Olympic Winter Games 1976 / Participant (GDR)

GDR

7th	5	7th

The GDR took part in the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck with a delegation of 59 (40 men, 19 women) athletes and took second place in the medal ranking behind the USSR . The bobsleigh pilot Meinhard Nehmer was chosen as the flag bearer of the GDR team for the opening ceremony. Together with his teammate Bernhard Germeshausen, he was also the most successful GDR representative as a double Olympic champion. On Hockey competition and in the alpine ski disciplines no East German athletes participated.

Participants by sport

biathlon

While the biathletes in the individual decision had nothing to do with the outcome of the competition, the relay with 18-year-old Frank Ullrich reached bronze.

Men:

• Manfred Beer (SG Dynamo Zinnwald)

  Individual (20 km): 27th place

  Relay (4 × 7.5 km):

• Frank Ullrich (ASK Vorwärts Oberhof)

  Relay (4 × 7.5 km):

• Manfred Geyer (ASK Forward Oberhof)

  Individual (20 km): 12th place

  Relay (4 × 7.5 km):

• Karl-Heinz Menz (ASK Vorwärts Oberhof)

  Relay (4 × 7.5 km):

• Karl-Heinz Wolf (SG Dynamo Zinnwald)

  Individual (20 km): 15th place

• Andreas Richter (SG Dynamo Zinnwald)

  no use ^*

Richter is therefore not counted as an Olympic participant in the statistics.

bob

With Meinhard Nehmer, the GDR provided the double Olympic champion. Bernhard Germeshausen also won gold twice.

Four-man bobsleigh

• Meinhard Nehmer , Jochen Babock , Bernhard Germeshausen and Bernhard Lehmann (GDR I)

  

• Horst Schönau , Horst Bernhardt , Harald Seifert and Raimund Bethge (GDR II)

  4th Place

Two-man bobsleigh

• Meinhard Nehmer and Bernhard Germeshausen (GDR I)

  

• Horst Schönau and Raimund Bethge (GDR II)

  7th place

figure skating

The figure skaters won three medals, making it the second best nation after the USSR to win one more medal. In pair skating, all three couples placed among the top six and won silver and bronze. In the men's category, Jan Hoffmann missed third place by a tiny 0.04 points.

Women: Christine Errath (SC Dynamo Berlin) Anett Pötzsch (SC Karl-Marx-Stadt) 4th Place Marion Weber (SC Karl-Marx-Stadt) 11th place

Men Jan Hoffmann (SC Karl-Marx-Stadt) 4th Place

Couples: Romy Kermer / Rolf Oesterreich (SC Dynamo Berlin) Pair skating: Manuela Groß / Uwe Kagelmann (SC Dynamo Berlin) Pair skating: Kerstin Stolfig / Veit Kempe (SC Dynamo Berlin) Pair skating: 6th place

Speed ​​skating

It was not until 16 years after the Olympic victory of Helga Haase in Squaw Valley won the 15-year old Andrea Mitscherlich back an Olympic medal for the GDR. With several single-digit placements, the very young women's team in particular indicated the later potential in GDR speed skating.

Women: Heike Lange (SC Dynamo Berlin) 500 m: 10th place 1000 m: 8th place Andrea Mitscherlich (SC Unit Dresden) 1500 m: 10th place 3000 m: Ines Bautzmann (SC Unit Dresden) 500 m: 15th place 1500 m: 7th place 3000 m: 5th place Ute Dix (SC Karl-Marx-Stadt) 500 m: 20th place 1000 m: 21st place Monika Zernicek (SC Dynamo Berlin) 1000 m: 12th place Karin Kessow (SC Dynamo Berlin) 1500 m: 5th place 3000 m: 4th place

Men: Harald Oehme (TSC Berlin) 500 m: 24th place 1000 m: 20th place Manfred Winter (SC Karl-Marx-Stadt) 5000 m: 18th place Klaus Wunderlich (TSC Berlin) 1000 m: 10th place 1500 m 9th place 5000 m: 5th place

Sledding

The luge riders finished the competitions as the most successful nation. They were able to win all three competitions, bronze and silver in the individual decisions were added. Hans Rinn, Olympic champion in doubles, was able to win another medal in the men's singles.

Women: Margit Schumann (ASK Vorwärts Oberhof) Ute Rührold (SC Traktor Oberwiesenthal) Eva-Maria Wernicke (SC Traktor Oberwiesenthal) 4th Place

Men: Dettlef Günther (SC Traktor Oberwiesenthal) Hans Rinn (ASK Vorwärts Oberhof) Hans-Heinrich Winkler (SC Traktor Oberwiesenthal) 4th Place

Two-seater Hans Rinn and Norbert Hahn (ASK Vorwärts Oberhof) Bernd Hahn and Ulrich Hahn (SC Traktor Oberwiesenthal) 16th place

Nordic skiing

Cross-country skiing

The cross-country skiers indicated their potential in the individual decisions with placements consistently among the top 20, which they also confirmed with bronze in the relay.
The men were able to convince above all over 50 km, with Gert-Dietmar Klause winning silver and Gerhard Grimmer taking fifth place. The men's relay was eliminated under unfortunate circumstances. Axel Lesser, who was leading in the second lap, collided with a tourist and was unable to continue the race.

Women: Barbara Petzold (SC Traktor Oberwiesenthal) 4 × 5 km relay; 5 km; 11th place 10 km; 7th place Monika Debertshäuser (SC Motor Zella-Mehlis) 4 × 5 km relay; 5 km; 7th place 10 km; 14th place Veronika Schmidt (SC Motor Zella-Mehlis) 4 × 5 km relay; 5 km; 12th place 10 km; 8th place Sigrun Krause (ASK Vorwärts Oberhof) 4 × 5 km relay; 5 km; 16th place 10 km; 12th place Christel Meinel (SC Dynamo Klingenthal) No use

Men: Gert-Dietmar Klause (SC Dynamo Klingenthal) 15 km; 9. space 30 km; 6th place 50 km; 4 × 10 km relay; eliminated Gerhard Grimmer (ASK Vorwärts Oberhof) 15 km; 49. space 30 km; 16th place 50 km; 5th place 4 × 10 km relay; eliminated Jürgen Wolf (SC Dynamo Klingenthal) 15 km; 25. space Gerd Heßler (SC Dynamo Klingenthal) 15 km; 28. space 50 km; 28th place 4 × 10 km relay; eliminated Axel Lesser (ASK Vorwärts Oberhof) 30 km; 17th place 4 × 10 km relay; eliminated Dieter Meinel (SC Dynamo Klingenthal) 30 km; 33rd place 50 km; 33rd place

Ski jumping

Only the athletes from Austria and the GDR made the medals in both decisions among themselves. The GDR athletes took a complete set of medals with them. Only representatives of these two teams were among the top eight jumpers on the large hill.

• Hans-Georg Aschenbach (ASK Vorwärts Oberhof)

  Normal hill;

  Large hill; 8th place

• Jochen Danneberg (ASK Vorwärts Oberhof)

  Normal hill;

  Large hill; 4th Place

• Bernd Eckstein (SC Motor Zella-Mehlis)

  Normal hill; 32nd place

  Large hill; 7th place

• Henry Glaß (SC Dynamo Klingenthal)

  Normal hill; 44th place

  Large hill;

Nordic combination

The competition became a German-German affair, with BRD representative Urban Hettich between Olympic champion Wehling and third-placed Winkler. 5th and 13th place completed the excellent team result.

• Ulrich Wehling (SC Traktor Oberwiesenthal)

  Individual (normal hill 90 m / 15 km):

• Konrad Winkler (SC Traktor Oberwiesenthal)

  Individual (normal hill 90 m / 15 km):

• Claus Tuchscherer (SC Dynamo Klingenthal)

  Individual (normal hill 90 m / 15 km): 5th place

• Günter Deckert (SC Dynamo Klingenthal)

  Individual (normal hill 90 m / 15 km): 13th place

statistics

Medals by sports

In particular, the more technical sports such as bobsleigh and luge were medalists. There was a clear upward trend in figure skating, as well as in Nordic skiing, where altogether two gold, silver and bronze medals were won.

Medal table (based on the decisions)
space	team	gold	silver	bronze	total
1	Luge	3	1	1	5
2	bob	2	0	0	2
3	Ski jumping	1	1	1	3
4th	Nordic combination	1	0	1	2
5	figure skating	0	1	2	3
6th	Cross-country skiing	0	1	1	2
7th	Speed ​​skating	0	1	0	1
8th	biathlon	0	0	1	1

Medals according to sports clubs

Most of the medal winners came from ASK Vorwärts Oberhof, with bobsleigh riders Meinhard Nehmer and Bernhard Germeshausen each winning two gold medals. Of the 10 Oberhof gold medals, six were won by bobsleigh riders.

Medal table (based on the individual athletes)
space	team	gold	silver	bronze	total
1	ASK Oberhof	10	1	5	16
2	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	2	1	2	5
3	SC Dynamo Berlin	0	2	3	5
4th	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	0	1	1	2
5	SC unit Dresden	0	1	0	1
6th	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	0	0	2	2
7th	SG Dynamo Zinnwald	0	0	1	1

Participants by sports clubs

Most of the athletes came from the NVA winter sports center in Oberhof, from where almost a third of the Olympic team came. 12 out of 19 athletes were bobsleigh or luge athletes. The second largest contingent, somewhat surprisingly, came from SC Dynamo Berlin, where only runners trained. The winter sports strongholds of Oberwiesenthal and Klingenthal provided 9 and 7 athletes, respectively.

team	Men	Women	total
ASK Oberhof	17th	2	19th
SC Dynamo Berlin	3	7th	10
SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	6th	3	9
SC Dynamo Klingenthal	7th	0	7th
SC Karl-Marx-Stadt	2	3	5
SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	1	2	3
SG Dynamo Zinnwald	3	0	3
TSC Berlin	2	0	2
SC unit Dresden	0	2	2
total	41	19th	60

Web link

• Olympic team of the GDR 1976 in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )