Leipzig cycling track

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Race on the Alfred-Rosch-Kampfbahn in 1971

The Leipzig Radrennbahn (formerly Alfred-Rosch-Kampfbahn ) is located in Kleinzschocher , a district of the Saxon city ​​of Leipzig .

Today's cycle track

The Leipzig cycling track is 400 meters long, made of concrete and semi-open, making it the longest of its kind in Germany. It is 7.50 meters wide and the curve superelevation is 26 degrees. It was originally named after Alfred Rosch , a communist functionary from Leipzig who was shot by looters in July 1945. In 1992 it was renamed Radrennbahn Leipzig .

In 1948, on the basis of a private initiative , cyclists from the SC Großzschocher association began building a cycling track on the grounds of the sports field on Windorfer Straße. The existing cinder track was used for this and curves were added. The first race on the Alfred-Rosch-Kampfbahn started on April 30, 1949, at that time still on an ash surface. Gerd Thiemichen and Jürgen Müller won the opening race, a two-man team event . Just two months later there was the first electrical system, which now also allowed evening races.

In 1951 it received a concrete pavement, a new spectator crossbar, as well as new lighting and electrics. The developer was the architects' office Richard Ludwig (which had already designed several bicycle racing tracks), the supporting company of the BSG Stahl Süd-West Leipzig association, the Leipzig iron and steel works and other Leipzig companies.

After an extensive renovation in 1970/71 with a partial roofing (it was the third facility of its kind worldwide besides Milan and Brno), the track became the venue for GDR cycling, where most of the track cycling events took place, including 29 GDR championships. 1957 took place World criterion of the stayers took place, and in 1958 after a 44-year break there was the first amateur world championships for the stayers, in 1960 the track competitions of the cycling world championships were held on it, with the exception of the professional stayer race that was held in Chemnitz . In 1971 the lift was given a roof over the slopes. and has been reconstructed. After the reopening, the GDR Grand Prix in the rail sprint took place regularly (until the end of the GDR) .

On October 7, 1978, the upright Karl Kaminski fell on the train and died the following day in hospital. In 1981 the Velodrome was the site of the Junior World Championships. The German standing championship was held several times on the track, most recently in 2009, 2011 and 2014, and the European championship in 2001. In 2004 the German Railway Championships also took place. The oldest standing race in the world, the Leipzig City Prize , was held for the 83rd time in 2014.

In 2010, the roof of the Leipzig Velodrome was simply renovated and a 9,000 square meter photovoltaic system was installed on it. The income from this system is intended for the structural maintenance of the railway.

The cycling track is operated by the city of Leipzig, which had leased it to the Saxon Cyclists' Association (SRB) free of charge since 1992 until the city terminated the contract on July 1, 2014. The reason for the termination was that the city wanted to set up the cycling track for other sports. The SRB did not want to hand over the railway, as the evacuation of the objects used would have massively disrupted sports operations. In January 2015, the SRB was sentenced to hand over the keys, the termination by the city was legal, so the district court of Leipzig. On November 2, 2015, the cycling track had to be handed over to the city “swept clean”. In February 2017 the Leipzig city council decided to renovate the cycling track with a six-figure sum.

Since 2018, the Radrennbahn Leipzig has been the training base of the track cycling group of the Veloristics Trackcycling Academy, which works closely with the City of Leipzig and the SC DHfK to keep the Radrennbahn alive.

In the summer of 2019, the Saxon Ministry of the Interior released 382 euros for the repair of the railway, the city added 433,000 euros. The money is not to be used to repair the railway itself, but rather to renovate the infrastructure such as the sewer system and drain the foundations of the main building. Work is scheduled to begin in spring 2020.

Leipzig sports field

European championships in 1904 on the cycling track in Lindenau

A predecessor of the Alfred-Rosch-Kampfbahn was a 500-meter-long cement track in Leipzig-Lindenau , built in 1892 , on which the 1908 , 1913 and 1934 UCI track world championships and several European and German championships were held. On June 30, 1901, the later two-time world champion Thaddäus Robl from Munich set the first hour record on a German track with 65.512 kilometers . At least three drivers were killed on the track in the very popular standing races at the time , including the popular Cologne Willy Schmitter at the 1905 European Standing Championship. It was also used for motorcycle races. The track was on the Leipzig sports field , popularly it was called Lindenau cement .

Inside the cycle track there was a soccer field that was the home of VfB Leipzig from 1897 to 1922 . The first international soccer match in Leipzig took place here in 1912 , in which the German national team lost 3-2 to the Netherlands .

In 1938, the entire sports facility, which was located on Cottaweg near the Palmengarten , was demolished to make room for the Gutenberg Reichsausstellung in 1940 to celebrate 500 years of printing, which never took place because of the outbreak of World War II . Today the site for the Leipzig Small Fair is located there .

Cycle races on the Leipzig sports field in 1899

Web links

Commons : Alfred-Rosch-Kampfbahn  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence


Coordinates: 51 ° 18 ′ 41.2 ″  N , 12 ° 19 ′ 40.9 ″  E

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Taubmann, Johannes Zimoch, Wilfried Schulz (eds.): Stand up again and again . Spotless-Verlag (cooperation), Berlin 2007, ISBN 3-937943-03-X , p. 148 .
  2. ↑ a b Journal of the Saxon Cyclists Association V. (Ed.): Cycling in Saxony . No. 1/2016 . Leipzig, S. 7-17 .
  3. ^ German Cycling Association of the GDR (ed.): The cyclist . No. 28/1971 . Berlin 1971, p. 1 .
  4. ↑ Leipziger Radrennbahn: Roof gets photovoltaic coating. In: sachsen-fernsehen.de. Archived from the original on July 2, 2016 ; Retrieved July 2, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Sabine Kreuz: City wins legal dispute: Radrennbahn in Kleinzschocher must be cleared. In: lvz-online.de. March 14, 2015, accessed March 9, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Radrennbahn: Leipzig provides ultimatum for cyclists' association. In: lvz.de. October 14, 2015, accessed August 27, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Sports funding doubled - Leipzig invests in Alfred Kunze sports park and cycling track. In: lvz.de. February 1, 2017. Retrieved August 27, 2017 .
  8. ↑ A.SM Sports: Track Cycling in Leipzig. Veloristics, January 10, 2019, accessed on January 10, 2019 (German, English).
  9. ↑ A.SM Sport: Sc Dhfk Cycling. In: Sc Dhfk Cycling. Sc Dhfk Leipzig, September 1, 2019, accessed on September 1, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Hanna Gerwig: Leipziger Radrennbahn: Finally the first steps towards renovation. In: sportbuzzer.de. June 19, 2019, accessed March 15, 2020 .
  11. ↑ 120 years of the Association of German Cyclists - 120 years of cycling in Leipzig ( Memento from September 10, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  12. ↑ a b Chronicle of Lindenau. In: leipziger-info.de. Retrieved July 2, 2016 .
  13. ↑ ostmotorsport.de
  14. ↑ From the Moritzburgbahn to "Lindenauer Zement" . In: Förderverein Sächsisches Sportmuseum Leipzig e. V. (Hrsg.): Sports museum currently . No. 1 , 2009, p. 6–7 ( foerderverein.sportmuseum-leipzig.de [PDF; 1.5 MB ; accessed on July 2, 2016]).