East Germany first competed as its own team at the World Championships in 1958 where the men's and women's teams both placed ninth.

The men would win their first team medal, a bronze, in 1966.

[1] The women would win their first team medal, a silver, at the following iteration of the World Championships in 1970.

[2] In 1989 East and West Germany were reunified; therefore in 1991 they began competing as a unified German team.

[3]