Gerd Weber

Club career Senior career Born in Dresden, Weber began his career in 1973 with Dynamo Dresden in the DDR-Oberliga.

International career Between 1975 and 1980 he played 33 times as a midfielder for the East Germany national team, scoring 5 goals. He won the gold medal at the football tournament of the 1976 Summer Olympics with the East Germany Olympic team.

Stasi informer Weber was a Stasi informer from 1975 onward, delivering more that seventy reports about his teammates. For four years, Weber was listed as an unofficial collaborator (IM) of the Stasi under the codename "Wiehland".

Defection to the West In January 1981, Weber along with two teammates (Peter Kotte and Matthias Müller) were arrested by the Stasi, just as they were to travel to Argentina for an international match.

Weber had allegedly had contacts to West German side 1. FC Köln, and had solicited escape plans, intending to defect to West Germany. Weber was sentenced to two years and three months in prison by the Dresden District Court . After eleven months he was released. However, he was banned from returning to professional football. In reality, the purported representatives of 1. FC Köln were SG Dynamo Dresden supporters, who had themselves left East Germany six months earlier.

The Stasi got wind of Weber's plan. The Stasi did not know that the supposed offer did not come from 1. FC Köln. Extensive activities in preparation for the escape were what put the Stasi on Weber's trail. They knew about the intentions of Weber; their failure to inform authorities was critical. (The Stasi could not prove that Kotte and Müller had plans to defect.) In an interview with Tag24 in 2019, Müller said that this was probably because Weber had told the Stasi during interrogation that the two did not want to escape. But they were still considered accomplices as they had not fulfilled their reporting obligation. Former SED First Secretary in Bezirk Dresden Hans Modrow believes that the measures against the three were "probably cautious overall", given the completely different consequences for other East German citizens in similar contexts. After all, the three were also members of the armed organs with ranks. (As players of SG Dynamo Dresden, the three were formally employees of the Volkspolizei.)

Honours SG Dynamo Dresden DDR-Oberliga Winner: 1975–76, 1976–77, 1977–78 Runners-up: 1978–79, 1979–80 FDGB-Pokal Winner: 1976–77 Runners-up: 1973–74, 1974–75, 1977–78 East Germany Summer Olympics Gold medalist: 1976

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