Ewald Kluge

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Motorcyclist Monument (1939) by Max Esser in Berlin. Ewald Kluge on DKW, in the background the radio tower
A DKW US 250, as also driven by Ewald Kluge in the 1939 season.
The 350 three-cylinder DKW ( RM 350 , nickname “ Singing Saw ” ), as Kluge drove in his last races.
Memorial stone for Ewald Kluge in Dresden- Gomlitz

Ewald Kluge (born January 19, 1909 in Lausa near Dresden , † August 19, 1964 in Ingolstadt ) was a German motorcycle racer .

Kluge is one of the most important and successful German motorcycle racers in history. One of his greatest successes was winning the Tourist Trophy in 1938.

Life

Ewald Kluge had a difficult youth. When he was twelve years old, his mother died, leaving him to work in his father's house and business. Two years later he unsuccessfully looked for an apprenticeship position, but only found work as a car washer for a representative for margarine, who helped him to train as a motor vehicle mechanic in a repair shop. Because of the poor business situation of this company at the beginning of the global economic crisis , Kluge lost his job at the age of 19 and took the job of a taxi driver in Dresden .

For 800 Reichsmarks he bought a motorcycle, an English Dunelt, with which he started as a racing driver for the first time in the Freiberg triangle race in 1929 and came third. In the next few years he drove a private DKW before the DKW works in Zschopau hired him as a racing mechanic and reserve driver in 1934. From 1935 he was a full member of the DKW works team .

During the Second World War , Ewald Kluge was a NCO in Leipzig and at the Army Motorization School in Wünsdorf . At the request of Auto Union , he was released in 1943 to work in their research department. The membership in the NSKK , which he was "offered" to as many other drivers , led to his being denounced as a National Socialist and imprisoned from 1946 to 1949 in special camp No. 1 in Mühlberg .

From 1950 Kluge was again active as a racing driver for DKW until a serious fall on the Nürburgring, in which he broke a thigh, ended his career. He then worked in the Auto Union public relations department.

Ewald Kluge died on August 19, 1964 of cancer . He was married and had a son and a daughter.

Motorsport career

Ewald Kluge's sports career began in 1929 when he at Freiberger triangle race with a Dunelt behind two DKW - plant machinery placed third. He started as a private driver until 1933.

In 1934 he and the DKW team won the gold medal in the international six-day race and in the 2000 km Germany race and in 1935 the silver vase in the international six-day race.

From 1936 to 1939, Ewald Kluge German champion and 1938 and 1939 European champion in the 250cc class. However, he achieved his greatest success in June 1938 when he completed the most difficult motorcycle race in the world , the Tourist Trophy on the Isle, on a ULD 250 in a time of 3:21:56 hours or an average speed of 125.57 km / h of Man , won. Kluge won with a lead of 11 minutes and 10 seconds over second-placed Ginger Wood and was the first German and the second driver from continental Europe ever to win this race.

In addition to the circuit, Kluge also drove mountain races. In 1938 he won the German Mountain Championship at the “Great Mountain Prize of Germany” , which was held on the Grossglockner High Alpine Road between the Ferleiten toll station and the Fuscher Törl . The Saxon even set the absolute best time on his 250cc DKW and thus beat all of the pilots who competed on 350 and 500 cm³ machines.

After the war he often competed as a double starter in the 250 and 350 classes and won the 1952 race on the Dresden autobahn spider and the Eilenriederennen in Hanover on the three-cylinder DKW in the fastest time of the day and with an average of 126.5 km / h. In addition, he started in the 1952 season as a 43-year-old at the German Grand Prix for motorcycles as part of the motorcycle world championship at the Solitude in Stuttgart and finished fourth in the 250 cc class and in the 350 cc class took fifth place. In the overall World Cup ranking, he achieved thirteenth and eleventh place respectively.

His career ended in 1953 when he had a hard crash while in second place on the Nürburgring .

statistics

title

Isle of Man TT victories

year class machine Average speed
1938 Lightweight (250 cm³) DKW 78.48  mph (126.3  km / h )

Race wins

(colored background = European championship run )

year class machine run route
1936 250 cc DKW Eilenriederennen Eilenriede
250 cc DKW Eifel race Nürburgring - Nordschleife
250 cc DKW Schleizer triangle race Schleizer triangle
1937 350 cc DKW Eiläintarhanajot Eiläintarha
250 cc DKW International Solitude Race Solitude
250 cc DKW Grand Prix of Germany Sachsenring
250 cc DKW Schleizer triangle race Schleizer triangle
250 cc DKW Hockenheim motorcycle races Hockenheimer triangle
250 cc DKW Marienberg triangle race Marienberg triangle
1938 250 cc DKW Eilenriederennen Eilenriede
250 cc DKW Hamburg city park race Hamburg city park
250 cc DKW AVUS race AVUS
250 cc DKW Belgian Grand Prix Spa Francorchamps
250 cc DKW Swiss Grand Prix Geneva
250 cc DKW UMF Grand Prix Nice
250 cc DKW Dutch TT Circuit van Drenthe
250 cc DKW Grand Prix of Germany Sachsenring
1939 250 cc DKW Eilenriederennen Eilenriede
250 cc DKW Eifel race Nürburgring Nordschleife
250 cc DKW Dutch TT Circuit van Drenthe
250 cc DKW French Grand Prix Reims
250 cc DKW Belgian Grand Prix Spa Francorchamps
250 cc DKW Swedish Grand Prix Saxtorp
1950 250 cc DKW Grenzlandringrennen Grenzlandring
125 cc DKW Dieburger triangle race Dieburger triangle
250 cc DKW Dieburger triangle race Dieburger triangle
250 cc DKW Schleizer triangle race Schleizer triangle
125 cc DKW Grand Prix of Germany Solitude
250 cc DKW Hamburg city park race Hamburg city park
250 cc DKW Feldberg race Feldbergring
1952 250 cc DKW Eifel race Nürburgring Nordschleife
350 cc DKW Eilenriederennen Eilenriede
250 cc DKW Highway spider Autobahn spider Dresden-Hellerau
350 cc DKW Highway spider Autobahn spider Dresden-Hellerau
350 cc DKW Hamburg city park race Hamburg city park
350 cc DKW Sachsenring race Sachsenring
250 cc DKW Schleizer triangle race Schleizer triangle
350 cc DKW Schleizer triangle race Schleizer triangle

In the motorcycle world championship

season class motorcycle run Victories Podiums Points Result
1952 250 cc DKW 1 - - 3 13.
350 cc DKW 1 - - 2 11.
total 2 - - 5

Honors

Storm Herwart sweeps over the Ewald-Kluge oak in Dresden-Gomlitz and the memorial stone in October 2017.

Streets in Ingolstadt and Weixdorf are named after Kluge, and there is a memorial for him at AVUS in Berlin. A memorial stone was erected for him on Alten Moritzburger Strasse in the Dresden district of Gomlitz and behind it in April 2013 by members of the Friends of Historic Motorcycle Racing Association "Ewald Kluge" Weixdorf e. V. planted the Ewald-Kluge oak on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of his victory at the Tourist Trophy, which is one of the memorial trees in Dresden .

References

literature

  • Ernst Hornickel: These are our racing drivers . A look over the sporty path of 24 German automobile and motorcycle racing drivers with their own reports. 2nd Edition. Karl and Alfred Walcker, Stuttgart 1941, p. 99-105 .
  • Ewald Kluge: Taxi driver - Avus winner - European champion . 1st edition. Sportverlag Berlin , Berlin 1953.
  • Hans Christoph Graf von Seherr-Thoß:  Kluge, Ewald. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-428-00193-1 , p. 139 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Dieter Herz: "The clever man" in "Motor-Klassik", issue 5/1989
  • Steffen Ottinger: DKW motorcycle sport 1920–1939 . From the first victories of the Zschopau two-stroke model at track races to the European championship successes. 1st edition. HB-Werbung und Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Chemnitz 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-028611-7 , p. 48-123 .
  • Steffen Ottinger: Around Zschopau. The story of an off-road motorcycle ride . tape 1 . Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft Marienberg, Marienberg 2004, ISBN 3-931770-49-4 , p. 8th ff .
  • Steffen Ottinger: Around Zschopau. The story of an off-road motorcycle ride . tape 2 . HB-Werbung und Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Chemnitz 2011, ISBN 978-3-00-036705-2 , p. 13, 17 .
  • Steffen Ottinger: International six-day race 2012 . The story since 1913. HB-Werbung und Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Chemnitz 2012, ISBN 978-3-00-039566-6 , p. 26-27, 34 .
  • Frank Rönicke: German motorcycle world and European champions . From Schorsch Meier to Stefan Bradl. 1st edition. Motorbuch Verlag , Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-613-03410-5 , p. 48-54 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ TT 1938 Lightweight TT Results. www.iomtt.com, accessed April 15, 2011 .
personal data
SURNAME Kluge, Ewald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German motorcycle racer
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Lausa near Dresden
DATE OF DEATH 19th August 1964
Place of death Ingolstadt