Page 95 - Olympism in Socialism

representation, for many years. Nobody would
dream of excusing a lack of activity in the
Commission for Youth, Physical Culture and
Sports merely because Schur used to be a world
champion. His repeated elections to the People’s
Chamber prove the good quality of his work.
These facts show that almost all of the GDR’s
Olympic winners are highly respected citizens of
their country for their work, who can discharge
their tasks all the more confidently, as they need
not point to their spoils successes — although
those triumphs are not forgotten either.
In many capitalist countries of the world one
can also meet renowned sportsmen of past
decades doing excellent work in their profession
or trade. That cannot be called a rule, however.
The rule is rather marked by the attempt at
transforming sports success into commercial
success, building up what is often called a “safe
income”, which diminishes usually with the
fading of the sportsmen’s fame.
It is an unwritten law for a competitive
sportsman in the GDR that he or she should pay
constant attention to his future professional
career. The Olympic winner Wolfgang Behrendt
used the opportunities of training schemes to get
a diploma as a photographer. Olympic-winner
Helmut Recknagel prepared for his studies of
veterinary medicine during his ski-jumping
career, and Anna-Maria Mueller intensively dealt
with pharmacology in the months when she used
to travel from one competition to the next.
On the other hand, it is also typical of the
GDR that these sportsmen are given particular
support. When, for instance, a Berlin professor
took over the task of teaching Helmut Recknagel
Latin, this was certainly also out of his respect for
Recknagel’s striking sports successes. When

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