Former athletes who were victims of East Germany’s systematic doping programme will share a €10.5 million ($11.7m) compensation package planned by the government, who also want the German Olympic Committee (DOSB) to contribute.
“We hope that the Bundestag (lower house of the German parliament) will approve the provision of €10.5m in the budget so that the money can be paid to victims in 2016,” Ole Schroeder, Parliamentary State Secretary in the German Interior Ministry told public radio station Deutschlandfunk, on the day Germany celebrated 25 years since its reunification.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of East Germany, it was revealed that much of the Communist country’s sporting achievements were fuelled by performance-enhancing drugs under a government-run programme.
Previous compensation packages were awarded by the German government in 2002 and 2006 and the Interior Ministry have identified a further 1,000 victims.
The sum of €10.5m would give them an estimated €10,500 each, the same amount as awarded during previous compensation packages, but the German government also want sporting authorities to put their hands in their pockets.
“It was state doping but it was also coordinated doping by sporting institutions, that’s why I want sport to take responsibility and also make €10.5 million available,” added Schroeder.
The German Olympic Committee “welcomed” the decision by the government to release new funds.
“The victims of doping should be supported as much as possible,” a DOSB statement read without mentioning a possible contribution from them.
Ines Geipel, president of the Association for Victims of Doping (DOH), also welcomed the initiative.
“But what we need even more than help from time to time is a long term plan,” she told SID, an AFP subsidiary.