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Doping in East Germany

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The government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) conducted a decades-long program of coercive administration and distribution of performance-enhancing drugs, initially testosterone, later mainly anabolic drugs, to its elite athletes. 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. The system was extremely formalised and heavily based on secrecy. Scholars and athletes have noted the pervasiveness of operations, the secrecy surrounding them, and the extent of abuse that athletes suffered because of them. While doping brought East Germany impressive results in sporting events, it was often devastating to the health of the athletes involved.[1][2][3]

The program has been described in numerous accounts by the athletes, and by the East German government's secret records opened in 1993 that revealed the scale of the program. Various performance-enhancing drugs first became available in 1966 for male athletes and 1968 for females.[4] Beginning in 1974, doping became a blanket policy imposed by the GDR sports federation.[5] Athletes were often sworn to secrecy, deceived, or simply not informed about the drugs they were taking. While virtually no East German athlete ever failed an official drug test, Stasi files show many produced positive results at the Kreischa laboratory (German:Zentrales Dopingkontroll-Labor des Sportmedizinischen Dienstes), a facility approved at the time by the IOC.[6] Documents revealed state-sponsored programs involving hundreds of scientists carrying out doping research on thousands of athletes. Particular attention was paid to doping women and adolescent girls because they gained the greatest performance boost from doping. In addition to doping research, research on evading doping detection was carried out.[7]

In the 1990s, a special division of the German criminal police, the Central Investigations Office for Government and Reunification Crimes (ZERV), was charged with investigating doping crimes. Many sports directors, club officials, and some athletes were charged. For example, two former Dynamo Berlin club doctors were convicted of administering hormones to underage female athletes between 1975 and 1984.[8][9][10] The East German Minister of Sport, Manfred Ewald, and the country's top sports doctor, Manfred Höppner, were convicted as accessories to "intentional bodily harm of athletes, including minors." More recently, former East German athletes who were administered drugs and suffered adverse effects have been able to seek financial compensation.[11][12] Scholars have referred to the damaging side effects of steroid consumption to highlight that the GDR's regime was abusive and corrupt.[13]

The program allowed East Germany to consistently score near the top of the Olympic medal rankings, placing second overall in both 1976 and 1980. 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.[14] When the scale of the doping was revealed, the United States and Great Britain appealed to the IOC for the redistribution of medals. However, the IOC executive board announced that it had no intention of revising the Olympic record books. In rejecting the petitions, the IOC made it clear that it wanted to discourage any such appeals in the future.[15][16]

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