Breslau-Grüneiche cycling track

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The Breslau-Grüneiche cycling track (1913)
Group of racing drivers on the track (1898), with August Lehr (2nd from right) and August Habich (3rd from right)

The Breslau-Grüneiche cycling track was a cycling track that was in operation from 1886 to 1935.

In 1885 the Velocipede Association was founded in Wroclaw . With the support of the city and a financier by the name of Pringsheim , the association built the first “chaussed” railway in what was then the suburb of Grüneiche (today Dąbie ), which was initially circular, 333.3 meters long and had no bends. The track initially had the official name "Velociped Rennbahn Scheitnig-Grüneiche" and was opened on July 4th, 1886. In 1888 it had to be closed again because the association could no longer meet its financial obligations. A fund was founded and Pringsheim bought the railway for 10,000 marks. In 1891 the track was covered with a surface and the curves were raised so that the German track championships could be held there, which were attended by around 40,000 spectators over two days. The championships were held on high-bike , tricycle and low- bike. Further extensions and modernizations followed over the decades. Further German championships took place on the track in Breslau in 1908, 1913, 1919, 1925 and 1935. At the wedding of the "Aviator Race", the organizers brought numerous top international drivers to the "Grand Prix of Breslau" in the rail sprint. The race took place between 1895 and 1929 (with interruptions in a few years). The winners were:

In the years that followed, stayer races with international participation were held on the track, such as the Wroclaw Gold Cup . In 1911, the (again modernized) track hosted the European Standing Championship for professional drivers, won by the American (!) Robert Walthour , ahead of Peter Günther from Cologne and local hero Richard Scheuermann from Wroclaw . In the meantime, the interior was used for games of the football club VfB Breslau . In the 1920s and 1930s, motorcycle races were also held on the track.

In 1927 Ernst Feja, who was staying in Breslau, had a fatal accident while training on the Zurich-Oerlikon cycling track . His body was transported by train from Zurich to Wroclaw, where he was laid out in the Grüneiche cycling track and his club mates kept vigil. The funeral service took place a week after his death in the interior of the train. The eight-kilometer stretch from the cycle track to the cemetery was lined by over 100,000 people on the day of the funeral, who paid their last respects to him.

On April 18, 1932, Adolf Hitler gave a campaign speech on the cycling track on the occasion of the upcoming Reichstag election in July 1932.

1934 decided the city of Wroclaw, to demolish the velodrome to the adjacent exhibition area around the Jahrhunderthalle enlarge. German championships were held there for the last time in 1935, and demolition began in autumn of the same year.

The cycling track was located east of the Wroclaw Zoological Garden; today parts of the former area belong to the zoo. In the nearby Centennial Hall, eight six-day races were held on a 180-meter-long, mobile wooden track in the 1920s and 1930s .

literature

References and comments

  1. ↑ Bike World. Sports album. A cycling yearbook. 12th year, 1913, ZDB -ID 749618-7 , p. 57.
  2. ↑ Bike World. Sports album. A cycling yearbook. 12th year, 1913, ZDB -ID 749618-7 , p. 64.
  3. ↑ Until the " European Cycling Union " (UEC) was founded in 1995, European championships for professional riders were usually invitation races in which non-European riders could also take part.
  4. ^ Wroclaw, track race. motorrennsportarchiv.de, accessed on April 10, 2014 .
  5. ↑ Peter Schnyder (Ed.): Oerlikon race track. 100 years of fascination with cycling . AS-Verlag, Zurich 2012, ISBN 978-3-909111-95-4 , p. 150.
  6. ^ The Hitler Pages. Retrieved April 10, 2014 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 6 ′ 14.4 "  N , 17 ° 4 ′ 46.6"  E