Race track disaster in Berlin
The racetrack disaster in Berlin , also known as “Black Sunday”, was an accident on the Berlin cycling track “Botanischer Garten” on July 18, 1909. During a standing race , a pacemaker's motorcycle crashed into the stands and his tank exploded. Nine people were killed and more than 40 injured. No other accident in German cycling claimed so many victims.
Opening of the railway
On July 18, 1909, the Berlin Radrennbahn was ceremoniously opened with a race day in the "Alter Botanischer Garten" sports park on Potsdamer Strasse . The botanical garden had recently moved to the new location in Dahlem . The 333 1/3 meter long railway was the only open-air railway - that is, without a roof - made of wood in the German Empire, and it had a reputation for being particularly fast. The former high cyclist Adolf Elsner was the builder and director of the railway. Cycle racing was booming at that time: there were 14 open-air tracks in the Berlin area alone, and only four months earlier the first Berlin six-day race and thus the first in Europe with teams of two had taken place in a covered hall near the Zoological Garden .
The “Alter Botanischer Garten” cycling track was mainly intended for standing races, which were very popular at the time: the racing cyclists - standing up - drove behind motorbikes; through the slipstream , speeds of up to 100 km / h could be achieved. Many pacemakers who steered the motorcycles used the “leadership tandem”, that is, motorcycles with two seats, which were common at the time. The approval for the opening of the railway had been granted, although the residents had objected in a letter of protest on June 1, 1909 because of the noise and odor nuisance associated with it. The responsible district doctor, to whom this objection was presented, weighed down the objections with the remark that the operation on the racetrack would not cause any greater noise than the usual street noise of a big city. According to the newspaper Rad-Welt , this was true: "The dreaded annoyance of the adjacent streets as a result of the cracking of the engine did not occur [...], since the enormous vehicle and road traffic almost drowned out the engine noise [...]."
The inauguration took place on July 18, 1909, a warm summer's day. Despite the high entry fee - two gold marks - the race was very well attended. Around 6,200 spectators fit in the stands, which was comparatively little for the conditions at the time. It still smelled of fresh tar, as the wooden planks of the beam substructure and the slats of the railway had been sealed with carbolineum shortly before the opening .
the accident
It was shortly before five o'clock in the afternoon when the starting gun was fired for the hour-long standing race, the most important competition of the day. Stars of the international cycling scene had competed, such as the Dutchman John Stol , the Frenchman Henri Contenet or Fritz Ryser from Switzerland as well as the local hero, the 24-year-old European champion Arthur Stellbrink . Two racing drivers started wearing protective goggles. When asked about this, they said that the track soaked with carbolineum was not yet completely dry and the rear wheel of the lead machine had sprayed drops backwards during training.
The spectators were particularly crowded in the north curve to Potsdamer Strasse, from where they had the best view. The starting gun was fired, the motorcycles clattered in front of the cyclists. After about 20 kilometers, the pacemaker Werner Krüger , who was leading the racing driver Stol, crashed with his machine while overtaking. It was later suspected that the rear tire had burst due to abrasion on the still damp surface of the track. The helmsman of the following leadership tandem, Emil Borchardt , tried to evade, his motorcycle flew over the gang into the crowd of spectators on the north curve, the gas tank burst, the leaking gasoline caught fire like an explosion.
In the Rad-Welt sports album , the story was described as follows: “[…] Borchardt, the helmsman of the Ryser tandem, had to turn sharply upwards to avoid a fall. At the fast pace, however, he was unable to hold the machine. She ran in a horizontal position about 10 m along the balustrade and then flew in a high arc between the audience. "
A flame shot from the north stand meters high into the sky. “A motor car is burning brightly on the cornering square, motorcycles and racing drivers are rushing, some of them fly like cannonballs that have been shot down onto the interior sand square. Motorcycles and bicycles whiz down the track, the spectators jump pale and excited from their seats, a moment of perplexed dismay reigns among the thousands of spectators, ”an eyewitness later reported to the Berliner Tageblatt . The fire spread rapidly - the freshly tarred track provided sufficient tinder . Spectators were buried under the burning motorcycle; soaked in gasoline, their clothes caught fire. Screams could be heard; burning people ran around: "There was a terrible panic."
“From the saddle place you can see a courageous group of men fiddling around the burning engine, several people are being pulled out from under the fire-breathing engine,” described one witness. “The first victim is a lady. Her black, lace-trimmed clothing is in bright flames, zealous hands tear the burning rags from her body until she stands there in her pants and rags of shirt. "Six people died immediately in the flames, more than 40 were seriously injured. At least three other people later died in the hospital. There is a photo of the accident (top right); such a snapshot is extremely unusual for the time.
The Berlin cycling journalist Fredy Budzinski wrote seven days later under the heading "Mors Imperator" ("Ruler Death"), which he also metaphorically called "the black" in his text:
“With superhuman strength the black man grabs the machine and the crew, lifts it up and hurls it with terrible force into the crowded spectators. A sheaf of flames rises. The giant flame illuminates the site in a horrible way. When the flame went out, the black man threw off his cloak and mask and showed himself to the people. See, I'm everywhere, here today, in Brussels tomorrow, I am the Mors Imperator. "
Consequences of the accident
Investigation and criticism
The Berliner Tageblatt wrote on July 20, 1909: “Yesterday afternoon there was a local meeting at the accident site, attended by senior court officials, representatives of the police headquarters and several fire service officers. [...] The racetrack will remain closed for a long time. It seems questionable at all whether it will be released again in this state. "
On the day of the accident, experts criticized the inadequate safety precautions of the provisionally built and possibly hastily opened racetrack in newspaper articles. Allegedly there was no medical tent, no stretchers and no emergency doctor. In addition, there was no fire hydrant in the vicinity, so that the firefighters present could not fight the fire immediately - it was later pointed out that this gasoline fire could only have been extinguished with sand anyway. Even days later, police officers, fire officers and engineers puzzled in the newspapers how the accident could have happened. No information is available about a final official result of the investigations.
The observers also came to the conclusion that the track, only eight meters wide, was much too narrow, so that the drivers hardly had any space to overtake. In addition, the public should have been better protected, for example "by a double barrier with a space of about one and a half meters", as the long-time director of the Treptow Sports Park , Ernst Wilke, wrote at the time.
On the Thursday after the disaster, a protest meeting took place among the residents who, in view of the accident, demanded the removal of all sports facilities in the Botanical Garden and finally decided to lodge a complaint with the police chief. On July 24th, just six days after the accident, the Rad-Welt commented : “The call for the police is second nature to many people and there has never been anything new in the world that has not been protested against would."
Prohibition of standing races
In the same week, the Ministry of the Interior banned cycling races with motor pacemakers in Prussia , which the cycling world attributed to the "agitation" and "sensationalism" in other newspapers. Circles outside of cycling criticized, while those responsible were unapologetic. The director of the Sportpark Steglitz , Ferdinand Knorr, said: “ If the ban were upheld, cycling would be seriously endangered.” Although he admitted that the protection of spectators had to be improved, the ban was impossible to protect the driver and pacemaker could be thought. Then motorcycles would have to be banned on the streets. If the ban is upheld, he announced legal action. The Rad-Welt newspaper indignantly denied all allegations that organizers, drivers or pacemakers were complicit, but it was furious about the provisional ban on the races and the reports in other newspapers that talked about “brutality” and “bestiality” had been. “[It] flew many pens over the paper to express a long-held hatred of cycling. The [...] press saw their task in insulting the bike races and the racing drivers [...]. "
New regulations
On August 17th, four weeks after the serious accident, new regulations for races with pacemakers were issued and allowed again. On the one hand, the spectators should be better protected by structural measures, and on the other hand, the speeds during the races should be reduced. The slowdown was to be achieved, among other things, by prohibiting artificial wind protection and relocating the protective role on the pacemaker machines 40 centimeters further back.
Compensation for the victims
The accident had neither financial nor legal consequences for the railway operators. The victims had banded together to sue the racecourse administration, which was insured after all. Despite the criticism from many quarters, the experts stated in court that such an accident - especially the explosion of the engine in the grandstand - could ultimately not have been expected. The decisive factor was the argument that the construction police finally allowed races to be held. This rejected the victims' claims.
The residents, on the other hand, had more success: the track and the other sports facilities (including Nick Kaufmann's roller-skating track ) in the "Old Botanical Garden" were dismantled or torn down in the spring of the following year and the cycling track was called the "Olympiabahn" in Plötzensee ( on Königsdamm / near Beusselstrasse). Heinrich von Kleist Park was laid out on the site of the “Old Botanical Garden” and opened in 1911.
Deadly standing races
The racing drivers and pacemakers were not - at least outwardly - impressed by this misfortune. Only the Dutch racing driver John Stol is known to have subsequently refused to drive motorized races, allegedly at the request of his parents. One of the pacemakers was later awarded a medal for his rescue attempts.
Although fatal accidents often occurred - especially in standing races - the racing drivers pursued “business as usual”. Just a few days later, the Belgian racing driver Karel Verbist had a fatal accident in Brussels , and shortly afterwards the Dutch pacemaker Hendrik Hayck died of the consequences of an accident that he suffered in Cologne in April. The pacemaker Werner Krüger, who got away with his life on “Black Sunday”, had a fatal accident in 1931 on the cycling track in Cologne . In the numerous accidents that happened on the racetracks back then, drivers or pacemakers were usually killed. Before each race, the drivers had to face the fact that it could be their last.
None of the drivers died in the accident in Berlin, only spectators. From the newspaper reports on this "racetrack disaster" it emerges that two spectators had already died in October 1905 on the Paris Buffalo Velodrome . After that, their heads had been smashed by a team of standing people when they leaned too far over the gang.
During the imperial era, the permanent drivers behind engines were the gladiators, who gave daily life the supposedly necessary flavor with their life-threatening demonstrations. They were seen as heroes with “typically German” qualities such as stamina and the will to win. And her death was taken almost as a matter of course: “The dangerous occupation of long-term drivers has made many sacrifices, but this unfortunate side effect of sport should not be taken too tragically, because every sport brings with it a danger. The attraction of sport lies in overcoming danger, and just as war triggers the highest man's virtues in the field of honor, so sport in the peaceful struggle for honor also triggers the virtues that are most valued in men. " writes the scientist René Schilling in his book “War Heroes”: “The glorification of death took on more and more hybrid (here: measured) forms in the entire bourgeois camp until 1913.” Rabenstein described gigantism and record addiction of the time as “phenomena that in particular around and after the turn of the century they appeared in the fields of technology and sport ":" In this respect, cycling is in the trend of the time that believes in absolute progress and considers everything to be feasible that affects people with the help of technology and natural science. "
The spectators adored their sport idols: they bought the newspaper Rad-Welt every day , which not only reported on the sporting successes of the drivers, but also on their private lives. They collected postcards with the pictures of their heroes, hunted autographs and “after deaths by the thousands at funerals”. The Rad-Welt's sports album had a regular column entitled “Die Toten der Rennbahn”, and the journalist Wolfgang Gronen wrote many years later that the Rad-Welt had prepared obituaries from racing drivers “in stock” until the 1930s.
According to Budzinski's count, there were 47 fatalities between 1899 and 1928 (see list of fatally injured cyclists ). Not to forget the number of racing drivers who, due to serious injuries, were no longer able to work in their profession and who often lived on as disabled people in poverty. In view of this terrible balance, Budzinski is said to have exclaimed at the end of the 1920s: “I wish the petrol engine would never have come on the racetrack!” The number of racing drivers who had crashed has declined since the time between the two world wars. There were several reasons for this: The racetracks were always better designed for high speeds - the Münster architect Clemens Schürmann set the tone here , who was also the first to wear a self-made crash cap made from a spiked cap with a women's stocking. The motorcycles became safer; Above all, the quality of the tires was improved and they were less and less likely to burst, which was often the cause of accidents. In 1935 it was also compulsory to wear fall caps. Previously, drivers had resisted wearing the caps and placed them on the tank while driving. The last stayers to die after a fall were the two-time Dortmund world champion Erich Metze in 1952 , after he had barely survived two serious falls with fractured skulls in the 1930s and a war injury, and in 1978 the multiple GDR standing master from Erfurt , Karl Kaminski ; the last pacemaker to die in a fatal accident was Felicien Van Ingelghem on the Olympic track in Amsterdam in 1963. Another reason for the decline in falls in standing races is that they are being played less and less.
References and comments
- ↑ The Berlin cycling journalist Fredy Budzinski christened the accident "Black Sunday".
- ^ Rad-Welt , July 8, 1909. Open cycle tracks were usually made of cement.
- ↑ Hans Czihak: Serious accident in the bike race . In: Berlinische Monatsschrift 2/1995 at the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein , p. 105.
- ^ Rad-Welt , July 6, 1909.
- ↑ a b Rad-Welt , July 14, 1909.
- ↑ Czihak: Serious accident in the bike race . In: Berliner Tageblatt , July 19, 1909, p. 106.
- ↑ Adolph Schulze: The cycling sport in 1909 . In: Sport-Album der Rad-Welt 1909 , year 8/1910, p. 11.
- ↑ a b c d Berliner Tageblatt , July 19, 1909.
- ↑ Sources other than the Berliner Tageblatt speak of eleven dead. The different numbers came about because some victims only died in the hospital after days, some after weeks.
- ↑ With the keyword “Brussels” Budzinski referred to the fatal fall of racing cyclist Karel Verbist in Brussels ( Karreveld-Radrennbahn ) just three days after the Berlin accident.
- ↑ Berliner Tageblatt. July 20, 1909. No files are available from the investigations and results of this commission.
- ↑ quoted from: Der Tagesspiegel , January 31, 2007.
- ^ Rad-Welt , July 24, 1909.
- ^ Rad-Welt , August 1, 1909.
- ↑ Berliner Tageblatt , July 25, 1909.
- ^ Rad-Welt , August 30, 1909.
- ^ Rad-Welt , July 25, 1909.
- ^ Rad-Welt , August 22, 1909. Adolph Schulze: The cycling sport in 1909 . In: Sport-Album der Rad-Welt 1909 , 8th Jg./1910, p. 13. The role serves to give every driver (standing) the same distance to the pacemaker (and thus the same slipstream) as well as a necessary degree of safety to guarantee.
- ↑ Der Tagesspiegel , January 31, 2007.
- ^ Rad-Welt , August 6, 1909.
- ↑ Sportalbum der Rad-Welt 1907 , 6th year, Berlin 1908, p. 53.
- ↑ René Schilling: "War Heroes" - Attempts to interpret heroic masculinity in Germany 1813–1945 . Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 3-506-74483-6 , p. 202.
- ^ Rüdiger Rabenstein: Cycling and Society . Hildesheim 1996, p. 95.
- ↑ Toni Theilmeier: The wild, daring hunt: The rise of professional standing sport in Germany . Leipzig 2009, p. 33.
- ↑ a b Wolfgang Gronen: How do I protect my head? Manuscript o. O., Wolfgang Gronen archive in the central library of sports science of the German Sport University Cologne.
- ↑ Wolfgang Gronen, Walter Lemke: History of cycling . Eupen 1987, p. 277.
Coordinates: 52 ° 29 ′ 32.5 ″ N , 13 ° 21 ′ 31.4 ″ E