2002 World Equestrian Games

The German PR Machine - Thomas Hartwig

According to Hartwig, the media materials and information services ultimately benefit the German equestrian teams. "We have seen that it is not enough to be good in the sport. It is not enough to win gold medals every year. You must tell people about it. That's our job. In Germany, we have fantastic conditions – there are 1,600,000 riders and no other country has that many; but there are 78 million Germans who have nothing to do with horses and know nothing about them. That's why we must publish all of the information."

The German Public Relations department was started in 1990 "with low man power," said Hartwig. It has grown over the past 12 years and today has three journalists plus one chief (Hartwig) and "one-and-a-half secretary jobs." But according to Hartwig, though this may seem like a sufficient number of people to handle the job, every weekend there are more than a dozen big horse shows that German riders compete in, and the results must be reported. He would like to add one more person to his staff to maintain the website, which is currently at 900 pages.