It's not about the country as such, though, is it? It's about the people. The people who won those medals for East Germany were from places which are now (and were previously) part of Germany, and those who are still alive are German citizens.
Probably because the USA are better known for their prowess in the Summer Olympics. Interesting, though, that USA still shows up at 100%, so your fail hasn't made much of a splash.
Yeah except that if you could all medal won by the United States, USSR, and Norway as medals won by Zimbabwe then Zimbabwe would be #1 and it would make the same amount of sense.
East Germany no longer exists. It's not part of any country. West Germany did not win those medals, just as Zimbabwe did not win any of the medals previously won by the USSR.
East Germany didn't win these medals but their athletes did and these people are German citizens living in Germany nowadays (if they're still alive that is). Sure you could argue that it would be unfair to count both east and west German medals as medals won by Germany because many of these medals were won by east and west Germans in the exact same disciplines (especially if there's a limit on how many athletes from one country are allowed or if it's a team discipline where only 1 team per country is participating). Still that doesn't change the fact that these athletes were Germans and it's a completely different situation with countries like the Soviet Union because they didn't have only Russians winning their medals but also athletes from other soviet republics like Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia etc.
There's this pesky concept of "successor states", which is universally accepted by everyone except kalbahamut when it's convenient for the USA. Of course East German medals should count for Germany, just as Soviet Union medals should count for Russia.
West Germany = Germany = Federal Republic of Germany.
East Germany = German Democratic Republic.
East Germany was a separate country that no longer exists.