Junge Welt: Destruction Report – Dec 19, 2025

Does sport deserve its own independent science or should it be more commonly called sports science? From a scientific perspective, does sport only serve as a “prefix” for disciplines such as medicine, psychology, economics, history, law, education or philosophy? Is he also interested in the natural sciences or does he just use them? Albrecht Hummel raises fundamental questions in his book “100 Years of Berlin Sports Science”. The author traces how the sport first began its triumphal march in Berlin and Leipzig, under names such as gymnastics, physical education; how he took the academic curve through various institutes, institutions and faculties; how sport was “made scientific” and scientificized; how he eventually even conquered professorships.

Nevertheless, after reading it, the impression remains that the sporting universe as a whole remains amorphous and shapeless to this day. The object still seems huge. A phenomenon that cannot be fully understood and classified using scientific criteria since it conquered the globe from England almost two centuries ago – including its name, which goes back to the Latin “disportare”, which means “to disperse” and previously referred to things like hunting and riding.

The author has placed the training of sporting staff for schools at the center of his 370-page book with eight chapters. It’s obvious that Hummel (born 1949) is a luminary in sports education. As the last head of the “Physical Education Department” at the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences (APW), he had to turn off the lights when it ended in 1990. He then worked at Chemnitz University of Technology from 1993 to 2013 as a specialist in the fields of sports education and sports didactics.

It is commendable how he traces the history of sports science in Germany back to its origins and thus provides an extremely instructive overview – even though in some passages it does not come across as very popular and contains some repetitions. Particularly noteworthy, however, are chapters five to seven, which describe the developments after the “disruptions” of 1945 and 1990. And the author draws attention to the present: “Today, sports science is a sprawling disciplinary conglomerate with more than 500 study programs at Germany’s universities and colleges.” He also rightly complains about the sports policy amateurism in the German ministerial bureaucracy at the federal level: “First and foremost, German sports science has a quality problem that has been apparent for a long time.”

The East German doesn’t skimp on constructive criticism. He draws his best inspiration from the GDR and his own experiences with a sports system that, for example, had an exemplary, consistent system and methodology in the training and deployment of its teaching staff. In the Federal Republic of Germany, on the other hand, there was federal fragmentation.

The author energetically counters the myth, which is still alive today, that everything in the GDR was subordinated to the greed for medals. In this way, he shows what progress was made possible by the “independent, well-organized, multidisciplinary school sports research” established in 1970. To date, there is nothing comparable in the Federal Republic. Given the shortcomings in physical education, it would currently make more sense than ever to follow the East German model. From 1986 onwards, qualified teachers for sports and rehabilitation were trained in cooperation with the Berlin-Buch Clinic in East Berlin. The sports teachers were “the mainstay of the entire sports science system,” says Hummel, looking back. A job-related approach that was “not pursued further after accession in 1990” under the new circumstances.

The same was true with the analyzes of the quality of physical education, which were carried out regularly and comprehensively in the GDR system. Different in the Federal Republic. »There was no reliable data or statements on the quality and effectiveness of school sport in the federal states of Germany that were collected on a regular basis. There was no regular reporting on the situation in school sports. Present tense would be more correct: it still hasn’t happened to this day. On the contrary: For years, the individual countries have refused to give an account of the state of their physical education classes, how many lessons are canceled and how many are only held poorly with the help of non-professional staff.

What an absurd situation for a so-called sports nation. And one that wants to host the Olympic Games again. Albrecht Hummel also makes this connection to competitive sports. The 76-year-old counters the repeated claim that the successes of the GDR athletes are solely due to the state doping system with truths that are not popular in this country. He emphasizes two factors for what has been achieved: “Firstly, the systematic-organizational achievements and consistent implementation of the support concept ‘On long-term performance building and the uniform screening and selection of talent’ (…) A second reason that should be emphasized can be identified in particular in the training of scientifically sound, practice-related and experience-based professional skills of sports teachers (certified sports teachers, school sports teachers), trainers and trainers. These professional players were guarantors of sporting success in the GDR. They laid a foundation that was sustainable – whether with doping or without.

But all of that had to go, the new rulers decided after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and as quickly as possible. In a very short time, the sporting legacy of German socialism was destroyed. Even modern school sports research was carried out. Hummel judges: “A senseless, symbolic-political destruction of everything that did not fit into the normative requirements of the Federal Republic of Germany.” Favored by a newly elected People’s Chamber without grit. Back then, parliamentarians mostly stood by instead of raising objections, says Hummel. The “personal pool position” would have been more important to them. It seems the man also has a sense of humor.