Marcus Urban

Urban was born and grew up in the city of Weimar, which was then in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). From 1984, when he was 13, until 1991 he attended a boarding sports school in the nearby city of Erfurt, support by the 2nd division Bundesliga club FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt (Erfurt city football club; Red and White are the club colours). Such schools were widely used in the former Eastern bloc countries. He trained with East German world sports champions and olympic medal winners. He played for the East Germany national youth football teams from 1986 to 1989. In 1990, he was given an amateur contract to play for Rot-Weiß Erfurt. He played against future players of the Germany national team such as Bernd Schneider, Thomas Linke, Steffen Freund and Frank Rost. He was about to become a professional football player, but in 1991, he decided to quit due to the pressure of having to hide his homosexuality from the football world. In 1991, he began studies in urban and regional planning at Bauhaus-Universität in Weimar, graduating in 2000 with a master's degree in engineering, specialising in renewable energy. During this time, he spent a semester at Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II in Naples. He undertook his civilian service year in 1997, working for an organisation that provided special therapies for disabled children based on theatre, music and art. Urban came out to family and friends in 1994, but it was not until 13 years later, in 2007, that he publicly…