Editing 1968 Winter Olympics (section)

=== The case of Germany ===
Similar to the [[1952 Summer Olympics]] with [[Saarland]], who had [[Saar at the 1952 Summer Olympics|sent its own team]] but had not been integrated as a part of West Germany, there were two teams participating from Germany.

For the first time, the [[East Germany|German Democratic Republic]] (East Germany) was present with its own team. It was provisionally accepted into the IOC, as long as it formed a [[United Team of Germany|complete German team]] consisting of athletes from both the West and East. This had to be done under the leadership of the National Olympic Committee for Germany, a board recognised by the IOC. Following on from this, the National Olympic Committee of East Germany tried to achieve complete recognition. This did not work out because of resistance from [[Karl Ritter von Halt]], the president of the National Olympic Committee for Germany, who was close friends with then-IOC president [[Avery Brundage]]. After Halt died in 1961, the same year the [[Berlin Wall]] was built by East Germany to prevent the defections of its citizens to the West, the close contact with the IOC leadership was lost under his successor Willi Daume. The reality of the split made the qualification almost impossible. On 8 October 1965, the IOC decided to accept East Germany as a full member. Both national olympic committees agreed on using the same flag and anthem. The black-red-gold flag with the white Olympic rings in the middle of it has been used at all Olympic Games since 1960, as well as the replacement anthem "Ode an die Freude" ([[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Ode to Joy]]) from Beethoven's 9th symphony, which was used previously. Both countries presented themselves as completely independent from 1972, using their respective national flags and anthems.

On 21 January 1968, 21-year-old Ralph Pöhland, one of the most famous East German winter olympians, fled to West Germany after the pre-Olympic tournament at Les Bioux, Switzerland. His assistant in helping to flee was Georg Thoma, a West German ski jumper. This incident led to relationships between the two German teams turning sour, which never used to be the case.

{{See also|Germany at the Olympics|l1=Germany at the Olympic Games}}