Schwank, best known as the former chief executive of the Munich 2018 Olympic bid, is to become head of department at the Ministry of Family, Youth, Culture and Sport in North Rhine-Westphalia.

He will formally take up his new position on May 1, leaving his role as DOSB chief of International Relations.

A longstanding senior official in German sports, Schwank was a former DOSB secretary general before moving to the sport director role in 2006. 

He had only shifted to the international relations position in January this year.

Schwank was also Chef de Mission of the German team at Vancouver 2010, where the nation finished in an impressive second place on the medals table, before being present again at Sochi 2014.

He then replicated his Chef de Mission role at the Nanjing 2014 Summer Youth Olympics and at the Baku 2015 European Games, where he was also a member of the European Olympic Committees' Coordination Commission. 

More recently, the 55-year-old from Mainz had been a major part of the abandoned Hamburg 2024 Olympic and Paralympic bid, being named director of sport and international relations alongside bid leader Nikolas Hill.

It is possible that Hamburg's withdrawal from the race last year following a failed referendum could have helped encourage his move out of the DOSB.

It marks the second high profile departure from the DOSB in the last 12 months after head of media and public relations Christian Klaue left to join the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

He was re-united with former IOC President Thomas Bach, who was replaced as DOSB chief by Alfons Hörmann after being elected to his new role in 2013.