Ludwig Müller (athlete)

Ludwig Mueller
nation	Germany
birthday	January 25, 1932
place of birth	Wesel ,  Germany
job	Mason , masseur
date of death	January 26, 2022
Career
discipline	long-distance running
society	Weseler TV (until 1959) FSV Frankfurt (1960–1961) KSV Hessen Kassel (1962–1966)
Trainer	Hubert Hoevel
medal table
German championships 5× 4× 3× German Indoor Championships 1× 2× 1×
German championships silver Ingolstadt 1958 forest run bronze Hanover 1958 10,000m gold Hanover 1958 5000m gold Lueneburg 1959 forest run silver Stuttgart 1959 5000m gold Dulmen 1960 forest run bronze Berlin 1960 5000m silver Dusseldorf 1961 3000m obstacle bronze Hamburg 1962 3000m obstacle silver Rengsdorf 1963 Forest run long distance team gold Augsburg 1963 3000m obstacle gold Asslar 1964 Forest run long distance team  German Indoor Championships bronze Kiel 1957 3000m silver Dortmund 1958 3000m gold Berlin 1959 3000m silver Stuttgart 1961 3000m
last modified: January 27, 2022

Ludwig "Lud" Müller ( January 25, 1932 in Wesel – January 26, 2022 ) was a German athlete .

Hero of Augsburg

Müller became known as the "Hero of Augsburg" when he surprisingly won the 5,000 and 10,000 meters in the international match against the USSR on September 20 and 21, 1958 in Augsburg 's Rosenau Stadium . His times: 14:06.8 min for the 5000 meters on the first day of competition and 29:52.6 min for the 10,000 meters on the second day.

At that time, Soviet track and field athletes were considered to be overpowering. The 115:105 overall victory of the German Athletics Association , which was only made possible by Müller's victories, was considered a sensation and was equated with the miracle of Bern . At the European Athletics Championships held four weeks earlier in 1958 , the Soviet Union had clearly won the national ranking.

For Müller, it was his “greatest sporting experience. It is and will always be worth as much to me as an Olympic victory or a world record”. For his performance, he was also given the nickname "Russian fright".

Sporting achievements

Ludwig Müller was called up to the national team 55 times between 1955 and 1966. At the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, despite an Achilles tendon irritation, he finished sixth in the 3000 meter steeplechase discipline . He won six German championship titles, six vice championships and four third places in German championships.

German championship title

• 1958: 5000 meter dash
• 1959: 3000 meter run (indoor), forest run
• 1960: Forest run
• 1963: 3000 meter steeplechase
• 1964: Forest run team ranking with KSV Hessen Kassel

personal

Ludwig Müller grew up in Wesel. His father did not return from captivity until 1955, his mother was seriously injured in the war and needed nursing care. Müller lived in an orphanage for a few years. The then footballer only started running at the age of 21 after being banned for a year due to a scuffle with a referee during a game.

Müller was a trained bricklayer. After moving to Kassel, he got a job as a construction inspector with the city and also trained as a masseur. He then worked as a site manager at the civil engineering office in Kassel. As a masseur, he looked after the footballers of KSV Hessen Kassel for a long time and the German national wrestling team at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich after he had not been able to realize his plan to compete in the marathon there.

He started for Weseler TV until 1959, for FSV Frankfurt in 1960 and 1961 and for KSV Hessen Kassel from 1962 .

Ludwig Müller died in January 2022. He was married for sixty years to his wife Karin, whom he met at an athletics festival in Berlin 's Mommsen Stadium in 1959 , and most recently lived in Bergshausen , a district of the municipality of Fuldabrück south of Kassel .

web links

• Ludwig Müller in the database of Olympedia.org (English)
• Small b/w picture of Ludwig Müller crossing the finish line in 1958

itemizations

1. ↑ Fritz Schubert: Legendary runner Ludwig "Lud" Müller has died. In: RP Online . January 26, 2022, retrieved January 27, 2022 . 
2. ↑ Ludwig Müller: "The Hero of Augsburg" turns 90. In: Leichtathletik.de. January 25, 2022, retrieved January 27, 2022 . 
3. ↑ Hans scratches: Augsburg: Ludwig Müller, the hero of Augsburg. In: sueddeutsche.de . January 24, 2022, retrieved January 27, 2022 . 
4. ↑ Martin Neumann: Ludwig Müller - "The Hero of Augsburg" celebrates his 85th birthday. In: lichtathletik.de. January 26, 2017, retrieved January 27, 2022 . 
5. ↑ Gerd Brehm: World-class athlete Ludwig Müller turns 85 today . In: hna.de. January 25, 2017, retrieved January 27, 2022 .