Germany at the Olympics

Germany at the Olympic Games
Flag of Germany IOC code  GER NOC German Olympic Sports Confederation Website www.dosb.de (German) (English) (French)
Olympic history
Summer Games
1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956–1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016
Winter Games
1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956–1988 1992 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014
Intercalated Games
1906
Other related appearances
United Team of Germany (1956–1964)  West Germany (1968–1988)  East Germany (1968–1988)  Saar (1952)

Athletes from Germany have taken part in most of the Olympic Games since the first modern Games in 1896. Germany has hosted three Olympic Games, in 1936 both the Winter and Summer Games, and the 1972 Summer Olympics. In addition, Germany had been selected to host the 1916 Summer Olympics as well as the 1940 Winter Olympics, both of which had to be cancelled due to World Wars. After these wars, Germans were banned from participating in 1920, 1924 and 1948. While the country was divided, each of the two German states boycotted the Summer Games: in 1980 West Germany was one of 65 nations which did not go to Moscow in protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and in 1984 East Germany joined the Soviet Union (and several others) in the boycott of the Summer Games in Los Angeles.

Including the Winter Games of 2014, German athletes have won 1681 medals: 547 gold, 567 silver and 567 bronze. The IOC currently splits these results among four codes, even though only the East German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1968 to 1988 had sent a separate team to compete against the team of the German NOC that represented Germany (GER) since 1896.

German post-WW2 division until 1990

After German organisations had been dissolved by the Allies in 1947, in 1950 the IOC recognized the reorganized Nationales Olympisches Komitee für Deutschland for all of Germany, based in (West) Germany.

Due to the Cold War, an East German state (German Democratic Republic) was created in October 1949, and a separate National Olympic Committee (NOC) for East Germany was established in 1951. It was not immediately recognized by the IOC, which until 1965 required that athletes of the NOC of East Germany join the German team represented by the West Germany based NOC of Germany. This team, which competed together from 1956 to 1964, is nowadays called the United Team of Germany (EUA, "Equipe Unifiée Allemande"), but was Germany (GER) then. As a result of the Germany being divided, from 1968 to 1990 two independent teams competed in each of the Games; the original designations were GER for the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and GDR for the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). In 1980 the West German code was changed to FRG (which is currently also applied by the IOC in retrospect). After the GDR ceased to exist in 1990 and its states joined the Federal Republic of Germany, Germany once again was represented by a single team, designated GER.

Additionally, in the early 1950s the French-occupied Saar had its own NOC and competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics before joining the German Olympic team in 1956 and the (West) German state by 1957.

Participation

Further information: Germany at the Summer Olympics and Germany at the Winter Olympics

Combined medals

Germany has competed at the Olympics under five different designations, including as two separate teams at several Games. Sources vary in how they present the medals won by these teams. The table below shows sourced combinations of these teams, when applied to the main table.

Medals won by Germany at the Summer Olympic Games between 1896 and 2012 (between 1956 and 1964 as the Unified Team of Germany and between 1968 and 1988 as a sum of medals of West and East Germany)

Medals won by Germany at the Winter Olympic Games between 1928 and 2014 (between 1956 and 1964 as the Unified Team of Germany and between 1968 and 1988 as sum of medals of West and East Germany)

Combined IOC codes	№ Games				Combined total
Germany (GER)	26	252	260	270	782
Germany (GER) (EUA)	32	288	320	311	919
Germany (GER) (EUA) (FRG)	43	355	402	405	1162
Germany (GER) (EUA) (FRG) (GDR)	54	547	567	567	1681

Timeline of participation

Date	Team(s)
1896–1936	Germany (GER)
1952	Germany (GER)  Saar (SAA)
1956–1964	United Team of Germany (EUA)
1968–1988	West Germany (FRG)  East Germany (GDR)
1992–	Germany (GER)

Medal tables

See also: All-time Olympic Games medal count

*Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Medals by Summer Games

Games	Athletes	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Rank
1896 Athens	19	6	5	2	13	3
1900 Paris	78	4	2	2	8	7
1904 St. Louis	18	4	4	5	13	2
1908 London	81	3	5	5	13	5
1912 Stockholm	185	5	13	7	25	6
1920–1924	did not participate
1928 Amsterdam	296	10	7	14	31	2
1932 Los Angeles	143	3	12	5	20	9
1936 Berlin	433	33	26	30	89	1
1948 London	did not participate
1952 Helsinki	205	0	7	17	24	28
1956–1964	as part of the  United Team of Germany (EUA)
1968–1988	as  West Germany (FRG) and  East Germany (GDR)
1992 Barcelona	463	33	21	28	82	3
1996 Atlanta	465	20	18	27	65	3
2000 Sydney	422	13	17	26	56	5
2004 Athens	441	13	16	20	49	6
2008 Beijing	463	16	10	15	41	5
2012 London	392	11	19	14	44	6
2016 Rio de Janeiro
2020 Tokyo
Total		174	182	217	573	7

Medals by Winter Games

Games	Athletes	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Rank
1928 St. Moritz	44	0	0	1	1	8
1932 Lake Placid	20	0	0	2	2	9
1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen	55	3	3	0	6	2
1948 St. Moritz	did not participate
1952 Oslo	53	3	2	2	7	4
1956–1964	as part of the  United Team of Germany (EUA)
1968–1988	as  West Germany (FRG) and  East Germany (GDR)
1992 Albertville	111	10	10	6	26	1
1994 Lillehammer	112	9	7	8	24	3
1998 Nagano	125	12	9	8	29	1
2002 Salt Lake City	157	12	16	8	36	2
2006 Turin	162	11	12	6	29	1
2010 Vancouver	152	10	13	7	30	2
2014 Sochi	153	8	6	5	19	6
2018 Pyeongchang
Total		78	78	53	209	3

Medals by summer sport

   Leading in that sport

Sport	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Canoeing	28	16	19	63
Equestrian	23	11	12	46
Rowing	21	13	14	48
Athletics	16	24	37	77
Swimming	13	19	29	61
Cycling	13	14	15	42
Gymnastics	13	11	13	37
Shooting	7	8	5	20
Weightlifting	6	7	7	20
Fencing	5	7	9	21
Wrestling	4	12	8	24
Boxing	4	9	9	22
Field hockey	4	2	2	8
Sailing	3	4	4	11
Judo	3	2	12	17
Diving	2	8	10	20
Tennis	2	5	2	9
Modern pentathlon	2	0	1	3
Water polo	1	2	0	3
Handball	1	1	0	2
Triathlon	1	1	0	2
Beach volleyball	1	0	1	2
Table tennis	0	2	3	5
Archery	0	1	1	2
Taekwondo	0	1	1	2
Rugby	0	1	0	1
Football	0	0	3	3
Total*	173	181	217	571

*This table does not include two medals – one gold and one silver – awarded in the figure skating events at the 1908 Summer Olympics.

Medals by winter sport

   Leading in that sport

Sport	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Biathlon	16	20	9	45
Luge	15	9	7	31
Speed skating	13	15	10	38
Alpine skiing	12	7	7	26
Bobsleigh	10	5	6	21
Ski jumping	5	3	1	9
Figure skating	3	2	3	8
Cross country skiing	2	9	4	15
Nordic combined	2	4	3	9
Snowboarding	1	3	1	5
Skeleton	0	1	1	2
Freestyle skiing	0	1	0	1
Ice hockey	0	0	1	1
Total*	79	79	53	211

*This table includes two medals – one gold and one silver – awarded in the figure skating events at the 1908 Summer Olympics.

See also

• List of flag bearers for Germany at the Olympics
• Category:Olympic competitors for Germany
• Germany at the Paralympics