Otto Weckerling

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Memorial plaque for Otto Weckerling on his former home in Kehnert
Memorial stone for Weckerling on the Elbe Cycle Path

Otto Weckerling (born October 23, 1910 in Kehnert ; † May 6, 1977 in Dortmund ) was a German racing cyclist and sports director .

Active cycling career

Otto Weckerling wanted to be a racing driver even as a child. When he was doing an apprenticeship on a farm, he used the daily commute to work as training. He won his first race in Colbitz in 1927 with a four-minute lead.

The petite Weckerling became one of the most popular German road racing drivers of the 1930s. In 1932 he became German champion in six-team driving with the RC Brennabor Magdeburg and won the Hanover Industry Prize , and in 1933 German vice-champion in the amateur road race. In 1934, after moving to Munich, he became a professional and rode for the Dürkopp cycling team for almost all of his professional career, which lasted until 1950 . In July 1934, after an internal dispute within the team, he went to France for some time to race there and in Belgium . In his words, it was a "real racing driver's school" that he completed there. In 1935 he returned to the races in Germany and won across Württemberg / Baden. In 1936 he won two well-known German races with Rund um Frankfurt and the Harz Tour , the latter victory being denied again due to improper support. In 1937 he won the first stage of the International Tour of Germany , did not give up the leadership and won the overall standings. He was enthusiastically welcomed by 100,000 spectators in the Olympiastadion Berlin ; Another hundred thousand people came to his reception at Magdeburg Central Station. In Berlin, Weckerling was allowed to register in the city's golden book. He was denied this in Magdeburg because the city leaders disliked his critical stance on the Nazi regime . On the Tour of Italy he gave up the race in the Dolomites .

In the same year he won a stage of the Tour de France . The following year he finished third in the overall ranking of the Tour of Germany .

Otto Weckerling started a total of four times in the Tour de France and won two stages; In 1935 he was 42nd, in 1937 he was 41st. He later described his victory on the 8th stage of the Tour de France in Briançon in 1937 as his most beautiful sporting success. In 1938 he was also on the tour. Due to the political situation in Europe, the German participants were exposed to strong resentment and also felt they were disadvantaged by the organizers. They gradually got out of the race, seven stages before the final, Henri Desgrange Weckerling and Karl Heide (the last German drivers) unceremoniously and contrary to the regulations, ruled out. At the UCI Road World Championships in Copenhagen in 1937 , he was eighth of nine drivers who crossed the finish line. In 1950 he was together with Werner Richter GDR champion in two-crew driving of professional drivers .

Professional and private

After the Second World War , Weckerling became mayor of his hometown Kehnert. But his plans to continue to be active in professional cycling and to set up a Dürkopp branch failed due to the new political circumstances in the GDR . Between Christmas and New Year 1950, he and his wife left their hometown, although the family had just built a new house. Weckerlings moved to Dortmund, and Otto Weckerling became sports director of six-day races and other track cycling events there as well as in Bremen , Frankfurt am Main and Münster . In Dortmund he also found a job in the city administration. In 1966 he was also elected chairman of the Association of German Cycling Tracks.

Honors

In April 2007 a memorial stone was erected in his home town on the edge of the Elbe Cycle Path in memory of Otto Weckerling . The current owner of the family's former home in Kehnert has put a plaque on the house in memory of the previous owner.

Trivia

Weckerling's nickname was "Otto-Otto". Occasional articles appeared in the journal "Radsport" under this name.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto Weckerling on uni-magdeburg.de
  2. ↑ a b c d Association of German Cyclists (ed.): Cycling . No. 5/1953 . German sports publisher Kurt Stoof, Cologne, p. 10-11 .
  3. ↑ Express-Verlag (ed.): Illustrated Radsportexpress . No. 11/1949 . Berlin, S. 86 .
  4. ^ Association of German cyclists (ed.): Radsport . No. 1/1967 . German sports publisher Kurt Stoof, Cologne, p. 15 .
  5. ^ Association of German cyclists (ed.): Radsport . No. 4/1967 . Deutscher Sportverlag Kurt Stoof, Cologne 1967, p. 17 .
  6. ^ Association of German cyclists (ed.): Radsport . No. 7/1967 . Deutscher Sportverlag Kurt Stoof, Cologne 1967, p. 10 .
  7. ^ Cycling , January 25, 1966

literature

  • Günter Grau: Two-part series about Otto Weckerling in the Volksstimme , October 21st and 25th, 2010
  • Günter Grau: "Otto, Otto - unforgotten!" In: Knochenschüttler No. 40, 2/2007, pp. 14-17
  • Gerd Rensmann: From unknown sportsman to tour winner . In: Bund Deutscher Radfahrer (Ed.): Radsport . No. 45-52. German sports publisher Kurt Stoof, Cologne 1966.

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Weckerling, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cyclist and sports director
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Kehnert
DATE OF DEATH May 6, 1977
Place of death Dortmund