Hanns Leske (born 1950 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

) is a German

sports historian The history of sports extends back to the Ancient world. The physical activity that developed into sports had early links with ritual, warfare and entertainment. Study of the history of sport can teach lessons about social changes and about the ...

political scientist Political science is the science, scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of politics, political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated c ...

and former Berlin local politician.

Life

Hanns Leske served from 1979 to 1999 within the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

as a member of the district council of

Schöneberg Schöneberg () is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Tempelh ...

and was group managing director and building policy spokesman. After leaving the party in 1999, Leske briefly appeared as

Charité The Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Charité – Berlin University of Medicine) is one of Europe's largest university hospitals, affiliated with Humboldt University and Free University Berlin. With numerous Collaborative Research Cen ...

press spokesman between 2004 and 2005, but subsequently devoted himself exclusively to various publications on East German football ( de). Leske achieved national fame with works such as ''

Erich Mielke Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official who served as head of the East German Ministry for State Security (''Ministerium für Staatsicherheit'' – MfS), better known as the Stasi, from 1957 u ...

, the Stasi and the round leather''. In his writings, Leske addresses the network of relationships between

SED sed ("stream editor") is a Unix utility that parses and transforms text, using a simple, compact programming language. It was developed from 1973 to 1974 by Lee E. McMahon of Bell Labs, and is available today for most operating systems. sed wa ...

and the

Stasi The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...

on the one hand, the

football clubs A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an all- ...

(FC) and the enterprise sports communities (german: Betriebssportgemeinschaften) (BSG) on the other. In addition to the historical presentation, his works contain extensive statistics on the

East Germany national football team The East Germany national football team, recognized as Germany DR by FIFA, was from 1952 to 1990 the football team of East Germany, playing as one of three post-war German teams, along with Saarland and West Germany. After German reunification ...

and the division of the

DDR-Oberliga The DDR-Oberliga (English: ''East German Premier League'' or ''GDR Premier League'') was the top-level association football league in East Germany. Overview Following World War II, separate sports competitions emerged in the occupied eastern ...

DDR-Liga The DDR-Liga (English: GDR League or ''East German League'') was, prior to German reunification in 1990, the second level of football competition in the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik or German Democratic Republic, commonly East Germany), bei ...

and II. DDR-Liga. Hanns Leske played in his youth for football club

SC Tasmania 1900 Berlin SC Tasmania 1900 Berlin was a German football club based in the Berlin district of Neukölln. History The club was founded as ''Rixdorfer TuFC Tasmania 1900'' on 2 June 1900. It is believed the founders of the club were about to migrate to ...

Publications

* ''Erich Mielke, die Stasi und das runde Leder.'' Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2004, (Dissertation, FU Berlin, 2003). * '' Enzyklopädie des DDR-Fußballs.'' Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2007, * ''Vorwärts. Armeefußball im DDR-Sozialismus. Aufstieg und Fall des ASK/FC Vorwärts Leipzig/Berlin/Frankfurt.'' Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2009, . * '' Tasmania Berlin. Der ewige Letzte – die wahre Geschichte der Tasmanen.'' Agon, Kassel 2011, . * ''Magneten der Lederbälle. Torhüter der DDR.'' Agon, Kassel 2014, . * ''Die DDR-Oberligaspieler. Ein Lexikon.'' Agon, Kassel 2014, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leske, Hanns Sports historians Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians 1950 births Living people