Gerd Weber

Forward Gerd Weber was a member of the East German (GDR) football team that beat Poland 3-1 at the Montréal Olympics to become the first German team to win an Olympic gold medal. From 1975-80 he played 35 international matches scoring 5 goals with the East German national team, and also 6 more with the Olympic team in 1976.

In his youth Weber grew up in a children`s home partly because his father was an alcoholic. Gerd Weber played with Dynamo Dresden from 1973-81 in 145 Oberliga matches, scoring 43 goals and helped them to win three national titles (1976-78) and also one national cup (1977).

In 1975 Weber became an Informeller Mitarbeiter (Unofficial Employee) of the Ministry of State Security (Stasi) and informed them about his teammates. In 1981 he planned his own escape to the West but was arrested at the Schönefeld Airport from where the East German national team started a journey to Argentina. He was sentenced to seven years and seven months arrest but was released after 11 months. He was then not allowed to play football anymore in higher leagues in former GDR and worked with a car service station. In 1989 just shortly before the wall was torn down, he fled to the West via Hungary together with his wife and his six-year-old daughter, where he then became an industrial clerk.