The German Sports Aid supported since 1967 successfully supports top athletes in Germany both financially and in terms of ideas. It promotes both training and career planning, offers scholarships, social security and educational programmes and thus helps athletes to reconcile competitive sport and private life. The aim is to strengthen the German sports landscape in the long term and prepare talented athletes for international competitions in the best possible way.
Interview: "Promoting performance, developing talent"
A conversation with Deutsche Sporthilfe, interview with Max Hartung, member of the board
How is Deutsche Sporthilfe financed?
We sponsor around 4,000 athletes and need broad-based funding to do so. A large proportion comes from our national sponsors - eight large companies with whom we have agreements, for example Deutsche Bank, Mercedes and Telekom. Another block is tax money that we receive by resolution of the German Bundestag - just under 11 million euros per year out of a total of around 32 million euros that we realise. There are also donations. An important group of donors are our more than three hundred trustees, who donate 7500 euros a year, totalling around 2 million euros. So it's a broad portfolio of funds that we work hard to raise every year so that we can pass it on to the athletes.
Who decides which athletes receive support?
The so-called expert committee, consisting of former top athletes, representatives of the German Olympic Sports Confederation and the Chancellery, decides on the award. Each association submits proposals and athlete representatives also have a say. Funding is based on national squad status and sporting achievements. We also scrutinise income: Anyone earning more than 72,000 euros does not receive a basic monthly grant.
Is sports aid an alternative to the police or the Bundeswehr?
Soldiers and police officers receive reduced funding. The pay of sports soldiers is still significantly higher than the funding we can pay to athletes. We are working hard to close this gap.
Which sports are subsidised?
In addition to the Olympic and Paralympic disciplines, we also support sports from the World Games - an international multi-sport event, often with sports that could become Olympic sports in the future.
How relevant are road cycling and mountain biking?
These are two important areas for us. In total, around thirty mountain bikers and twenty racing cyclists are supported each year.
Which sports in particular benefit from the funding?
Major sports such as athletics or swimming have many national squad athletes, which means that a high number of sponsorships are provided. It also plays a role how many professionals a sport produces who can finance themselves entirely through sponsors. Smaller sports such as fencing have a difficult time in this respect.
During the Winter Olympics, the medal bonuses were repeatedly called into question. Who decides?
The bonuses for gold, silver and bronze come entirely from Sporthilfe - many people don't realise that. These are now 30,000, 20,000 and 10,000 euros respectively. Since the turn of the year, they have been tax-free - a great success from Sporthilfe's point of view, and one that we have campaigned hard for.
In principle, however, the aim of Sporthilfe is primarily to promote talent and enable sporting achievements, not primarily to reward successes that have already been achieved.
What can we learn from other countries?
The Nordic countries such as Denmark and Norway are interesting: despite their smaller populations, they achieve considerable sporting success, supported by strong club structures. At the same time, the German federal system is unique, which is why we cannot transfer everything directly.
Nevertheless, German sport as a whole is endeavouring to learn from other countries. The planned top-class sports agency will pool state funding in the future and will be professionally managed - a model similar to that of UK Sports.
Some people say there are more sensible ways to invest taxpayers' money these days.
Stiftung Deutsche Sporthilfe stands for the values of performance, fair play and togetherness. We are convinced that the sponsored athletes carry these values into society and the world as ambassadors. In my opinion, any support for this mission is worthwhile, whether it comes from the private sector, from the state or from donors.
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Laurin Lehner
Editor
