The East German Doping Program: How a State Ran Sport on Steroids

For two decades, the German Democratic Republic punched far above its weight in Olympic sport. A country of about 17 million people regularly finished near the top of the medal table, rivaling the United States and the Soviet Union. After the Berlin Wall fell, archives revealed that much of this success rested on a secret, state-directed doping system. Our editorial team reviews what historians and courts have established.

Sport as a political project

For the East German leadership, international sport was a tool of diplomacy. Medals gave a young, internationally isolated state recognition and a way to claim that socialism produced healthier, stronger citizens. Sport received generous funding, and talent identification began in childhood.

Children with athletic promise were selected for specialized sports schools and clubs, where training was intense and tightly controlled. This system on its own produced strong results, and historians are careful to note that not every success was pharmacological.

However, by the late 1960s officials concluded that rivals were already using anabolic steroids and that East Germany needed a systematic answer. Rather than leaving drug use to individual coaches, the state organized it centrally.

That decision transformed doping from a private choice into government policy, with research institutes, doctors, and security services all playing defined roles.

State Plan 14.25 and how the system worked

The program is often referred to by its research code, State Plan Theme 14.25, adopted in the mid-1970s. It coordinated research on "supporting means," the official euphemism for performance-enhancing drugs, and tracked their use across Olympic sports.

The central substance was Oral-Turinabol, an anabolic steroid produced by the state pharmaceutical company Jenapharm. Other agents, including testosterone preparations and experimental compounds, were also studied. Records show researchers documented performance gains and side effects in detail.

Secrecy was paramount. Athletes were frequently told they were receiving vitamins, and many did not know what they were taking. The secret police, the Stasi, monitored doctors, coaches, and athletes, and some physicians worked as informants.

The program also invested in avoiding detection at international competitions, testing athletes before they traveled. Historians stress that this was a deliberate effort to deceive sporting authorities, not a gray area of medical practice.

Who was affected

Estimates vary, but researchers commonly cite figures of up to around 10,000 athletes involved over the life of the program. Many were teenagers, and some were younger, which made consent meaningless and raised the health stakes considerably.

Women and girls were particularly targeted because androgenic steroids produce larger performance gains in females, whose natural testosterone levels are low. Swimming, track and field, rowing, and weightlifting were among the sports most heavily involved.

The case of shot-putter Heidi Krieger became a symbol of the program's consequences. Given androgens as a teenager, Krieger later underwent gender transition and lived as Andreas Krieger, describing the drugs as having deprived him of the chance to understand his own identity.

Documented health consequences reported by former athletes include:

• virilization in women, such as voice deepening and body hair growth;
• gynecological problems and fertility difficulties;
• liver damage and tumors;
• cardiovascular disease and psychological disorders;
• reported health problems in some athletes' children, though causation is debated.

Exposure, trials, and compensation

Key evidence came from scientists Werner Franke and Brigitte Berendonk, who obtained secret documents after reunification. Their 1997 paper in Clinical Chemistry laid out the program's structure and scale, and Berendonk's earlier book had already brought much of the story to public attention.

Criminal trials followed in reunified Germany around 1998–2000. Former sports chief Manfred Ewald and medical director Manfred Höppner were convicted as accessories to bodily harm of minors and received suspended sentences. Several coaches and doctors were also convicted or fined.

In 2002, Germany passed a law creating a fund to compensate doping victims, later followed by additional support schemes. Jenapharm also reached settlements with former athletes, although the amounts were modest relative to the lifelong harm many described.

Legacy for modern anti-doping

The East German revelations shaped modern anti-doping policy. They showed that doping could be institutional and that athletes, especially minors, could be victims rather than cheaters. That insight informs today's emphasis on investigating entourage members such as coaches and doctors.

The case also contributed to the push for independent, international testing that eventually led to the founding of the World Anti-Doping Agency in 1999 and, in the U.S., the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in 2000. Out-of-competition testing and long-term sample storage owe much to lessons learned from this era.

Records set during the GDR period remain controversial. Some women's track and field records from the 1980s still stand, and athletes and federations periodically debate whether such marks should be reset.

Finally, the program offers a sobering medical lesson. Many of the drugs used were legal pharmaceuticals, yet given without medical need, at high doses, and to young people, they produced lasting damage. That history is relevant to anyone tempted to view steroids as harmless.

Editorial Team Conclusions

The East German doping program was not a story of a few rogue athletes but of a government using medicine against its own citizens. Its scale, its targeting of minors, and its secrecy set it apart in sports history.

The documents uncovered after 1990 gave researchers rare insight into what anabolic steroids do over years, and the health problems reported by former athletes remain a powerful warning.

Readers interested in this subject may also want to read our articles on the history of anabolic steroids in Olympic sport, on how modern doping tests work, and on the long-term health effects of androgen use.

References

1. Franke WW, Berendonk B. Hormonal doping and androgenization of athletes: a secret program of the German Democratic Republic government. Clin Chem. 1997;43(7):1262–1279.
2. Berendonk B. Doping-Dokumente: Von der Forschung zum Betrug. Berlin: Springer; 1991.
3. Ungerleider S. Faust's Gold: Inside the East German Doping Machine. New York: Thomas Dunne Books; 2001.
4. Spitzer G. Doping in der DDR. Köln: Sport und Buch Strauß; 1998.
5. Dimeo P. A History of Drug Use in Sport 1876–1976: Beyond Good and Evil. London: Routledge; 2007.
6. Kanayama G, Pope HG Jr. History and epidemiology of anabolic androgens in athletes and non-athletes. Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2018;464:4–13.