After the division of Germany following World War II, three separate states had been founded under occupation.

German athletes from the two remaining states competed at the Olympic Games in 1956, 1960 and 1964 as the United Team of Germany.

While this team was simply called 'Germany' at the time, it is currently designated by the IOC as EUA, 'Équipe unifiée d'Allemagne'.

It is widely believed that doping (predominantly anabolic steroids) allowed East Germany, with its small population, to become a world leader in the following two decades.

A number of athletes subsequently failed doping tests and others were suspected of taking performance-enhancing drugs.

As a result, the majority of records and medals won by East German athletes still stand.

It had an extensive state bureaucracy to select and train promising athletes and world-class coaches.

An important figure in the GDR was Manfred Ewald (1926–2002), member of SED central committee from 1963.

Also, many top-class German athletes who today live in the western part of Germany started their professional sport careers in the East, and can be seen as part of the large-scale exodus of young people from the East to the West since reunification.