SG Semper

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The SG Semper (full name Sportgemeinschaft Semper ) was an East Berlin cycling community that had existed independently of the GDR company sports community system since 1950 .

history

SG Berlin Bears

The SG Semper had its origins in the "Berliner Radrenn Club (BRC) Semper 1925" founded in 1925. It was based in the Berlin district of Friedrichshain and was under the patronage of the Norddeutsche Fahrradwerke Semper Rad. When the victorious powers in Germany banned most sports after the Second World War , the BRC Semper had to be dissolved. After sporting events were allowed again in 1946, former members of the BRC founded the “Friedrichshain cycling division”, which in 1949 was renamed “SG Berliner Bären”. The Berlin bears celebrated their first national success by winning the Eastern Zone Championship in the 4000 m pursuit by Horst Weinschenk. The SG sent three athletes to the East Zone Tour in 1949 , of which Rudi Kirchhoff was the best in eleventh place. In December 1949, the SG management decided not to join any company sports association (BSG). This deliberately avoided material support from the company.

Renaming to SG Semper

In 1950, a BSG was founded elsewhere, which also took the name "Berlin Bears". This forced the SG to change its name to "SG Semper". In the following years the SG Semper developed into one of the most powerful cycling communities in the GDR . When the GDR first took part in the three-country stage tour Internationale Friedensfahrt in 1950 , the Semper driver Werner Gräbner was nominated for the national team . He finished the tour as the third best GDR driver in 32nd place. Erich Schulz began his successful national career in 1950 by winning the traditional Harz tour . Winning the championship in the 100 km team time trial crowned the successful 1950 season for SG Semper. The championship team included Erich Schulz and Rudi Kirchhoff.

Successful 1950s

Kirchhoff became the most successful SG Semper driver in 1951. He won four national one - day races , including the GDR classics Berlin-Leipzig and Berlin-Cottbus-Berlin . He was also the only representative of the SG Semper on the 3rd GDR tour , where he finished eleventh while driving for the GDR national team. At the beginning of 1952, Erich Schulz and Rudi Kirchhoff left SG Semper. Schulz moved to BSG Post Berlin and Kirchhoff joined BSG Motor Friedrichshain West.

After this bloodletting, the SG concentrated more on youth work and in 1952 and 1953, Manfred Klieme, guaranteed success in the youth races. In 1954, Klieme mainly competed in track races , in which he won the winter track championship in the 4000 m pursuit and achieved a new track record in the West Berlin Sportpalast with his partner Horst Gräbner in the 300-lap team drive. The highlight of the year was winning the GDR championship in two-man team driving by the duo Manfred Klieme and Gerhard Löffler from Leipzig. In 1955 Klieme moved to SG Dynamo Karl-Marx-Stadt. In the same year, Rainer Pluskat and Lothar Lepke, two other talents began their careers at Semper. Together, both were runner-up in the two-man pursuit of the GDR youth railway championships. At the Berlin youth championships in street singles, Pluskat won ahead of Lepke, Pluskat was GDR youth champion in the same discipline. In 1957, SG Semper was recognized as the third best Berlin community behind SC Dynamo and BSG Post for youth work . In road racing, Semper recorded a total of 17 victories in the various age and performance classes this year. In the GDR best list of the BSG and SG, Pluskat took third place, in 1958 he was named best. A year later he moved to SC Einheit Berlin , followed a year later by Lothar Lepke.

Reduction to youth work

In the following years, SG Semper concentrated almost exclusively on youth work. The best talents were delegated to the big Berlin clubs Dynamo and Einheit. The decline of SG Semper began in 1964, when not only the talents switched to higher-performing clubs and communities, but also many officials. An improvement did not occur again until 1970 when a training center was set up at the SG on the instructions of the Berlin district trainer. SG Semper was financially supported by the district technical committee and commissioned to organize the annual street opening race Berlin-Freienwalde-Berlin from 1974 for the next few years. The upward trend became clear when SG Semper was awarded the title “Best Berlin Sports Association” in 1976. The cycling section was founded in 1982. After a long dry spell, the SG was able to celebrate another GDR champion in the men's category with Erik Becker , and in 1987 he won the championship in cross-country racing .

Return to the BRC

The political change of 1990 initially led to a considerable bloodletting of active members and functionaries. The sports community managed to use the name “BRC Semper 1925” again in the future. This ended the more than 50-year history of the "Semper Sports Association".

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