Contents

Siegfried Brietzke

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (May 2022) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, like DeepLorGoogle Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Siegfried Brietzke]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Siegfried Brietzke}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Siegfried Brietzke

Brietzke in 1974
Personal information
Born	(1952-06-12) 12 June 1952 (age 72) Rostock, East Germany[1]
Height	192 cm (6 ft 4 in)
Weight	90 kg (198 lb)
Sport
Sport	Rowing
Club	SC DHfK Leipzig
Medal record Representing  East Germany Olympic Games 1972 Munich Coxless pair 1976 Montreal Coxless four 1980 Moscow Coxless four World Rowing Championships 1974 Lucerne Coxless four 1975 Nottingham Coxless four 1977 Amsterdam Coxless four 1978 Cambridge Coxless four 1979 Bled Coxless four World Rowing Junior Championships 1970 Ioannina Coxed pair

Siegfried Brietzke (born 12 June 1952) is a German rower. He competed for East Germany, first in coxless pairs, together with Wolfgang Mager, and then in coxless fours. In these events he won Olympic gold medals in 1972, 1976 and 1980, as well as four world championships in 1974–1979.

Brietzke responded to a television programme screened at Christmas 1967 where tall boys were sought as rowers, and he joined SC DHfK Leipzig in response.^[2][3] After training for just three years, he won a gold medal with Wolfgang Mager and cox Werner Lehmann at the 1970 World Rowing Junior ChampionshipsinIoannina in the coxed pair.^[4] At the 1971 East German national championships, he came second in the coxless four.^[5]

At the 1972 Summer Olympics, Brietzke and his partner Mager won the gold medal in the coxless pair event.^[1] Mager and Brietzke won the East German national championship in the coxless pair in 1973,^[6] but a few weeks later at the 1973 European Rowing ChampionshipsinMoscow they came fourth only in this boat class.^[7]

At the 1974 East German national championships, Brietzke, Mager, Stefan Semmler, and Andreas Decker became champions in two boat classes: in the coxless four,^[5] and in the coxed four assisted by coxswain Matthias Sommer.^[8] They went to the 1974 World Rowing ChampionshipsinLucerne as a coxless four and won gold.^[9] Brietzke, Mager, Semmler, and Decker won the national coxless four event every year until 1979.^[5] The four won the 1975 World Rowing ChampionshipsinNottingham,^[10] the 1976 Summer OlympicsinMontreal,^[11] the 1977 World Rowing ChampionshipsinAmsterdam,^[12] but were beaten to second place by the team from the Soviet Union at the 1978 World Rowing ChampionshipsinCambridge, New Zealand.^[13] They won gold again at the 1979 World Rowing ChampionshipsinBled,^[14] and won a further Olympic gold in 1980inMoscow, but with Jürgen Thiele having replaced Wolfgang Mager.^[15] After the Moscow Olympics, Brietzke was the only sports person that year to be awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold with honour clasp, the highest sports award of the GDR.^[16]

Brietzke is married and has a son, born in 1974.^[3]

In 2013, it was revealed that Brietzke was a member of the Stasi, the state security service of the German Democratic Republic. Under the codename "Charlie", his role was to control other athletes and report those with "deviant thinking".^[17]

• Media related to Siegfried Brietzke at Wikimedia Commons