player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameHorst (Adolph)
LastnameStahlberg
GenderMale
CountryGerman Democratic Republik
Date of birth1937-02-14
Place of birthPotsdam, Germany

About

The Urpotsdamer led the quartet of the best DDR tennis players. In addition to Horst Stahlberg, Werner Rautenberg, Konrad Zanger and Peter Fährmann belonged to the so-called "Vierblättrigen Kleeblatt" of Weißensee. In 1955, the trained electrician took home three DDR titles. At the age of 20 he won the international tournament in Zinnowitz and was the first to travel to the international tournament of the United Arab Republic (VAR) with his partner Konrad Zanger the following year. Finally, they came in third on the double and thus immortalized on the gold plaque of the best-placed in this event in Cairo.

Together with Eva Johannes Stahlberg finally succeeded in 1960 in the mixed competition of Cairo. In this international competition of the VAR could win the DDR team in the final against the Australian pairing Margret Hellyer / Hillebrand with 6: 4, 9:11 and 6: 2. Measured by the relatively good field of participants, this was certainly a remarkable triumph of GDR tennis.

West German clubs had long since turned their eyes to the GDR champions and so a year later at a tournament in Wolfsburg, the local club made the offer to move to the West and play for Wolfsburg. Stahlberg, who now studied sports at the DHfK Leipzig in distance learning, asked for eight days for reflection and meanwhile played at a tournament of the tennis club blue and white in West Berlin. Just before he had reached a decision, the wall was built, and thus all considerations fell away. He quickly realized that this wall blocked his possible career. From this he drew the consequence to withdraw more and more to Potsdam, where he worked as a full-time district sports teacher. Now he played again for his old club Medicine Potsdam and thus renounced further promotion in the sports club. In the same year he won the international tournament of Zinnowitz for the second and last time. At just 25, he had not exhausted his potential. Nevertheless, he started less and less in major competitions, so that he led after his DDR top position from 1957 to 1962 only 1966, the GDR ranking. In the 1980s Stahlberg got as a football coach the reputation of the "firefighter". He rescued Motor Babelsberg in 1984 and 1988 from relegation from the DDR -Liga. The first time he led the 0-16 points [2] beaten off last but still on a good seventh place to the season finale; in his second mission, the team saved under his leadership with ten points from the last seven games.

After the fall of the Wall, he received the badge of honor of the German Tennis Federation (DTB) in silver, because he was nominated four times for the selection Berlin-Brandenburg. His professional activity as a tennis teacher in competitive sports was opposed by the non-recognition of his training on the part of the DTB. Only the C-Trainer license, so a coach certification for recreational sports, was awarded to him. Even today Stahlberg swings the racket for Potsdam and gives coaching lessons.

Wikipedia

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