Basketball World Cup | The Women's World Cup in Berlin - and the history of sport

International matches in sports halls: The GDR women, here against Romania in 1982, only played a supporting role. Photo: imago/Karl-Heinz Stana In the first two decades of the GDR, women's basketball was part of the state's competitive sports system. Talented girls were spotted and supported at schools. The best of the adult players were appointed to central sports clubs - in Halle, Leipzig or Berlin. They were released from work and were able to train every day. This had an effect: at the European Championships in 1966, the basketball players won bronze, and a year later they came fourth at the World Cup.

At that time, in the mid-1960s, Inge Laabs also hoped to be called up to the national team. But in March 1969 their hopes were dimmed: the SED Politburo announced the “competitive sports resolution”. From then on, medal-winning sports such as athletics, swimming and gymnastics were promoted in the GDR, with a view to the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Other disciplines, such as team sports such as ice hockey, hockey and basketball, took a back seat due to fewer medal chances.

Laabs wasn't one of the top players at the time, but she experienced how many of her Berlin teammates suffered under the SED decision. “We were very sad,” she remembers. »Some players have quit. And there was a big upheaval.”

The Women's World Cup ends this Sunday in Berlin. The final will take place in the multifunctional arena at Ostbahnhof, in the former East Berlin. Why is this worth mentioning? Because basketball is also closely linked to the history of the Cold War. And because developments in the GDR and the Federal Republic were different.

"Basketball is still a women's sport today that is very modern and relies heavily on inclusion."

The Center for German Sports History, the Leibniz Center for Contemporary Historical Research Potsdam and other partners have dedicated an exhibition to this topic: “Free Play!” It traces, among other things, how the US occupying power in the West also used basketball for its re-education program. “An attempt was made to teach young people values ​​such as fair play and teamwork through basketball,” says historian Jutta Braun, one of the curators of the exhibition. "And basketball actually developed particularly well in the American occupied zone in West Berlin and southern Germany."

Braun says that the teams from West Berlin were at a disadvantage because of their geographical island location in the Federal Republic. Nevertheless, two women's teams from West Berlin won the German championship, the Neuköllner Sportfreunde in 1953 and the VfL Lichtenrade in 1969. The Cold War was not just about sport, but also about political prestige. “East and West Berlin competed for spectacular sporting events, and they brought international matches to their city halves,” reports Braun. This was particularly evident in 1951, when the World Youth Festival took place in East Berlin. Braun says: "West Berlin then invited the Harlem Globetrotters to the Olympic Stadium and also set a basketball attendance record with 75,000 spectators."

The exhibition also looks closely at East Berlin, for example at the basketball player Inge Laabs, who played five international games for the GDR in the early 1970s. Because of the funding cut, the team was no longer allowed to travel to “capitalist foreign countries”. The women instead played in Bulgaria, Poland and even North Korea. Laabs later coached a GDR youth team. Invitations to tournaments were also politically examined by the German Gymnastics and Sports Federation. Were there opposing teams from the West? In 1983, at a tournament in Hungary, Laabs' team faced France. The GDR officials demanded an explanation. “I replied that I hadn’t seen the invitation beforehand,” remembers Laabs. "That's why I didn't know the opponents beforehand."

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the basketball players had to look for sponsors and integrate into German sport. Laabs remained loyal to her sport – as a trainer, supervisor and organizer. With other former GDR players, she built up a selection of senior women. They traveled to countries where they were previously not allowed to travel: for example to the USA and Brazil.

It is biographies like this that the exhibition presents. “Basketball is still a women’s sport today that is very modern, that is very progress-oriented and that relies heavily on inclusion,” says Braun. One partner of the exhibition was the Bundesliga club Alba Berlin, which is currently setting up a basketball museum. According to Braun, Alba is a symbol of successful unity in sport. The club's female basketball players play their home games in the Sömmeringhalle in Charlottenburg, in the former West Berlin, while their male colleagues play at the Ostbahnhof.

During the Women's Basketball World Cup, the exhibition “Freispiele!” was on display at the venues in Berlin. And it may also be shown in other places. Laabs was pleased about the interest. Today, at the age of 81, she still introduces children and young people to top-class sport as a trainer. She is far from thinking about quitting.

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