The German Sportspersonality of the Year has been chosen annually since 1947, with separate awards made for men and women. The record holder is tennis player

Steffi Graf Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...

, who won five awards. Swimmer

Michael Groß Michael Groß (, ; born 17 June 1964), usually spelled Michael Gross in English, is a former competitive swimmer from Germany. He is tall, and received the nickname "The Albatross" for his especially long arms that gave him a total span of 2.13 ...

, tennis player

Boris Becker Boris Franz Becker (, ; born 22 November 1967) is a German former world No. 1 tennis player. Becker was successful from the start of his career, winning the Wimbledon Championships at the age of 17. He ultimately won six Grand Slam singles tit ...

, and high jumper Ulrike Meyfarth each have four awards. Since 1957 the sport journalists also vote for Germany's Sportsteam of the Year. In East Germany (GDR) there was also an annual vote for the Best Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year, from 1953 to 1989, chosen by the readers of the daily newspaper Junge Welt. Since 1990, after reunification, the East and West German awards merged into one single award.

West Germany and Germany

East Germany

See also