After World War II, the
Allied Control Commission had dissolved all existing sports structures, including the dissolution of all existing sports clubs on the basis of directive 23, dated 17 December 1945. This directive only allowed the establishment of sports organizations on a local level. In consequence, sport competitions were only permitted on a local level with loosely organized
Sportgemeinschaften (sport collectives) in cities and on
Landkreis level. Only in the fall of 1946 were
football resumed on
Land level. The competition was organized by the youth organization
Free German Youth (FDJ). After the first football championship in the
Soviet occupation zone had been held in the summer of 1948, it became clear that the loose organization would not be sufficient to organize league play. On an initiative of the
Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (FDGB, the central labor union of East Germany) and FDJ, the
Deutscher Sportausschuß (DS) was created as an umbrella organization for sports in the Soviet zone. Among its first tasks was the re-structuring of the sports organizations that was tackled with the credo "rearrangement based on production". With participation of the FDGB the existing
Sportgemeinschaften were replaced by newly created
Betriebssportgemeinschaft (BSG) () in production and trade companies. The so-called
Trägerbetriebe (supporting companies) would take over tasks of financing and logistics for their respective BSGs, with the union chapter responsible for the day-to-day management. The BSG would be tasked with organizing a large spectrum of sports activities and usually would offer a range of different sports. Each BSG had its own administrative board with a chairman and heads for the different sports sections. Financial means were provided by the
Trägerbetrieb. and often the infrastructure would be built by the companies as well. To further optimize the system, the DS reorganized the BSGs again in April 1950. Central sports associations were created according to the union structure and all BSGs within such a central association were given a standard name (e.g. BSG Rotation Dresden with its
Trägerbetrieb VEB Sachsenverlag, a publishing company). These central associations were tasked with promoting the BSGs in their field. This was done by organizing internal competitions within the central associations and through influencing athletes who move between individual BSGs. The following 16 sports associations were founded: With the ongoing centralization of East German sports through the
DTSB, founded in 1957, the central sports associations lost their importance and were hardly noticed by the public. Among the largest and most powerful BSGs was Wismut Aue, Stahl Riesa, Chemie Leipzig and Motor/Sachsenring Zwickau.
Chemie Leipzig were the only BSG to win the East German football championship after the creation of the
sports clubs in 1954. The nationwide sports associations
Vorwärts and
Dynamo were outside the BSG system. They were sports organizations of the
National People's Army and the
Ministry of Interior of the GDR, respectively. The local
Armeesportgemeinschaften (ASG) "Vorwärts" and the
Sportgemeinschaften "Dynamo" were their subunits. After
German reunification and the collapse of many
Volkseigener Betrieb companies the organizational and financial basis of most BSGs vanished. Only some were transformed directly to an
Eingetragener Verein. Most
Betriebssportgemeinschaften were dissolved and replaced by newly founded sports clubs. == Miscellaneous ==