Bernhard Eckstein

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Bernhard Eckstein in conversation with sports reporter Heinz Florian Oertel , 1959

Bernhard Eckstein (born August 21, 1935 in Zwochau (near Röcknitz ), † November 10, 2017 in Leipzig ) was a German racing cyclist who was active in the GDR . In 1960 he became world champion in the amateurs' road race at the Sachsenring .

Life

Eckstein was born in Zwochau near Röcknitz in the administrative authority of Grimma . He learned the profession of lathe operator and later finished studying sports at the DHfK in Leipzig.

After finishing his cycling career, Eckstein worked as a press photographer for the SED press organ Neues Deutschland and accompanied the Peace Tour until 1990 . He died in November 2017 at the age of 82.

Athletic career

From 1953 Eckstein only drove road races, initially as a touring driver for BSG Progress Naunhof . The former professional cyclist Richard Huschke discovered his talent and Eckstein drove from 1955 to 1957 for the BSG Progress Lichtenstein , where Huschke worked as a trainer. Until 1957 he achieved only insignificant successes and only attracted more attention in 1957 with a fifth place in the GDR tour and a stage win. In that year he also took first place in the annual points evaluation of all riders in the sports communities in which cycling was organized outside of state-sponsored competitive sports (the company sports associations or BSG for short). In October 1957 he moved to a sponsored sports club, the SC Wissenschaft DHfK Leipzig , where he was trained by Herbert Weisbrod and Werner Schiffner. Due to his physical requirements (he was 163 cm tall and weighed 58 kg at the time), his trainers wanted to train him as a mountain specialist. In 1958 he achieved the breakthrough to the nationwide top with the GDR championship in the 100 km team time trial and a second place in the individual road race . In the latter discipline, Eckstein also came second in the GDR championships in 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1963. He finished the GDR tour in 1958 in fourth place with a stage win.

In 1959 Eckstein, long since a state amateur , was part of the GDR squad for the International Peace Tour for the first time . On his debut, he reached 13th place in the final ranking. He also won the Aachen Grand Prix. In 1960 he was a member of the victorious GDR team and finished eighth in the overall standings. He then achieved his best peace driving result in 1961 with third place, when he was twice stage runner-up behind the overall winner Melichow . In his fourth and last participation in 1962 he had to give up after the ninth stage.

Eckstein's greatest success was winning the amateur world championship in 1960 at the Sachsenring at home . He benefited from the tactical constellation and the behavior of his teammate Täve Schur , who had become amateur world champion in 1958 and 1959 : Eckstein pulled out of a group of three with the defending champion and the Belgian Willy Vanden Berghen . The Belgian hesitated and stayed with Schur, as he assumed that Eckstein, as an assistant to Schur, would subordinate himself to Schur's third victory. He, who bet that he would be able to outdo Schur in the final sprint, on whose rear wheel he was literally stuck to the whole race and in whose slipstream he drove all the time, did not realize that Schur was ready to forego the title if he was able to secure the success of his country in this way. Schur did not pursue Eckstein and thus slowed the Belgian who stayed with him in order to be able to start his final spurt in time. Schur had great respect for the Belgian and therefore did not rule out that he could be defeated by him in the sprint. The Belgian realized too late that the defending champions would make no attempt to catch up with his team-mate. With this waiver by Schur, Eckstein won the race with a seven-second lead over Schur, who won the sprint against the Belgian. Schur, who had been considered the top favorite as the winner of the last two World Cups, became the real hero of the race, even before the winner Eckstein, shaped by media coverage. The outcome was described, among other things, as the "greatest tactical achievement in the history of cycling" ( Leipziger Volkszeitung from August 14, 1960).

After his World Cup success, Eckstein started with the all-German Olympic team at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome . The GDR cycling association provided the road riders and Eckstein came in 22nd place in individual races among 76 riders. After winning the British amateur race Isle of Man International (also known as the Manx Trophy ) in 1960 , which was the most important international amateur race in Great Britain at the time, he was able to take part again in the amateur world championship in Bern in 1961 , but ended up as the defending champion as the best GDR - Driver only in 14th place. Subsequently, because of the visa refusal for GDR athletes by the Allied Travel Office in connection with the building of the wall, further participation in the world championships was made impossible until 1964. In 1961 he was able to win the renowned Grandstand Bergpreis and the international high-ranking race for the Grand Prix of German Sports Echo. In the Tour of Austria in 1963 he was the captain of the GDR team and in the two-stage race Vienna-Rabenstein-Gresten-Vienna in 1964 he was the best foreigner in third place. In 1965 he was ninth in the overall ranking of the Tour of Austria and second in the Tour of the GDR behind Axel Peschel. Eckstein achieved his last notable victory in 1966 in the one-day race around the brown coal and was then used for the fifth time after 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1965 in the road world championship on the Nürburgring, where he placed 59th.

In 1960 Eckstein was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze for winning the world championship title.

literature

Web links

Commons : Bernhard Eckstein  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Presidium of the Cycling Section of the GDR (Ed.): Cycling Week . No. 15/1958 . Berlin 1958, p. 5 .
  2. ^ Mourning for Bernhard Eckstein. In: bdr-medienservice.de. November 13, 2017. Retrieved November 13, 2017 .
  3. ^ German Cycling Association of the GDR (ed.): The cyclist . No. 39/1966 . Berlin 1966, p. 2 .
  4. ^ Junge Welt (Ed.): Cycling Almanac 4 . Berlin 1963, p. 5 .
personal data
SURNAME Eckstein, Bernhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German racing cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Zwochau (Krs. Grimma)
DATE OF DEATH November 10, 2017
Place of death Leipzig