Sports club (East Germany)
The sports clubs existed in this form until the end of 1990, when they were either dissolved or given new legal statuses based on the West German model.
The system of sports clubs came to prove itself in view of the very large number of medals that athletes in East Germany won in the Olympic games and in European and World Championships.
Numerous enterprise sports communities (BSG) were established in East Germany in the early 1950s.
[nb 1] Other exceptions were the Gymnastics- and Sports club (Turn- und Sportclub, TSC) Berlin and the Parachute Sports club (Fallschirmsportclub, FSC) Dynamo Eilenburg.
SG Dynamo Potsdam became a designated center of excellence (Leistungszentrum) in rowing and SG Wismut Gera was founded as a designated center excellence in cycle sport and boxing.
The largest sports club in East Germany was SC Dynamo Berlin.
The background was primarily the pursuit of international recognition and propaganda purposes.
The large medal yield that could be expected in international competitions through a targeted promotion would suggest a superiority of the socialist system in the Eastern Bloc over the capitalist system of the Western Bloc.
Scientific, intensive training enables them to achieve the highest levels of performance."
Central sports associations (SV) had been set up in East Germany based on the Soviet model, as a result of a decision by the German Sports Committee (Deutscher Sportausschuss, DS) on 3 April 1950.
[4][5] The sports clubs were normally located in a city where a powerful state-owned enterprise (Volkseigener Betrieb, VEB) of the respective trade union could take on the role as sponsor.
There had been five teams from the area around the Ore mountains in the DDR-Oberliga, while northern East Germany lacked representation.
Supporters even tried to stop the train with players and coaches destined for Rostock from leaving Lauter.
Workers at SDAG Wismut in Aue even argued that their work ethic would suffer if the team was relocated.
[12][11] The football team of BSG Turbine Halle and its place in the DDR-Oberliga was transferred to sports club SC Chemie Halle-Leuna.
Some players of SC Chemie Halle-Leuna tried to return to BSG Turbine Halle at first occasion.
14 of 18 sports associations (SV) were subsequently dissolved and integrated into DTSB.
"Civil" sports clubs were those that were not affiliated to SV Dynamo or ASV Vorwärts.
The two sports associations continued to operate numerous focus points distributed throughout East Germany.
ASK Vorwärts Crimmitschau lost its status as a sports club in 1970, as part of the restructuring of top-level ice hockey in East Germany.
The ski jumpers of the sports club joined ASK Vorwärts Oberhof instead.
This led to creation of dedicated ice sports clubs (Eissportclub, ESC) among other things.
Ice sports clubs ESC Dresden and ESC Erfurt were formed out of sports clubs SC Einheit Dresden and SC Turbine Erfurt.
Instead, they were given new legal statuses as registered associations (eingetragener Verein, e. V.) according to the West German model if they were to be continued.
