Werner Krüger (pacemaker)

Werner Krüger (front) visiting the “Botanischer Garten” cycling track in Berlin after the “racetrack disaster” on July 18, 1909

Werner Krüger (born March 30, 1878 in Kronsforde ; † July 21, 1931 in Cologne ) was a German cyclist and pacemaker .

Werner Krüger began cycling as a commercial apprentice in Lübeck . Since he competed in cycling races against his parents' wishes, he first adopted the pseudonym "Sophus", later he called himself "Petersen". After he was successful as an amateur, he turned professional in 1901. With the later fatally injured racing driver Karl Käser he undertook a bike tour on the tandem in 1904 , which should lead to Nice ; In Basel , however, they had to give up their request and take the train the rest of the way. On his return from the Riviera , Kruger became a pacemaker, one of the most successful before the First World War .

In 1903 Krüger led the German driver Alfred Görnemann to third place among the professionals at the UCI rail world championships in 1903 in Ordrup near Copenhagen and the Swiss Edmond Audemars to the world championship among the amateurs. For this he was later invited by Audemars to the Zurich luxury hotel “Baur au Lac” and presented with a gold watch. When he was stolen in a bus in Berlin these years , Audemars sent him a new watch through the journalist Fredy Budzinski on the occasion of the UCI track world championships in 1929 . Krüger's other stayer protégés included such successful drivers as Gustav Janke , Bruno Demke and Erich Möller . The pacemaker was very corpulent ("the fat Kruger") and therefore offered a good slipstream.

After the 1903 World Cup, Krüger Audemars led other races in Germany; In Hanover he fell because of a burst rear tire, suffered a severe fracture of the right leg and limped from then on. Again on July 18, 1909 burst a tire on his pacemaker machine during a race on the velodrome "Botanical Garden". The following evasive maneuver by a competitor caused the racetrack disaster in Berlin , in which nine spectators died. In the same year Krüger became German champion together with Arthur Stellbrink , in 1913 and 1915 with Janke.

1927 joined Werner Kruger as a pacemaker back and led, among other things, the Centennial Hall in Wroclaw and the Berlin "Olympic train" as the organizer. In 1930 he was persuaded to make a comeback to lead Paul Krewer , whose pacemaker Christian Junggeburth had died after a traffic accident. On July 21, 1931, he died as a pacemaker for the Belgian Emile Thollembeek of the consequences of a fall on the Cologne-Riehl cycling track during the "Grand Standing Prize of Germany".

Individual evidence

^ Illustrated cycling sport , August 25, 1929
↑ Illustrated cycling , July 24, 1931

literature

Rad-Welt's sport album , 16./17. Vintage, Berlin 1920

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Kruger, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German cyclist and pacemaker
DATE OF BIRTH	March 30, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH	Kronsforde
DATE OF DEATH	July 21, 1931
Place of death	Cologne

[1] Illustrated cycling sport , August 25, 1929

[2] Illustrated cycling , July 24, 1931