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The term Sports Associations (German: Sportvereinigung, [ˈspɔʁtˌfɛɐ̯ˈʔaɪ̯nɪɡʊŋ]) in East Germany (German Democratic Republic, GDR) meant a sports agency for certain economic branches of the whole society, which were members of the East German Sports Association (DTSB). Members of biggest social employers had their own branch sports clubs or the Sportvereinigung. One of the biggest problems is that you can not find almanacs of these today. All of them were recycled or sold to private persons. So you can not start an article about each trade sports association, since 2012. The rest are data banks of history sections from the sport club sites with the certain name or in addition: pennants, medals, flags, and other related objects. Nevertheless, you can find still a lot of sports societies in the former GDR which use the old names. After 1954 they separated amateur sport from professional sport, and from 1961, most Trade Sports-Associations of sports societies in the GDR had been closed but existed under single clubs with the name BSG (Betriebssportgemeinschaft) which meant Cooperative Sports Collective in English. In 1966, the football sections were separated and they used the name Fußballclub (FC). They had to conform to the rules of the East German Sports Association. The sections of the associations were called Sports Clubs (SCs) for only the professional athletes.
Contents
Types of Sportvereinigungen
The best were the Sportvereinigung Dynamo and the Sportvereinigung Vorwärts, while the worst were the SV Traktor and SV Aufbau.
The sub-unit "Cooperative Sports Collective" (BSG, Betriebssportgemeinschaft)
After World War II, the Allied Control Commission had dissolved all existing sports structures, including the dissolution of all existing sports clubs on the basis of directive 23, dated 17 December 1945. This directive only allowed the establishment of sports organizations on a local level. In consequence, sport competitions were only permitted on a local level with loosely organized Sportgemeinschaften (sport collectives) in cities and on Landkreis level. Only in the fall of 1946 were football resumed on Land level. The competition was organized by the youth organization Free German Youth (FDJ).
After the first football championship in the Soviet occupation zone had been held in the summer of 1948, it became clear that the loose organization would not be sufficient to organize league play. On an initiative of the Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (FDGB, the central labor union of East Germany) and FDJ, the Deutscher Sportausschuß (DS) was created as an umbrella organization for sports in the Soviet zone. Among its first tasks was the re-structuring of the sports organizations that was tackled with the credo "rearrangement based on production". With participation of the FDGB the existing Sportgemeinschaften were replaced by newly created Betriebssportgemeinschaft (BSG) (German pronunciation: [bəˈtri:psˌˈspɔʁtˌˈɡɛmɛiːnʃaft]) in production and trade companies. The so-called Trägerbetriebe (supporting companies) would take over tasks of financing and logistics for their respective BSGs, with the union chapter responsible for the day-to-day management. The BSG would be tasked with organizing a large spectrum of sports activities and usually would offer a range of different sports. Each BSG had its own administrative board with a chairman and heads for the different sports sections. Financial means were provided by the Trägerbetrieb. and often the infrastructure would be built by the companies as well.
To further optimize the system, the DS reorganized the BSGs again in April 1950. Central sports associations were created according to the union structure and all BSGs within such a central association were given a standard name (e.g. BSG Rotation Dresden with its Trägerbetrieb VEB Sachsenverlag, a publishing company). These central associations were tasked with promoting the BSGs in their field. This was done by organizing internal competitions within the central associations and through influencing athletes who move between individual BSGs. The following 16 sports associations were founded:
With the ongoing centralization of East German sports through the DTSB, founded in 1957, the central sports associations lost their importance and were hardly noticed by the public. Among the largest and most powerful BSGs was Wismut Aue, Stahl Riesa, Chemie Leipzig and Motor/Sachsenring Zwickau. Chemie Leipzig were the only BSG to win the East German football championship after the creation of the sports clubs in 1957.
The nationwide sports associations Vorwärts and Dynamo were outside the BSG system. They were sports organizations of the National People's Army and the Volkspolizei, respectively. The local Armeesportgemeinschaften (ASG) "Vorwärts" and the Sportgemeinschaften "Dynamo" were their subunits.
After German reunification and the collapse of many Volkseigener Betrieb companies the organizational and financial basis of most BSGs vanished. Only some were transformed directly to an Eingetragener Verein. Most Betriebssportgemeinschaften were dissolved and replaced by newly founded sports clubs.
Miscellaneous
A sports association is often being held in the wrong idea, as soon as peoples from noncommunist states learned about this matter. They were confused by something: A sports association in the GDR is the main organization the Deutscher Turn- und Sportbund (East German Sports Association). It does imply other kinds of sports associations for rowing, soccer, tennis, track and field, etc. The communist states had in addition a trade sport- association for sports societies and meant that every trade union had its own sports association besides the sports association of the state itself. The reason was the pressure to send the employees besides the job to the training or competitions. They hoped for a higher output on the working places and better performance for the society ("...always punctual, motivated, healthy, have good ideas, being good friends, taking no drugs, not being anti-social...").
The next problem was, although used over decades: The word "Sportvereinigung" can still not being found in German dictionaries. And you can never translate it right into English.