SPORTWUNDERLAND DDR POWSTANIE I UPADEK SPORTOWEGO MOCARSTWA.

The German Democratic Republic, despite limited economic and demographic opportunities, achieved an incredible success in sports, becoming in the second half of the 20th century a real sports superpower. Competition at the international level, especially the Olympic Games were arenas for the presentation of the country's supremacy in sport, on account of which it began to be called "Sportwunderland". The article attempts to identify the most important components of the sport success of the GDR - institutional structures and implementation of the achievements of science in sport, together with the pathological use of prohibited pharmacological assistance, as well as methods of acquiring and selecting outstanding sportspersons. In addition, the article provides an analysis of the situation of East German sport after the unification of Germany and discusses ways of dealing with the dark sides of its past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]