On the occasion of its 70th anniversary, the German University Sports Federation (ADH) organized a parliamentary evening in Berlin. On June 7th, representatives from politics, sports federations and of course members of the University Sports environment were welcomed in the Leibniz Hall in Berlin to celebrate the anniversary and to receive an input on the different work priorities of the federation.

About 140 guests, including representative of the European University Sports Assoctiation (EUSA) Mr Lorenz Ursprung, EUSA Treasurer, were welcomed by ADH Chairman, Mr Joerg Foerster, member of the board Ms Juliane Boetel, and also by Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior Mr Stephan Mayer.



Mr Mayer congratulated the ADH for its very positive development over the past seven decades and underlined the importance of promoting and supporting competitive sports on university level.



The following hour was characterized by a short journey through the last 70 years and an overview of the most important fields of work of the German University Sports Federation. Ms Luisa Kosok (University of Bielefeld) and Mr Arne Goering (University of Goettingen) interviewed several guests on different topics. Mr Walther Troeger, former Secretary General of ADH and honorary member of the IOC, started off with an insight into the early years: “We were pioneers and always thought politically, already in the beginning.” With some anecdotes of his personal experiences he delighted the audience. Subsequently, Ms Ebba Koglin (University of Osnabrueck) and Mr Thomas Woll (Technical University of Kaiserslautern) talked about the importance of education and health management. They presented several examples on how ADH together with the universities has succeeded in promotion health and education among students.



When talking about university sports, international competitions also have a major impact. Thus, two former Universiade-medallists shared their experiences with the audience. Ms Ulrike Nasse-Meyfarth (Universiade-Silver 1979 and Olympic-Gold 1972 and 1984 in High Jump) and Mr Tobias Simon (Universiade Silver 2017 and Gold with the Nordic Combined Team 2015) came to the conclusion that it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to compete with other students on such high level. Simon also underlined the importance of universities supporting student athletes and their dual careers.



The podium discussions were concluded by ADH Chairman Mr Foerster (Managing Director at University Sports Hamburg), Ms Petra Bischoff-Krenzien, (Head of Sport at University of Potsdam) and Mr Moritz Belmann, Member of the Student Commission of the European University Sports Association (EUSA). They named challenges for the future of university sport and the association itself, whereby the focus also laid on the promotion of the dual career of student athletes.



In this context Mr Foerster emphasized the ADH project “Partner University of High Performance Sports” which was initiated already in 1999. Ms Bischoff-Krenzien also underlined the importance of targeted health promotion and Mr Belmann explained the challenges of further promoting and challenging (student) engagement. All three guests strongly supported the idea of deepening various national and international partnerships. After these diverse content insights, the guests of the Third Parliamentary Evening of University Sports were given the opportunity to receive further information on the work of the ADH on various topics.

For more information, please see www.adh.de.