524 JUTTA BRAUN
In March 1990, the daily sports newspaper L’Equipe, for example, fu-
eled fears of a “German sports colossus,” covering its front page with the
image of a steely muscle man from the Nazi era. While other countries
invoked the image of an invincible giant that was chomping at the bit to
exercise its unifi ed power on the sports fi eld, many top East and West
German athletes were anything but enthusiastic about the idea of a joint
team. After all, a joint team meant that there would be fi ercer competition
for half as many places in the team line-ups.^117 The two national Olympic
committees were unifi ed in November 1990. Despite the reservations of
many athletes, this represented the achievement of a sports dream for
unifi ed Germany: thanks in particular to the excellent performance of the
East German athletes on the united Olympic team, the Federal Republic
was able to celebrate the Winter Games of 1992 in Albertville as an amaz-
ing “unifi cation victory.” For the fi rst time, the Federal Republic took fi rst
place in the medal count; eight out of ten German team’s gold medals
were won by athletes from the former GDR.
Learning from the Dictatorship?Ultimately, however, the Federal Republic could not keep up this level of
performance. In turn, this sparked a longer debate about the best way to
ensure a new generation of stars. A key issue that repeatedly surfaced
in these debates was therefore how to adapt the system of the youth
sport schools (Kinder- und Jugendsportschulen, or KJS). As early as 1990,
some voices began calling for a “de-ideologization”^118 of these schools
that would then enable them to continue to operate. Between 1992 and
1996, attempts were made at fi ve Berlin schools to “transform the for-
mer KJS into schools with an athletic emphasis.” The goal was to test
the possibilities for an optimal combination of sports and education.^119
In addition to the posited de-ideologization of these schools, they also
had to follow a strict savings plan. Specifi c characteristics that used to
defi ne the KJS such as individual instruction, extended school time, or
small classes could now only be fi nanced in a very limited way. As the
schools were then opened to pupils without ambitions in competitive
sports, the athletic drills were also reduced. Despite these changes, the
calls for a reform of the system of support for the athletic stars of the
future continued, especially after the performance of the German team
at the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996 and the rather dour prognoses
for the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Although offi cials initially considered
following the French model, this proved to be untenable because of the
diff erence in the mechanisms of elite recruitment in competitive sports
in the two countries.^120 In France, elite sports have been seen as an op-