... Personalities: Another German gymnastics expert has gone abroad ...

Siegfried Wüstemann:
A regrettable loss for German gymnastics

For one of Germany's longest-serving senior coaches, Monday 5 January 2009 is his first working day in the European City of Culture, Linz, in Upper Austria.
Siegfried WÜSTEMANN, hitherto of SC Berlin - following his predecessor Gerhard Kaminski (who served as senior coach at the former SC Dynamo Berlin for over 24 years) - has thus, after 22 years, ended one of the longest periods of service in a leading position at a German gymnastics centre, and one which is among the most successful in the history of the sport. The reason for his departure was the Deutschen Turner-Bund's surprise suspension of Siegfried Wüstemann from the position of senior coach for the junior squad shortly before the Junior European Championships in April last year ...

Siegfried Wüstemann with one of his many successful protégés, Paolo Lando

... and a long sought-after new job offer for the gymnastics expert who, with generations of talented gymnasts, made SC Berlin one of the world's leading gymnastics centres, both before and after the revolutionary political changes of 1989/90.
SC Berlin (- formerly "Dynamo" - the world's top gymnastics club in GDR times) was, for example, the home club of the first German Olympic champion after the reunification of Germany (Andreas Wecker, Atlanta 1996, gold on high bar), produced a series of national team members, such as Peter Nikiferow, Daniel Farago, Dimitri Nonin as well as new young and current international-level gymnasts, such as Brian Gladow and Philip Sorrer.
Under Wüstemann's direction SC Berlin developed once again into one of the most successful German breeding grounds for young talents, and particularly over the past few years it achieved numerous age-group victories in the German Championships and cup competititions.

Siegfried Wüstemann in 'his element': he has a real passion for coaching ...!

After the huge successes of the German juniors at the Junior Europeans 2006 in Volos - at that time under the direction of the senior coach for the junior squad Jens Milbradt (also of SC Berlin) - it was clear to the experts that owing to the low birth rate after 1990 and the resulting reduction in numbers of gymnasts, Siegfried Wüstemann would have a hard job as successor to Jens Milbradt in the position of coach to the DTB's junior squad. From 1 January 2007 this renowned expert coach therefore set about his new duties with an especially high degree of commitment and carefully drawn up plans and targets.
(* - see >> GYMmedia-Exklusiv-Interview, 22 January 2007)

Wüstemann, An expert who has worked his way through the ranks:
Spartakiade winner, member of the Olympic squad, National gymnast in the GDR (- until 1976), later coach, head coach of the junior squad at Berlin Dynamo (1982 - '86), thereafter head gymnastics coach for 22 years

Unfortunately, the former Spartakiade champion, GDR national and Olympic squad gymnast (in the 1970s) did not succeed to a sufficient extent in persuading all the centres and his fellow coaches to support his ambitious plans.
And that is what brought about his suspension by the DTB as squad coach at short notice - and to everyone's surprise - shortly before the Junior Europeans in Lausanne in May 2008.
It turned out not to be possible to clarify matters with his former employer, the DTB, or to find new employment opportunities or reasonable professional prospects for such a highly qualified and successful coach in Germany. "The DTB has never held any discussion with me to really clarify the reasons for my suspension", - says Wüstemann disappointedly.
And so neither the Berlin Gymnastics Association nor the gymnastics manager and head coach in Berlin Jens Milbradt were able to prevent this regrettable loss of an expert coach.
Towards the very end of last year, Siegfried Wüstemann decided to take on a new challenge:

Wüstemann: 'I see this as a new professional challenge; ... if a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well!'

As of Monday (5 January 2009) he is now working at the gymnastics centre in Linz (Upper Austria), which has set itself ambitious goals.
In the local press there, his engagement has been celebrated as a "master-stroke".
In Germany, on the other hand, his departure is a continuation of the exodus of highly qualified specialists (Berlin Olympic champions such as Roland Brückner and Maxi Gnauck are working in Switzerland, for example) owing to unsatisfactory conditions and a lack of suitable prospects for enhancing their professional status in top-level sport.
But at least the now renowned "International Junior Team Cup 2009" - which originally came into being on the initiative of Wüstemann as the "OBI-Cup" and developed largely under his direction to become one of the world's most important competitions for junior teams - will be taking place again this year (28 February).

It is to be expected that Austrian talents will be there who are training under the guidance of the now ex-Berlin gymnastics expert Siegfried Wüstemann.
* GYMmedia/- ehe -