Sportwunderland

He is known simply as "Santa Claus." A polite, anonymous man, he materializes soon after an East German athlete has won a big event or broken a record. He congratulates the athlete on his success, opens a briefcase, removes an envelope, counts out and hands over some money and then departs. He is far too discreet to ask for a receipt.

Santa's visits--and other remarkable East German stratagems--may well result in an early Christmas this year for the nation of 17 million. The gifts: enough gold, silver and bronze medals in Munich this summer to put East Germany in a class with both the U.S. and Russia in the 1972 Summer Olympics.

The East Germans have already impressively demonstrated their sports muscle. They finished third behind the U.S. and Russia at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico, the first time they had been allowed to field a team separate from West Germany's (although they were denied their own flag, emblem and anthem). This year at Munich, East Germany will have all the privileges of a full-fledged team. Its national anthem--Auferstanden aus Rui-nen--could conceivably salute as many victories as The Star-Spangled Banner or Gitnn Sovietskogo Soyuza. Last summer, in fact, the steadily improving East Germans bested the rest of Europe, including the Soviet Union, in track and field, swimming and rowing. At the winter Olympic Games in Sapporo last February, they won more medals than any nation except Russia, which had twice as many competitors.

Awed observers have called East Germany's rapid rise in athletics a Sportwunder, or sports miracle, somewhat analogous to West Germany's

Wirtschaftswunder, or economic miracle. Whatever it is called, East Germany's capture of 25 Olympic gold medals, 126 European championships and 140 world championships since 1949 is a triumph of systematic nationalistic effort.

Besides emphasis on sports for the masses, there is a continuous sifting of East German talents that begins in some parts of the country at preschool age. In elementary school, sports rank in importance with the three Rs; four hours' participation a week is compulsory. Most schoolchildren from the age of six to 18 also participate in the Sparta-ciades, a series of sports contests on local, regional and national levels that culminates in a kind of domestic Olympic Games every two years.

Talented children who emerge at the local competitions are assigned to a Stutzpunkt (base), usually in the district capital, where they train alongside accomplished older athletes in sports clubs. The children live in dormitories and attend so-called sports schools, which are similar to regular schools except that lessons are scheduled not to interfere with training hours (which can total as high as 35 a week for swimmers).

When a proficient young athlete has completed school, he gets a Kaderstelle (cadre position), which frees him, one way or another, from work. He may, for example, enroll at a university and draw a stipend without doing any studying, or he may get a sham job in a factory that he will visit only to pick up his wages. He thus can remain attached to his sports club and concentrate on his specialty while at the same time leading an elitist life in the supposedly classless society. He can get any food he wants in any quantity, even the fresh citrus fruits not generally available to the rest of the population. His income, for doing no work, is above average even without Santa's bonuses.

There is a sort of sliding scale for the premiums. If an East German athlete like Pentathlon Star Burglinde Pollak beats a fellow East German or even a Communist brother in international competition, she receives the minimum bonus. The amount rises if she defeats a capitalist, and reaches a maximum if she conquers a West German. An Olympic Games gold medal, depending on the sport category, may earn an East German athlete between 20,000 and 50,000 marks ($6,250 to $15,600). One reward for Margitta Gummel, who won the women's shotput event in Mexico, was a $5,600 red Wartburg automobile. . It came complete with a license plate numbered SC 1961--SC for sports club and 1961 for her winning distance of 19.61 meters.

Some athletes show capitalist cunning in making the most of the bonus system. Roland Matthes, world record holder in the 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke, has a habit of setting new records by small margins. When somebody else swims faster, he gets another chance to top the time and earn another premium. Frank Wiegand, former world record holder for the 400-meter freestyle, used to get a bonus of 100 marks ($31?"every 'time he"set a personal record with his army sports club. He proceeded to swim various distances and strokes, each time setting his own record without extending himself; then he would go back and swim the events again, fractionally faster, for a roundelay of premiums.

Despite the rewards, the single-mindedness of the sports program can be wearing. "I lost my idealism in East Germany," says Wulf Reinicke, who defected to the West. "Sport there was work by which one earned money. I was pushed all the time. In the end, 1 did not even do it for the money. I did it to get out." Adds Giinter Zoller, who defected during the European figure-skating championships at Goteborg, Sweden, last January: "From the age of 13, I was reared for medals. The time comes when you're fed up with it."

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