Wolfgang Behrendt

Wolfgang Behrendt ( born June 14, 1936 in Berlin ) is a retired German boxer who in 1956 won the gold medal in the bantamweight title at the Summer Olympics in Melbourne and becoming the first Olympic champion of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was. He competed in the all-German team. In the Olympic final bout on December 1, 1956, he defeated the South Koreans Soon Chung song. The victory also earned him second place in the election for East German Sportsman of the Year 1956 ( behind cyclists Täve Schur ).

Wolfgang Behrendt had started in 1947 with the sport of boxing. After the success of 1956, he sought a further part in the Olympics, but was ausgepunktet in qualifying for the 1960 Summer Olympics in the featherweight from Cottbus Werner Kirsch in the Berlin Sports Palace. He subsequently went back from active competition, but returned ahead of the Summer Olympic Games in 1964 to return to boxing in order to further prepare for Olympic participation. In the domestic qualification battles for the joint Olympic team he left, this time in the lightweight starting, however, and ended his sports career final.

His other sporting successes included a third place at the European Championships in 1955 and the profit of the GDR championships in the years 1955, 1957 and 1960. He played a total of 201 amateur fights, of which he won 188, five ended in a draw and eight lost, including three defeats in the age group of adults ( seniors).

From 1963 to 1991 Wolfgang Behrendt was a sports photographer for the newspaper New Germany. During this time he reported on eight Olympic Games and got including two gold medals at world exhibitions of sports photography in Damascus and Beijing in the category " black and white ". For acting as a sports photographer, he received in the GDR repeatedly state awards; he was honored in 1968 with the Patriotic Order of Merit and in 1980 with the Order of Banner of Labor.

Wolfgang Behrendt is married and has two children, his son Mario was also a boxer in the bantamweight and participated in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. He is involved as an honorary ambassador for the Children's Foundation Hospice Central Germany Nordhausen eV in Tambach -Dietharz.

Publications

• Klaus Schlegel Wolfgang Behrendt: Football - magnet for millions. Sport der DDR, Berlin 1977