Stasi Activities and Legal Battles
In the 1980s, Ingo Steuer was an informant for the Stasi, the East German secret police. His activities included passing information on his fellow skaters. Because of this, he has been a controversial figure in Germany. Prior to the 2006 Winter Olympics, an investigation by the National Olympic Committee determined that his involvement was so severe as to exclude him from the national team. The matter eventually went to court, where a judge ruled in Steuer's favor. Still, at the 2006 Torino games, he was forbidden to wear the German team clothes. Savchenko and Szolkowy have been encouraged in the past to find a different coach, and Steuer was denied accreditation at several events. Savchenko and Szolkowy eventually went to court to appeal against this decision, and the judge ruled in their favor. At the 2010 Vancouver games, he was allowed to wear German team clothes and associate with the team.
In June 2010, the Frankfurt Landgericht rejected Steuer's lawsuit against the Bundeswehr, however, in March 2011, the Brandenburg Oberlandesgericht ruled in his favor; the Bundeswehr may appeal to the Federal Court of Justice of Germany.
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