East Germany at the 1972 Summer Olympics

Athletes from East Germany (German Democratic Republic, called DDR in the opening ceremony) competed at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany. 297 competitors, 231 men and 66 women, took part in 161 events in 18 sports.

Medalists

Gold

• Peter Frenkel — Athletics, Men's 20 km Walk
• Wolfgang Nordwig — Athletics, Men's Pole Vault
• Renate Stecher — Athletics, Women's 100 metres
• Renate Stecher — Athletics, Women's 200 metres
• Monika Zehrt — Athletics, Women's 400 metres
• Annelie Ehrhardt — Athletics, Women's 100 m Hurdles
• Monika Zehrt, Dagmar Käsling, Rita Kühne, and Helga Seidler — Athletics, Women's 4 × 400 m Relay
• Ruth Fuchs — Athletics, Women's Javelin Throw
• Siegbert Horn — Canoeing, Men's K1 Kayak Slalom Singles
• Reinhard Eiben — Canoeing, Men's C1 Canadian Slalom Singles
• Rolf-Dieter Amend and Walter Hofmann — Canoeing, Men's C2 Canadian Slalom Pairs
• Angelika Bahmann — Canoeing, Women's K1 Kayak Slalom Singles
• Klaus Köste — Gymnastics, Men's Long Horse Vault
• Karin Janz — Gymnastics, Women's Side Horse Vault
• Karin Janz — Gymnastics, Women's Asymmetrical Bars
• Siegfried Brietzke and Wolfgang Mager — Rowing, Men's Coxless Pairs
• Wolfgang Gunkel, Jörg Lucke, and Klaus-Dieter Neubert — Rowing, Men's Coxed Pairs
• Dieter Schubert, Frank Forberger, Dieter Grahn and Frank Rühle — Rowing, Men's Coxless Fours
• Roland Matthes — Swimming, Men's 100 m Backstroke
• Roland Matthes — Swimming, Men's 200 m Backstroke

Silver

• Stefan Junge — Athletics, Men's High Jump
• Jörg Drehmel — Athletics, Men's triple jump
• Jochen Sachse — Athletics, Men's Hammer Throw
• Gunhild Hoffmeister — Athletics, Women's 1500 metres
• Bärbel Struppert, Christina Heinich, Evelin Kaufer, and Renate Stecher — Athletics, Women's 4 × 100 m Relay
• Margitta Gummel-Helmboldt — Athletics, Women's Shot Put
• Jacqueline Todten — Athletics, Women's Javelin Throw
• Petra Grabowski and Ilse Kaschube — Canoeing, Women's K2 500 m Kayak Pairs
• Uwe Unterwalder, Thomas Huschke, Heinz Richter, and Herbert Richter — Cycling, Men's 4000 m Team Pursuit
• Jürgen Geschke and Werner Otto — Cycling, Men's 2000 m Tandem
• Karin Janz — Gymnastics, Women's All-Around Individual
• Erika Zuchold — Gymnastics, Women's Side Horse Vault
• Erika Zuchold — Gymnastics, Women's Asymmetrical Bars
• Erika Zuchold, Richarda Schmeißer, Christine Schmitt, Irene Abel, Angelika Hellmann, and Karin Janz — Gymnastics, Women's Team Combined Exercises
• Eckhard Martens, Dietrich Zander, Reinhard Gust, Rolf Jobst, and Klaus-Dieter Ludwig — Rowing, Men's Coxed Fours
• Roland Matthes, Klaus Katzur, Hartmut Flöckner, and Lutz Unger — Swimming, Men's 4 × 100 m Medley Relay
• Roswitha Beier — Swimming, Women's 100 m Butterfly
• Kornelia Ender — Swimming, Women's 200 m Individual Medley
• Gabriele Wetzko, Andrea Eife, Kornelia Ender, and Elke Sehmisch — Swimming, Women's 4 × 100 m Freestyle Relay
• Christine Herbst, Renate Vogel, Roswitha Beier, and Kornelia Ender — Swimming, Women's 4 × 100 m Medley Relay
• Rainer Tscharke, Wolfgang Webner, Wolfgang Weise, Siegfried Schneider, Arnold Schulz, Rudi Schumann, Jürgen Maune, Horst Peter, Eckehard Pietzsch, Horst Hagen, Wolfgang Löwe, and Wolfgang Maibohm — Volleyball, Men's Team Competition
• Heinz-Helmut Wehling — Wrestling, Men's Greco-Roman Featherweight
• Paul Borowski, Karl-Heinz Thun and Konrad Weichert — Sailing, Men's Dragon Class

Bronze

• Hans-Georg Reimann — Athletics, Men's 20 km Walk
• Hartmut Briesenick — Athletics, Men's Shot Put
• Gunhild Hoffmeister — Athletics, Women's 800 metres
• Karin Balzer — Athletics, Women's 100 m Hurdles
• Burglinde Pollak — Athletics, Women's Pentathlon
• Peter Tiepold — Boxing, Men's Light Middleweight
• Marina Janicke — Diving, Women's 3 m Springboard
• Marina Janicke — Diving, Women's 10 m Platform
• Harald Gimpel — Canoeing, Men's K1 Kayak Slalom Singles
• Jürgen Schütze — Cycling, Men's 1000 m Time Trial
• Jürgen Paeke, Reinhard Rychly, Wolfgang Thüne, Matthias Brehme, Wolfgang Klotz, and Klaus Köste — Gymnastics, Men's Team Combined Exercises 559.70
• Karin Janz — Gymnastics, Women's Balance Beam
• Dietmar Hötger — Judo, Men's Half Middleweight (70 kg)
• Wolfgang Güldenpfennig — Rowing, Men's Single Sculls
• Joachim Böhmer and Hans-Ullrich Schmied — Rowing, Men's Double Sculls
• Manfred Schneider, Hartmut Schreiber, Dietmar Schwarz, Jörg Landvoigt, Heinrich Mederow, Manfred Schmorde, Hans-Joachim Borzym, Harold Dimke, and Bernd Landvoigt — Rowing, Men's Rowing Eights
• Werner Lippoldt — Shooting, Men's Small-bore Rifle, Three Positions
• Michael Buchheim — Shooting, Men's Skeet Shooting
• Konrad Weise, Manfred Zapf, Joachim Streich, Eberhard Vogel, Siegmar Wätzlich, Ralf Schulenberg, Wolfgang Seguin, Jürgen Sparwasser, Hans-Jürgen Kreische, Lothar Kurbjuweit, Jürgen Pommerenke, Frank Ganzera, Reinhard Häfner, Harald Irmscher, Bernd Bransch, Jürgen Croy, and Peter Ducke — Football (soccer), Men's Team Competition
• Lutz Unger, Peter Bruch, Wilfried Hartung, and Roland Matthes — Swimming, Men's 4 × 100 m Freestyle Relay
• Gudrun Wegner — Swimming, Women's 400 m Freestyle
• Stefan Grützner — Weightlifting, Men's Heavyweight
• Gerd Bonk — Weightlifting, Men's Super Heavyweight

Athletics

Men's 800 metres

• Dieter Fromm
• Heat — 1:46.9
• Semifinals — 1:48.1
• Final — 1:48.0 (→ 8th place)

Men's 1500 metres

• Klaus-Peter Justus
• Heat — 3:40.4
• Semifinals — 3:44.6 (→ did not advance)

Men's 4 × 100 m Relay

• Manfred Kokot, Bernd Borth, Hans-Jörgen Bombach, and Siegfried Schenke
• Heat — 39.17s
• Semifinals — 39.06s
• Final — 38.90s (→ 5th place)

Men's High Jump

• Stefan Junge
• Qualifying Round — 2.15m
• Final — 2.21m (→ Silver Medal)

Boxing

Men's Light Middleweight (– 71 kg)

• Peter Tiepold → Bronze Medal
• First Round — Bye
• Second Round — Defeated Ion Györfi (ROM), 4:1
• Third Round — Defeated Mikko Saarinen (FIN), 5:0
• Quarterfinals — Defeated Emeterio Villanueva (MEX), 5:0
• Semifinals — Lost to Wiesław Rudkowski (POL), 1:4

Men's Heavyweight (+ 81 kg)

• Jürgen Fanghänel
• First Round — Defeated Atanas Suvandzhiev (BUL), KO-1
• Quarterfinals — Lost to Ion Alexe (ROM), 0:5

Canoeing

Slalom

Sprint

Men

Women

Cycling

Eleven cyclists represented East Germany in 1972.

Road

Track

1000 m time trial

Men's Sprint

Pursuit

Men's Tandem

Diving

Men

Women

Equestrian

Dressage

Eventing

Fencing

Five fencers, all men, represented East Germany in 1972.

Men's épée

• Horst Melzig
• Bernd Uhlig
• Hans-Peter Schulze

Men's team épée

• Harry Fiedler, Eckhard Mannischeff, Horst Melzig, Hans-Peter Schulze, Bernd Uhlig

Football

First round

Group D

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Second round

Group 1

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Bronze Medal match

Bronze medals shared.

Gymnastics

Handball

Men's Team Competition

As expected, the East Germans dominated the first round, defeating Iceland, Tunisia, and Czechoslovakia in turn to win their division. The second round began with a loss to the Soviet Union. Czechoslovakia's wins over the Soviet Union and Sweden meant that the East Germans had to defeat Sweden as well just to tie the Czechoslovak team in the standings, which they did. However, the tie-breaker went against the East Germans and they placed second in the division. They played the other division's second place team, Romania in the bronze medal game and lost, receiving fourth place.

• Preliminary Round (Group B)
• East Germany – Iceland 16-11 (7-6)
• East Germany – Tunisia 21-9 (11-2)
• East Germany – Czechoslovakia 14-12 (5-4)
• Second Round (Group A)
• East Germany – Soviet Union 8-11 (4-4)
• East Germany – Sweden 14-11 (8-6)
• Bronze Medal Game
• East Germany – Romania 16-19 (8-11) → 4th place
• Team Roster
• Harry Zörnack
• Horst Jankhöfer
• Josef Rose
• Jürgen Hildebrand
• Klaus Langhoff
• Klaus Weiß
• Peter Larisch
• Peter Randt
• Rainer Würdig
• Rainer Zimmermann
• Reiner Frieske
• Reiner Ganschow
• Siegfried Voigt
• Udo Röhrig
• Wolfgang Böhme
• Wolfgang Lakenmacher

Judo

Rowing

Men's single sculls

• Wolfgang Güldenpfennig
• Heat — 7:46.31
• Repechage — 8:05.19
• Semi Finals — 8:16.35
• Final — 7:14.45 (→ Bronze medal)

Men's double sculls

• Joachim Böhmer
• Uli Schmied

Men's coxless pair

• Siegfried Brietzke
• Wolfgang Mager

Men's coxed pair

• Wolfgang Gunkel, Jörg Lucke and Klaus-Dieter Neubert
• Heat — 7:54.11
• Semi Finals — 8:13.87
• Final — 7:17.25 (→ Gold medal)

Men's coxless four

• Frank Forberger
• Dieter Grahn
• Frank Rühle
• Dieter Schubert

Men's coxed four

• Dietrich Zander
• Reinhard Gust
• Eckhard Martens
• Rolf Jobst
• Klaus-Dieter Ludwig

Men's eight

• Hans-Joachim Borzym
• Jörg Landvoigt
• Harold Dimke
• Manfred Schneider
• Hartmut Schreiber
• Manfred Schmorde
• Bernd Landvoigt
• Heinrich Mederow
• Dietmar Schwarz

Sailing

Shooting

Nine male shooters represented East Germany in 1972. Werner Lippoldt won bronze in the 50 m rifle, three positions and Michael Buchheim won bronze in the skeet.

25 m pistol

• Christian Düring

50 m pistol

• Harald Vollmar

300 m rifle, three positions

• Uto Wunderlich
• Werner Lippoldt

50 m rifle, three positions

• Werner Lippoldt
• Uto Wunderlich

50 m rifle, prone

• Werner Lippoldt
• Peter Gorewski

Trap

• Burckhardt Hoppe
• Manfred Geisler

Skeet

• Michael Buchheim
• Klaus Reschke

Swimming

Men's 100 m Freestyle

• Peter Bruch
• Heat — 54.25s
• Semifinals — 53.97s (→ did not advance)
• Wilfried Härtung
• Heat — 54.37s (→ did not advance)
• Hartmut Flöckner
• Heat — 54.36s (→ did not advance)

Men's 200 m Freestyle

• Wilfried Härtung
• Heat — 1:56.95 (→ did not advance)
• Udo Poser
• Heat — 1:57.23 (→ did not advance)
• Peter Bruch
• Heat — 1:58.49 (→ did not advance)

Men's 4 × 100 m Freestyle Relay

• Wilfried Härtung, Peter Bruch, Udo Poser and Lutz Unger
• Heat — 3:35.13
• Roland Matthes, Wilfried Härtung, Peter Bruch, and Lutz Unger
• Final — 3:32.42 (→ Bronze Medal)

Men's 4 × 200 m Freestyle Relay

• Wilfried Härtung, Udo Poser, Roger Pyttel and Lutz Unger
• Heat — 7:51.11
• Wilfried Härtung, Peter Bruch, Udo Poser, and Lutz Unger
• Final — 7:49.11 (→ 6th place)

Volleyball

Men's Team Competition

• Preliminary Round (Group B)
• Defeated Cuba (3-0)
• Defeated Brazil (3-1)
• Lost to Japan (0-3)
• Defeated West Germany (3-0)
• Defeated Romania (3-0)
• Semifinals
• Defeated Soviet Union (3-1)
• Final
• Lost to Japan (1-3) → Silver Medal
• Team Roster
• Siggi Schneider
• Arnold Schulz
• Wolfgang Webner
• Eckhardt Pietzsch
• Rudi Schumann
• Wolfgang Weise
• Horst Hagen
• Horst Peter
• Wolfgang Löwe
• Rainer Tscharke
• Wolf Maibohn
• Jürgen Maune

Weightlifting

Wrestling

References