Adolf Weidmann

Adolf Weidmann (born October 8, 1901 in Frankfurt am Main , † June 26, 1997 in Matzenbach ) was a German athlete and sports official . He is best known for his numerous age group records in the ultramarathon .

biography

Family, education and work

Weidmann was the first of five sons of Adolf Weidmann (1867-1936) and his wife Karolina, née Munzinger (1872-1945). The family migrated via Riga, Warsaw and Kiev to Rowno, where the father worked as a master brewer. With the outbreak of the First World War they were expelled and later moved to Lorraine, which they had to leave again after the end of the war. In a roundabout way they got to Glan-Münchweiler in Rhineland-Palatinate .

After the substitute matriculation examination at the secondary school, Weidmann began a commercial apprenticeship at the Eisenwerke Kaiserslautern , where he was also taken on as an employee. From 1925 to 1932 he studied economics at the Mannheim Commercial College and the University of Frankfurt / Main . He graduated in 1929 with a degree in business administration and received his doctorate in 1933 with a thesis on "The Effects of Beer Taxation in the Period from 1924-1930". From 1933 he worked as a consultant and clerk in the management of the Reich Association of German Wholesalers with Hemp Products and the Reich Association of German Twine Wholesalers in Berlin.

Weidmann joined the NSDAP in 1933. After he had served in the Wehrmacht in the first half of 1941, he was called up in the summer of 1941 as a senior war administrator on the East Economic Staff . Until the end of 1944 he worked as a personal advisor for special tasks under Gustav Schlotterer in the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories and at the same time occupied a corresponding position in the Eastern Department of the Reich Ministry of Economics . Weidmann was then transferred to the economic department of the chief quartermaster of the Vistula Army Group until May 1945 .

After his capture and imprisonment in Schwerin, Weidmann moved to Bavaria, where he was denazified in front of the Weilheim ruling chamber . In 1949 he worked as a commercial clerk in Penzberg . From 1949 until his retirement in 1966, Weidmann was employed by the Bank deutscher Länder and the Deutsche Bundesbank in Frankfurt / Main, where he went from accountant to chairman of the main staff council.

Sports

Weidmann got enthusiastic about sport from an early age. In 1922 he was a co-founder of the gymnastics and sports club Glan-Münchweiler . During his studies he took part in several university championships . His strongest competition distances at that time were 800 meters to 5000 meters. As chairman of the main staff council at the Deutsche Bundesbank , he was involved in the establishment and development of its sports department.

It was not until 1966 that Weidmann first found out about the Biel running days with the 100-kilometer ultramarathon when he was 64 . Later he said: “Without thinking too much, I said that this route could be done.” In 1966 he crossed the finish line in his first run in Biel after 17 hours and eight minutes as 276th out of a total of 794 starters. In 1974 he ran his fastest 100-kilometer run with 14:50 h, in 1982 he achieved the world best performance in his age group M80 (men over 80 years) with 20:40 h. Even after that, he was at the start again and again and ran the German age group record in the age group M85 (men from 85 years) in 1986 with 21 hours. Two years later (1988) he even achieved the world best in this age group with 21:32:21 h . In 1991, as a 90-year-old, he ran this route in 22:35:13 h.

Over a 10,000-meter run at the doctors and pharmacists championships in August 1995, which Weidmann managed in 1:35 hours as a 92-year-old, he said that the journey by train was more exhausting for him than the run.

On November 25, 1994, the German Ultramarathon Association (DUV) made him its first honorary member and in October 1997, after his death, donated the Dr. Adolf Weidmann Prize.

Teaspoon rations

Because of problems with food intake during his runs, which he denied as marches with increasing age, Weidmann wanted to end his ultramarathon career in the mid-1970s. After the Munich marathon on September 17, 1977, however, he discovered that he could take beer in very small sips. This method, he called it “teaspoon rations”, contributed to his success from 1978 onwards. Otherwise, he could not have any food or drink during the runs. However, he later preferred mineral water or whole milk instead of beer .

Adolf Weidmann and Biel

Weidmann started a total of 23 times in the Biel 100-kilometer run and reached the finish line 20 times. In doing so, he set four age-class records :

Run	year	Age	time	space	Attendees	Remarks
01	1966	64	17:08:00	276	794
02	1967	65	unknown	259	973
03	1970	68	unknown	672	1804
04	1971	69	unknown	627	1971
05	1972	70	unknown	653	2595
06	1974	72	14:50:00	806	3447	Personal best
07	1975	73	unknown	1317	3747
08	1976	74	unknown	1936	3927
09	1977	75	unknown	2082	3775
10	1978	76	unknown	1978	4044
11	1979	77	unknown	2617	3946
12	1980	78	not arrived	---	4106	Shoulder and arm pain
13	1981	79	not arrived	---	4054	Stomach discomfort
14th	1982	80	20:40:00	2586	4012	World best M80 (until 1998)
15th	1983	81	20:46:00	3072	4248
16	1984	82	21:12:00	3127	4119
17th	1985	83	21:01:00	2711	3892
18th	1986	84	21:00:00	2687	3674	German record M85
19th	1987	85	not arrived	---	3414
20th	1988	86	21:32:21	2499	3932	World best M85
21st	1989	87	21:09:21	2367	3488
22nd	1990	88	22:23:37	2317	3715
23	1991	89	22:35:13	2025	3404	German record M90

Adolf Weidmann as an author

A few reports about his runs have come down to us from Adolf Weidmann. A very detailed description of his first 100-kilometer run is kept in the archive of the Bieler Lauftage and published on www.steppenhahn.de. In addition, he has published some stories from the area (e.g. local history, customs, ...) in the Westrich calendar, which is published by the Kusel district (Palatinate).

In 1983 Adolf Weidmann also wrote an article about himself and his training with reference to the Biel 100-kilometer run for the Westrich calendar

Web links

• Short biography - project "Officials of National Socialist Reich Ministries"
• List of honorary members of the German Ultra Marathon Association (archive link)
• Biel running days on steppenhahn.de with links to his running reports