The Most Famous

SWIMMERS from Germany

This page contains a list of the greatest German Swimmers. The pantheon dataset contains 709 Swimmers, 80 of which were born in Germany. This makes Germany the birth place of the 3rd most number of Swimmers behind United States, and Australia.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary German Swimmers of all time. This list of famous German Swimmers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of German Swimmers.

1. Kornelia Ender (b. 1958)

With an HPI of 59.20, Kornelia Ender is the most famous German Swimmer. Her biography has been translated into 30 different languages on wikipedia.

Kornelia Ender (later Matthes now Grummt, born 25 October 1958) is a former East German swimmer who at the 1976 Summer Olympics became the first woman swimmer to win four gold medals at a single Olympic Games, all in world record times. It was later proven that the East German team doctors had systematically administered steroids to their athletes (albeit without the athletes' knowledge). As she had exhibited symptoms of steroid use in 1976 (deep voice, overdeveloped body), strong suspicion was cast on the validity of Ender's accomplishments. Ender trained from a young age and won her first Olympic medals as a 13-year-old at the 1972 Olympics in Munich: three silver medals, including one in the 200 m individual medley, finishing behind Australia's Shane Gould. Over the following years she broke 32 world records in individual events, including the four at the Montreal Games. In 1991, she addressed the long-held suspicions about her physical condition at the 1976 Games, acknowledging that team doctors and coaches had given her numerous injections of drugs over the preceding months (cf. doping in East Germany). Ender said that she did not know at the time, nor had she ever subsequently found out, exactly what the drugs were. She said she was told only that the drugs would help her "regenerate and recuperate" and therefore, although she was surprised by the muscle mass she added, she nonetheless attributed it simply to her rigorous training. When she became suspicious and refused to take chlorodehydromethyltestosterone in 1977 she was banned from the team by Manfred Ewald. Ender was married for four years to East German backstroke swimmer and multiple Olympic champion Roland Matthes. She is now married to former East German track and field athlete and bobsledder Steffen Grummt.

2. Roland Matthes (1950 - 2019)

With an HPI of 58.84, Roland Matthes is the 2nd most famous German Swimmer. His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

Roland Matthes (German pronunciation: [ˈʁoːlant ˈmatəs], ; 17 November 1950 – 20 December 2019) was a German swimmer and the most successful backstroke swimmer of all time. Between April 1967 and August 1974 he won all backstroke competitions he entered. He won four European championships and three world championships in a row, and swam 19 world and 28 European records in various backstroke, butterfly and medley events. He was trained by Marlies Grohe.

3. Otto Fahr (1892 - 1969)

With an HPI of 57.96, Otto Fahr is the 3rd most famous German Swimmer. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Otto Fahr (German pronunciation: [ˈɔtoː ˈfaːɐ̯]; August 19, 1892 – February 28, 1969) was a German backstroke swimmer, who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics. He was born and died in Bad Cannstatt. Fahr participated in only one event and won the silver medal in the 100 metre backstroke competition.

4. Barbara Krause (b. 1959)

With an HPI of 57.64, Barbara Krause is the 4th most famous German Swimmer. Her biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Barbara Krause (later Wanja, born on 7 July 1959 in East Berlin) is a former freestyle swimmer from East Germany. She was a three-time Olympic gold medalist and eight-time world record holder. At the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Krause won gold medals in the 100 m and 200 m freestyle and in the 4×100 m freestyle relay. Her husband, Lutz Wanja, is also a retired German Olympic swimmer.

5. Erich Rademacher (1901 - 1979)

With an HPI of 57.24, Erich Rademacher is the 5th most famous German Swimmer. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Fritz Albert Erich "Ete" Rademacher (9 June 1901 – 2 April 1979) was a German breaststroke swimmer and water polo goalkeeper who competed at the 1928 and 1932 Olympics. In 1928 he was a member of the German water polo team that won the gold medal, he also won a silver medal in the 200 metres breaststroke. Four years later he won another silver medal with the German water polo team.

6. Hilde Schrader (1910 - 1966)

With an HPI of 57.19, Hilde Schrader is the 6th most famous German Swimmer. Her biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Hildegard "Hilde" Schrader (4 January 1910 – 23 March 1966) was a German swimmer who won the 200 m breaststroke event at the 1928 Summer Olympics and 1927 European Championships. She also set two world records in the obsolete breaststroke events, one in the 400 m (1928) and one in the 200 yd (1929). In 1994 she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

7. Emil Rausch (1883 - 1954)

With an HPI of 57.09, Emil Rausch is the 7th most famous German Swimmer. His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Emil A. Rausch (11 September 1883 – 14 December 1954) was a German freestyle swimmer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics and 1906 Intercalated Games. In the 1904 Olympics, he won gold medals in the 880 yard freestyle and 1 mile freestyle and a bronze medal in the 220 yard freestyle. Two years later, he won a silver medal as a member of German 4x250 m relay team and was fifth in 1 mile freestyle.

8. Georg Zacharias (1884 - 1953)

With an HPI of 56.30, Georg Zacharias is the 8th most famous German Swimmer. His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Georg Zacharias (14 June 1884 – 31 July 1953) was a German backstroke and breaststroke swimmer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics. He was born in Gdańsk and died in Berlin. In the 1904 Olympics he won a gold medal in the 440 yard breaststroke and a bronze medal in the 100 yard backstroke.

9. Ulrike Richter (b. 1959)

With an HPI of 54.91, Ulrike Richter is the 9th most famous German Swimmer. Her biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Ulrike Richter (later Schmidt, born 17 June 1959) is a German former swimmer who competed for East Germany in the 1970s. At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal she won three gold medals. She received two gold medals at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships, and two in 1975. Richter set 14 world records during her career, in 100 m backstroke, 200 m backstroke, and medley relay. She was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1983.

10. Andrea Pollack (1961 - 2019)

With an HPI of 54.29, Andrea Pollack is the 10th most famous German Swimmer. Her biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Andrea Pollack (later Pinske; 8 May 1961 – 13 March 2019) was a butterfly swimmer from East Germany who won three Olympic gold medals. Pollack was born in 1961 in Schwerin. She was a member of SC Dynamo Berlin. She who won two gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, at age fifteen. She won the individual 200 m butterfly and with the women's relay team in the 4×100 m medley. Pollack also collected two silver medals at the Montreal Games. Pollack won a gold in the 4×100 m medley relay and a silver in the 100 m butterfly at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. In 1978 she twice broke the world record in the women's 200 m butterfly. In 1998, several former East German swimmers, including Pollack, went public with accusations against their coaches and physicians that they were systematically doped. Pollack married Norbert Pinske who competed in cycling. Their son, Michael Pinske, went to the 2008 Summer Olympics as a judoka.

People

Pantheon has 80 people classified as German swimmers born between 1880 and 2004. Of these 80, 67 (83.75%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living German swimmers include Kornelia Ender, Barbara Krause, and Ulrike Richter. The most famous deceased German swimmers include Roland Matthes, Otto Fahr, and Erich Rademacher. As of April 2024, 80 new German swimmers have been added to Pantheon including Kornelia Ender, Roland Matthes, and Otto Fahr.