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Escape by elevator shaft East German athletes Traitor tell their story.
Keep peddling, pick up the pace and the thin man with nervous gray hair closely cropped barks always go only above, he adds Stopwatch in hand, Jürgen Kissner be trackside in the velodrome Cologne, more and more passionate every he looks round his students are cyclists Push yourself, he shouts frantically cyclists peddle past Lift your buttocks on the seat, child.
Kissner, 68, teaches at the German Sport University of Cologne, where he works as a trainer twice a week, gaining 32 40 46 64 per hour there are about 40 years certified sports instructor presented in cycling school program his students call him by his first name, Jürgen, but only a few of them know its history.
Kissner was once twice champion cyclist in East Germany, it was then a champion West Germany, and won silver with the relay team of four men in West Germany in the city of Mexico 1968 Olympic Games, it is among the German elite athletes of the East who escaped to the West after leaving the GDR, they went to be celebrated as citizens of copies be branded as traitors.
Kissner came from what is now the state of Brandenburg, and was not allowed to engage in sports studies because her family was considered part of the middle class reactionary, since his father was a doctor what motivated him to flee to the West now Kissner himself helped to relive the past and take part in an exhibition of the German sports history Center marking the 50th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall.
Refers to Zentralen Operativen Vorgang Exposure name ZOV Traitor athletes, or the large transaction in which the Stasi, East Germany's former secret police gathered information on athletes who had fled GDR such reconnaisance was used to plan East German retaliation for what was seen as athletes betrayal the multimedia exhibition, an initiative of the artist Laura Soria, highlights this history and the athletes who have played a role in and open to Willy Brandt House in Berlin on July 22.
From 1950 to August 1989, the Stasi compiled records of 615 athletes who had fled the GDR, but not all cases have been reported and the actual number is considered much higher Stasi treated 63 athletes on the initiative ZOV, hoping to find their best donors because they suspected that many escapees were poached by targeted efforts in West It was not until November 1989 these suspicions were dropped, and the ratio of closing on the issue was filed a few athletes who fled, like athletics pro Jürgen May, will seek the assistance of professional exhaust other agents, such as Wolfgang Thüne gymnast, were taken to the border with using their Western competitors.
Kissner has managed to do in 1964 with the help of a former classmate living in Cologne The city has hosted a qualifying race for the Olympics to determine who would join the national team powerful German in Tokyo this year the athletes of the GDR, unlike the majority of the east German population, were allowed to see the world, which in many cases fueled the break desire without GDR border And each trip was an opportunity to do Kissner disappeared while climbing through the lift shaft of the hotel where the team was staying in Cologne.
A day after his escape, the Stasi his mother in Cologne The secret police often used family members who had been left as pawns in an attempt to return deserting athletes saw his mother was supposed to move Kissner to return home .
But his hiding the cyclist's friend managed to secretly transport the mother Kissner, making sure that the taxi she was not followed by the Stasi officer who had accompanied him to an inn the mother and son were able to talk privately later she lied to the Stasi, saying that his son was unrecognizable to them, and had probably been drugged agents dismissed the case as a kidnapping instance .
Kissner had reached his goal, but the disappointment soon followed the friend who had helped Flee sold his press to escape history tabloid He sold me says Kissner Kissner got 500 DM of the agreement His friend made a profit of five numbers The incident ended their friendship.
Problems also arose with his new teammates Kissner was part of the team of Germany Relay West four men in the Mexico City Olympics in 1968, and they were favored for gold, but in the final race against Denmark, Kissner lightly press a teammate with his hand, a reflex that had little effect - but was contrary to the rules of civil servants east German tattled on illegal contact as a result, Danes, although they lost on the track, won the gold medal.
As the communist pig team, Kissner felt responsible, he then left to work as a trainer and teacher.
He's won 249 cycling races and suffered two herniated discs of strength training He believes that doping has taken place on both sides of the Berlin Wall in East athletes took a known carrier substance under the name UM Ünterstutzungsmittel In the West, it has been designated as a medical substance, or simply MV Medizinischesmittel it does know details.
Winter in Kienbaum, where many athletes qualified for the Olympics, athletes were the hot syrup later Kissner learned from a sports medicine doctor in Leipzig that he had probably been given arsenic, may be in order to stimulate the formation of blood cells and curing liver.
Speaking of now, Kissner just shrugs his shoulders and says the reason why I can drink a lot today.
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