Bielefeld cycling track

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The Bielefeld cycling track in May 2019
Standing race on the Bielefeld cycling track (2015)
Historic pacemaker machine called "the orange monster"

The Bielefelder Radrennbahn is located in Bielefeld on Heeper Straße in the east of the Mitte district . The track is 333.33 meters long and made of seamlessly poured prestressed concrete. Due to its steep turns, it is one of the fastest concrete slopes in Europe and is particularly suitable for standing but also for sprint races.

history

Soon after the Second World War, the desire arose in the former cycling stronghold of Bielefeld to have a modern, fast cycling track. The Königsbrügge sports field, used as a temporary measure, did not meet the high standards for long. That is why RC Zugvogel had been pushing to build a cycling track on what is now Wilhelm-Bertelsmann-Strasse since 1946. The earthworks began based on a design by the architect Clemens Schürmann, but soon had to be stopped, much to the annoyance of the cycling club. The property provided by the city was no longer available due to new road planning, the administration said. So it took a few years before the waves had settled and a new project could be tackled at another location. This cycling track was designed again by the Münster-based architect Clemens Schürmann , who, as a former racing cyclist, specialized in the construction of cycling tracks. The construction of the railway in the Heeper Fichten, a local recreation area, was decided by the Bielefeld city council in mid-August 1950. Budget funds of 350,000 marks were approved, but by December 1953 the sum had increased to around 535,000 marks.

Construction of the cycling track

The groundbreaking ceremony took place in October 1950. 41,000 cubic meters of war rubble and rubbish as well as 19,800 cubic meters of mother earth were heaped up for construction. The level of the later interior was lowered by 1.70 meters, the grandstands should rise six meters above it. Noteworthy is the run in seamless prestressed concrete technology, which was carried out by Dyckerhoff & Widmann KG. The curves have an inclination of more than 46 °. The track is surrounded by grandstands with 9,000 standing and 6,000 seats. A training and floodlight system provided sufficient lighting for evening and night events. The cycling stadium was completed by buildings with shower, changing and massage rooms as well as garages for the pacemaker's motorcycles and the drivers' racing bikes. Seven ticket booths and a restaurant called Radrennbahn-Klause were set up on the small forecourt . On May 29, 1953, the topping-out ceremony for the railway was celebrated, which ultimately cost over 600,000 marks. 15,000 spectators attended the opening race on June 14, 1953; around 50,000 spectators in the first year. In the early 1960s, 10,000 spectators were still visiting the track every year, until the standing sport lost its attraction.

Events

Popular standing and aviator races took place on the track, some of which were also organized as national competitions between two or three nations. In the interior there were also riding tournaments, field hockey games, boxing matches, concerts and police parties. Particularly noteworthy are the basketball games of the Harlem Globetrotters and the performances of the bagpipers of the British army. In the 1960 stayer race, Karlheinz Marsell from Dortmund set the hour record of 76.6 km. In motorcycle races, so-called cement railroad drivers took to the starting line, who reached incredible speeds. The course record in the 250cc class was set on August 30, 1953 by Erwin Aldinger from Stuttgart on his AWD at 122.5 km / h, which means that one lap was covered in less than 10 seconds. But there were also small car races for cabin scooters, races for Formula Junior cars or demonstration drives for the streamlined Lloyd world record cars.

The velodrome today

Even today, three to four standing races are held annually on the now aging concrete track; German championships were held several times in Bielefeld, most recently on August 9th and 10th, 2013. The grandstands can only be used on the north side. The railway, owned by the city, is looked after by RC Zugvogel Bielefeld , the association of the internationally successful pacemakers Christian and André Dippel . The track is used by the associations RV Teutoburg Brackwede , RSV Gütersloh , Olympia Bünde , TSVE Bielefeld and RC Endspurt Herford . The Bielefeld company Alcina organized the Alpecin Cycling Days for the first time on August 11th and 12th, 2012 in and on the track with a European Cup for the stayers.

Games of the Bielefeld Bulldogs American football club are also played in the oval . In addition, Zündapp partial wall races and recumbent bike races took place there several times .

Monument protection

In 2012, Ralph Schürmann screwed the memorial sign onto the cycling track built by his grandfather.

On the day of the open monument on September 12, 2010, a "nostalgia day" was carried out on the cycling track. At that time, the railway was not yet a listed building; The aim of the effort was to achieve this. Around 1000 spectators attended the event, which showed historic racing bikes, pacemaker machines and races. In October 2010, the AG Radrennbahn ( RC Zugvogel , RV Teutoburg , RC Endspurt Herford , RSV Gütersloh and the Association of Historic Bicycles ) submitted a proposal to the city administration to put the Radrennbahn under monument protection. After around two years, the process of placing it under protection was initiated in July 2012. In August of the same year, the Bielefeld cycling track was entered in the list of monuments. In the justification for the need for protection - briefly summarized here - three reasons are given: The cycling track is a symbol of the time when Bielefeld was the cycling stronghold in Germany, it is considered an absolute technical specialty because of its seamless prestressed concrete technology and is considered the masterpiece of the architects Clemens and Herbert Schürmann viewed. In November 2012, the Bielefeld Radrennbahn was named Monument of the Month by the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe . The Bielefeld Radrennbahn Association , which was founded on June 24, 2014, is now also taking care of the preservation of the monumental structure .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b westfalen-blatt.de of September 10, 2010: “Monument for a day” chronicle ( memento of the original of November 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rc-zugvogel.de
  2. ↑ Thundering motors and whirling pedals since 1953 ( Memento of the original from January 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.adfc-nrw.de
  3. ↑ Dagmar Giesecke: December 10, 1913: The city council decides to buy the Heeper spruces. In: https://historischer-rueckklick-bielefeld.com/ . Bielefeld City Archives, December 1, 2013, accessed on February 21, 2019 .
  4. ^ Westfälische Zeitung of October 12, 1950
  5. ^ Tender documents from the Bielefeld city administration 1950−1954
  6. ↑ Free Press, July 25, 1960
  7. ^ ADAC Motorsportchronik Westfalen from September 1953
  8. ↑ Alpecin Days 2012 ( Memento of the original from April 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed November 22, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.alpecin-days.de
  9. ↑ bielefeld-bulldogs.de accessed on November 22, 2012
  10. ↑ nw-news.de of September 10, 2010: "Legenden im Oval"
  11. ↑ nw-news.de of September 15, 2010: "Contest of Legends"
  12. ↑ Nostalgie-Tag Bielefeld 2010 on historefahrraeder.de, accessed on November 22, 2012
  13. ↑ Information from the Bielefeld municipal building authority
  14. ↑ Neue Westfälische from August 14, 2012
  15. ↑ Expertise of the Upper Monument Authority Münster, LWL Westfalen-Lippe from March 2012
  16. ↑ lwl.org: Monument of the Month November 2012, accessed on November 22, 2012

literature

  • Michael Mertins: The Bielefelder Radrennbahn. In: Program for the historical stalker race 2010 Bielefeld cycling track.
  • Kerstin Schröder (Ed.): Types, technology, speed swap: Bielefeld cycling track. With texts by Michael Mertins, an essay by Bernd Bexte, photographs by Christian Ring. Bielefelder Edition, Bielefeld 2015 (=  Bielefelder Edition, Nº 7), ISBN 978-3-00-051004-5 .

Web links

Commons : Radrennbahn Bielefeld  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 52 ° 1 ′ 50.6 ″  N , 8 ° 34 ′ 49.9 ″  E