Michael Pössinger

Michael Pössinger finished sixth with the West German four-man bob Germany 1 team at the 1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Olympics. His team-mates were Hans Rösch, Lorenz Nieberl and Sylvester Wackerle, Sr.. With the four-man bob he won a medal of each color at the World Championships (gold in 1951, silver in 1954, and bronze in 1953).

During World War II Pössinger was a highly decorated officer who was finally promoted to Hauptmann in 1943 within the Wehrmacht. After the war he became an officer in the newly formed Bundeswehr. Pössinger was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, the Close Combat Clasp in Gold and the German Cross for his merits as a company commander of a ski company behind the Russian lines. In 1942 he was severely wounded, but returned to his company. Rumors about his participation in war crimes have never been clarified. At the end of the war he was taken prisoner of war by the Americans but was released shortly afterwards in May 1945. After the war he first worked as a businessman before joining the Bundeswehr in the rank of a major in 1956. He eventually commanded the Gebirgs- und Winterkampfschule (Mountain and Winter Combat School) in Mittenwald, before retiring from the Bundeswehr in 1975.