Berlin winter track race
The Berlin winter railway races took place from 1950 to 1989 in the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle in East Berlin . They were considered the GDR counterpart to the West Berlin six-day race .
In the spring of 1950 the former wholesale market hall of the central cattle and slaughterhouse in the working-class district of Prenzlauer Berg was converted into the "Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle" for various events and a cycling track was installed; in the same year there was a single race day. From 1952 onwards the four to six week long winter track championships were held annually, with various competitions on the program such as “The hour of the matadors” or “1001 rounds”. Race days were always Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, entry cost between 2.05 and 6.05 GDR marks . The races of the various junior classes took place on Sundays. Admission to these competitions was free for young people.
The first winner of the opening competition on November 19, 1950 was Detlef Zabel , Erik Zabel's father . Other winners were Hans Wagner , Horst Pötsch , Erich Stammer and Gerhard Huschke . This first winter track season only consisted of this one race evening, as a number of technical systems were only provisionally designed. Over the years races were introduced that had similarities with the West Berlin six-day races, such as: B. “6 days at the price of the Young World ”. These races took place over six consecutive evenings that started in the early evening and ended at around 1 a.m. The racing days were supplemented by youth racing days in the afternoons or mornings and were almost entirely sold out. The focus of the disciplines carried out was in the interests of GDR sport on the Olympic disciplines, which did not include two-man team driving.
The Berlin winter railway races were without a commercial aspect: there was no show part, alcohol and smoking were banned for most years, and autograph cards were only available from the drivers in the 1980s . Nevertheless, the races were extremely popular because of the family atmosphere in the small "noodle pot", as the cycling track was called. In addition to well-known foreign drivers such as Giuseppe Saronni (Italy), Stan Tourné (Belgium) and John Nicholson (Australia), all GDR national drivers started. Particular darlings of the audience were drivers like Volker Winkler ( Cottbus ), Detlef Macha ( Erfurt ) and Norbert Dürpisch ( Frankfurt / Oder ) or the Berliner Dieter Stein (today's sporting director of the Berlin six-day race ), who were particularly brilliant on the winter track. They were the
“[...] actors who manage to bring 3500 Berliners to the Winterbahn every time on 18 of these winter evenings. And would move a lot more if the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle could hold more. Experience has shown that the first stand-up race starts weeks in advance at ticket sales. If that's not a quality mark. "
From 1976 to 1990 the GDR championships were held for men on the winter track, for women from 1986 to 1990.
During the last season in 1989, the borders between the two German states were open, and drivers and spectators from West Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany flocked to the winter track races. In 1993 the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle was demolished; in its place is now the Velodrom , in which the Berlin six-day race has been taking place since 1997. Today's great popularity of the Berlin audience for the six-day race will u. a. traced back to the popularity of the winter railway races at the same point.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Young world . Berlin December 15, 1980, p. 8 .
- ^ German Cycling Association of the GDR (ed.): The cyclist . No. 48/1981 . Berlin 1981, p. 1 .
- ↑ The round thing on tagesspiegel.de
literature
- Katja Broxtermann: Some aspects of the social role and the position of track cycling in comparison of the winter track races in Berlin, capital of the GDR, and the six-day races in Berlin (West) from 1950 , Bachelor thesis 2009, University of Potsdam
