Germany’s Sports Funding Model | DW 2025

How much are the Bundeswehr, federal police and customs involved in top sport?

With 890 funding agencies, the Bundeswehr is the largest state supporter of high -performance sports in Germany. A total of 67 million euros are currently going to sports funding annually. This covers personnel costs for sports soldiers and procurement costs for sports clothing and equipment.

The federal police have up to 160 funding agencies for athletes from German national cadres. Customs maintains the Zoll Ski Team with around three million euros per year, which included a total of 65 athletes in the 2024/2025 season. The DW is not known how much the federal police spend annually for top -class sports funding.

Which sports are encouraged?

The sports soldiers of the Bundeswehr are active in around 200 disciplines. This includes numerous Olympic and non-Olympic summer and winter sports. There are also parasport disciplines and military sports such as orientation run or parachuting.

The athletes of the federal police operate some Olympic Summer sports (judo, athletics, cycling, archery, rowing, sports shooting, canoeing, gymnastics and karate). In addition, there are all Winter Sports Olympics except ice hockey, figure skating, ice dance and curling. The customs sports promotion of customs concentrates only on Olympic Winter Sports.

How is the funding organized?

In the Bundeswehr, the funding takes place over 14 sports funding groups, which are located near Olympic support points and performance centers nationwide. The federal police have two sports schools: in Kienbaum in the state of Brandenburg for summer and all-year sports and in Bad Endorf in Bavaria for winter sports. The Customs Ski team is organized decentrally at the corresponding Olympic support points of the winter sports.

Why are the institutions committed to top sport?

German top athletes should be able to concentrate fully on their sporting career, be financially secure and have the opportunity to build up a permanent professional perspective for the time after competitive sports. All three institutions offer these framework conditions, which is why they are particularly interesting for athletes who, with their sport as pure professionals, cannot make much money.

Sports promotion is not part of the Bundeswehr’s military core mandate, but it fulfills a social function. On the stage of large sporting events such as the Olympic Games or World Championships, they are intended to embody values such as discipline, fairness and team spirit and serve as role models for society.

“We are not normal soldiers, but we serve through sport,” said European hockey champion Tom Grabusch of the DW. “When we are on the pitch, we represent the Bundeswehr there as soldiers. The Bundeswehr also stands for the Federal Republic of Germany. Accordingly, I always represent our Federal Republic.”

Federal police and Customs offer the funds the possibility of a dual career. At customs, young squad athletes are initially hired as civil servants in the simple service who does not require long training. After the end of the sports career, you will either complete the two -year training for the middle or the three -year university of applied sciences for the upscale service.

The situation is similar with the federal police, but training for the middle police service takes place here during the active career. It is stretched from three to four years so that there is enough time for training and competitions. Then you can rise to the upscale service under certain conditions or complete a degree.

Sports soldiers First come to the Bundeswehr for eleven months as military service providers and will then continue to work as time soldiers. As a rule, after completing the sports career, they out of the troops. However, there are many who complete a degree during their Bundeswehr period and thus provide for their professional career after funding.

In contrast, a large part of the athletes who were funded by the federal police and customs remains with his respective employer even after the active time.

What does the success balance look like?

Sports soldiers have won over 300 Olympic medals since the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. In total, Bundeswehr athletes were involved in around 46 percent of all German Olympic medals since German unity.

Representing the success of athletes from the federal police, the six -time Olympic champion in racing tobogganing, Natalie Geisenberger, speed of ice cream, Claudia Pechstein, who celebrated five Olympic wins, and bob driver Francesco Friedrich, who previously won four times Olympic gold.

Double Olympic champions Andreas Wellinger (Ski jumping) and Magdalena Neuner (biathlon) stand out among the members of the customs Ski team. The ex-biathlete Laura Dahlmeier, who was recently fatal in a mountain accident, was also at customs during her active time and celebrated two Olympic wins.

Are there similar state support programs in other countries?

The promotion of top sports by the military, police or customs is relatively widespread. Models similar to in Germany, for example, exist in Austria, where the Bundesheer supports athletes, or in Switzerland, where top athletes are promoted as the army for the army.

In France and Italy, military sports promotion is also very pronounced, often with their own sports centers and training programs. Countries such as Japan, Norway or Ukraine also rely on state -organized sports funding through security authorities. The same applies to autocratic states such as Russia and China. The United States operates with the “World Class Athlete Program” The Army a comparable model that prepares top athletes for the Olympics.

Many of these programs are in International Military Sports Association CISM organized. The athletes take part in competitions such as the Military World Games, who have been organized every four years for summer and since 2010 also every four years for winter sports.