516 JUTTA BRAUN
and Erdgas. Likewise, the starting numbers for the GDR track and fi eld
athletes in 1988 bore the logo of the computer company Commodore.
Additionally, at the Olympic Games in 1988, the GDR bobsled team wore
BMW helmets because, as Neues Deutschland had recently assured, they
were the “safest.”^83 On the eve of its collapse, therefore, GDR sport had
very cautiously adapted some of the mainstream reforms of the Eastern
Bloc, at least in terms of brand advertising.
Popular Sports in the West, People’s Sport in the GDRWhereas the GDR mostly expanded only its competitive sports system,
recreational sports gained in importance in West Germany in the 1970s.
The birth of modern recreational sports is still considered to have come
with the Zweiter Weg des Sports (The Second Path of Sports) campaign
that was launched by the DSB in 1959. According to this concept, the fo-
cus would no longer be on competitive programs and high performance
athletes only, but rather an eff ort would be made to off er a broad range
of recreational sports programming in which performance enhancement
was not the goal. This idea of “sports for all,” which was deeply rooted in
the specifi c German gymnastics tradition, quickly gained in popularity.
By 1970, 16.7 percent of the population already belonged to a gymnastics
or sports club, and these membership fi gures skyrocketed in the 1970s.
Additionally, thanks to the initiative of the Golden Plan for the Creation
of Recreational, Play, and Sports facilities, the necessary infrastructure
of facilities, fi elds, pitches, etc. was put into place in order to satisfy
the public need for leisure activities. In particular, the importance of the
Trimm campaign in 1970 should not be underestimated. As Christian
Wopp put it, “From a historical perspective, it made a decisive contribu-
tion to liberating sport activities from traditional norms and standards by
propagating a more open understanding of sport.”^84 Whereas the Second
Path was primarily directed at the clubs and associations, the Trimm
campaign, with its mascot “Trimmy” and slogans such as “get running
again,” targeted individual citizens. But it was not just the increase in
the average body weight of West Germans that stood behind this initia-
tive; rather, it was part of the multifaceted body policies that the state
adopted as part of its eff orts to protect the health of its citizens. This
shift also included the campaigns against alcohol, smoking, and drugs,
and for wearing seat belts in the car. Simultaneously, the general desire
among West Germans to optimize their own bodies—not just through
sport—increased. Diets, tanning, and individualized clothing styles also
rose in prominence. The number of recreational athletes engaging in
sport activities on their own grew, as did the membership fi gures for the