The Sportvereinigung Dynamo () (Dynamo Sports Association) was the sport association of the security agencies (Volkspolizei, Ministry for State Security, fire department and customs) of former East Germany.
The association was founded on 27 March 1953 and was headquartered in Hohenschönhausen in East Berlin. From the date of its inception, the permanent president of SV Dynamo was the Minister of State Security Erich Mielke. The Minister of State Security served as First chairman of the association, while the Ministry of the Interior provided the Second chairman of the association. The Head of the Volkspolizei Karl Maron was elected as the first Second Chairman at the founding conference. The financial and material resources of the SV Dynamo were almost exclusively provided by the Ministry of State Security. Erich Mielke was dismissed as First chairman in December 1989. His position was not replaced. SV Dynamo was dissolved in 1990.
Dynamo was set up following the multi-sports club model developed in the Soviet Union and adopted throughout Eastern Europe. From the beginning it had an overtly political as well as sporting agenda and its many successes were always portrayed as a triumph of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). SV Dynamo was dissolved during the Peaceful Revolution. The association had a membership of over 280,000 members at its height. Athletes of the association enjoyed considerable success both in national and international competitions, winning for example more than 200 Olympic medals. After German reunification in 1990 the systematic doping of Dynamo athletes from 1971 until 1989 was revealed by the German media. Doping was done under the supervision of the Stasi and with full backing of the government.
Organization
The SV Dynamo was divided into fifteen regional units, corresponding to the fifteen regional districts of the East Germany. Within each regional unit individual sports communities (SG) and sports clubs (SC) existed, with each sports community or club specializing in different disciplines. 290 sections were included in the association, such as SG Dynamo Dresden (football), SC Dynamo Hoppegarten (judo, shooting sports, parachuting), the SC Dynamo Klingenthal (Nordic skiing), SG Dynamo Luckenwalde (wrestling), SG Dynamo Potsdam (rowing and canoe sprint), SG Dynamo Weißwasser (ice hockey) and the SG Dynamo Zinnwald in Altenberg (biathlon, bobsleigh, luge, skeleton).
The most famous sports club of the SV Dynamo was probably the SC Dynamo Berlin, which offered most Olympic disciplines. The sports system was not designed for transfers, but on schedule. The athletes had to be viewed in their own country. Administrators and coaches from Dynamo Berlin were often sent to support their development. The district organizations, which bore the names of the districts they served, always wore the initials SV Dynamo.
For small children, there was even a Dynamo-Kindergarten. Henceforth the larger children trained every day before and after classes.
For the training, there existed a basic plan. If the children themselves are not good at school, they were excluded from the training. The emphasis has been respected that the athletes had to pursue themselves the sporting ideology, because otherwise no success would have been guaranteed. Each year, the best Dynamo-athlete were voted. Few could win 50,- M when they themselves were those who chose the sportswoman/ sportsman of the year. Dynamo employed a planning cycle that set out the club's objectives for the upcoming four-year period.
Politics
The sports association was anti-fascist and communist in nature. Among its founders were former concentration camps prisoners and communist leaders in the fight against National socialists and Social Democrats during the era of the Weimar Republic.
Visits to the Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park and the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, among other places, were common among the youth athletes of its teams. The names of murdered and deceased communists were given as honorary titles for the constituent clubs under the sports society, for example: SG Dynamo "Feliks E. Dzierzynski" Dresden or SG Dynamo "Dr. Richard Sorge" Erfurt.
There were also many hymns and odes written for SV Dynamo. Gerhard Kube, Helmut Baierl and Kurt Barthel wrote many poets about the society and its role as a builder of national sports.