East Germany’s sports federation will unshackle itself...

East Germany’s sports federation will unshackle itself from the Communist Party and demand that athletes have direct access to hard-currency earnings instead of having to hand over most of the cash to the state, according to Klaus Eichler, the federation’s president. “In the past, we sold ourselves too cheaply,” spokesman Werner Neumann said. “There were contracts and other things given away for peanuts.”