Albert Richter (cyclist)

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The portrait medallion on the gravestone shows Albert Richter in the 1932 world championship jersey
Memorial plaque for Albert Richter
at the Rhineland Hall in Cologne-Ehrenfeld
Design: U. Schnackenberg
Richter died in Lörrach prison under circumstances that have never been clarified.
Gravestone of Albert Richter

Albert Richter (born October 14, 1912 in Cologne-Ehrenfeld ; † January 2, 1940 in Lörrach ) was a German racing cyclist who became world champion in sprint ( track cycling ) among amateurs in 1932 . As a professional between 1933 and 1939 he was a seven-time German champion and twice vice world champion.

Richter died in prison in Lörrach after he was arrested on December 31, 1939 at the Swiss border for foreign exchange smuggling. The last officially stated but unbelievable cause of death was " suicide by hanging ". The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung called him "an athlete who perished in a criminal period due to his uncompromising manner and his moral courage."

biography

Albert Richter was born in Cologne in 1912 . He grew up on Sömmeringstraße 72 in the Cologne district of Ehrenfeld. On the one hand, the father wanted to give the son a solid professional training, but on the other hand he had violin lessons given to him, just as his two brothers learned to play an instrument at an early age. Albert learned his father's trade, plaster sculptor.

Cologne was one of the strongholds of German cycling in the first decades of the 20th century . Track cycling was particularly popular with athletes and the public. Against the express will of his father, Albert Richter trained secretly and drove his first races on the road and on the track at the age of 16. Due to a broken collarbone , this was discovered and had violent arguments with the father. The son prevailed and was already considered the best amateur sprinter in the Rhineland at the age of 19 , so that the press began to be interested in him.

In 1932 Richter won the classic Grand Prix de Paris among the amateurs; as a professional, he later succeeded in doing this twice. Since the Association of German Cyclists (BDR) could not finance the participation in the Olympic Games in the USA, the riders prepared for the World Championship, which took place in Rome in September. Albert Richter was meanwhile unemployed. He almost didn't get the stamp money because he was on the road too often because of the races; He therefore had to refuse participation in some races.

Another serious fall at the German championships in July did not prevent the sensation: On September 3, 1932, Richter became world champion of the amateurs in the sprint in Rome, the second from Cologne after Mathias Engel , who had won this title in 1927, albeit in front of a home crowd.

In the same year Richter was awarded the " Golden Ribbon " from the "Association of Sports Journalists Berlin-Brandenburg".

Change from amateur to professional

Encouraged by the successes and in order to be able to support his family, Richter switched to the professionals. Further brilliant victories moved his Jewish trainer and manager Ernst Berliner to send him to Paris , to the center of track cycling, to compete against the best. The young man was homesick at first, but later liked to stay in this metropolis after he had learned the French language. In the local press, Richter, who also won the French sprint tournament Grand Prix de l'UVF in 1935 and 1938 , was called the "German eight-cylinder". Richter started many times in the Vélodrome d'Hiver , where later, in 1942, around 13,000 Jews were interned by the Germans under unspeakable conditions before they were transported to concentration camps.

Richter lived mainly abroad for several reasons: In Germany there were only very few events for aviators (then the name for sprinters), as the public there was primarily interested in the standing and six-day races and even these were no longer held from 1934 . Richter also lacked equal competition. He joined an international "sprinter hiking group" in which many drivers were friends and often spent their free time together. On the track, athletic ambition counted, but otherwise the troop was considered a "fun and easy-going bunch".

Together with the Belgian Jef Scherens and the French Louis Gérardin , with whom Richter was a close friend, they were known as the "three musketeers". Scherens won the world championship title in 1934 ( Leipzig ) in front of Richter and Gérardin, a painful defeat for Cologne. Eyewitnesses report that at the award ceremony for the German championship that same year in Hanover , Richter refrained from giving the " German greeting ".

His Swiss sprinter colleague Sepp Dinkelkamp later said: “I am happy to confirm that Albert was an anti-Nazi. Long before the war he saw the goings-on and the machinations of this gang of criminals, that's what Albert called the Nazis ... If he had cooperated with the Nazis, it would have been of great benefit to him. Albert chose the other way. "

Under observation

Although Ernst Berliner had to emigrate to the Netherlands to avoid the National Socialists, he remained Richter's manager, who, to the annoyance of the political leadership, competed at international events in a jersey with an imperial eagle on his chest instead of a swastika . Multiple attempts by the Gestapo to recruit judges as informers were unsuccessful. The athlete was also observed for smuggling wages: the majority of professional wages at the time would have had to be surrendered, except for a small fee for personal use.

When the Second World War broke out , Richter returned to Germany, but had the idea to emigrate: “When the war broke out in 1939, his statement is guaranteed that he would prefer to emigrate to France because he did not want to shoot his 'brothers' there. “Switzerland was also considered as a new home. On December 9, 1939, he won his last race, the “Berlin Grand Prix”.

death

On December 31, 1939 Richter left his hometown Cologne by train for Switzerland. In addition to his suitcases, he had his bike with him, in the tires of which were hidden 12,700 Reichsmarks, which belonged to the Cologne Jew Alfred Schweizer living abroad. Richter had promised him some time before that he would smuggle the money, even though his manager had warned him not to.

The travelers were checked in Weil am Rhein . Two Dutch driver colleagues, Cor Wals and Kees Pellenaars , who happened to be eyewitnesses, later reported how the inspectors searched Richter's luggage and quickly found it in Richter's tires. It is believed that German colleagues like Werner Miethe or Peter Steffes betrayed this hiding place to the Gestapo. That same evening, Richter was taken to the judicial prison in Lörrach . When his brother later wanted to visit him there, Richter's body was lying in the hospital's mortuary cellar, bloodied and with holes in his clothes.

The first official press version of Richter's death mentioned a skiing accident, which was initially believed and spread abroad until the two Dutch eyewitnesses reported Richter's arrest for foreign currency smuggling. After that, "shot while trying to escape" was given as the cause of death. Then another message appeared in the newspaper of the German Cyclists' Association (DRV), in which there was talk of suicide. She concluded with the words: “His name has been deleted from our ranks for all time.” The cycling journalist Fredy Budzinski reported after 1945 that he had to publish this press release about Richter's death in January 1940 on the orders of the Reich cycling guide Viktor Brack .

Albert Richter was buried in Cologne in the old Ehrenfeld cemetery, which today belongs to the Melaten cemetery , with great sympathy from the population.

Greatest successes

  • 1932: Winner of the “Grand Prix de Paris”, pilots, amateurs
  • 1932: World Champion as an amateur aviator (sprinter)
  • 1933–1939: German aviator champion, professionals
  • 1934 and 1935: Vice World Champion, a total of five times third
  • 1936: Winner of the Grand Prix of Nations
  • 1934 and 1938: winner of the “Grand Prix de Paris”, aviator, professional
  • December 9, 1939: "Grand Prix of Berlin".

Recognition posthumously

Stumbling block for Albert Richter. Design: Gunter Demnig
Albert-Richter-Strasse in Loerrach
Albert-Richter-Weg in Schwalbach am Taunus

Ernst Berliner, who had lost many relatives in concentration camps , tried to find out after the war what had happened in early January 1940. He was particularly interested in how the money could be found in the tires and whether someone had betrayed Richter. Berliner's criminal complaint filed in 1966 on suspicion of murder led to investigations by the public prosecutor's office, which, despite contradicting statements and many inconsistencies, were discontinued in 1967.

In July 1947, a race in memory of Albert Richter took place on the racetrack in Cologne-Riehl. After that, the DRV's threat to keep the judge's name deleted from its own annals forever after his alleged suicide persisted for a long time. For a long time Richter was neither recognized as a victim of National Socialism nor rehabilitated in any way.

In the 1950s Richter's Belgian competitor and friend visited Richter's parents in Cologne and had a portrait medallion affixed to Richter's tombstone, as is the custom in Belgium.

In the GDR, on the other hand, two special stamps - five series about athletes who had perished under the Nazi dictatorship - appeared in 1965 , and among them was a stamp with the - albeit atypical - portrait of Richter. There were also two sports facilities named after him ( Albert-Richter-Kampfbahn in Halle (Saale) and Schwerin ), a company sports group in Halle and a children's home in Zeesen in the former villa of Gustaf Gründgens . In addition, his fate was the subject of a children's and a youth book.

It was not until the late 1980s that the Hamburg filmmakers Raimund Weber and Tillmann Scholl began looking for clues in West Germany (documentary: In search of Albert Richter - cyclist 90 min., 16 mm, color, Sturmvogel-Filmproduktion Hamburg on behalf of NDR, first broadcast : December 23, 1989 NDR3).

In 1996 his grave in the Ehrenfeld cemetery (plot E8) became the town's honorary grave. The newly built cycling track in Cologne-Müngersdorf was named Albert-Richter-Bahn , and a memorial plaque was placed there in September 1997. The Association of German Cyclists announced a young talent competition as the Albert Richter Prize . In 1998 Renate Franz published the book The Forgotten World Champion.

In 2005, the French film production company Gédéon Programmes made a 52-minute documentary film about the fate of the Francophile athlete, which primarily traces his personal and athletic career against the background of the rising National Socialism.

A memorial plaque was put up for him at the former Rhineland Hall in Cologne-Ehrenfeld , where the Cologne six-day and other cycle races were held from 1928 and where Richter drove his first races. In May 2008 Albert Richter was inducted into the " Hall of Fame of German Sports " of the German Sports Aid Foundation . On January 17, 2009, Gunter Demnig laid a stumbling block for Richter in Sömmeringstrasse in Cologne-Ehrenfeld , in front of house no. 70 (house no. 72 in which he grew up no longer exists).

In Lörrach, the place where Albert Richter died, a street was named after him in 2010.

In October 2018, the film was leaping from Boaz Kaizman , Peter Rosenthal and Marcus Seibert Ernst Berlin on Richter Manager, Golden crank the International Cycling Film Festival in Herne excellent. In addition, the Souvenir Albert Richter Prize was awarded to the best cycling film for the first time at this festival .

On January 2, 2020, the 80th anniversary of his murder was commemorated in Cologne-Ehrenfeld at an event with 140 people. In January 2020, a path was named after him in Schwalbach am Taunus .

Movies

  • Raimund Weber, Tillmann Scholl: In search of Albert Richter - racing cyclist. NDR 1989, awarded the Golden Gong in 1990 .
  • Michel Viotte: Albert Richter, le champion qui a dit non. Arte / GEDEON programs, 2005.
  • Boaz Kaizman : Tiger Leaping . Cinema production, 2018.

literature

Web links

Commons : Albert Richter  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernd Steinle: Adored, betrayed - the riddle of a German idol. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . May 20, 1999 ( faz.net ).
  2. ↑ Prize winners until 2010. In: Website Association of Sports Journalists Berlin-Brandenburg. Association of Sports Journalists Berlin-Brandenburg, accessed on January 2, 2020 (German).
  3. ↑ Der Spiegel , September 29, 1997, p. 174.
  4. ^ Franz: The forgotten world champion: the mysterious fate of the Cologne cyclist Albert Richter. P. 102.
  5. ^ World champion Albert Richter • Cologne (newspaper report, copy on kulturkoeln30.de ).
  6. ^ The German cyclist , January 10, 1940.
  7. ^ Franz: The forgotten world champion: the mysterious fate of the Cologne cyclist Albert Richter. P. 129.
  8. ↑ No Hitler salute - The Cologne cyclist Albert "Teddy" Richter on hagalil.com, January 1, 2020
  9. ^ Franz: The forgotten world champion: the mysterious fate of the Cologne cyclist Albert Richter . P. 171.
  10. ↑ Lörrach: A stele against oblivion. In: Badische Zeitung . September 29, 2010, accessed March 30, 2016 .
  11. ↑ "Tiger Leaping" wins the Golden Crank. In: International Cycling Film Festival - press release. October 22, 2018, accessed October 22, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Roland Kaufhold (2020): No Hitler salute. In: haGalil.com: http://www.hagalil.com/2020/01/albert-teddy-richter/ . haGalil.com, January 1, 2010, accessed January 1, 2020 (German).
  13. ↑ A real hero. In: Schwalbacher Zeitung. May 18, 2019, accessed January 9, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Judge, Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Judge, Teddy (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German racing cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne-Ehrenfeld
DATE OF DEATH January 2, 1940
Place of death Loerrach