The 1952 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad and commonly known as Helsinki 1952, were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1952 in Helsinki, Finland.
Saarbrücken is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is Saarland's administrative, commercial and cultural centre and is next to the French border.
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 Saarland national football team was the association football team representing the Saar Protectorate in international football from 1950 to 1956 during the French occupation following World War II. As France opposed the inclusion of the Saarland in the Federal Republic of Germany until 1956, they administered it separately from Germany as the Saar Protectorate.
The Saar Protectorate, officially Saarland, was a French protectorate and a disputed territory separated from Germany. On joining the Federal Republic of Germany in 1957, it became the smallest "federal state", the Saarland, not counting the "city states" of Berlin, Hamburg, and Bremen. It is named after the Saar River.
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.
Germany was represented at the 1956 Summer Olympics by a United Team of Germany of athletes from the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and, for the first time at Summer Games, also from East Germany which had not joined in 1952. Also, the Saarland athletes who had to enter as a separate team in 1952 could now join in even though the accession of their state was not yet in effect. Thus, this was the only Olympic team ever to comprise athletes from three German states.
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.
Germany competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. 205 competitors, 173 men and 32 women, took part in 123 events in 18 sports.
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 NOC of the GDR was declined. East Germans were told to cooperate in a single team Germany, 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.
The German Olympic Sports Confederation was founded on 20 May 2006 by a merger of the Deutscher Sportbund (DSB), and the Nationales Olympisches Komitee für Deutschland (NOK) which dates back to 1895, the year it was founded and recognized as NOC by the IOC.
Hans Günter Winkler was a German show jumper. He is the only show jumper to have won five Olympic gold medals and a total of seven Olympic medals, and to compete and win medals in six different Olympic Games. In the 1950s and 1960s Winkler was one of Germany's most popular athletes.
Theresia Maria "Therese" Zenz was a Saar-born German canoe sprinter. She took part in the 1952, 1956 and 1960 Olympics and won three silver medals for the United Team of Germany in 1956 and 1960. At the 1952 games she competed for Saar and finished ninth in the K-1 500 metres event. She later became a coach for the West German team.
Ernst Günther Jakob Knödler was a German fencer in the individual and team foil and sabre events for Saar at the 1952 Summer Olympics.
The National Olympic Committee of the GDR 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 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 at the 1953 Summer Deaflympics before Saarland was allowed to rejoin West Germany in 1956. Fifteen competitors took part in the football event in the 1953 Summer Deaflympics in Brussels, Belgium.
Alwin Brück was a German politician who was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). He was Parliamentary Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development from 1974 to 1982.
Germany (1896–1936, 1952, 1992–)
United Team of Germany (1956–1964)
