ABSTRACT
In the confrontation of the political systems of East and West, sport played a major role from the 1950s onwards. Sport was an instrument of politics, a weapon deployed in the ‘cold war’ with huge success by East Germany, the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). And a decisive contribution to the country’s sporting success was made by women athletes. According to GDR politicians and sports officials, the great sporting achievements of East Germany’s women athletes were to be attributed to the benefits of women’s emancipation in a socialist state. And this was the message that the country’s women athletes were hoped to convey as ‘diplomats in tracksuits’. The fact that women played their roles on the stage of international sport so outstandingly is reflected, among other things, in the medals tables of the Olympic Games. However, the reasons behind the Fräuleinwunder (‘the miracle of the misses’) are not as easily explained as politicians and functionaries would have it. Does sporting achievement really have anything to do with emancipation and socialism?
