Page 84 - Olympism in Socialism

1979 on a cold and foggy day more than 5,000
people assembled at a place called “Hohe Sonne”
near the Thuringian town Eisenach to start a
competition that was to take more than 14 hours
for some of the participants. The 5th Race and the
Rennsteig, a ridge in the mountains of the
Thuringian Forest, which had already been a
favourite path for walking-tours at the beginning
of this century and about which Goethe had
sung, had attracted those large crowds. The
amateur sportsmen had come from everywhere.
Michael Behrens did not balk at the more than
500 km he had to cover to get there and to gain
in the end the 1150th position. Thomas Funke,
720th position, belonged to the big crowd that
had come by train or car from Berlin to Thuringia.
It was nobody’s duty to take part, nobody was
allotted accommodation, there was no significant
medal for the winner. Yet many came, despite the
rain, fog and cold.. The only condition for the race
over a distance of 75 kilometres was that the
participants should have been regularly active in
sports throughout the year in order to stand the
strain. What made more than 5,000 men and
women come? Not the prospect of winning a good
position (although that naturally also motivated
some of’ them), but reasons like these which were
frequently mentioned: “it was just fun”; “I was
determined to tackle something difficult and
carried it through; “This makes me glad”; “I run
about 10 to 20 kilometres every week and I
wanted to test my capabilities over such a long
distance”; etc. Everybody had a reason of his
own, many were attracted by the adventure of the
thing as well.
In age the participants varied between 15 and
65 years. This race is the longest popular race in
the GDR but just one of many. In a number of

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