HISTORY SINCE 1945

On 24th September 1949 the National Olympic Committee for Germany had been reconstituted and entered in the register of associations with its headquarters in Munich. This name had been approved by the IOC in 1950. The first President was the IOC-member Duke Adolf Friedrich to Mecklenburg, followed in 1951 by Dr. Karl Ritter von Halt, also IOC-member. From 1961 to 1992 the NOC for Germany was presided by IOC-member Willi Daume who also headed the German Sports Confederation (DSB) until 1970 and who had - as Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the Games of the XX. Olympiad in Munich 1972 - a decisive influence on the shaping of the conception of these Games. His successor as President of the NOC for Germany is the former Secretary General Walther Tröger. On 3rd 2002, Dr. Klaus Steinbach was elected for president.

Since its re-foundation the NOC for Germany has sent olympic teams to all Olympic Summer and Winter Games from 1952 to 1988 - with the exception of Moscow in 1980. In 1950 the NOC-Saarland was founded and existed till 1957; an independent olympic team took only part in Helsinki 1952. The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) started with one common team in 1956, 1960 and 1964. In 1968 at the X. Olympic Winter Games in Grenoble for the first time two German teams started - although still under a joint flag (black-red-gold with white Olympic Rings).

The GDR started - after the provisional recognition of its NOC by the IOC in 1951 - from 1956 to 1964 within the "all-German teams". Since 1968 - after the full recognition of the NOC of the GDR by the IOC Session in Madrid in 1965 - it took part with independent teams in all Olympic Games - with the exception of the Games of Los Angeles in 1984 which had been boycotted by the Eastern Bloc. Due to the decision taken by the General Assembly of the NOC for Germany in Düsseldorf on 15th May 1980 no olympic team was sent to the Games of the XXII. Olympiad in Moscow 1980. This decision was preceded by recommendations to do so given by the Federal Government and the Bundestag (lower house of the German Parliament) and had to be seen in connection with the military intervention of the then Soviet Union in Afghanistan in December 1979.

After the dissolution of the GDR and the accession of the five new federal states to the Federal Republic of Germany on 3rd October 1990, both German NOCs also united on 17th November 1990. After comprehensive preparatory talks the NOC for Germany co-opted on the basis of a temporary amendment of its constitution - ten individual members and three members of the Executive Board of the NOC of the GDR, which, for its part, had decided its dissolution for the end of the year 1990 and acted accordingly. For the first time for 28 years a common German olympic team started in Albertville in 1992.