Nazis in, Becker out of German hall of fame

Germany's sporting lobby has sparked a furious controversy by founding a Hall of Fame to honour the nation's top athletes which includes five former Nazi Party members but fails to mention the likes of the racing driver Michael Schumacher or the tennis player Boris Becker.

The pantheon of 40 heroes of sport has been set up by Deutsche Sporthilfe, the German sports foundation, with the help of big business, and was inaugurated by Germany's President Horst Köhler, earlier this week. Its aim is to encourage young people to take up sport.

However, the project has already earned the nickname "Hall of Shame" in the German media because of the organisers' decision to include five former Nazi party members, including the Third Reich's football trainer Sepp Herberger, in its line-up of outstanding German sportsmen and women.

Thomas Mergel, professor of modern history at Berlin's Humboldt University, said that although the Hall of Fame "reflected the chasms and contradictions of German history" its choice of athletes also showed "the desire not to remember one thing and forget another." The other ex-Nazi Party members in the list include Josef Neckermann, the Olympic riding champion who made millions from a mail-order empire he started during the Third Reich; Willi Daume, the former German International Olympic Committee member, and the cyclist Gustav Kilian.

Hans Wilhelm Gäb, chairman of Sporthilfe's board, responded to his critics with barely concealed anger yesterday and described his journalist critics as "people who I don't actually consider to be journalists" who were "not sticking to the facts". Hans Joachim Eltz, Sporthilfe's spokesman, insisted that "sport is no better than society". He added: "These people led a life after the Nazi era and in some cases they went on to receive awards of merit for the contributions to society." The Hall of Fame manages to include the football World Cup-winner Franz Beckenbauer and seven other living German sporting heroes, but fails to mention the nation's other international greats such as Boris Becker, who won Wimbledon three times; Steffi Graf, who captured seven Wimbledon titles; or the seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher.

Mr Gäb insisted yesterday that the idea was to focus initially on sporting heroes who were now dead. However, he had no apparent explanation for Beckenbauer and the six other living sportsmen and women on the list of sporting heroes.

The jury, headed by Wolfgang Schäuble, the German Interior Minister, which included sports officials and journalists, has also been attacked for putting only one sporting personality from the former East Germany and only three women on its list.

However, the Hall of Fame does include two victims of the Nazi regime; they are Albert Richter, the cycling champion who infuriated Hitler by refusing to wear a swastika on his jersey; and Werner Seelenbinder, the Olympic wrestler who was executed by the Nazis in 1944 for his links to the communist anti-Nazi resistance movement.

The Hall of Fame will launch a travelling exhibition next year and there is even hope that Schumacher and Becker might one day be included in its ranks. The organisers say they want to add three new athletes to the list each year.