Olympic medals East and West
German Olympic medals by the athlete's state of birth, per million inhabitants
At the Milano Cortina Winter Games in 2026, athletes born in the eastern states won 10.5 of Germany's 26 medals: 0.85 per million inhabitants, 4.6 times the rate of the West (0.19). At the Paris Summer Games in 2024 the two halves were level (0.34 and 0.34).
Darker = more medals per million inhabitants of the state where the athletes were born. Team medals are split equally among team members. Per-state rates are our calculation.
Medals by side
| Games | West | East | Berlin | Born abroad | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milano Cortina 2026 (Winter) | 12.5 | 10.5 | 1 | 2 | 26 |
| Paris 2024 (Summer) | 22.95 | 4.21 | 2.92 | 2.92 | 33 |
How we counted
Land of birth from the athlete's Olympedia biography; where Olympedia has no birthplace, Wikidata (P19). The two disagree for two athletes (see birthplaceConflict): Lea Sophie Friedrich (Olympedia: Lübeck, West; Wikidata and the Team Deutschland profile: Dassow, East) and Sydney Lohmann (Olympedia and Team Deutschland: Bad Honnef; Wikidata: Pürgen; both West).If no birthplace is known, the Land of the athlete's club is used (basis "club"): this applies to one hockey player (Malte Hellwig, HTC Uhlenhorst Mülheim, North Rhine-Westphalia).Athletes born abroad are counted as "abroad". Berlin-born athletes are shown as Berlin; the sources do not say whether they were born in the former East or West of the city.Medals: each medal counts once and a team medal is split equally among its members, so the side totals add up to the number of medals. Medallists: each athlete counted once per Games.Place of birth is not where athletes train: many western-born athletes train at Olympic bases in the East (Potsdam, Berlin, Oberhof, Altenberg, Leipzig), and the other way round.Per-million rates: medals ÷ average population (Destatis 12411-0042) of 2024 for Paris and of 2025 for Milano Cortina (Games held in February 2026; 2026 population not yet published).