Avery Brundage was the fifth president of the International Olympic Committee, serving from 1952 to 1972, the only American and only non-European to attain that position. Brundage is remembered as a zealous advocate of amateurism and for his involvement with the 1936 and 1972 Summer Olympics, both held in Germany.
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Berlin, Germany, from 1 August to 16 August.
The United Team of Germany was a combined team of athletes from West Germany and East Germany that competed in the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Winter and Summer Olympic Games. In 1956, the team also included athletes from a third Olympic body, the Saarland Olympic Committee, which had sent a separate team in 1952, but in 1956 was in the process of joining the German National Olympic Committee. This process was completed in February 1957 after the admission of Saarland into West Germany.
The 1980 Summer Olympics boycott was the largest boycott in Olympic history and one part of a number of actions initiated by the United States to protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet Union, which hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, and its satellite states later boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Basketball at the Summer Olympics has been a sport for men consistently since 1936. Prior to its inclusion as a medal sport, basketball was held as an unofficial demonstration event in 1904 and 1924. Women's basketball made its debut in the Summer Olympics in 1976. FIBA organizes both the men's and women's FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournaments and the Summer Olympics basketball tournaments, which are sanctioned by the IOC.
The National Olympic Committee (NOC) of the Saarland was founded in the spring of 1950 in the Saar Protectorate, which existed from 1947 to 1956, a region of Western Germany that was occupied in 1945 by France. As a separate team, Saar took part in its sole Olympic Games at the 1952 Summer Olympics before being allowed to rejoin the German team in 1956. Thirty-six competitors, 31 men and five women, took part in 32 events in nine sports.
Athletes from Germany (GER) have appeared in 27 of the 30 Summer Olympic Games, having competed in all Games except those of 1920, 1924 and 1948, when they were not permitted to do so. Germany has hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice; the 1936 Games in Berlin, and the 1972 Games in Munich.
The all-time medal table for all Olympic Games from 1896 to 2024, including Summer Olympic Games, Winter Olympic Games, and a combined total of both, is tabulated below. These Olympic medal counts do not include the 1906 Intercalated Games which are no longer recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as official Games. The IOC itself does not publish all-time tables, and publishes unofficial tables only per single Games. This table was thus compiled by adding up single entries from the IOC database.
The German Democratic Republic (GDR), often called East Germany, founded a separate National Olympic Committee for socialist East Germany on 22 April 1951 in the Rotes Rathaus of East Berlin. This was the last of three German Olympic committees of the time. It was not recognized by the IOC for over a decade.
Athletes from East Germany and West Germany competed together as the United Team of Germany at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.
Germany competed at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway after not having been invited to the 1948 Winter Olympics because of their role in World War II, and because the NOC restored in 1947 as Deutscher Olympischer Ausschuß did not represent a recognized state yet. The Federal Republic of Germany was founded in 1949, the NOC for Germany was renamed and in 1951 recognized by the IOC while recognition of a separate National Olympic Committee of the GDR was declined. East Germans were told to cooperate and form a united German team, which they declined in 1952, but accepted for 1956 and later.
Athletes from Germany (GER) have appeared in only 20 of the 22 editions of the Winter Olympic Games as they were not invited to two events after the World Wars, in 1924 and 1948. Germany hosted the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and had been selected to host in 1940 again.
Below is an all-time medal table for all Paralympic Games from 1960 to 2024. The International Paralympic Committee does not publish all-time tables, and publishes unofficial tables only per single Games. This table was thus compiled by collating single entries from the IPC database. This medal table also includes medals won at the 1992 Summer Paralympics for Intellectually Disabled, held in Madrid, which also organized by the International Coordination Committee (ICC) and same Organizing Committee (COOB'92) that directed the 1992 Summer Paralympics held in Barcelona, however the results are not included in the International Paralympic Committee's (IPC) database.
The Olympic Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the National Olympic Committee (NOC) representing North Korea.
Germany (GER) participated in the inaugural Paralympic Games in 1960 in Rome, where it sent a delegation of nine athletes. The country, since 1949 officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), was until 1990 also called West Germany while the separate East German Democratic Republic (GDR) existed, which was recognized by the IOC only after 1964. East German athletes, however, participated in the Paralympics for the first and last time in 1984. Following the reunification of Germany in 1990, athletes from all of Germany compete simply as Germany (GER) again.
Athletes have competed as independent Olympians at the Olympic Games for various reasons, including political transition, international sanctions, suspensions of National Olympic Committees, and compassion. Independent athletes have come from North Macedonia, East Timor, South Sudan and Curaçao following geopolitical changes in the years before the Olympics, from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as a result of international sanctions, and from India and Kuwait due to the suspensions of their National Olympic Committees. Starting from 2018, athletes from Russia have competed under a neutral designation for various reasoms, mainly mass violations of anti-doping rules and since 2022, the Belarus-assisted invasion of Ukraine.
Like the flags of the Weimar Republic, West Germany, and present-day Germany, the flag of East Germany, the German Democratic Republic, showed the colours black, red and gold. The coat of arms, which, from 1959, was a hammer, compass and wreath of wheat, was located in the middle of the colour red.
The National Olympic Committee of the German Democratic Republic was the non-profit organization representing athletes from East Germany in the International Olympic Committee. The NOC GDR organized East Germany's representatives at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.
Saar (1952)
United Team of Germany (1956–1964)
East Germany (1968–1988)
West Germany (1968–1988)
