André Niklaus is just 26 years old. But the decathlete from Berlin, 2006 indoor world champion in Moscow, has already changed his occupation three times to stay at his place of work. Or is it the other way round: has he changed his workplace three times for his occupation? Whatever the case, Niklaus has so far managed to spend half his life at Berlin’s Sportforum, Europe’s biggest sports complex. Its facilities range from a soccer pitch to a beach volleyball court and are obviously designed for high-performance sporting achievement. André, the son of the GDR’s most successful foil fencer Mandy Niklaus, was eight years old when the Wall fell in 1989. Five years later he entered seventh grade at the Werner Seelenbinder School located at the heart of the Sportforum. Previously a sport school for children and young people run by the GDR sports authorities, it has acted as a glowing example and a nucleus for the 38 elite sport schools in Germany today. Niklaus was allowed to train before, after and even during classes. Sometimes he had to fit over 60 hours of classes and training into his week. The teachers gave him two years to complete his final school year, so that he did not have to cut back on his sport – that’s no exception at elite schools. Whenever Niklaus couldn’t make it to class, not even in his sports gear, his teachers gave him work to take along to training camp or on trips to competitions. And they gave him individual tutoring in the subjects he’d missed. Although Niklaus had to leave the school after graduating, he remained at the Sportforum to complete a community service year at the Olympic Training Centre (OSP).
There are now 20 centres of this kind in Germany. They provide training, medical care, physiotherapy and vocational counselling. The OSPs account for a considerable proportion of government sport funding, which consists of some 200 million euros from the Federal Government – mainly from the Ministry of the Interior – and another 200 million euros from the Länder.
At the end of his community service it made sense for the ambitious decathlete to volunteer for the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces. He became a soldier, but basically remained what he has been for years: a professional sportsman. Usually he only wears his uniform when receiving awards from the Federal President or the Minister of Defence.
Government support for athletes such as Niklaus is designed to make German sport competitive. The idea is to give people without attractive commercial sponsors the chance to pursue their sport as professionals, despite the fact that they can’t make a living out of it. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, 159 of the 451-strong German team were members of the Bundeswehr. They won half of the team’s 48 medals. They include hockey player Fanny Rinne, marksman Manfred Kurzer and flatwater canoeist Andreas Dittmer. At the Winter Games in Turin the Bundeswehr athletes actually made up 44% of the team. There Germany topped the medals table for the third time since the country’s reunification. Bundeswehr members won a total of 19 of the 29 medals. In 2008 the number of top sportsmen and women belonging to the Bundeswehr reached the record figure of 824. The Bundeswehr invests 25 million euros per year in promoting sport.
Germany’s team in Turin also had 22 winter sportsmen and women from the Federal Police. Biathlon runner Uschi Disl, speed skater Claudia Pechstein and colleagues won a further eleven medals. The Federal Police currently supports 84 winter sport aces. A few years ago the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which funds the Federal Police, also established an Olympic Training Centre in Cottbus for track and field athletes, judoists and racing cyclists. The athletes are also able to study and pursue vocational training. So far 61 top-ranking sportsmen and women have taken up the opportunity. They include world champion hammer thrower Betty Heidler and pentathlete Jennifer Oeser. Together the Federal Government and the Länder directly finance over 1,000 sponsored places.
Sporting achievement and success is also supported by the German Sports Aid Foundation. It rewards outstanding performance in the non-professional sector. Up to now it has awarded 350 million euros to 40,000 sportswomen and men in over 50 disciplines. The figures are less impressive when the annual budget is divided up between the 3,800 athletes and 600 boarding school students who receive assistance from the organization. Each receives no more than 234 euros per month. That’s nothing compared with the salaries of the professionals. The foundation will reward gold in Beijing with 15,000 euros, an eighth place is worth 1,500 euros.
Despite all this support, top sporting talents still need a good education or vocational training. That’s why André Niklaus has signed on at university. He is studying Media Information Science at the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin that has been designated a “Sports University”. 41 top-ranking athletes have already registered here, including record-breaking swimmer Britta Steffen as a prospective industrial engineer. The university has developed special, flexible study programmes keyed to the needs of top athletes. André Niklaus provides vivid examples of how beneficial this support is: “When I’m studying, the training camps and airports act as my lecture theatre.” He’s now in the process of taking up his fourth occupation.
