Heinz Schöbel was a prominent bookseller in Leipzig, founding a trade publishing house in 1949 and leading it until 1978. A sportsman as a youth, primarily in football, Schöbel undertook to reconstruct sport in his hometown after World War II. In 1950 he founded a football club with its own sports complex. With the question of the two Germanies after the war, the IOC helped provisionally recognize a GDR (East Germany) Olympic Committee in 1955 and Schöbel was elected as its leader, as he had been President of the National Football Association since 1953. He was directly involved in negotiations over the next 15 years as the Germanies first competed as a combined German team before separating into East and West German teams at the Olympics. The GDR Olympic Committee was formally recognized by the IOC in 1965 and Schöbel was elected to the IOC one year later. He served until his death in 1980 and was the first Chairman of the IOC Publications Committee, serving from 1972-76. Schöbel published two well-known works on Olympic history, The Ancient Olympic Games and The Four Dimensions of Avery Brundage.
East Germany