UNITED TEAM OF GERMANY

The 'United Team of Germany' (, ) competed in the 1956, 1960, and 1964 Winter and Summer Olympic Games as a united team of athletes from the ''Federal Republic of Germany'' (FRG, West Germany) and the ''German Democratic Republic'' (GDR, East Germany). In 1956 the team also included athletes from a third Olympic body, the Saarland Olympic Committee, which had send a separate team in 1952, but now was in the process of joining the German NOC which came into effect in February 1957 after the admission of Saarland into the FRG.
Beethoven's melody to Schiller's ''Ode an die Freude'' (Ode to Joy) was played for winning German athletes as a compromise in lieu of a national anthem. As the GDR introduced an altered black-red-gold tricolour flag of Germany in 1959, a compromise flag was agreed upon for 1960, superimposed with additional white Olympic rings.
At the Games of 1956, 1960 and 1964 the team was simply known as "Germany" and the usual country code of GER was used. At a later date, the IOC code EUA (from the official French-language IOC designation, ''Équipe Unifiée d'Allemagne'') was applied in hindsight.
In the 1968 Winter Olympics, German athletes started as separate West and East teams (now listed under the IOC codes FRG and GDR, respectively), while still using the compromise Olympic flag and Beethoven anthem in that year. The separation was completed in 1972 with the use of separate flags and anthems. It continued until the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist after 1989, with their states joining the Federal Republic of Germany in the process of German reunification in 1990.

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See also

See also

★ Germany at the Summer Olympics

★ Germany at the Winter Olympics

★ Unified Team