SPORTS AND SOCIETY 517
sports clubs. As of 1980, 27.6 percent of the population participated in
organized sports.^85
Over the course of the 1980s, sporting activities also became more
diversifi ed. This mobilizing trend was not only refl ected in the emergence
of alternative kinds of movement and trend sports such as jogging, but
also appeared in the form of a new commercial sector that was turning
physical exercise in fi tness studios into a form of self-optimization.^86 Es-
pecially in the 1980s, fashions in clothing, music, and sporting goods in
areas such as bodybuilding or aerobics became all the more prevalent.
Fitness was becoming a lifestyle as well as an indicator of youthfulness,
attractiveness, and hipness all rolled into one. These developments were
part of a process of “sportifi cation” (Versportlichung) of culture,^87 which
was perhaps best expressed by the triumph of the sneaker in the world
of fashion.
In the GDR, popular sports, or “people’s sports” as they were called
in the East, were not only tied to the idea of improving personal fi tness
and quality of life; from the very beginning, sports were also linked to
the collective welfare of society as a whole. Walter Ulbricht’s saying “Ev-
eryone everywhere—sport once a week” was a refl ection of the SED’s
goal to keep its labor force in shape, as well as guarantee the military
preparedness of the population.^88 Although sports groups seemed to be
omnipresent in residential communities and companies, “mass sport” in
the GDR still remained the stepchild of the socialist planned economy
throughout the decades.^89 This was further compounded by the focus of
the GDR sports leadership on the Olympics. Indeed, the trendy kinds of
sport that began to appear in East Germany in the 1970s harbored a real
potential for confl ict, as several hurdles stood in the way of their estab-
lishment. For one, the SED emphasized the need for sports organizations;
individualists who jumped on their surf boards by themselves and with-
out anyone else around did not fi t the image of the East German sports
apparatus. Similarly, the party often covered up the American or Western
origins of these new sports by giving them a diff erent name. Surfi ng,
for example, became Brettsegeln (board sailing), while body building
was called Körperkulturistik (physical culturism) and aerobics were of-
fered as Popgymnastik (pop gymnastics). Moreover, in order to prevent
any attempts to defect, Brettsegeln was permitted only on inland waters.
Commercial surf schools were frowned upon, although some people—for
example, the nephew of Karl Eduard von Schnitzler, the chief ideological
propagandist in East German television—were given a license to oper-
ate some schools for a time.^90 The informal sporting scenes for climbers
and skateboarders likewise ran into trouble due to offi cial restrictions
and the mistrust of state authorities.^91 Inspired by the jogging images