When Olympic Sports Become Affairs of State

East German leader Erich Honecker was so infatuated with figure skater Katarina Witt that he made it plain to the government-sponsored newspapers that they could gain favor with him by publishing her picture as often as possible.

In their recent eight-part series on sports in East Germany, West German newspapers Bild and Bild am Sonntag also reported that East German government officials arranged several meetings between Witt, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and ski jumper Jens Weissflog, an Olympic gold and silver medalist in 1984, in hopes that they would fall in love, marry and bear athletic children.

But Hans-Georg Aschenbach, an East German ski jumper who defected to West Germany last August, told Bild that Witt and Weissflog were not attracted to each other. Weissflog was engaged to another woman, and Witt lived with a drummer in a rock band.

The East Germans have not had much success in the lonely hearts department. Swimmers Roland Matthes and Kornelia Ender, who, between them, won eight gold, six silver and two bronze medals in three Olympics, married in 1978. But, according to Bild am Sonntag, their model marriage soon dissolved. They had one child, who is mentally retarded.

The newspaper reported that Ender, who was East Germany’s most popular female athlete before Witt, later was banished to Suhl, a remote village in the country’s southwestern corner.

As an indication of the quality of life there, the joke in East Germany is that Suhl stands for Socialist Underprivileged Hinterland. That was Ender’s punishment, Bild am Sonntag reported, for writing anti-government letters to the West.

Ender is now married to a former bobsledder, who was identified as the ringleader after he and his teammates were involved in a scandal, Bild am Sonntag said. A search of the bobsledders’ hotel rooms, which was ordered after they were seen attending a forbidden movie, “Rambo II,” on a trip to the West, yielded Western currency, clothing, addresses and pornography. While the other bobsledders were reprimanded, Ender’s husband was removed from the team.