The aim of the program, which began in the 1960s, was to bolster East Germany's state image and prestige by winning medals in international competition such as the Olympic Games.
[6] Documents revealed state-sponsored programs involving hundreds of scientists carrying out doping research on thousands of athletes.
[7] In the 1990s, a special division of the German criminal police, the Zentrale Ermittlungsstelle für Regierungs- und Vereinigungskriminalität [de] (ZERV), was charged with investigating doping crimes.
More recently, former East German athletes who were administered drugs and suffered adverse effects have been able to seek financial compensation.
These results were used in propaganda, claiming that a country of merely 17–18 million had managed to defeat world powers through talent and hard work.
Advances in medicine and science led to widespread use of steroids, amphetamines, human growth hormones and blood boosting behind the scenes in training centers for professional athletes.
Although various performance-enhancing drugs became available in 1966 for male athletes and 1968 for females,[4] formalisation occurred after the remarkable performance of East Germany in the 1972 Summer Olympics, in which the GDR placed third in the medal rankings.
Thanks to its strengthened doping program, the East German state was able to claim that a country of merely 17–18 million had managed to defeat world powers through talent and hard work.
In the following years, the country managed to assert dominance over different disciplines, and multiple records were set by East German athletes.
Multiple athletes and individuals came forward with information on the doping system, and a series of trials were held for the principle figures involved.
[23] Jean-Pierre de Mondenard, an expert in performance-enhancing drugs, contended that while doping existed in other countries, both communist and capitalist, the difference in East Germany was that it represented state policy.
[5] That year, a "highly centralized, clandestine program"[25] called State Research Plan 14.25 was created, and the uM working group (abbreviation of unterstützende Mittel, or 'supportive means'/'supportive substances') began overseeing distribution of drugs to athletes across all sports.
The state research program was "clandestine activity that demanded the collaboration of sports physicians, talented scientists and coaching experts under the watchful eye of the GDR Government".
Female athletes, including adolescents, experienced virilisation symptoms, and possibly as many as 1,000 sportsmen and women suffered serious and lasting physical and psychological damage".
However, heated debate surrounds the issue, with recognised figures such as Werner Franke arguing that doping can be qualified as a choice of the athletes.
Questions remain about the extent to which these drugs were solely responsible for the health issues that occurred; some athletes may have had pre-existing or hereditary conditions.
[31] And health consequences of taking performing-enhancing drugs had been acknowledged since as early as 1963, when a coach from Leipzig, Johanna Sperling, sent a letter to her athletes warning them against doping.
[32] In 1977, East German shot-putter Ilona Slupianek, who weighed 93 kg (205 lb), tested positive for anabolic steroids at the European Cup meeting in Helsinki.
[33] The International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) suspended Slupianek for 12 months, a penalty that ended two days before the European championships in Prague.
Contrary to what the IAAF had hoped, sending her home to East Germany allowed her to train unchecked with anabolic steroids, then compete for another gold medal, which she did indeed win.
A rare exception was the visit by American sports writer and former athlete Doug Gilbert of the Edmonton Sun, who wrote:Dr (Heinz) Wuschech knows more about anabolic steroids than any doctor I have ever met, and yet he cannot discuss them openly any more than Geoff Capes or Mac Wilkins can openly discuss them in the current climate of amateur sports regulation.
"[35] On 26 August 1993, well after the dissolution of the GDR, records were opened, revealing the scale of the Stasi's supervision of state doping of East German athletes from 1971 until reunification in 1990.
While the absence of 700 invited athletes suggests they may have wittingly played a role in the doping system and thus refused to testify, it is conceivable some did not want public exposure or did not feel they had suffered at the hands of the regime.
[8] Binus was sentenced in August 1998[9] and Pansold in December the same year, after both were found guilty of administering hormones to underage female athletes from 1975 to 1984.
[10] Daniela Hunger and Andrea Pollack are former Sport Club Dynamo athletes who publicly came forward and admitted to doping, accusing their coaches.
[15] Despite court rulings in Germany on substantial claims of systematic doping by some East German swimmers, the IOC executive board announced that it had no intention of revising the Olympic record books.
[12] In 1991, Brigitte Berendonk and Werner Franke, two opponents of doping, published several theses which had been drafted by former researchers in the GDR's Bad Saarow Military Medical Academy.
[7] Berendonk and Franke were able to document the state-run doping program, which included numerous renowned athletes such as Marita Koch and Heike Drechsler.
"[43] Particular media attention and controversy surrounded former GDR decathlete Christian Schenk, whose case highlighted that not all athletes unwittingly took performance-enhancing drugs.
Schenk admitted that he had knowingly used them, but suggested he would consider applying for compensation from the fund set up by the Second Doping Act because he now suffers from severe depression and bipolar disorder.