Sports associations (East Germany)
Sports Associations in East Germany were sports agencies for certain economic branches of the whole society, which were members of the Deutscher Turn- und Sportbund. Members of biggest social employers had their own branch sports clubs or the Sportvereinigung.
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 Betriebssportgemeinschaft or BSG. In 1966, the football sections were separated and they used the name Fußballclub. They had to conform to the rules of the East German Sports Association. The sections of the associations were called Sports Clubs for only the professional athletes.
Types of Sportvereinigungen
The best were the Sportvereinigung Dynamo and the Sportvereinigung Vorwärts, while the worst were the SV Traktor and SV Aufbau.| Logo | Name | Trade | Founded | Examples |
| Aktivist | Mining | May 1950 | BSG Aktivist Zwickau BSG Aktivist Schwarze Pumpe SC Aktivist Brieske-Senftenberg | |
| Anker | Shipyards | 1 September 1950 | BSG Anker Wismar | |
| Aufbau | Construction and wood industry | 15/16 September 1951 in Magdeburg | SC Aufbau Magdeburg BSG Aufbau Krumhermersdorf BSG Aufbau Boizenburg | |
| Chemie | Chemical industry, glass and ceramics | August 1950 | Hallescher FC Chemie BSG Chemie Premnitz BSG Chemie Böhlen | |
| Deutsche Volkspolizei | Volkspolizei | 21 June 1950, until 1953 for the SV Dynamo | SG Volkspolizei Potsdam SG Volkspolizei Dresden SG Volkspolizei Berlin | |
| Dynamo | Interior ministry | SG Dynamo Dresden SC Dynamo Berlin BFC Dynamo SG Dynamo Hohenschönhausen SG Dynamo Weißwasser SC Dynamo Klingenthal | ||
| Einheit | Administrations, banks and insurances | May/June 1950 | SC Einheit Dresden BSG Einheit Greifswald BSG Einheit Wernigerode | |
| Empor | Trade | 31 October 1950, foundation until March 1951 | SC Empor Rostock BSG Empor Lauter BSG Empor Löbau | |
| Fortschritt | Textile industry | February 1951 in Neugersdorf | BSG Fortschritt Weißenfels BSG Fortschritt Bischofswerda BSG Fortschritt Cottbus | |
| Lokomotive | Railroad | 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig BSG Lokomotive Magdeburg BSG Lokomotive Stendal | ||
| Mechanik | Metalworking | BSG Mechanik Arnstadt | ||
| Medizin | Health system | December 1951 in Erfurt | BSG Medizin Markkleeberg BSG Medizin Luckau BSG Medizin Berolina Berlin | |
| Motor | Automotive industry and machines | May/June 1950 | SC Motor Jena BSG Motor Zwickau BSG Motor Altenburg | |
| Post | Post and communications | 30 September 1951 in Halle | BSG Post Neubrandenburg BSG Post Schwerin BSG Post Jena | |
| Rotation | Paper and publishing | July 1950 in Berlin | SG Rotation Leipzig BSG Rotation Berlin BSG Rotation Babelsberg | |
| Stahl | Metallurgy | 4 November 1951 in Leipzig | BSG Stahl Riesa BSG Stahl Brandenburg BSG Stahl Eisenhüttenstadt | |
| Traktor | Forestry and agriculture | June 1950 | SC Traktor Schwerin SC Traktor Oberwiesenthal BSG Traktor Teuchern | |
| Turbine | Electricity stations | SC Turbine Erfurt BSG Turbine Halle BSG Turbine Potsdam | ||
| Vorwärts | Military | ASG Vorwärts Leipzig FC Vorwärts Berlin ASK Vorwärts Frankfurt ASK Vorwärts Oberhof ASG Vorwärts Dessau | ||
| Wismut | Uranium mining | BSG Wismut Aue BSG Wismut Gera SC Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt | ||
| Wissenschaft | Universities and high schools | 15 July 1951 in Leipzig | HSG Wissenschaft Halle SC Wissenschaft DHfK Leipzig HSG Wissenschaft TH Dresden |
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 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.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 and FDJ, the Deutscher Sportausschuß 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 in production and trade companies. The so-called Trägerbetriebe 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. 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 Ministry of Interior of the GDR, respectively. The local Armeesportgemeinschaften "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. 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.The next problem was, although used over decades: The word "Sportvereinigung" can still not being found in German dictionaries and cannot be translated into English outright.