Football — East German Sport’s ‘Problem Child’

Abstract

Although football managed to secure its place in ‘Sport I’ in 1969 and many clubs obtained generous financial support from a variety of sources, the record of GDR teams in international competition was disappointing and the subject of intense debate among officials, journalists and fans both before and after 1990. In his memoirs, published four years after the collapse of the GDR, Manfred Ewald reflected on the failure of football to attain the standard achieved in track and field, rowing, swimming, cycling and many other top-level sports. His critique ranged from well-paid but underperforming players to the overweening influence of local and regional interests. The former sports chief of the SED daily organ, Neues Deutschland, Klaus Huhn, likened top SED regional officials to ‘provincial princes’ whose treatment of their local football team was similar to feudal rulers’ attitude towards their ballet.¹ In Ewald’s view, influential groups and individuals, whether an industrial enterprise, an SED big-wig, the Ministry of State Security, or a regional state official, all combined to frustrate the well-meaning efforts of the central sports authorities like his own DTSB and the German Football Federation (DFV) to direct the game into the most effective channels. He argued that central but above all regional political and economic functionaries, with little feel for the game, had misjudged — rather than deliberately misused — their influence and opportunities.