Paul Albert (cyclist)

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Paul Albert
Paul Albert wins the "Kaiserpreis" in Munich in 1899
Grave of the Albert family in the north cemetery in Wiesbaden

Carl Paul Albert (born February 16, 1876 in Biebrich ; † May 15, 1903 in Nieder-Ingelheim ) was a German racing cyclist .

Paul Albert was an exception in cycling at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. While many racing drivers came from working-class or craft circles for whom the sport offered an opportunity for social advancement, Albert came from a respected industrial family: his Father, Kommerzienrat Heinrich Albert , owned the chemical works H. & E. Albert in Biebrich . Paul Albert himself completed an engineering degree at the Polytechnic in Berlin .

Cycling career

In 1897 Albert, a member of the "RSB Nassau", began amateur cycling as a "flier" (now a sprinter ). In August 1898 he won the “Grand Prix of Germany” in Berlin on the Kurfürstendamm . Four weeks later he became the amateur sprint world champion in Vienna and won the German championship that same year. With a special permit Albert was allowed to compete against the world champion of professional drivers, the American George A. Banker, in a comparison match in 1898. The spectators cheered Albert at the start and then waited in vain for his opponent. Banker had canceled shortly before the competition and shied away from comparison with the amateur. In 1898 and 1899 he won the "Hanover Championship" and also the English championship over 880 yards (around 1000 meters). Together with Willy Arend and Thaddäus Robl, he was one of the most outstanding German cyclists of his time. At the height of his career, he turned down all offers to become a professional driver. In 1900 he retired from cycling.

Accidental death

Heinrich Albert forbade his son to continue cycling and to take part in the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris. Albert turned his interest to motor racing and also bought a racing car himself. In a Mercedes Simplex racing car from the Cannstatter Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft , he and his mechanic Georg Saaler, who drove the car, were on their way to France on May 15, 1903 to take part in the long-distance automobile trip “Paris-Madrid”. But they had an accident coming from Mainz on the "Steig" just before Nieder-Ingelheim. First aid was provided by a captain a. D. and his wife, who in the meantime owned the villa that the Dutch writer Eduard Douwes Dekker, called Multatuli , had acquired in 1881 on the road from Mainz to Ingelheim. On the day before his 27th birthday, Paul Albert succumbed to the serious injuries in Nieder-Ingelheimer Ludwigsstift without regaining consciousness.

Georg Saaler, who was relocated from the Ludwigsstift Ingelheim to the Rochushospital in Mainz , was, despite his severe external and internal injuries, in mid-June 1903 so well prepared that he could leave the hospital. On the initiative of the General Cyclists Union , the mayor of Nieder-Ingelheim gave permission to set up a warning sign on the “Steig” after the accident. Years earlier, a cyclist from Frankfurt had had a fatal accident at this dangerous spot.

The accident triggered a criminal affair. Paul Albert had received 100,000 gold marks (678,000 euros) from his father for participating in the long-distance journey. According to information from the local newspapers, he bought the racing car for 60,000 marks (407,000 euros), and the remaining 40,000 marks (271,000 euros) were probably converted into French francs. This money, which disappeared after the accident, led to numerous suspicions in the regional press and investigations by the public prosecutor's office and criminal police.

Obituary and remembrance

In the obituary it was said that Albert was the “epitome of perfection”, “the embodiment of what the German race can produce in terms of physical performance - he was among the hundreds of thousands who fiercely fight for the first position in the various countries the excellent appearance, in a class of its own […] all of Germany has lost one of its best sons ”.

The Rheinische Volksbote of May 20, 1903, paid tribute to Paul Albert in a less martial tone: “The news of death caused great consternation and sympathy in the broadest circles of the sport, because Albert was not only the best amateur racing driver whose Germany ever after August Lehr's time was allowed to boast, but he was also a lovable and personable personality in racing life. "

Johannes Baader Dresden, later known as “Oberdada”, is listed as the creator of the Heinrich Albert family's tomb in the Wiesbaden North Cemetery .

Up until the Second World War , a memorial service was held every year on September 8, the anniversary of his World Cup victory, in Wiesbaden at Albert's grave, followed by a cycling race. The events were organized by a former high cyclist from Wiesbaden, Josef Schmidt, with the support of Paul Albert's brother Kurt. In 1938 a "Paul Albert Memorial Exhibition" was shown in the shop windows of a Wiesbaden sports shop.

Family connections

Paul Albert's mother was the art collector Antonie Albert . His brother Ernst Albert was married to Katharina Daelen and the father of the second wife of the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler , Elisabeth Ackermann. So he was a grandfather of actress Kathrin Ackermann and great-grandfather of actress Maria Furtwängler . Ernst Albert was also killed in an accident in 1911 while mountain climbing in Tyrol.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ rsb-nassau.de
  2. ↑ Interest group for cycling (ed.): The cycling . No. 5/6/1948 . Sportdienst Verlag Zademack and Noster, Cologne, p. 2 .
  3. ↑ Hans Borowik : 300 racing drivers in one volume . Deutscher Schriftenverlag, Berlin 1937, p. 5 .
  4. ^ The German cyclist , May 29, 1940, September 4, 1940
  5. ^ The German cyclist , December 28, 1937

swell

  • Rheinhessischer Beobachter Ingelheim from May 16, 20, 23 and 30 and from June 3 and 10, 1903 (archive of the city of Ingelheim am Rhein)
  • Rheinischer Volksbote Gau-Algesheim from 16, 20 and 23 May and from 10 and 13 June 1903 (archive of the Carl-Brilmayer-Gesellschaft Gau-Algesheim)
  • Rhein- und Nahe-Zeitung Bingen from 16 and 18 May 1903 (archive of the city of Ingelheim am Rhein)
  • Rad-Welt's sport album , 2nd year 1903
  • Norbert Diehl, world cycling champion Paul Albert dies after an automobile accident on the "Steig" on May 15, 1903 , Heimatjahrbuch Landkreis Mainz-Bingen, 56 (2012), pp. 243–248

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Albert, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Albert, Carl Paul (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German racing cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH February 16, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Biebrich
DATE OF DEATH May 15, 1903
Place of death Nieder-Ingelheim