Berger began her career as an artistic gymnast in
Leipzig, ending her active career in 1951. In 1953, she became the
East Germany women's national artistic gymnastics team coach, a post she held until 1976. In the
women's all-around, Berger entered Comaneci's
balance beam score as a 9.85 after thirty minutes of debate, overruling the Romanian head beam judge, Maria Simionescu, who had refused to do so. This result put Comaneci into joint second place. The deduction sent the United States into fourth place behind East Germany, with United States coach
Béla Károlyi claiming that it was politically motivated and accusing Berger of cheating. FIG President
Yuri Titov upheld Berger's call. Former United States coach
Don Peters speculated that Berger may have been seeking retaliation against Károlyi for an incident in the
1984 women's all-around event. Berger resigned from the FIG in 1992, and died in 1997 of a
heart attack at the age of 76. ==References==