The desperate plight of former East Germany athletes suffering 'mental and physical destruction' following doping regime

Ongoing battle: Professor Werner Franke is still fighting for athletes
Bongarts/Getty Images

It is an innocuous office, a shared space on the first floor of a grey building in the Spittelmarkt area of east Berlin. But, in the city which is hosting the European Athletics Championships, folders on two sets of shelves house the secrets of decades of state-sponsored doping in the former German Democratic Republic.

On one side are the files snatched by Professor Werner Franke, a leading light in exposing what happened three decades ago and more. On the other, 26 folders, from A to Z, listing those affected and the harrowing physical and mental demons that have befallen them.

On a central desk stand two clipboards. One handwritten list, which runs to eight pages, names those who have died prematurely from the effects of the steroids they were given; another shorter list names the children of those doped and the deformities a second generation have experienced.

The home of the charitable organisation Doping-Opfer-Hilfe (Doping Victims’ Assistance) has dealt with more than 2,000 cases since the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. But its president, Ines Geipel, a former sprinter and a victim of the doping regime, says it never gets easier hearing of new cases.

“We have 2,000 victims in our database but I think it will be 5,000,” she said. “Every day we have emails and phone calls from old athletes telling us all these terrible stories of mental and physical destruction. Every story, every life is emotional.”

East Germany’s doping programme was known as State Plan 14.25 and meant budding athletes, some as young as eight, were put on drug programmes while being told they were being given vitamins. Geipel estimates some 15,000 youngsters were on the programme and that about a third of those have been affected by life-shortening illnesses.

“There’s files on eight-year-old swimmers, on girl gymnasts who were held artificially small with steroids and then elongated with growth hormones,” she said.

The effects are wide-ranging: heart attacks, lung, kidney and pancreas disease, cancers and tumours, not to mention the instances of depression and other psychological illnesses.

One European shot put champion, Andreas Krieger, formerly known as Heidi having undergone gender transformation, in part caused by the drugs’ side-effects.

Victim: Andreas Krieger was duped into taking drugs such as Oral-Turinabol
AFP/Getty Images

The charity also has 200 cases of former doped athletes concerned about their children: disorders including clubfeet, organ deformation and deformed hands. Geipel’s concern is of similar programmes going on today. She described the recently exposed situation in Russia as “a suicide mission” with the full ramifications to be felt in the next 20 to 30 years.

“Doping does not just end in 1989 with the GDR,” she said. “That’s why we need a black box of sport to help the next victims. We know Russia and, of course, there are athletes [competing] in Berlin who won’t be legitimate.”

It is a fear shared by Franke, who feels athletics bosses in Berlin are not sending the right message. Heike Drechsler was one of the stars of the European Championships’ opening ceremony and is working as an event official.

Dreschler competed for Germany when it reunited, winning double Olympic gold in the long jump and never failed a drugs test in her career. But she admitted in 2001 to being part of the GDR programme although denied she had knowingly done anything wrong.

Drechsler has previously said: “I was convinced that what was happening was right. I did not question anything because I was very young.”

But Franke countered: “What message does it send at these championships when [European Athletics] authorities still celebrate those who doped? That’s not right, I’ve been to too many funerals. There’s so many cases when I’m asked to help and it’s too late. What happened to these children was criminal and cruel.”

Campaigner: Ines Geipel
AFP/Getty Images

Franke raced into East Germany after the collapse of the Wall to capture the records before they could be destroyed, aided by “typical German efficiency in record keeping”. As for whether athletes competing in Berlin can be trusted, Franke, a professor of cell and molecular biology at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg, is unconvinced.

He says his wife, a former discus thrower, watches for five minutes of each major championships before shaking her head, unconvinced about the validity of some performances.

“We know what happened, and we know what can happen in the future,” Franke added. “Take Russia: the full human consequences of that will not be felt for decades. Who knows the future, but this could be a human catastrophe. There will be more.”

Marie Katrin Kanitz was just 16 when the figure skater was offered her first ‘vitamin’, a blue pill it later transpired to be the steroid Oral-Turinabol.

'Vitamins': Athletes were duped into taking Oral-Turinabol

It left her infertile but, as she put it: “It’s less my body, more my soul. As a child you did not ask questions, you just trusted what you were being told. And so many lives have been ruined: men and women with cancers, problems with the heart and head. It’s so sad.”

Heike Knechtel was a budding middle-distance runner, who never believed she had doped until a 2014 documentary opened her eyes to the possibility.

A breast cancer sufferer, she has undergone 20 operations, including the removal of a breast and her uterus..

“Watching that documentary, I finally had an answer to my problems,” said Knechtel, who is now working with youngsters in Germany to educate them about the perils of doping. “The GDR is no more but, with doping, we still have a long, long way to go.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in