SC Dynamo Berlin

The Sports Club Dynamo Berlin was an East German sports club that existed from 1954 to 1991. It was a training center for the Sports Club Dynamo (Sports club of the Ministry of Police and the Ministry for Public Security).

porting spectrum

The sports club offered the following kinds of sport: team hand ball, athletics, gymnastics, cycling, speed skating, racewalking, figure skating, ice hockey, fencing, boxing, and volleyball. The section football was separated from the club to form BFC Dynamo Berlin in 1966.

Dynamo-Sportforum

The Dynamo-Sportforum was a multi-use sports complex in East Berlin that contained an athletic stadium, a gymnasium, a roller-skating hall, an ice rink, and a velodrome.

Controversies surrounding the Sports Club

The case of doping

Two former Dynamo Berlin club doctors, Dieter Binus, chief of the national women's team from 1976 to 80, and Bernd Pansold, in charge of the sports medicine center in East-Berlin, were committed for trial for allegedly supplying 19 teenagers with illegal substances [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sport/34496.stm|title=New doping charges against East German doctors|publisher=BBC News|date=25 November 1997|accessdate=2008-03-07] . Binus was sentenced in August [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sport/161913.stm|title=East German coaches fined over doping|publisher=BBC News|date=31 August 1998|accessdate=2008-03-11] , Pansold in Dezember 1998 after both being found guilty of administering hormones to underage female athletes from 1975 to 1984 [cite web|url=http://www.svl.ch/doping/ddr_doping_minderjaehrige.html|title=Doping of underage athletes in the former GDR (in German)|publisher=Schwimmverein Limmat Zürich |date=23 March 2000|accessdate=2008-03-10] .

The "Stasi" and "Erich Mielke"

Erich Mielke, chief of Dynamo, was also the all-powerful leader of the Stasi [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/764397.stm|title=Ex-Stasi chief dies|publisher=BBC News|date=25 May 2000|accessdate=2008-03-11] , the Secret Police of East Germany. The "Stasi" was widely regarded as one of the most effective intelligence agencies in the world. The intensity of state surveillance was probably without parallel anywhere in the world. In 1989, the Stasi had 91,000 staff members and 174,000 unofficial collaborators - a ratio of one spy for every 62 citizens.

Honours

The Sports Club Dynamo produced numerous well-known athletes, including Christoph Höhne (racewalking), Ilona Slupianek (shot put), Karin Janz (gymnastics), Axel Peschel (cycle racing), Joachim Ziesche and Dietmar Peter (ice hockey), Helga Haase (speed skating), and Barbara Krause (swimming).

References