Walter Ruett

Walter Ruett (1901)

Rütt on the tandem behind Henry Mayer (1904)

Walter Rütt (born September 12, 1883 in Morsbach ; † June 23, 1964 in Berlin ) was a German racing cyclist .

Athletic career

Walter Rütt, along with Thaddäus Robl , Willy Arend and August Lehr, was one of the first German cycling stars. On June 21, 1900, at the age of 17, he competed in his first bike race as a pilot (today: Sprinter ), which he won. His superiority in the subsequent races made him obtain a license as a professional driver. His first start as a professional driver took place on August 14, 1900 at the European Championship in Cologne, which was won by Franz Verheyen . A few weeks later, Rütt won his first professional race, a tandem competition in Aachen , which he competed with Franz Verheyen. Later he also drove endurance races.

In 1906 Rütt took part in the six-day race in Madison Square Garden in New York together with the Dutch driver John Stol , which they won together the following year. Rütts success played a major role in the fact that the first six-day race on European soil was held in Berlin in March 1909. He himself could not take part, because he was staying abroad because of the failure to submit military service and did not dare to return to Germany. For the 2nd Berlin six-day race , however, many personalities interested in cycling (including Fredy Budzinski ) got through his rehabilitation, so that he could start - and win with the Australian Jack Clark .

Rütt was able to record a total of 933 victories in 25 years as a professional driver, including nine victories in six-day races, but also 173 serious falls. In 1904 and 1909 the versatile Rütt won victories at the Grand Prix de l'UVF and in 1913 at the sprint classic Grand Prix de Paris . On January 12, 1926, Rütt drove his farewell round in the Berlin Sports Palace (according to other sources on October 7, 1926).

Only a few months later, Rütt fulfilled a lifelong dream with the opening of its own cycling track in Berlin-Hasenheide, the " Rütt-Arena ", which however fell victim to the flames in 1931. On May 1, 1937, the financially ruined Rütt joined the NSDAP . As a result of his membership he got a job as a realm sports teacher, which secured his livelihood and enabled him to remain active in cycling. In addition, in the 1940s and 1950s he regularly wrote columns with tips for racing cyclists (“Now Rütt speaks”).

How popular Rütt was abroad can be seen from the fact that the authors of the French Tour de France novel Giganten der Landstraße , published in 1927, dedicated the German edition to him with the words: “André Reuze and Fred A. dedicate to Angermayer the German edition of this work to the world champion Walter Rütt, who, through the example of his sporting life and the creation of the Rütt Arena, decisively promoted the next generation of German racing drivers and made them equal to the international class. "

Familiar

At its start in Denmark Rütt met a sister of the former Swedish cyclist Orla Lund. They got married in 1904. Rütt had a son, Oskar Rütt, born in Australia, who was also active as a cyclist and, among other things , won the Prussian sprint championship in 1923 .

Honors

In 2000 a sports hall was named after Walter Rütt in Morsbach, today a district of Würselen . His grave in the Steglitz cemetery in Berlin has been an honorary grave of the city of Berlin since 2001 .

literature

• Walter Rütt in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
• Hans Borowik : 300 racing drivers in one volume , Berlin 1937
• Renate Franz : Fredy Budzinski , Cologne 2007 ISBN 978-3-939390-43-5

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Association of German Cyclists (ed.): Cycling . No. 26/1964 . German sports publisher Kurt Stoof, Cologne, p. 6 .
2. ↑ Interest group for cycling (ed.): The cycling . No. 7/8/1948 . Sportdienst Verlag Zademack and Noster, Cologne, p. 2 .
3. ↑ quoted from: Wolfgang Schoppe , Werner Ruttkus : In the shine and shadow of the rainbow. Self-published, 2005, ISBN 3-00-005315-8 , p. 92
4. ↑ Interest group for cycling (ed.): The cycling . No. 17/18/1948 . Sportdienst Verlag Zademack and Noster, Cologne, p. 2 .
5. ↑ Interest group for cycling (ed.): The cycling . No. 55/1948 . Cologne, S. 2 .
6. ^ Association of German cyclists (ed.): Radsport . No. 9/1962 . German sports publisher Kurt Stoof, Cologne, p. 12 .

Web links

Commons : Walter Rütt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Walter Rütt in the database of Radsportseiten.net
• Website about Walter Rütt