A problem with Ingo Steuer, German coach...

[Frau Muller]

Big deal. And will Tarasova, Moskvina & other KGB informants of the past -- because anyone with good knowledge of a foreign language, who traveled, had to 'inform' back then -- will they also be sanctioned?

And how about our US hockey, biathlon & other sports? Any of our Team USA men or women do service with a US armed forces or a domestic secrity agency? Information-gathering is part of any military job...especially nowadays.

 

[Ptichka]

Russia is Russia and Germany is Germany. If Russia were to go that way, they'd have to start by sanctioning the president (which, btw, would not be a bad idea)!

 

[tdnuva]

Big deal. And will Tarasova, Moskvina & other KGB informants of the past -- because anyone with good knowledge of a foreign language, who traveled, had to 'inform' back then -- will they also be sanctioned?

And how about our US hockey, biathlon & other sports? Any of our Team USA men or women do service with a US armed forces or a domestic secrity agency? Information-gathering is part of any military job...especially nowadays.

I can't talk about other countries. But three coaches from Germany from three different sports were not allowed into the team for the Olympics. More than 160 cases checked, nine with Stasi contacts, three of them severe enough that they decided to leave them at home.

This is still a big issue in Germany and I get the impression that this disaster wouldn't have been that worse if Steuer would have dealt with the issue himself a lot earlier. The other two coaches who did not get their accreditation (?) made no fuss about it, one of them had already "withdrawn" before the news came out. And btw, Ingo is officially a member of the army (kind of sponsorship one could say) and lied about his Stasi past when he applied, so he will be into trouble concerning job and finances, too.

 

[Lisa]

This is what I want to understand - who are those Germans who want all Stasi-tainted people out of the Olympics? Is this really driven from the streets? Or is it a politically-motivated initiative (my guess)? If we have German posters here, I'd love to read their take on this.

It's a law that will be valid until the end of 2006. The Stasi archives are immense, and sorting them through is a very long and difficult process. In the last days of the GDR, the Stasi destroyed lots of files. A considerable number of files disappeared (Ingo's files are not complete for instance), other files were shredded, and the investigators now need to put the small pieces of paper together. I'm sure everybody understands that this takes a lot of time, which is why 16 years after the reunification, this law still exists.

Ingo Steuer is a very popular athlete and coach in both parts of Germany. So it's not like we're trying to get rid of him, nor is it a witch hunt. As tdnuva already stated, the thing that bothers skating fans the most, is his reaction to the whole situation, as well as the fact that he repeatedly lied about his dealings with the Stasi.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

Isn't this the same thing as "I was under orders" from WWII trials? which did no go over well in Nuremburg .

 

[Ptichka]

Isn't this the same thing as "I was under orders" from WWII trials? which did no go over well in Nuremburg .

If Nuremeberg trials had gone after everyone who spier on their neighbors in Germany, there wouldn't be hardly anyone left in the country.

Overall, I agree with RGirl - we don't have enough information to make up our minds yet. I do not trust the German authorities who simply say that the ties were severe enough to warrant such a sanction. I would like to know exactly what it was tat Steur did, an then I can make up my mind.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

Ptichka - About how old would Ingo be in the STASI? and what age did he start skating? I have a feeling he was too young for stasi, and if not he wasn't in it for very long.

Joe

 

[Ptichka]

Joe, the articles say that his "involvement" with Stasi was between 1980 and 1990. In 1980 he would have been 14 years old. My guess would be that at that age Stasi would first approach young athletes and explain to them exactly would they'd have to do in order to get their elite career. My guess would be that after that his "level of involvement" would be determined by how much he'd actually report to Stasi.