East Germany at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Athletes from East Germany (German Democratic Republic) competed at the Olympic Games for the last time as an independent nation at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. Following German reunification in 1990, a single German team would compete in the 1992 Summer Olympics. 259 competitors, 157 men and 102 women, took part in 157 events in 16 sports.

Medalists

East Germany finished in second position in the final medal rankings, with 37 gold medals and 102 medals overall.

Gold

• Ulf Timmermann — Athletics, men's shot put
• Jürgen Schult — Athletics, men's discus throw
• Christian Schenk — Athletics, men's decathlon
• Sigrun Wodars — Athletics, women's 800 metres
• Martina Hellmann — Athletics, women's discus throw
• Petra Felke — Athletics, women's javelin throw
• Andreas Zülow — Boxing, men's lightweight
• Henry Maske — Boxing, men's middleweight
• Olaf Heukrodt — Canoeing, men's C1 500 m Canadian singles
• Birgit Fischer and Anke Nothnagel — Canoeing, women's K2 500 m kayak pairs
• Heike Singer, Birgit Fischer, Anke Nothnagel and Ramona Portwich — Canoeing, women's K4 500 m kayak fours
• Lutz Heßlich — Cycling, men's 1000 m sprint (scratch)
• Olaf Ludwig — Cycling, men's individual road race
• Jan Schur, Uwe Ampler, Mario Kummer and Maik Landsmann — Cycling, men's team time trial
• Holger Behrendt — Gymnastics, men's rings
• Thomas Lange — Rowing, men's single sculls
• Roland Schröder, Ralf Brudel, Olaf Förster and Thomas Greiner — Rowing, men's coxless fours
• Hendrik Reiher, Karsten Schmeling, Bernd Eichwurzel, Frank Klawonn and Bernd Niesecke — Rowing, men's coxed fours
• Jutta Behrendt — Rowing, women's single sculls
• Birgit Peter and Martina Schröter — Rowing, women's double sculls
• Jana Sorgers, Kerstin Förster, Kristina Mundt and Beate Schramm — Rowing, women's quadruple sculls
• Birte Siech, Martina Walther, Gerlinde Doberschütz, Carola Hornig and Sylvia Rose — Rowing, women's coxed fours
• Ute Wagner-Stange, Ute Wild, Judith Zeidler, Daniela Neunast, Beatrix Schröer, Annegret Strauch, Ramona Balthasar, Kathrin Haacker and Anja Kluge — Rowing, women's eights
• Axel Wegner — Shooting, men's skeet shooting
• Uwe Dassler — Swimming, men's 400 m freestyle
• Kristin Otto — Swimming, women's 50 m freestyle
• Kristin Otto — Swimming, women's 100 m freestyle
• Heike Friedrich — Swimming, women's 200 m freestyle
• Kristin Otto — Swimming, women's 100 m backstroke
• Silke Hörner — Swimming, women's 200 m breaststroke
• Kristin Otto — Swimming, women's 100 m butterfly
• Kathleen Nord — Swimming, women's 200 m butterfly
• Daniela Hunger — Swimming, women's 200 m individual medley
• Manuela Stellmach, Daniela Hunger, Katrin Meissner and Kristin Otto — Swimming, women's 4 × 100 m freestyle relay
• Birte Weigang, Silke Hörner, Katrin Meissner and Kristin Otto — Swimming, women's 4 × 100 m medley relay
• Joachim Kunz — Weightlifting, men's lightweight (67½ kg)
• Thomas Flach, Bernd Jäkel and Jochen Schümann — Sailing, men's Soling

Silver

• Ronald Weigel — Athletics, men's 20 km walk
• Ronald Weigel — Athletics, men's 50 km walk
• Torsten Voss — Athletics, men's decathlon
• Petra Müller — Athletics, women's 400 metres
• Christine Wachtel — Athletics, women's 800 metres
• Gloria Siebert — Athletics, women's 100 m hurdles
• Silke Möller, Kerstin Behrendt, Marlies Göhr and Ingrid Lange— Athletics, women's 4 × 100 m relay
• Heike Drechsler — Athletics, women's long jump
• Kathrin Neimke — Athletics, women's shot put
• Diana Gansky — Athletics, women's discus throw
• Sabine John — Athletics, women's heptathlon
• Andreas Tews — Boxing, men's flyweight
• Andreas Stähle — Canoeing, men's K1 500 m kayak singles
• Jörg Schmidt — Canoeing, men's C1 1000 m Canadian singles
• Olaf Heukrodt and Ingo Spelly — Canoeing, men's C2 1000 m Canadian pairs
• Birgit Fischer — Canoeing, women's K1 500 m kayak singles
• Carsten Wolf, Steffen Blochwitz, Roland Hennig and Dirk Meier — Cycling, men's 4000 m team pursuit
• Christa Luding-Rothenburger — Cycling, women's sprint
• Udo Wagner — Fencing, men's foil individual
• Sylvio Kroll — Gymnastics, men's long horse vault
• Ralf Büchner, Holger Behrendt, Ulf Hoffmann, Sylvio Kroll, Sven Tippelt and Andreas Wecker — Gymnastics, men's team combined exercises
• Dagmar Kersten — Gymnastics, women's asymmetrical bars
• Sven Loll — Judo, men's lightweight (71 kg)
• Henry Stöhr — Judo, men's heavyweight (+95 kg)
• Mario Streit, Detlef Kirchhoff and René Rensch — Rowing, men's coxed pairs
• Ralf Schumann — Shooting, men's rapid-fire pistol
• Frank Baltrusch — Swimming, men's 200 m backstroke
• Patrick Kühl — Swimming, men's 200 m individual medley
• Steffen Zesner, Uwe Dassler, Thomas Flemming and Sven Lodziewski — Swimming, men's 4 × 200 m freestyle relay
• Heike Friedrich — Swimming, women's 400 m freestyle
• Astrid Strauss — Swimming, women's 800 m freestyle
• Katrin Zimmermann — Swimming, women's 200 m backstroke
• Birte Weigang — Swimming, women's 100 m butterfly
• Birte Weigang — Swimming, women's 200 m butterfly
• Ingo Steinhöfel — Weightlifting, men's middleweight (75 kg)

Bronze

• Jens-Peter Herold — Athletics, men's 1.500 metres
• Hansjörg Kunze — Athletics, men's 5.000 metres
• Hartwig Gauder — Athletics, men's 50 km walk
• Heike Drechsler — Athletics, women's 100 metres
• Heike Drechsler — Athletics, women's 200 metres
• Kathrin Dörre — Athletics, women's marathon
• Ellen Fiedler — Athletics, women's 400 m hurdles
• Dagmar Neubauer-Rübsam, Sabine Busch, Kirsten Emmelmann and Petra Müller — Athletics, women's 4 × 400 m relay
• Beate Koch — Athletics, women's javelin throw
• Anke Behmer — Athletics, women's heptathlon
• André Wohllebe — Canoeing, men's K1 1000 m kayak singles
• André Wohllebe, Hans-Jörg Bliesener, Kay Bluhm and Andreas Stähle — Canoeing, men's K4 1000 m kayak fours
• Bernd Dittert — Cycling, men's 4000 m individual pursuit
• Holger Behrendt — Gymnastics, men's horizontal bar
• Sven Tippelt — Gymnastics, men's parallel bars
• Sven Tippelt — Gymnastics, men's rings
• Ulrike Klotz, Bettina Schieferdecker, Dörte Thümmler-Pawlak, Gabriele Fähnrich, Martina Jentsch and Dagmar Kersten — Gymnastics, women's team combined exercises
• Torsten Bréchôt — Judo, men's half middleweight (78 kg)
• Steffen Zühlke, Steffen Bogs, Heiko Habermann and Jens Köppen — Rowing, men's quadruple sculls
• Uwe Dassler — Swimming, men's 1500 m freestyle
• Steffen Zesner, Thomas Flemming, Lars Hinneburg and Dirk Richter — Swimming, men's 4 × 100 m freestyle
• Katrin Meissner — Swimming, women's 50 m freestyle
• Manuela Stellmach — Swimming, women's 200 m freestyle
• Anke Möhring — Swimming, women's 400 m freestyle
• Cornelia Sirch — Swimming, women's 100 m backstroke
• Cornelia Sirch — Swimming, women's 200 m backstroke
• Silke Hörner — Swimming, women's 100 m breaststroke
• Daniela Hunger — Swimming, women's 400 m individual medley
• Ronny Weller — Weightlifting, men's heavyweight (110 kg)
• Andreas Schröder — Wrestling, men's freestyle super heavyweight

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Athletics

Main article: Athletics at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Men's competition

Men's 5,000 metres

• Hansjörg Kunze
  1. Heat — 13:44.34
  2. Semifinal — 13:23.04
  3. Final — 13:15.73 (→ Bronze medal)

Men's 10,000 metres

• Hansjörg Kunze
  1. Heat — 28:22.09
  2. Final — 27:39.35 (→ 6th place)

Men's marathon

• Jörg Peter
  • Final — did not start (→ no ranking)

Men's 4 × 400 m relay

• Jens Carlowitz, Michael Schimmer, Mathias Schersing and Thomas Schönlebe
  • Heat — 3:08.13
• Jens Carlowitz, Frank Möller, Mathias Schersing and Thomas Schönlebe
  • Semifinal — 3:00.60
• Jens Carlowitz, Mathias Schersing, Frank Möller and Thomas Schönlebe
  • Final — 3:01.13 (→ 4th place)

Men's 3.000 m steeplechase

• Hagen Melzer

1. Heat — 8:36.45
2. Semifinal — 8:16.27
3. Final — 8:19.82 (→ 10th place)

Men's javelin throw

• Gerald Weiss
  • Qualification — 79.16m
  • Final — 81.30 m (→ 6th place)
• Silvio Warsönke
  • Qualification — 78.22m (→ did not advance)
• Detlef Michel
  • Qualification — 77.70 m (→ did not advance)

Men's discus throw

• Jürgen Schult
  • Qualifying heat – 64.70 m
  • Final – 68.82m (→ Gold medal)

Men's shot put

• Ulf Timmermann
  • Qualifying heat – 21.27m
  • Final – 22.47m (→ Gold medal)
• Udo Beyer
  • Qualifying heat – 20.97m
  • Final – 21.40 m (→ 4th place)

Men's hammer throw

• Ralf Haber
  • Qualifying heat — 78.16m
  • Final — 80.44m (→ 4th place)
• Günther Rodehau
  • Qualifying heat — 78.12m
  • Final — 72.36m (→ 12th place)

Men's decathlon

• Christian Schenk — 8488 points (→ Gold medal))

1. 100 metres — 11.25s
2. Long jump — 7.43m
3. Shot put — 15.48m
4. High jump — 2.27m
5. 400 metres — 48.90 s
6. 110 m hurdles — 15.13s
7. Discus throw — 49.28m
8. Pole vault — 4.70 m
9. Javelin throw — 61.32m
10. 1.500 metres — 4:28.95s

• Torsten Voss — 8399 points (→ Silver medal))

1. 100 metres — 10.87s
2. Long jump — 7.45m
3. Shot put — 14.97m
4. High jump — 1.97m
5. 400 metres — 47.71s
6. 110 m hurdles — 14.46s
7. Discus throw — 44.36m
8. Pole vault — 5.10 m
9. Javelin throw — 61.76m
10. 1.500 metres — 4:33.02s

• Uwe Freimuth — 7860 points (→ 18th place)

1. 100 metres — 11.57s
2. Long jump — 7.00 m
3. Shot put — 15.60 m
4. High jump — 1.94m
5. 400 metres — 49.84s
6. 110 m hurdles — 15.04s
7. Discus throw — 46.66m
8. Pole vault — 4.90 m
9. Javelin throw — 60.20 m
10. 1.500 metres — 4:46.04s

Men's 20 km walk

• Ronald Weigel
  • Final — 1:20:00 (→ Silver medal)
• Axel Noack
  • Final — 1:21:14 (→ 8th place)

Men's 50 km walk

• Ronald Weigel
  • Final — 3'38:56 (→ Silver medal)
• Hartwig Gauder
  • Final — 3'39:45 (→ Bronze medal)
• Dietmar Meisch
  • Final — 3'46:31 (→ 9th place)

Women's competition

Women's 4 × 100 m relay

• Silke Möller, Kerstin Behrendt, Ingrid Lange and Marlies Göhr
  • Heat — 42.92
  • Semifinal — 42.23
  • Final — 42.09 (→ Silver medal)

Women's 4 × 400 m relay

• Grit Breuer, Dagmar Neubauer-Rübsam, Kirsten Emmelmann and Petra Müller
  • Heat — 3:27.37
• Dagmar Neubauer-Rübsam, Kirsten Emmelmann, Sabine Busch and Petra Müller
  • Final — 3:18.29 (→ Bronze medal)

Women's marathon

• Katrin Dörre – 2"26:21 (→ Bronze medal)
• Birgit Stephan – did not finish (→ no ranking)

Women's discus throw

• Martina Hellmann
  • Qualification – 67.12m
  • Final – 72.30 m (→ Gold medal)
• Diana Gansky
  • Qualification – 65.40 m
  • Final – 71.88m (→ Silver medal)
• Gabriele Reinsch
  • Qualification – 66.88m
  • Final – 67.26m (→ 7th place)

Women's javelin throw

• Petra Felke
  • Qualification – 67.06m
  • Final – 74.68m (→ Gold medal)
• Beate Koch
  • Qualification – 66.86m
  • Final – 67.30 m (→ Bronze medal)
• Silke Renk
  • Qualification – 63.64m
  • Final – 66.38m (→ 5th place)

Women's shot put

• Kathrin Neimke
  • Qualification – 20.18m
  • Final – 21.07m (→ Silver medal)
• Ines Müller
  • Qualification – 19.79m
  • Final – 20.37m (→ 4th place)
• Heike Hartwig
  • Qualification – 20.06m
  • Final – 20.20 m (→ 6th place)

Women's heptathlon

• Sabine John
  • Final result — 6897 points (→ Silver medal)
• Anke Behmer
  • Final result — 6858 points (→ Bronze medal)
• Ines Schulz
  • Final result — 6411 points (→ 6th place)

Boxing

Main article: Boxing at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Men's bantamweight (54 kg)

• René Breitbarth
  1. First round — defeated Magare Tshekiso (BTS), 5–0
  2. Second round — defeated Vedat Tutuk (TUR), 5–0
  3. Third round — lost to Jorge Julio Rocha (COL), 1–4

Canoeing

Main article: Canoeing at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Cycling

Main article: Cycling at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Seventeen cyclists, fourteen men and three women, represented East Germany in 1988.

Men's road race

• Olaf Ludwig — 4:32:22 (→ Gold medal)
• Uwe Raab
• Uwe Ampler

Men's team time trial

• Uwe Ampler
• Mario Kummer
• Maik Landsmann
• Jan Schur

Men's sprint

• Lutz Heßlich

Men's 1 km time trial

• Maic Malchow

Men's individual pursuit

• Bernd Dittert

Men's team pursuit

• Steffen Blochwitz
• Roland Hennig
• Carsten Wolf
• Dirk Meier
• Uwe Preißler

Men's points race

• Olaf Ludwig

Women's road race

• Angela Ranft — 2:00:52 (→ 25th place)
• Petra Rossner — DNF (→ no ranking)

Women's sprint

• Christa Rothenburger-Luding

Diving

Main article: Diving at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Fencing

Main article: Fencing at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Seven fencers, all men, represented East Germany in 1988. Udo Wagner won a silver medal in the individual foil event.

Men's foil

• Udo Wagner
• Jens Howe
• Aris Enkelmann

Men's team foil

• Aris Enkelmann, Adrian Germanus, Jens Gusek, Jens Howe, Udo Wagner

Men's épée

• Torsten Kühnemund
• Uwe Proske

Gymnastics

Main article: Gymnastics at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Handball

Main article: Handball at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Judo

Main article: Judo at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Rowing

Main article: Rowing at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Sailing

Main article: Sailing at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Shooting

Main article: Shooting at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Swimming

Main article: Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Men's 100 m freestyle

• Steffen Zesner
  1. Heat – 50.73
  2. Final – scratched (→ did not advance, no ranking)
• Sven Lodziewski
  1. Heat – 50.77
  2. B-Final – 51.00 (→ 12th place)

Men's 200 m freestyle

• Steffen Zesner
  1. Heat – 1:49.13
  2. Final – 1:48.77 (→ 6th place)
• Thomas Flemming
  1. Heat – 1:49.52
  2. B-Final – 1:50.18 (→ 10th place)

Men's 400 m freestyle

• Uwe Dassler
  1. Heat – 3:49.90
  2. Final – 3:46.95 (→ Gold medal)
• Jörg Hoffmann
  1. Heat – 3:53.78
  2. B-Final – 3:52.13 (→ 9th place)

Men's 1500 m freestyle

• Uwe Dassler
  1. Heat – 15:08.91
  2. Final – 15:06.15 (→ Bronze medal)
• Jörg Hoffmann
  1. Heat – 15:14.13 (→ did not advance, 6th place)

Men's 100 m backstroke

• Frank Baltrusch
  1. Heat – 56.45
  2. Final – 56.10 (→ 6th place)
• Dirk Richter
  1. Heat – 56.52
  2. B-Final – 56.66 (→ 9th place)

Men's 200 m backstroke

• Frank Baltrusch
  1. Heat – 2:01.49
  2. Final – 1:59.60 (→ Silver medal)
• Dirk Richter
  1. Heat – 2:01.54
  2. Final – 2:01.67 (→ 5th place)

Men's 100 m breaststroke

• Christian Poswiat
  1. Heat – 1:02.99
  2. Final – 1:03.43 (→ 8th place)
• Raik Hannemann
  1. Heat – 1:04.46 (→ did not advance, 20th place)

Men's 200 m breaststroke

• Christian Poswiat
  1. Heat – 2:20.99 (→ did not advance, 27th place)

Men's 200 m individual medley

• Patrick Kühl
  1. Heat – 2:03.77
  2. Final – 2:01.61 (→ Silver medal)
• Raik Hannemann
  1. Heat – 2:04.03
  2. Final – 2:04.82 (→ 7th place)

Men's 400 m individual medley

• Patrick Kühl
  1. Heat – 4:18.60
  2. Final – 4:18.44 (→ 5th place)
• Raik Hannemann
  1. Heat – 2:04.03
  2. Final – 2:04.82 (→ 7th place)

Men's 4 × 100 m freestyle relay

• Dirk Richter, Thomas Flemming, Lars Hinneburg and Steffen Zesner
  1. Heat – 3:20.47
  2. Final – 3:19.82 (→ Bronze medal)

Men's 4 × 200 m freestyle relay

• Uwe Dassler, Lars Hinneburg, Sven Lodziewski and Thomas Flemming
  1. Heat – 7:16.61
• Uwe Dassler, Sven Lodziewski, Thomas Flemming and Steffen Zesner
  1. Final – 7:13.68 (→ Silver medal)

Women's 50 m freestyle

• Kristin Otto
  1. Heat – 25.85
  2. B-Final – 25.49 (→ Gold medal)
• Katrin Meissner
  1. Heat – 25.77
  2. Final – 25.71 (→ Bronze medal)

Women's 100 m freestyle

• Kristin Otto
  1. Heat – 55.80
  2. B-Final – 54.93 (→ Gold medal)
• Manuela Stellmach
  1. Heat – 56.14
  2. Final – 55.52 (→ 4th place)

Women's 200 m freestyle

• Heike Friedrich
  1. Heat – 1:59.02
  2. B-Final – 1:57.65 (→ Gold medal)
• Manuela Stellmach
  1. Heat – 2:00.30
  2. Final – 1:59.01 (→ Bronze medal)

Women's 400 m freestyle

• Heike Friedrich
  1. Heat – 4:11.30
  2. B-Final – 4:05.94 (→ Silver medal)
• Anke Möhring
  1. Heat – 4:10.64
  2. Final – 4:06.62 (→ Bronze medal)

Women's 800 m freestyle

• Astrid Strauss
  1. Heat – 8:28.07
  2. B-Final – 8:22.09 (→ Silver medal)
• Anke Möhring
  1. Heat – 8:30.95
  2. Final – 8:23.09 (→ 4th place)

Women's 100 m backstroke

• Kristin Otto
  1. Heat – 1:01.45
  2. Final – 1:00.89 (→ Gold medal)
• Cornelia Sirch
  1. Heat – 1:01.63
  2. Final – 1:01.57 (→ Bronze medal)

Women's 200 m backstroke

• Kathrin Zimmermann
  1. Heat – 2:12.81
  2. Final – 2:10.61 (→ Silver medal)
• Cornelia Sirch
  1. Heat – 2:10.46
  2. Final – 2:11.45 (→ Bronze medal)

Women's 100 m breaststroke

• Silke Hörner
  1. Heat – 1:08.35
  2. Final – 1:08.83 (→ Bronze medal)
• Annett Rex
  1. Heat – 1:10.61
  2. Final – 1:10.67 (→ 8th place)

Women's 200 m breaststroke

• Silke Hörner
  1. Heat – 2:27.63
  2. Final – 2:26.71 (→ Gold medal)
• Susanne Boernike
  1. Heat – 2:30.71
  2. B-Final – 2:28.55 (→ 9th place)

Women's 100 m butterfly

• Kristin Otto
  1. Heat – 1:00.40
  2. Final – 59.00 (→ Gold medal)
• Birte Weigang
  1. Heat – 59.97
  2. Final – 59.45 (→ Silver medal)

Women's 200 m butterfly

• Kathleen Nord
  1. Heat – 2:11.81
  2. Final – 2:09.51 (→ Gold medal)
• Birte Weigang
  1. Heat – 2:11.97
  2. Final – 2:09.91 (→ Silver medal)

Women's 200 m individual medley

• Daniela Hunger
  1. Heat – 2:16.23
  2. Final – 2:12.59 (→ Gold medal)

Women's 400 m individual medley

• Daniela Hunger
  1. Heat – 4:44.85
  2. Final – 4:39.76 (→ Bronze medal)
• Kathleen Nord
  1. Heat – 4:42.92
  2. Final – 4:41.64 (→ 5th place)

Women's 4 × 100 m freestyle relay

• Katrin Meissner, Sabina Schulze, Heike Friedrich and Daniela Hunger
  1. Heat – 3:43.13
• Kristin Otto, Katrin Meissner, Daniela Hunger and Manuela Stellmach
  1. Final – 3:40.63 (→ Gold medal)

Women's 4 × 100 m medley relay

• Cornelia Sirch, Silke Hörner, Birte Weigang and Manuela Stellmach
  1. Heat – 4:08.53
• Kristin Otto, Silke Hörner, Birte Weigang and Katrin Meissner
  1. Final – 4:03.74 (→ Gold medal)

Volleyball

Main article: Volleyball at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Women's tournament

• Preliminary round (Group A)
  • Lost to South Korea (1–3)
  • Defeated Japan (3–2)
  • Lost to Soviet Union (0–3)
• Classification matches
  • 5th/8th place: defeated United States (3–1)
  • 5th/6th place: defeated Brazil (3–0) → Fifth place
• Team roster
  • Steffi Schmidt
  • Susanne Lahme
  • Monika Beu
  • Ariane Radfan
  • Kathrin Langschwager
  • Maike Arlt
  • Brit Wiedemann
  • Ute Steppin
  • Grit Jensen
  • Dörte Stüdemann
  • Heike Jensen
  • Ute Langenau
• Head coach: Siegfried Köhler

Weightlifting

Main article: Weightlifting at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Wrestling

Main article: Wrestling at the 1988 Summer Olympics