by Alison Brown
We are a full generation, if not almost two generations, removed from the fall of the Soviet Union and collapse of the Eastern Bloc. East and West Germany reunited as one nation in 1990, yet the fallout from the police state still reverberates through society and sport. It is so important to remember that using athletes for international political games is nothing new and the damage to real people is extensive.
Blame Kirsten Moore-Towers, former Canadian pairs skating champion, and her appearance on The Runthrough podcast for getting me on this tangent. In the episode The Pairs Lore: Part 2, Kirsten shared that German pairs skater Ingo Steuer, who won a bronze medal with partner Mandy Wötzel at Nagano 1998, served as an informant for the East German secret police, the Stasi.
Ingo Steuer to the Rescue
I most remember Steuer for a scary moment at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics during the free skate when Wötzel suffered a freak fall, resulting in a severe cut on her chin. Steuer cradled Wötzel in his arms and delicately carried her off the ice as their music continued to play in the arena.
Steuer and Wötzel won the 1995 European Championships, the 1997 World Championships, and four German national titles.
Stasi’s Reign of Terror
Steuer grew up in East Germany under communist rule. If you did not live through the Cold War or don’t remember when there were two Germanys, here is a little historical context.
The terror the Stasi inspired in ordinary East Germans cannot be overstated during its reign from 1950-1989. The secret police built a system of pervasive surveillance and a vast network of informants monitoring citizens from birth to death, recording the smallest details. Historians estimate that at the height of its power, the Stasi employed one informant for every 6.5 citizens, creating a climate of fear where you never knew who you could trust, including friends and family. Any hint of nonconformity could be punished by extreme psychological and horrific physical torture; East Germans were terrified of being detained by the Stasi.
Olympic Athletes and the Stasi
The Stasi recruited a number of Olympic athletes to spy on their teammates: Waldemart Cierpinski, 1976 marathon gold medalist; Detlef Richter, bronze medalist in Lake Placid 1980 in 4-man bobsled, Lutz Dombrowski, Moscow 1980 gold medalist in long jump; Wolfgang Hoppe, 6-time medalist in bobsled from 1984-1994; Ronald Weigel, double silver medalist in race walking in Seoul 1988, Heike Drechsler, Barcelona 1992 and Sydney 2000 gold medalist in long jump; and more.
The East German leadership feared athletes would defect when traveling in the West. Stasi informants shared any hint that a teammate might be considering defection. Steuer, for example, tipped off Stasi agents that a fellow skater planned to defect to France.
The Stasi were central figures in the East German sports machine. In Montreal 1976, 67 members of the East German Olympic team worked for the Stasi as informants. Stasi agents provided drugs and equipment for the infamous East German doping program, going so far as to dump syringes into the St. Lawrence River.
Did Ingo Steuer Have a Choice?
A Stasi agent approached Steuer at the ice rink. He recruited a teenaged Steuer to keep watch on fellow skaters as they traveled to international competitions, allegedly threatening him with prison if he refused. The state paid for Steuer’s training and provided a passport that allowed him to travel outside of East Germany for competitions; both could just as easily be taken away. Thus, it is believable that a young Ingo Steuer, as he has claimed in the years since his role became public, felt he had no choice but to agree.
Katarina Witt: Victim or Conspirator?
While they competed on the East German team together in the 1980s, Steuer was assigned to watch Katarina Witt, 4-time ladies World Champion and back-to-back Olympic gold medalist in Sarajevo 1984 and Calgary 1988. The East German government viewed Witt as the most beautiful face of socialism and a key figure in its international image. The Stasi compiled an extensive file on Witt, gathering information from informants like Steuer, bugging her apartment and training rink, and watching her from the age of 7.
But Katarina Witt has also been accused of being a “willing accomplice” with the Stasi. Witt benefited from her champion status, receiving privileges from the East German government like cars, apartments, and freedom to travel and perform internationally. She wanted for little when it came to training, coaching, or costumes, in addition to luxuries in her everyday life.
The Truth Comes Out, Maybe
After the reunification of Germany, many former East Germans struggled to come to terms with their past in a surveillance state. In 1992, the new German government released the archive of Stasi files, thousands of boxes of files filled with names and details. Steuer’s role as an informant became public. Witt’s file revealed how closely she was watched but also how much she benefited.
Revelation after revelation of Stasi collaborators sent shockwaves through the German public. Betrayals and secrets came to light. The Stasi had destroyed the fabric of society, yet people had to live and work with those who had supported the system. Public figures felt the backlash
Steuer Pays A Price
Ingo Steuer had retired from competitive skating after the 1998 season and moved into coaching, working with, among others, 4-time World Champions Aljona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy.
Before the 2006 Turin Olympics, the German Olympic Committee stripped Steuer of his accreditation, rendering him unable to coach his team. After a Berlin court overturned the ban, and Steuer’s replacement on the coaching staff, Monika Schweibe, was revealed to have been another Stasi informant, the DOSB relented. Steuer, however, could not participate in any event with the German team or wear any German team uniforms.
Again for Vancouver 2010, the DOSB banned Steuer and again Steuer turned to the German courts and prevailed. Because of his Stasi links, the German Skating Federation refused to pay him.
Legacy of Collaboration
Ingo Steuer has apologized repeatedly for his collaboration with the Stasi and pointedly for his betrayal of his friendship with Witt. He has turned to the courts to fight when he is denied opportunities based on his past, and won many of those cases. Despite his success as both a skater and a coach, German skating fans are still torn over Steuer’s legacy.
Katarina Witt has been more circumspect, recognizing the benefits she received but claiming that she too suffered under the East German police state. She has turned to the courts as well, filing a lawsuit to keep her Stasi file secret. She won a partial victory; only 181 of the over 1,300 pages were released. Among German fans, respect for Witt’s achievements is mixed with lingering reservations about her privilege under the East German regime.
Sports and Politics
Former IOC President Thomas Bach famously echoed the sentiment of many in the Olympic movement when he said, “The Olympic Games are not about politics.” Many powerful countries have and continue to use the Olympics and Olympic athletes for their own political gains. It is not a new problem, nor one that has gone away over the years. What can be done now to better protect athletes from becoming pawns in the games of nations?