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The following text has been machine translated from the German and has undergone no postediting.
Born in Halle (Saale), Wilfried Kindermann passed his school-leaving examination in Meerane (Saxony) in 1958. In 1960, he fled the GDR and two years later became European champion in athletics with the German 4 x 400 metre relay team. He studied medicine at the universities of Heidelberg and Hamburg, passed his state medical examination in 1967 and was awarded his doctorate in medicine in the same year.
After a two-year period as a medical assistant, which was compulsory at the time, Kindermann worked as a research assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Physiological and Clinical Research in Bad Nauheim from 1970 to 1972. He then moved to the Medical University Hospital in Freiburg, where he qualified as a specialist in internal medicine in 1977 and obtained further qualifications in cardiology and sports medicine. Also in 1977, he qualified as a professor of internal medicine, specialising in performance medicine. He received the highest scientific award of the former German Sports Federation for his habilitation thesis. In 1978, he was appointed full professor (now university professor) at Saarland University and headed the Institute for Sports and Preventive Medicine until his retirement in 2008. He declined a subsequent appointment to the Chair of Sports Medicine with a focus on internal medicine at the Free University of Berlin.
Professor Kindermann developed the Saarbrücken institute, which was integrated into the former Department of Clinical Medicine, into one of the leading institutions with an international reputation. His institute contributed significantly to the establishment of the Olympic Training Centre. Two focal points of his scientific work are performance physiology and sports cardiology (e.g. differentiation between a sports heart and pathological heart changes). His scientific oeuvre comprises around 700 publications. He has served as a member of the editorial board of national and international scientific journals and still writes reviews for international journals, particularly those specialising in cardiology. As chairman of the Medical Advisory Board and member of the Executive Board of the Federal Institute for Sports Science, he was involved in setting up research programmes, among other things.
Professor Wilfried Kindermann has held numerous positions in elite sports. He served as an Olympic doctor at eight Olympic Games and was chief medical officer of the German Olympic teams from 2000 to 2008. He was also chief physician of the German Athletics Association, internal medicine team doctor for the German national football team from 1990 to 2000, and chief medical officer for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He was a member of the Medical Committee of the European Football Association UEFA for ten years and a personal member of the National Olympic Committee. He was also a member of the board of trustees and later the supervisory board of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).
Professor Wilfried Kindermann's many achievements have been recognised with awards from various major sports associations, the Ernst von Bergmann Medal from the German Medical Association, the Saarland Order of Merit and his appointment as Ambassador for the Saarland.
Contact:
Dr. Wolfgang Müller, Universitätsarchiv
E-Mail: dr.wolfgang-mueller(at)t-online.de
