Werner LESSER

East German ski jumper Werner Lesser participated in the 1956 Winter Olympics at Cortina d’Ampezzo and the 1960 Games at Innsbruck, finishing eighth and 21st respectively in the normal hill event. He won the East German national title in 1952-53, 1957 and 1961. At that time there were six winter sportsmen from Brotterode with the name Lesser, so Werner became known as Lesser II. A trained bookkeeper he then joined the East German Volkspolizei. From 1962-91 Lesser was a ski jumping coach at Brotterode and in his honor the local slope was named the Werner Lesser II Ski Jump Arena in 2009.