German Olympic Committee head Klaus Steinbach and Leipzig Mayor Wolfgang Tiefensee confirmed that Dirk Tharichen, Manager of Leipzig 2012, will take a break from his position as manager of Leipzig’s 2012 bid. The announcement was made Wednesday at a seminar in Lausanne Switzerland held by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the nine cities bidding for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
Tharichen has been suspected of having been in the Feliks Dzierzynksi Guard Regiment, the Stasi division involved in putting down pro-democracy demonstrations in early 1989. His job was to patrol the barracks in Leipzig-Leutzch.
He is to be questioned at a meeting of the Leipzig 2012 supervisory board on October 18.
Former Olympic swimmer Michael Gross is to be appointed head of Leipzig’s bid at that meeting
Also, Harald Lochotzke, head of the team putting together Rostock’s bid to host the 2012 Olympic water sports, resigned after admitting that he had been a Stasi informer, and Jochen Lohse has rested his membership in a body which links the bid to the local industry.
The head of Germany’s sports umbrella organization DSB, Manfred von Richthofen, said that the Stasi allegations against the three men must be dealt with swiftly.
Leipzig’s bid is running into other problems. Von Richthofen, criticized the marketing budget of Leipzig’s 2012 bid. He said he already sees parallels between this bid and the failed Berlin 2000 Olympic bid which was attributed to bad management.
Managing director Mike de Vries defended himself saying the bid had a perfect marketing plan.
So far the plan has generated 1.5 million euros de Vries told the Tagerspiegel, which he considered more than considerable.
He said some large German businesses are ready to buy marketing rights for 500,000 euros within the next week.
He also said when the new Athens 2004 logo is introduced at the October 18 Athens 2004 supervisory board meeting, things would improve.
