IOC code SAA | Competitors 36 in 9 sports | |
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A National Olympic Committee (NOC) of the Saarland was founded in spring of 1950 in the Saar Protectorate which existed from 1947 to 1956 (German state of Saarland since), a region of Western Germany that was (again) occupied in 1945 by France. As a separate team, they only took part in the 1952 Summer Olympics before being allowed to rejoin the German team for the summer games of 1956. Thirty-six competitors, 31 men and five women, took part in 32 events in nine sports.
Contents
History
Just as after World War I Saarland had initially been disallowed from uniting with the Weimar Republic and remained under military occupation for several years after the war, after World War II the Saarland was not allowed to become part of the Federal Republic of Germany which was founded in May 1949. On the other hand, the area's annexation by France was prohibited by the other Allies and the Atlantic Charter's points 2 and 3.
As the local population did not want to join France, separate international organisations were founded, like the Saarland football team, and in 1950 a NOC, in German called Nationales Olympisches Komitee des Saarlandes.
The region, in which the Dollberg at 695 metres is the highest mountain, did not send athletes to Oslo for the 1952 Winter Olympics due to a lack of competitive athletes in winter sports. Having a recorded history of over 500 years of coal mining, the Saarland donated a miner's safety lamp in which the flame of the torch relay of the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki could be carried safely aboard airplanes.
At the opening ceremony, 36 or as reported by the Chefs de Mission on the preceding evening, 41 athletes from the Saarland marched in ahead of the team of Germany, which is called "Saksa" in the Finnish language. The team, which is listed in the official report with a maximum strength of 44 men and 6 women and with 71 competitors, 16 officials, 11 spectators for a total of 98 did not win a medal and was ranked a joint 44th among a total of 69 teams.
Following a referendum in October 1955 that overwhelmingly rejected the Saar statute proposing Saar independence as a "European territory", its people were thus voting indirectly in favor of accession to the Federal Republic of Germany. The subsequent Saar Treaty of October 1956 allowed the Saarland to rejoin Germany effective as of 1 January 1957.
Even though theoretically possible, no separate Saarland teams were sent to the 1956 games, as a Unified Team of Germany comprising athletes of all three German states took part for the first and only time. Thus 1952 was the first and only Olympic appearance of the Saarland as a separate German team. The Olympic Committee of the Saarland formally dissolved itself in February 1957 as its members, like other separate institutions of the Saarland, became part of their German counterparts.
Notable competitors
Therese Zenz (born 15 October 1932 in Merzig), a local champion, finished 9th in the canoe race at the 1952 Olympics, held on the open Baltic Sea, a new experience for the 19-year-old athlete from a landlocked country (as long as separated from Germany). She became world champion in 1954 in the K-1 500 m event, making history for the Saarland and her home town of Mettlach. Allowed to enter for Germany in 1956, she went on to win a silver medal and in 1960 even two silver medals, after being beaten in photo finishes by Soviets. In 1964, she coached the gold medalists Roswitha Esser and Annemarie Zimmermann, a team that defended their gold in 1968.
Athletics
Boxing
Canoeing
Fencing
Five fencers, all men, represented Saar in 1952.
Rowing
Shooting
Two shooters represented Saar in 1952.