From Eder to Helbig: the dead of 2025

They were Olympic champions, world champions, sports stars or officials. As the year draws to a close, Deutsche Presse-Agentur remembers those who passed away in 2025.

Tobias Eder (March 4, 1998 - January 29, 2025)

The untimely death of national ice hockey player Tobias Eder shook the German sports world right at the start of the year. In August 2024, the Eisbären Berlin player was diagnosed with a malignant tumor during a routine examination. As a result, the then 26-year-old no longer played.

The Eisbären believed and hoped for a long time that he would recover. Eder was still part of the team and appeared at official events. After his health deteriorated rapidly from December onwards, the team was unable to play a DEL game at the end of January, which was subsequently postponed. The Eisbären dedicated the championship win to their "Tobi". They signed his brother Andreas Eder for the new season.

Tobi Eder played ice hockey from an early age. Between 2015 and 2024, he made 296 appearances in the German Ice Hockey League for EHC Red Bull München, Düsseldorfer EG and the Eisbären. He made his debut for the national team in April 2021 and took part in the World Cup for the first time in 2024. In total, Eder made 27 international appearances and scored nine points.

Tassilo Thierbach (May 21, 1956 - April 19, 2025):

Tassilo Thierbach, the 1982 pairs skating world champion, had been quiet for a long time. His death only became known almost a week after his passing. Thierbach died as a result of cancer in a clinic in Chemnitz at the age of 68.

Thierbach, who was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt, now Chemnitz, won the world championship gold medal with his figure skating partner Sabine Baeß in 1982. The duo became European champions in the same year and in 1983. Thierbach and Baeß were thus the most successful figure skating pair in the history of the GDR. However, they were denied a medal at the Olympic Games. At the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo, the duo finished in fourth place.

He remained loyal to the sport many years after his active career. He worked in the team of pair skating coach Ingo Steuer at the base in Chemnitz.

Helmut Hergesell (October 22, 1941 - August 24, 2025):

Helmut Hergesell was not just anyone at FC Hansa Rostock. He was a legend. He became one as a loyal player, coach and official. Born in Munich, the path of "Metzer", as he was known in Rostock, led him to Greifswald after the Second World War and then to Rostock in 1963. He played 230 competitive matches for Empor and later for FC Hansa, whose founding event he attended in 1965.

The robust full-back had to end his career in 1973 due to injury. But he remained loyal to FC Hansa. The sports teacher with a doctorate worked as a coach for the youth team and then for the Oberliga team from April 1, 1975. When he joined the club, he was the youngest coach in the GDR's top division at the time. He sat on the Kogge bench until October 1978.

Hergesell earned lasting merits after reunification, when he initially acted as full-time managing director and later as deputy chairman of the board. In this role, he was responsible for the construction of the new Ostseestadion. The FC Hansa stadium was inaugurated on August 4, 2001 after 16 months of construction.

Harry Jahns (October 12, 1951 - August 30, 2025):

Harry Jahns died at the age of 73 following a long illness. Magdeburg has lost a man who was dedicated to handball his entire life.

Jahns made a name for himself as a tough defensive player in the GDR's top league. Friends and opponents spoke reverently of "Iron Harry". He spent 17 years at SC Magdeburg and won everything that could be won at club level with the Green-Red team: Eight GDR championship titles, three cup victories, two European Champions Cup victories and finally he also became European club champion once. As a coach, he won the A-Youth Championship eight times with SCM and the B-Youth Championship six times. To this day, no other youth coach has achieved this.

Jahns began his career after SC in 2023 when he founded HSV Magdeburg. Here he devoted himself primarily to women's handball. He was supported by his son Michael Jahns, who is continuing his father's legacy at HSV.

Otto Fräßdorf (February 5, 1942 - October 8, 2025):

Fast, attacking, dangerous - these are the attributes associated with the name Otto Fräßdorf. Fräßdorf embodied what is required of a modern defender today back in the 1960s at FC Vorwärts Berlin and in the GDR national team.

Fräßdorf made 183 appearances in the GDR's top division, scoring 31 goals in the process. He became champion four times with the Berliners. He made his debut for the national team at the age of 21. He has 33 international caps to his name and twice captained the team. His greatest international success was winning the Olympic bronze medal in Tokyo in 1964.

Back problems brought his playing career to an abrupt end in 1971. Fräßdorf became a coach. After years in the youth section of the NVA soccer training center in Strausberg, he took over the second division footballers of ASG Vorwärts Dessau from 1978 to 1984. After reunification, the Magdeburg native worked as a cab driver in Berlin.

Marcus Helbig (December 27, 1971 - September 10, 2025):

When people talk about the world's best handball referees, the name Marcus Helbig automatically comes up. From 1993, the administrative assistant at the Federal Employment Agency teamed up with fellow referee Lars Geipel to form a team that was in demand both nationally and internationally. More than 600 games in the German Handball Federation and over 250 international matches were officiated by Helbig/Geipel.

At the age of 17, Helbig donned the referee's uniform and ensured that the games were conducted in accordance with the rules until the end of his career in 2021. His calm, level-headed demeanor was rewarded with appointments to two Olympic Games, four men's and two women's World Championships and five men's European Championships. The duo also officiated the men's Champions League final twice. After ending their careers due to illness, Helbig/Geipel were honored with the German Handball Awards for their lifetime achievement.