Squidward Robl

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Squidward Robl 1902
Squidward Robl as a racing driver
Grave of Thaddäus Robl on the old southern cemetery in Munich location

Thaddäus (Thaddy) Robl (born October 22, 1877 in Kleinaschau near Garmisch ; † June 18, 1910 in Stettin in a plane crash) was a German racing cyclist .

Life

Squidward Robl contracted cerebral typhus as a child and was partially paralyzed, but he still secretly practiced cycling on his father's penny farthing . In 1896 he became a professional racing driver and mainly drove standing races .

In 1898 he finished third in the Paris – Bordeaux road race , but then switched to track cycling . Robl was twice world champion, multiple European champion and won numerous other titles. In 1900 he finished second in the 24-hour Bol d'Or race in Paris behind Mathieu Cordang , with a total of 864 kilometers and 775 meters. He was one of the biggest sports stars in Germany after the turn of the century and helped to establish the boom in cycling as a crowd-puller. From 1905 to 1909 he was the absolute big breadwinner on German cycling tracks. In the course of his career, Robl suffered nine broken collarbones, two arm breaks, one broken leg and even a broken skull once, which did not prevent him from continuing to compete in races. Besides the racetrack, Robl was also interested in cycling, so he developed some improvements to the machines of his pacemakers and their equipment.

In 1909 Robl switched from bicycle to airplane. On June 18, 1910, after he had started a demonstration in spite of strong winds, he was thrown out of the bursting machine from a height of 20 meters and killed by its engine. He was the first civil aviation casualty on German soil.

Since Robl only left debts, his friends and followers collected several thousand Reichsmarks for the mother of the unmarried star . In 1906 he bought her a house (called Villa Thaddy) in Munich-Feldmoching (then Moosstrasse 134, today Schwarzhölzlstrasse 48), which is still standing today. An anonymous woman donated 3,000 Reichsmarks for his funeral (contemporary sources speak of his last lover).

The cycling author Walter Lemke had put together a collection of exhibits about Robl, which he presented several times in various exhibitions in Bavaria.

Honors

Robl is an honorary member of the Rad-Renn-Club 1902 München.

Private

Robl was an admirer of the Munich-based racing cyclist Josef Fischer . At the same time he suffered from the fact that this was preferred to him in the favor of the local audience and the press for a long time. For a long time it was his goal to beat Fischer in one race, which he succeeded after several attempts. All his life dealing with money was problematic for him, he won a few thousand Reichsmarks on a weekend, so he was completely destitute again after a few days.

tomb

The grave of Thaddäus Robl is in the Old Southern Cemetery in Munich (Grave field 41 - row 10 - place 8) location . As a reminder, a street in Munich was named after him.

gallery

  • One last handwritten greeting from Robl

  • Consecration of the corpse

  • Transfer to Munich

  • The Robl Memorial in Munich, his mother in the middle

Works

  • Thaddäus Robl, Der Radrennsport , Leipzig 1905 (with the assistance of Fredy Budzinski ).

See also

Web links

Commons : Squidward Robl  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Walter Lemke: "Thaddäus Robl - a forgotten sports legend". In: Der Knochenschüttler No. 48, 1/2010, pp. 9-12
  2. ^ Presidium of the Cycling Section of the GDR (Ed.): Cycling Week . No. 1/1954 . Berlin 1954, p. 10 .
  3. ↑ a b c Sports album of the bike world . Radwelt Verlag, Berlin 1911, p. 22, 27, 38 .
  4. ↑ Martin Schreck: "Thaddäus Robl and the Milbertshofen Radrennbahn" on kulturvergnuegen.de (PDF; 283 kB)
  5. ^ Deutsches Museum: Deutsches Museum: Thaddäus Robl. In: deutsches-museum.de. October 7, 2010, accessed February 22, 2020 .
  6. ↑ cf. Old southern cemetery in Munich, Franz Schiermeier - Florian Scheungraber - overview plan of the tombs - ISBN 978-3-9811425-6-3
personal data
SURNAME Robl, Squidward
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Robl, Thaddy (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German racing cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Small show at Garmisch
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 1910
Place of death Szczecin