Movement summit in Berlin: Politicians want to encourage people to do sports

Status: 12/12/2022 10:44 a.m

Dilapidated sports facilities, little school sport, high costs – popular sport needs help. The movement summit should be a starting signal and get people going.

The first movement summit on Tuesday (December 13, 2022, 10 a.m.) in Berlin is the beginning of a joint effort by federal ministries and the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB). The aim of this initiative is to counteract the widespread lack of exercise and sport among young and old in Germany.

Participants of the movement summit

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (both SPD) host the movement summit in the Max-Schmeling-Halle. Ministers and state secretaries from nine federal departments, representatives of the federal states and the municipal umbrella organizations, members of the Bundestag and the DOSB are expected.

“They jointly undertake to initiate concrete measures to make exercise and sport possible and easily accessible for everyone in Germany – regardless of place of residence, origin, gender, age, financial possibilities and individual physical and mental abilities”, It says in the invitation from the Ministry of the Interior to the summit.

Situation of sport and movement in Germany

At first glance, Germany is a sporty country. There are 27 million people in the DOSBn organized in 87,000 clubs. However, data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) indicate a critical situation in relation to the physical activities of the population.

According to the RKI, only a quarter of children and young people and only a fifth of adults follow the recommendations for exercise. The latest WHO report also showed that 44 percent of women and 40 percent of men over the age of 18 need to become more active. In addition, 88 percent of girls and 80 percent of boys exercise too little.

Goal of the Movement Summit

After the premiere of the movement summit, the detailed work on action and problem areas should begin next year. This should lead to a sports development plan and a strategy for implementation. One focus is on the needs of children and young people who were particularly affected by the closure of sports facilities and the cancellation of physical education classes in the corona pandemic.

In addition, there are the sports facility situation, sustainability, strengthening voluntary work, integration and inclusion or sports in schools and day-care centers. In the end, it must also be clarified where popular sport and sport development get an interface on the federal political stage. A staff position in the Chancellery similar to that for culture would be a signal. So far, popular sport has been a matter for the federal states and top-class sport has been part of the BMI.

expectations of organized sport

“We need to get society moving again,” said DOSB President Thomas Weikert. This requires a cultural change that recognizes that exercise and sport are indispensable and of inestimable value – for the development of children and young people as well as for the well-being and health of the adult population.

“The summit will give a real boost, a paradigm shift – if everyone delivers”, said Michaela Röhrbein, head of sports development at the DOSB. Apart from the large number of issues that need to be tackled, the umbrella organization for the country’s largest civil movement also hopes that politics will be recognized, which was missing in the Corona crisis and which led to a standstill in movement due to lockdowns.

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