The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, Greece, and the most recent was held in 2024 in Paris, France. This was the first international multi-sport event of its kind, organized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) founded by Pierre de Coubertin. The tradition of awarding medals began in 1904; in each Olympic event, gold medals are awarded for first place, silver medals for second place, and bronze medals for third place. The Winter Olympic Games were created out of the success of the Summer Olympic Games, which are regarded as the largest and most prestigious multi-sport international event in the world.
The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XVI Olympiad and officially branded as Melbourne 1956, were an international multi-sport event held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, which were held in Stockholm, Sweden, in June 1956.
The 1900 Summer Olympics were held in Paris, France, from May 14 to October 28, 1900, as part of the 1900 World's Fair.
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 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.
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.
Alpine skiing has been contested at every Winter Olympics since 1936, when a combined event was held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
Luge is a winter sport featured at the Winter Olympic Games where a competitor or two-person team rides a flat sled while lying supine and feet first. The sport is usually contested on a specially designed ice track that allows gravity to increase the sled's speed. The winner normally completes the route with the fastest overall time. It was first contested at the 1964 Winter Olympics, with both men's and women's events and a doubles event. Doubles is technically considered an open event since 1994, but only men have competed in it. German lugers have dominated the competition, winning 87 medals of 153 possible.
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.
Athletes from Germany have taken part in most of the modern Olympic Games held since 1896. Germany has hosted three Olympic Games, in 1936 both the Winter and Summer Games, and the 1972 Summer Olympics. In addition, Germany had been selected to host the 1916 Summer Olympics as well as the 1940 Winter Olympics, both of which had to be cancelled due to World Wars. After these wars, Germany was banned from participating in the 1920, 1924 and 1948 Olympics.
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.
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.
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)
