Lutz Eigendorf
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| Lutz Eigendorf | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 16 July 1956 | |
| Place of birth | Brandenburg, East Germany | |
| Date of death | 7 March 1983 (aged 26) | |
| Place of death | Braunschweig, West Germany | |
| Playing position | Midfielder | |
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| c.1974-1979 1980-1982 1982-1983 |
Dynamo Berlin 1. FC Kaiserslautern Eintracht Braunschweig |
53 (7) 8 (2) |
| National team | ||
| 1978-1979 | East Germany | 6 (3) |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Lutz Eigendorf (born 16 July 1956 in Brandenburg an der Havel; died 7 March 1983 in Braunschweig) was a German football player.
Eigendorf played for the East German side Berliner FC Dynamo and made a number of appearances for the country's national side.
On March 20, 1979 after a friendship match between Dynamo and West German club 1. FC Kaiserslautern in Gießen he fled to the west hoping to play for that team. But because of his defection he was banned from play for one year by UEFA and instead spent that time as a youth coach with the club.
This was not the first time an East German athlete had fled to the west, but it was a particularly embarrassing defection. Eigendorf's club Dynamo was under the patronage of the Stasi, East Germany's secretive state police, and subject to the personal attentions of the organization's head, Erich Mielke. He ensured that the club's roster was made up of the country's best players, as well as arranging for the manipulation of matches in Dynamo's favour. After his defection Eigendorf openly criticized the DDR in the western media.
His wife Gabriele remained behind in Berlin with their daughter and was placed under constant police surveillance. Lawyers working for the Stasi quickly arranged a divorce and the former Frau Eigendorf re-married. Her new husband was eventually revealed as a Lothario – an agent of the state police whose role it was to spy on a suspect while romancing them.
In 1983 Eigendorf moved from Kaiserslautern to join Eintracht Braunschweig, all the while under the scrutiny of the Stasi who employed a number of West Germans as informants. On March 5 that year he was badly injured in a suspicious traffic accident and died within two days. An autopsy indicated a high blood alcohol level despite the testimony of people he had met with that evening indicating that Eigendorf had only a small amount of beer to drink. After German re-unification and the subsequent opening of the files of the former East Germany's state security service it was revealed that the traffic accident had been an assassination attempt orchestrated by the Stasi, confirming the longtime suspicions held by many. A summary report of the events surrounding Eigendorf's death was made on German television on March 22, 2000 which detailed an investigation by Heribert Schwan in the documentary "Tod dem Verräter" ("Death to the Traitor").
