German Sports, Doping, and Politics: A History of Performance Enhancement
Stefan Nielsen
Language: English
Pages: 268
ISBN: 144224920X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
In the Cold War era, sport was not just a symbol of the power and strength of a nation-state, but of certain ideological systems of politics. With the pressure for athletes to succeed at its zenith, many East German athletes were given anabolic steroids by their country’s own sport federation. While doping in East Germany has been intensely researched in the past decades, the state of West German athletics during this time has remained largely a mystery. In fact, doping was a common practice on both sides of the Iron Curtain. But how many athletes were involved? And who knew about these practices? In order to answer these questions, the Federal Institute for Sport Science in Germany supported a research project to shed light on the other, West German side of doping history.
Based on analyses of authentic documents and archives, German Sports, Doping and Politics: A History of Performance Enhancement is a unique study spanning from 1950-2007. Translated from its original German, and supplemented with new material written especially for an international audience, this innovative book addresses many important questions about a topic with worldwide implications. Part I deals with the history of doping in the post-war period of the 1950s and ‘60s; Part II focuses on the apex of doping, as well as the beginnings of the anti-doping movement; and Part III considers the development of doping since the Reunification and the foundation of the World Anti-Doping Agency and the National Anti-Doping Agency in Germany.
Written for a global audience, German Sports, Doping, and Politics explains and reveals the truly remarkable processes of doping and anti-doping that have evolved since the Cold War. While sports historians will find this book of great interest, it is also a significant study for anyone who wants to look beyond the surface of sports and doping as reported by the media.
medicine was its latter role as the most important protagonist of anti-doping policies, at least in the 1950s and 1960s. However, the public and the sports people themselves requested more effective support simultaneously for sports medicine to improve sporting performance and to attend to athletes during the process of training. In 1952, the popular athletics coach Woldemar Gerschler of Freiburg drew attention to the sciences in general and to sports medicine specifically to support sports and
also discussed the possibility of publishing a list including specific medications and substances that would be categorized as forbidden doping. Not least for our current understanding of doping and anti-doping, it is interesting that the responsible officials of sports and medicine refused to publish such a list. Two reasons were put forward: First, the list could be used as potential “recipes” to imitate or create new medications and substances to achieve the same object of enhancing
this publicly scandalized air clyster project. However, although the politicians and state officials had provided money, they shifted the responsibility to the sports authorities. This dubious division of roles between state and sport had long been used in West Germany. The state sponsored top-level sports, but the sports officials decided how the (tax) money was to be spent. They were responsible for the “content,” although politicians and administrators should have the political responsibility
get an answer on what we are actually supporting with the money from tax payers. Is it in accordance with the general aims of public support of performance sport as discussed and agreed in the parliament? That is what we are asking in our hearing today.” 141 Beyond this hearing, critical questions of parliamentarians concerning doping were asked, especially between 1977 and 1979. 142 The government and its administrations answered these questions in two ways. First, they emphasized the autonomy
mainly by well-educated people and intellectuals, called “Züchten wir Monstren?” (Are We Breeding Monsters?), and her 1977 interview with the German doctor Joseph Keul in the popular sporting show “Das aktuelle Sportstudio,” were important turning points. Thereafter, the West German public was informed about doping in the West through numerous articles and revelations in the press. 21 After the death of Birgit Dressel, each case was followed by parliamentary hearings, resolutions, and