“Big loss for German sport”
Table tennis world mourns: ex-international is dead
April 18, 2025 – 2:07 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
He shaped the German table tennis for decades like no other for decades, was finally appointed honorary president of the association. Now Hans Wilhelm Gäb has died.
The German table tennis sport loses a formative personality. Hans Wilhelm Gäb, long-time honorary president of the German Table Tennis Association (DTTB) and honorary chairman of the Supervisory Board of the German Sports Aid Foundation, died at the age of 89.
As the DTTB and Gäbs Heimatverein Borussia Düsseldorf announced, he died last Sunday. The family asked the associations to publish the news that was made public on Good Friday.
The sympathy from German sport is great. DOSB President Thomas Weikert described GAB as a “important guide and mentor” and spoke of a “great loss for German sport and as a person”. For him there was an “icon of sport”.
The DTTB also paid tribute. CEO Wolfgang Dörner said: “We bow to his life’s work.” The former national coach Jörg Roßkopf emphasized importance for his own career: “I lose a friend. Without Hans, Steffen Fetzner and I would not have become a double world champion in 1989 Timo Boll not the number one in the world. We lose the co -founder of professional table tennis in Germany. “
Gab had been a national player himself, but later made a name for himself as a official and manager. He enjoyed viewing far beyond sport – as a mediator between sport, business and society. Many described him as the “moral conscience of German sport”.
Borussia Düsseldorf wrote in his obituary: “With deep regret and great grief, we say goodbye to Hans Wilhelm Gäb, an outstanding personality of table tennis sports. His death leaves a gap that will be difficult to close.”
The DTTB also recalled attitude and commitment: “He was a person with attitude, national player, modernizer and moral authority – and never content himself with the fame of yore.”