Overview
- Several German outlets report that Wolfgang Behrendt has died at age 90, with news of his death first made public in late July 2026.
- Behrendt won bantamweight Olympic gold at the 1956 Melbourne Games, becoming the first athlete to claim an Olympic title for the German Democratic Republic.
- After retiring from competition he worked as a sports photographer for the SED paper Neues Deutschland from 1963 to 1991 and then as a freelance photographer at later Olympics and world championships.
- Records and reporting say GDR sports officials and the Ministry for State Security monitored Behrendt because he kept ties to relatives in the West, a fact that complicated his role in East German sport governance.
- His later life included volunteer work for a regional children’s hospice, recent family losses with two sons having predeceased him, and public tributes from figures such as boxer Henry Maske.