 28, 2004 (mz)

Web links

Commons : Manfred Matuschewski  - Collection of images, videos and audio files