Faust's Gold: Inside The East German Doping Machine

by Steven Ungerleider

For nearly twenty-five years, East Germany's corrupt sports organization dominated international athletics. While the German Democratic Republic's secret "State Plan" was in effect, more than ten thousand unsuspecting young athletes-- some as young as twelve years old-- were given massive doses of performance-enhancing anabolic steroids. These athletes achieved miraculous success in international competitions, including the Olympics, but for many of them, their physical and emotional health was permanently damaged.

Faust's Gold draws on the revelations of the ongoing trials of former GDR coaches, doctors, and sports officials who have now confessed to conducting ruthless medical experiments on young and talented athletes selected for Olympic training camps. It also draws on the extensive research of Brigitte Berendonk, who escaped from East Germany to begin a decade-long crusade to bring justice to her fellow athletes, and that of her husband, Professor Werner Franke. Berendonk's story, and those of her colleagues in the GDR, offers a unique insight into a bizarre regime.

Faust's Gold is a true-life detective story that plunges into the dark, secretive world of the GDR doping scam, where elite competitors and their families are up against a formidable opponent: the East German secret police, known as the STASI. What emerges is a complex tapestry of the politicized modern Olympics that culminates in a powerful testimony to the massive wrong done by one Eastern Bloc nation to its world-class athletes.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Germany, History, Gender, 20th Century, Politics

256 pages, Hardcover

First published June 9, 2001

About the author

Dr. Steven Ungerleider, an author of six books, completed his undergraduate studies in psychology at the University of Texas, Austin, where he also competed as a collegiate gymnast. He holds masters and doctorate degrees from the University of Oregon, a post doc from the University of California, and is a licensed psychologist at Integrated Research Services, Incorporated in Eugene, Oregon.
Since 1984, he has served on the United States Olympic Committee Sport Psychology Registry and has consulted with a number of international sport federations.
Ungerleiders' books include;
• Beyond Strength, (McGraw-Hill, 1991 with co-author Dr. Jacqueline Golding)
• Quest For Sucess, (WRS/Spence publications, 1994).
• Mental Training For Peak Performance, First Edition, his third book (Rodale Press, 1996) was named to the book of the month club selection for Men's Health Magazine.
• Mental Training, Second Edition, was released in 2000 (Rodale Press).
• Faust's Gold: Inside The East German Doping Machine,(St Martin's Press, 2001)
• Culture Education And Drug-Free Sport, (Koke Printing Company, May 2008)
In the early 1990's, Ungerleider was invited to join an international team of researchers to examine the East German doping files, monitor the criminal trials and interview hundreds of witnesses for his fourth book entitled: FAUST'S GOLD: Inside the East German Doping Machine (St Martin's Press).
In December, 2001, Faust's Gold was honored as top "sports book of the year" by Runner's World/Rodale Press. Ungerleider's work has been reviewed in Elle, Longevity, Outside, Runner's World, Allure, New York Daily News, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Herald, Dallas Morning News, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker Magazine, Sports Illustrated, the International Herald Tribune, People Magazine, Forbes Magazine, the Washington Post, Newsweek and National Public Radio.
Ungerleider's East German Doping research is the subject of a one-hour documentary by the Canadian Film Company, as well as a one-hour special by ABC's 20/20, and NOS of Dutch Television.
Ungerleider's work and his GDR archives were the subject of a PBS documentary entitled; DOPING FOR GOLD, which was nominated for an emmy award.
Prior to the 2006 Torino Winter Games, Ungerleider was appointed to the International Society for Olympic Historians (ISOH). He has served as a founding trustee of Global Sports Development (GSD) which encourages mentoring and fair play at all levels of sport. GSD is the sponsoring agency of the Culture, Education, Drug-Free Sport and Ethics (CESEP) program. Ungerleider has also served on the education and ethics committee of WADA; World Anti-Doping agency and was recenly appointed to the national advisory panel of the American Psychological Association.
In 2009, Ungerleider was asked to chair The Texas Program in Sports and Media (TPSM) at the University of Texas, Austin. This program under the umbrella of the UT school of communication will house the largest repository of sports research material including a major International Olympic collection, an East German Doping collection, and all files related to the recent BALCO drug scandal. Ungerleider is presently working on a manuscript that will articulate many components of this unique collection.
Ungerleider is the proud father of two very accomplished daughters: one a physician, now doing her residency in internal medicine, and the youngest a lawyer/MBA practicing commercial law in San Francisco.
Ungerleider will be attending his 12th Olympic Games in London 2012 as a trustee of Global Sports Development working in collaboration With the London Cultural Olympiad.

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a sad story. Over 30 years, the East German government secretly drugged over 100,000 athletes, often against their will. This policy was most prominent in female swimming starting with girls as young as 12. Receiving high doses of testosterone destroyed their lives forcing liver operations, sex changes, and deformed children.
While the story is so poignant this book rushes through, and does not spend enough time setting context and exploring the reasons behind this behavior. I had several questions that I wanted a deeper exploration of:
- Why did the communists in East Germany develop a doping machine but other Warsaw Pact members did not?
- How was this policy effected by the Nazi government history of using drugs on soldiers.
- What has been the longer term impact - are German sporting drug cheats now more or less prevalent than in other Western European countries?
- How much of this expertise was exported to other countries (e.g. China) as the Berlin Wall fell.

[Cwn_annwn_13 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fausts Gold documents what went on in eastern Germany with the "doping" of the athletes, in particular the female swimmers, with various roids and EPO. Its particuarly disturbing because in the case of the female swimmers, they were given to them without the girls knowledge of what they were taking, just being told they were "vitamins", and that some of the athletes were as young as 13 years old. Of course these women all developed serious health problems at a young age, had deformed children, and turned into freakish looking manly women. Of course its not like eastern Germany was the only country whose athletes were improving their performance through chemistry, and the truth is even with the multitudes of examples of people who destroyed their health for short term gain, doping is more rampant than ever now and there are still idiots that believe the side effects of steroids are miniscule.

[Andrea Peitsch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book. I was looking for information about the long term effects of testosterone on the female body and I have found it.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

This could have been so much better-possibly a chronological view of the East German dooing pgm would have worked better

[Beth Medvedev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great topic, poor execution.

[Justin J. · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could post a skull and crossbones or the Mr. Yuck symbol with this review I would.

gave it a try. I read through 8 chapters. I almost finished chapter 9. I just had to stop.

It was the combination of the plethora of grammar, spelling and capitalization mistakes along with plain factual inaccuracies about performance enhancing drugs that anyone with even the smallest scientific background of PEDs would know is wrong.

The first 10 pages of this book were some sort of smattering of drug testing in sports which missed major developments, missed seminal events and even provided really odd irrelevant cases.

The first chapter of the book was some weird digression into the author’s weird meeting with USADA and Lance Armstrong. It wasn’t even told well. There was no conclusion to it. It was like the first chapter of an aborted book. Why was it even there? This book is supposed to be about East German state doping.

The next chapters that I read were equally odd starting with the beginning of the Berlin trial of doctors and coaches. Then it jumps over to a meeting with an athlete that really doesn’t go anywhere. It spent time talking about the town and landscape of the meeting more so than the actual meeting.

Then there’s a discussion with a doctor of some sort who horribly butchers to simple pharmacology of basic PEDs and totally screws up the analytical techniques and capabilities of the time. It’s actually shocking to read how far off it is.

Then it returns to “one time at band camp” style recollections.

The author alternatively refers to himself in the first person and the third person with no reason for switching. He loves to name drop and toot his own horn.

Silly me, I thought this would be a fact-based and evidence-based book on the protocol, the method and the systemized effort of East Germany. It was not. Zero references, really?

It was a dog’s breakfast of I really don’t know what. Stupid of me to stick it out for so long.

This is only the third book in my life (I’m nearly 50 years old) that I haven’t finished. It’s so bad that I am putting this review up on Amazon so others don’t waste their money and, most importantly, their time with this book. Sad.

[Eric Bottern · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read, but not exactly what I was looking for. It was quite emotionally attached to the female athletes who were victims of the doping machine and their involvement in a specific doping trial. It was not necessarily insight “inside the East German doping machine”. The specifics of how they operated were not disclosed beyond the fact that they tried to work around testing and had plenty of doctors. Was captivating enough to finish it off, but wouldn’t recommend it.

[Ellie Mackin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Used this book for my dissertation and have just reread i in full and it's so in depth and well researched.

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A subject I was really interested in, so this was a real disappointment. Instead of being investigative, it read more like a "C" term paper.

[claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

history may not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme 👀

[Lisa Shultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to read this book for two reasons. One, I observed East Germany's cheating on TV in women's swimming when I was growing up because I watched the Olympics and was a swimmer myself. Some of the girls that were doped were my age. The talk in the US about East Germany doping was occurring because it was clear that these girls were winning a lot and by large margins in some cases, and they looked masculine. I was appalled and saddened that biggest doping scam in the history of modern sport was happening in my youth, which shattered my concept of fair sports.

I also read the book because girls today are being given testosterone to try to appear masculine, and it is also a medical scandal. These kids seem to have no idea the damage they are doing to their bodies and organ function, and "gender medicine" promotes this treatment, but pretends it is harmless, even "life saving" to make these girls drug dependent on cross-sex hormones. I continue to be appalled and saddened by people in authority drugging our kids and seemingly thinking that is okay to do.

The book also discusses Marion Jones and Lance Armstrong (more modern cases of doping). The book concludes/was published in 2013, and I would love to see an update.  

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book occupies a valuable niche in English-language sports scholarship: to my knowledge, it's the only readily available account of the GDR doping machine that makes use of the original sources. But this updated and apparently self-published version is so, so sloppy! Fortunately, Undgerleider deposited the sources he painstakingly acquired at UT-Austin's Stark Center, so future scholars might revisit and flesh out the account he gives u here.

[Keen Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is obviously a fascinating and horrifying subject matter and will be of interest to anyone looking for an insight into one of the many dark chapters of the Communist era. The story is like something from a dystopic sci-fi novel and it gives us plenty to think about with regards to the authenticity of high performing sports stars in other fields and other countries.

There are a few significant drawbacks. The author is not shy about blowing his own trumpet with regards to his medical and ethical credentials. Well done him, it's just a shame that he didn't feel the need to maintain and translate these high standards into the presentation of this book. The editing is appalling, we are left with some major, glaring errors like "Seoul 1998" and "1000 metres" when he means Seoul 1988 and 100 metres. Another example is when we go to the Index, I was wanting to know more about the athlete Ines Geipel it says p158-59. 158 is a blank page and there is no mention of her of p159 either but we do get a copied extract of Lance Armstrong's career?...The text is polluted with a whole host of other spelling mistakes and typos. These are just a small sample from the many examples, which makes me worry what has he got wrong elsewhere?...

Overall I'd say it's a good read and will spark your curiosity enough to want to read up on many of the subjects and names here and maybe even want to look further into the dark past of this government backed era of cheating and abuse.