Professional cycling (GDR)

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The professional cycling in the GDR was a temporary division of Radsportes in the GDR , in which cyclists through the exercise of their sport money earned and generated income, practiced this sport as their profession. The professional cycling in East Germany was limited to a time period from 1945 to 1956 (the Soviet zone of occupation until the founding of the GDR included). In contrast to professional cyclists from other countries, these were not contractually bound to a commercial cycling team (or a racing team ) in the GDR and were considered self-employed based on their social status .

Historical

The origin of professional cycling in the GDR lies in the post-war history of the Second World War . The Allies had after the war, among other organizations, the former Reich Federation for Physical Education banned and all its sub-organizations and associations. In the zone controlled by the Soviet Union , Order No. 2 of the Soviet military administration of June 16, 1945 banned all organizations and associations of the so-called Third Reich . The Control Council Directive No. 23 of December 17, 1945 also banned the former sports clubs. This situation led to the fact that racing cyclists in the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ) had a professional license issued, as was issued for artists and performers (since professional athletes were not affected by the ban, professional athletes were assigned to the "free trade") and with which they could start across zones. Drivers who returned from captivity were often professional drivers or cyclists who had previously started as amateurs had the chance to compete on this route. There was a new beginning on March 18, 1946, when the Allied Control Command eased the ban, now - after review and approval by the Allied authorities - non-military sports organizations could be founded, but only for a city or a district.

The bicycle race were after the war, the first public again discharged sporting events and attracted mass audience. Professional cycling benefited from this. In 1947 there was already an extensive racing program in East Germany : 66 track races and three road races took place, a year later there were 90 races on the track and four road races. For 1948 192 licenses were issued for professional drivers, 182 for supervisors and officials and nine for organizers. The audience participation remained enormous until the end of professional cycling. The races often attracted 6,000 to 50,000 spectators (depending on the capacity of the stadiums or tracks). For the championship races on the Andreasried cycling track in Erfurt in 1948, spectators had to be turned away because the crowd was so great. In addition, well-known drivers from the pre-war period such as Erich Metze or Walter Lohmann started on the East German railways again and again ; these were popular and contributed to the large audience response.

The admission of professional sports (in addition to cycling, briefly boxing and wrestling ) in the Soviet occupation zone was a historical peculiarity that, after the founding of the GDR, was a thorn in the side of the state sports apparatus and the Free German Youth (FDJ), which was initially responsible for sports was fought by these. Professional boxing was banned shortly before the GDR was founded in April 1949. Around this time, a campaign against professional cycling began in the specialist body of GDR cycling that went far beyond sport. In 1952, the DEFA feature film “ His great victory ” dedicated itself to this topic with a clear ideological position: the protagonist (an amateur from the GDR) became a professional driver in West Berlin and quickly turned away from machinations and fraud in the Professional driver life and becomes a successful amateur stayer in the GDR. In particular, the six-day races in West Berlin, which were attended by many people from the GDR, including amateur drivers, were the target of criticism. The trade journal of the cycling association devoted an entire article (“A word to our amateurs”) to this race, which was intended to serve as a chilling example of a “corrupted and corrupt professional cycling”.

Structures

In the autumn of 1946 a commission for professional cycling was established within the German Sports Committee , which was founded in 1946 and formed the umbrella organization for sport in the Soviet zone of occupation. The commission was headed by the former racing cyclist Herbert Nebe from Leipzig and the organizer Rolf Seyfarth from Chemnitz . In 1949 it was renamed the Professional Cycling Commission of the German Democratic Republic and took its seat in Halle (Saale). Herbert Nebe remained chairman, the racing driver was represented by Otto Weckerling and the organizer was represented by Gustav Brummert .

With the commission, cycling races for professional cyclists could be organized officially and within the framework of the association. Many riders later bought a license in the Bund Deutscher Radfahrer (BDR), which was re-established in 1948, or the BDR recognized the licenses of the Professional Cycling Commission. In this way, the drivers could also take part in races in the western occupation zones. Conversely, the BDR licenses were also valid in the Soviet occupation zone. Rudi Mirke , Hans Preiskeit, Georg Voggenreiter , Erich Metze, Karl Kittsteiner and others were frequent guests on East German railways.

As is usual in professional cycling, hardly any rider had a contract with a racing team (factory team) because this sponsorship structure did not exist in East Germany or the GDR. Exceptions were individual drivers such as Werner Richter (Dürkopp), Rudolf Voigt (Rapier) and Hermann Schild (Bismarck, Rabeneick), who had permanent or temporary contracts with West German companies or racing teams.

The growing ideological orientation of sport in the Soviet zone of occupation and later in the GDR led to massive criticism of “Western professional sport”; As a result, professional cyclists were put under increasing pressure to be reamateurised and to join a company sports community (BSG). This socio-political environment finally led to the formal dissolution of the GDR Professional Cycling Commission in 1956, after the last race for professional cyclists had already taken place in 1955. On February 15, 1955, the GDR cycling federation published a decision of its presidium, according to which all still active professional drivers and pacemakers were asked to immediately become “members of the democratic sports movement” and to join a company sports community (BSG). All athletes who would take advantage of this opportunity would be exempt from the usual two-year waiting period and would immediately be eligible to start with the amateurs. The decision was of an ultimate nature and ended with a deadline of February 28, 1955. Almost all riders bowed to the ultimatum, and professional cycling in the GDR came to a standstill.

Cycling race

Even if road races and criteria for professional drivers took place in the eastern zone (rather sporadically) in the first post-war years , the track races dominated. Especially in Halle an der Saale , Chemnitz and Erfurt there were organizers who regularly advertised races for the professional drivers. Professional races were also held in Brandenburg an der Havel , Dresden , Merseburg , Nordhausen , Weißenfels , Bitterfeld , Leipzig , Zwickau , Forst and in East Berlin (in the Mitte stadium). Many drivers also started regularly in the western part of Berlin. The financial pillars for the races were regional sponsors (who in the first few years mainly contributed non-cash prizes such as "sausages, baked goods or a bucket of jam", but also cash prizes) and income from the entrance fees to the racetracks. The drivers usually received around 45 percent of the total revenue from the races (the rest remained with the organizers), broken down into a percentage based on their placement in the race. The difference between first and last place was six percent, so that all drivers received an acceptable share. The races took place on the cycling tracks , which were restored after the war, or initially mainly in large stadiums, which, as in Halle, were partly supplemented with curve elevations.

The organizers tried to continue running traditional races. These included: the Golden Wheel of Chemnitz , the Golden Wheel of Halle , and the Golden Wheel of Erfurt , the Grand Prize of Thuringia , the Grand Prize of Magdeburg and others. The Golden Wheel of Erfurt on July 27, 1952, resulted in a fatal fall by Erich Metze.

From 1947 to 1949 there were championships in the east zone in the disciplines sprint , two-man team driving , points driving and standing races . As early as April 13, 1947, the first Eastern Zone Championships took place in Halle an der Saale, in which Hans Preiskeit was three times the title holder (in the sprint, in the single pursuit and in the points race). The first GDR champions were Heinz Drescher in the sprint in 1950 , Rudi Keil in the single pursuit , Gerhard Huschke in the points race and in the standing race, and Werner Richter with Otto Weckerling in the two-man team race. The last GDR championship titles were won in 1954 by Herbert Gerber in the standing race and Rudolf Voigt in the sprint.

In 1951 there was an all-German standing championship, Rudi Keil was the only starter from the GDR to finish third behind Walter Lohmann and Jean Schorn jr. He had thus achieved the qualification for participation in the UCI World Championships , but received no starting permit from the GDR Association. This decision against the sporting regulations exemplifies the negative and destructive attitude of the GDR sports management towards professional cycling.

A GDR road race championship for professional drivers was not held during this time. However, individual drivers took part in the championship races in Germany . Drivers like Schild, Richter, Hoyer, Voigt, Weckerling or Heinz Scholl from Magdeburg also occasionally started as members of works teams on the Tour of Germany in the Federal Republic.

Professional driver

The best-known professional drivers in the GDR included drivers who were already active and known before the Second World War, such as Werner Richter and Hermann Schild, Emil Kirmse and Karl Wesoly from Halle from Chemnitz . Even Gerhard Bolte and Karl Wiemer from Berlin, Rudolf Voigt from Riesa were among this group. On the other hand, cycling in the post-war period also brought forth new talents. Some of them later became known and successful as amateurs, such as Heinz Drescher from Berlin, Rudi Keil and Bruno Zieger from Erfurt, Jürgen Müller from Leipzig.
Some drivers like Keil, Schild, Gerber, Hecker, Richter often started in races in the western occupation zones or in the Federal Republic. Keil and Gerber could z. B. in the annual ranking of the West German stayers in 1954 on places six and seven. Hermann Schild even became champion in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1954, beating Günter Pankoke and all other West German professional drivers on the championship circuit in Radevormwald at the age of 42.

The last cycle race for professional cyclists in the GDR was on July 7, 1955, the “Golden Hundred” standing race in Chemnitz, which was won by Karl Kittsteiner from Nuremberg in front of 12,000 spectators. Third went to Hermann Schild (who later went to the Federal Republic of Germany), who, along with Harry Hoyer and Paul Hecker, was one of the last three GDR drivers who still had a professional driver license at the time. This race was the practical end of professional cycling in the GDR.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jutta Braun, Hans Joachim Teichler (ed.): Sports city Berlin in the cold war. Prestige struggles and system competition . Christoph Links Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-86153-399-3 , p. 285-286 .
  2. ↑ a b Illustrated Hallesche Sportgeschichte. The forgotten sports facilities. (PDF) Retrieved February 10, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Sports in the GDR. In: schlossbergmuseum.de. October 10, 1945, accessed March 1, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Illustrated Cycling Express . No. 3/1948 . Express-Verlag, Berlin 1948, p. 1 .
  5. ↑ Illustrated Cycling Express . No. 12/1950 . Express-Verlag, Berlin 1950, p. 8 .
  6. ↑ Illustrated Cycling Express . No. 30/1948 . Express-Verlag, Berlin 1948, p. 23 .
  7. ^ Sports Foundation: History / Sports Foundation. In: stiftung-sport.de. October 3, 1990, accessed March 1, 2020 .
  8. ^ Team Gera Chronik: Gera Chronik - Chronik. In: gera-chronik.de. Retrieved March 2, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Illustrated Cycling Express . No. 11/1950 . Express-Verlag, Berlin 1950, p. 9 .
  10. ↑ Film details: His great victory (1952). In: defa-stiftung.de. August 8, 1952, accessed March 2, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Illustrated Cycling Express . No. 22/1952 . Express-Verlag, Berlin 1952, p. 8 .
  12. ↑ Interest group for cycling (ed.): The cycling . No. 1/1950 . Sportdienst Verlag Zademack and Noster, Cologne 1950, p. 14 .
  13. ^ Presidium of the Cycling Section of the GDR (Ed.): Cycling Week . No. 7/1955 . Sportverlag, Berlin 1955, p. 8 .
  14. ^ Kurt-Wabbel-Stadion cycling track. (PDF) Retrieved February 15, 2020 .
  15. ^ Association of German cyclists (ed.): Radsport . No. 16/1953 . German sports publisher Kurt Stoof, Cologne 1953, p. 19 .
  16. ↑ Stayers, stars and sensations. 123 years of the Andreasried cycling track . S&B Satz und Buch GmbH, Erfurt 2008, p. 57-58 .
  17. ↑ Illustrated Cycling Express . No. 22/1947 . Express-Verlag, Berlin 1947, p. 1 .
  18. ↑ Illustrated Cycling Express . No. 26/1950 . Express-Verlag, Berlin 1950, p. 1 .
  19. ^ Presidium of the Cycling Section of the GDR (Ed.): Cycling Week . No. 26/1954 . Berlin 1954, p. 6 .
  20. ↑ Volker Brix: Andreasried living room. In: thueringer-allgemeine.de. January 24, 2018, accessed March 1, 2020 .
  21. ^ Association of German cyclists (ed.): Radsport . No. 31/1954 . Deutscher Sportverlag Kurt Stoof, Cologne 1954, p. 3 .
  22. ^ Presidium of the Cycling Section of the GDR (Ed.): Cycling Week . No. 32/1955 . Sportverlag, Berlin 1955, p. 5 .