A
NOC of the Saarland was founded in spring of 1950
in the Saar
protectorate which existed from 1947 to 1956 in the
Saarland
, a region of
Western Germany
that was
(again) occupied in 1945 by France
. As a
separate team, they only took part in the 1952 Summer Olympics
before being allowed to rejoin the German team for the summer games
of 1956.
History
Like after
World War I, after World War II the Saarland was not allowed to
become part of the Federal Republic of Germany
which was founded in May 1949. On the other
hand, annexation by France was prohibited by the other Allies and
the
Atlantic charter's points 2 and
3.
As the local population did not want to join France, separate
international organisations were founded, like the
Saarland football team, and in 1950 a
NOC, in German called
Nationales Olympisches
Komitee des Saarlandes.
The
region, in which the Dollberg with 695 m is the highest mountain,
did not send athletes to Oslo
for the
1952 Winter Olympics due to a
lack of competitive athletes in winter sports. Having a recorded
history of over 500 years of coal mining, the Saarland, donated a
miner's safety lamp in which the flame of the torch relay of the
1952 Summer
Olympics in Helsinki
could be
carried safely aboard airplanes. At the opening ceremony, 36
or as reported by the Chefs de Mission on the preceding evening, 41
athletes from the Saarland marched in ahead of the
team of Germany which is
called "Saksa" in Finnish language. The team, which is listed in
the official report with a maximum strength of 44 men and 6 women
and with 71 competitors, 16 officials, 11 spectators for a total of
98 did not win a medal and was ranked joint 44th among a total of
69 teams.
Following a referendum in October 1955 that rejected the
Saar statute proposing independence as
European territory, thus voting
indirectly in favor of access to the Federal Republic of Germany,
the
Saar treaty of October 1956 allowed
the Saarland to rejoin Germany with effect of 1 January 1957.
Even though theoretically possible, no separate Saarland teams were
sent to the 1956 games, as a
United Team of Germany comprising
athletes of all three German states took part for the first and
only time. Thus 1952 was the first and only Olympic appearance of
the Saarland as a separate German team. The
Olympic Committee
of the Saarland formally dissolved itself in February 1957 as
its members, like other separate institutions of the Saarland,
became part of their German counterparts.
Notable competitors
Therese Zenz(born 15 October 1932 in Merzig
), a local
champion, finished 9th in the canoe race at
the 1952 Olympics, held on the open Baltic Sea
, a new experience for the 19 year old athlete from
a landlocked country (as long as
separated from Germany). She became world champion in
1954 in
the K-1 500 m event, making history for the Saarland and her home
town of Mettlach
.
Allowed to enter for Germany in 1956, she went on to win a Silver
medal and in 1960 even two Silver medals, after being beaten in
photo finishes by Soviets. In 1964, she coached the Gold medalists
Roswitha Esser and
Annemarie Zimmermann, a team that
defended their Gold in 1968.
Results by event
Boxing
- Flyweight
- # First Round - Lost to (TKO 1R)
- Featherweight
- # First Round - Defeated (2 - 1)
- # Second Round - Lost to (0 - 3)
- Light-middleweight
- # First Round - Lost to (0 - 3)
References
External links
Wikis
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