Dietmar Lorenz (23 September 1950 – 8 September 2021) was an

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...

ka, who competed for SC Dynamo Hoppegarten under the

Sportvereinigung Dynamo The Sportvereinigung Dynamo () (''Dynamo Sports Association'') was the sport association of the security agencies (Volkspolizei, Ministry for State Security, fire department and customs) of former East Germany. The association was founded on 27 ...

. Lorenz was born in the Saxon village of Langenbuch ( Plauen rural district), which was incorporated into the newly founded

Thuringian Thuringian is an East Central German dialect group spoken in much of the modern German Free State of Thuringia north of the Rennsteig ridge, southwestern Saxony-Anhalt and adjacent territories of Hesse and Bavaria. It is close to Upper Saxon spo ...

Schleiz district through the district government reorganization of 1952 in the GDR. After starting at home, he came via SV Dynamo

Schleiz Schleiz is a town in the district of Saale-Orla-Kreis in Thuringia, Germany. The former municipality Crispendorf was merged into Schleiz in January 2019, and Burgk in December 2019. Location Schleiz is in the Thuringian Vogtland area, an ar ...

to SC Dynamo

Hoppegarten Hoppegarten is a municipality in the district Märkisch-Oderland, in Brandenburg, Germany. History The current municipality was created in 2003 when the former municipalities of Hönow and Münchehofe were united with Dahlwitz-Hoppegarten. Th ...

, the sports club of the

Volkspolizei The ''Deutsche Volkspolizei'' (DVP, German for "German People's Police"), commonly known as the ''Volkspolizei'' or VoPo, was the national police force of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1945 to 1990. The Volkspolizei was a h ...

, in 1969. He won medals at major international competitions, taking gold at the

European Judo Championships The European Judo Championships is the Judo European Championship organized by the European Judo Union. The 2015 and 2019 editions were held during the respective European Games. This is also expected for future editions of the European Games. ...

and the

World Judo Championships The World Judo Championships are the highest level of international judo competition, along with the Olympic judo competition. The championships are held once every year (except the years when the Olympics take place) by the International Judo ...

. He won as the first German at the Olympics and the Jigoro Kano Cup. As a member of the East German Olympic team, he took part in the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. These games were boycotted by some countries, including Japan, whose

Yasuhiro Yamashita is a Japanese judoka. He currently works as an instructor or advisor for numerous organizations, including Tokai University, the International Judo Federation, and thAll Japan Judo Federation He retired from competitive judo on June 17, 1985 a ...

and

Sumio Endo is a Japanese judoka, Olympic medalist and world champion. He is from Kōriyama, Fukushima. After graduation from Nihon University, He belonged to Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. He received a bronze medal in the heavyweight ...

were the reigning World Heavyweight and Open Class champions respectively. He went as an outsider in the "Open Class" at the start. To the surprise of all judo experts, he defeated the favored opponents and also won the final battle against

Angelo Parisi Angelo Parisi (born 3 January 1953 in Arpino, Frosinone, Italy) is a French judoka and olympic champion. He won a gold medal in the ''heavyweight division'' at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, li ...

of France, who was twelve kilos heavier than him. He was later a coach at SC Berlin for children. He wore the nanadan (七段:ななだん): seventh degree black belt (also, shichidan), a component of the

Dan rank The ranking system is used by many Japanese, Okinawan, Korean, and other martial art organizations to indicate the level of a person's ability within a given system. Used as a ranking system to quantify skill level in a specific domain, it was ...

. Lorenz died on 8 September 2021, aged 70.

References

External links

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* 1950 births 2021 deaths People from Schleiz German male judoka Sportspeople from Thuringia Olympic judoka of East Germany Judoka at the 1976 Summer Olympics Judoka at the 1980 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for East Germany Olympic bronze medalists for East Germany Olympic medalists in judo Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver 20th-century German people {{Germany-judo-bio-stub