Eberhard Gienger

Gienger was the founder of a flying element on the horizontal bar named after him. In the 1970s he was the most prominent and most popular gymnast in West Germany, and in 1974 and 1978 he was elected Sportsman of the Year. In 1975 he helped Wolfgang Thüne, a fellow gymnast, to flee from East Germany in his car. Later Gienger became a sports administrator, a member of the NOC of Germany, technical commissioner in the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the German Gymnastics Federation (DTB). In 2001 he joined the German political Party CDU and became a Member of Parliament in 2002.