The Stasi and doping in sport

Thomas Kistner examines why German sport is repeatedly caught up in doping scandals and Stasi file affairs. "The history of the German Democratic Republic has been sufficiently researched and analysed... but as far as sport was concerned, nothing of vital importance ever turned up, despite there being literally tons of Stasi files on its protagonists. And then a Stasi sport commission that has been twiddling its thumbs for eleven years suddenly discovers that ice-skating trainer Ingo Steuer used to be one of the organisation's top informants and was therefore unsuited for the task of training young athletes. The Ice-skating Association did as requested and appointed Monika Scheibe, whose Stasi files were just as thick – deception, cheating, lies. These are the foundations that the control state's leading sport was built on. Those who didn't cooperate with the Stasi were implicated in doping affairs – this double conspiracy distinguished sport from all other sections of social life."

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