Werner Miethe

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Werner Miethe (r.) Third in the Berlin-Leipzig race in 1922

Werner Miethe (born July 17, 1906 in Berlin ; † 1968 [probably there]) was a German racing cyclist and official.

Cycling career

Werner Miethe was a colorful figure who not only drew attention to himself as a racing cyclist. As an amateur, he set an amateur hour record over 41.947 kilometers in Munich in 1924 . As a professional, he started mainly in six-day races from 1927. He drove a total of 44, one of which he won in Cleveland in 1934 , with Gustav Kilian and Heinz Vopel . The three men spent many months together in the USA , during which the eloquent Miethe also managed the Kilian / Vopel team. In 1935 he officially emigrated to the USA. However, when he was visiting Germany in 1939, he was denied a return trip to the USA, four weeks before he could get his US passport.

Spy in war

In 1939 the defense of the Wehrmacht recruited Miethe for espionage activities. In the same year he was arrested in Belgium, according to his own statements, and sentenced to seven years in prison, but released by the German Wehrmacht in May 1940. In the further years of the war he is said to have worked as an undercover agent for the Gestapo and, together with Peter Steffes from Cologne, sold smuggled goods and Jewish property from France.

Professional

In 1947 Werner Miethe, like the automobile and motorcycle racing driver Georg Meier , who was stationed in France during the war like Miethe and worked as the driver of the defense chief Admiral Wilhelm Canaris , was one of the co-founders and shareholders of the sports car manufacturer Veritas GmbH, which was initiated by Ernst Loof . On a business trip to Paris, Miethe attended a boxing match, was recognized there as a former Hauptsturmführer of the Paris occupation Gestapo and arrested, but released after a few days in prison. Veritas went bankrupt in 1950. Then Miethe opened a petrol station in Berlin and lived in "luxurious circumstances", as the police discovered after he was repeatedly investigated for the "dissemination of lewd writings".

An attempt by Miethes to become active in cycling again failed. Although he worked as a manager again in the 1950s and was also elected chairman of the Berlin group of the professional drivers' association. But there were massive allegations that he was trying to monopolize the German six-day scene, so that the Association of German Cyclists threatened to withdraw his license. Der Spiegel quoted a Swiss cycling magazine: The former German six-day rider Miethe controls “practically all German racetracks and demands that you obey his orders. The racecourse managers just let it happen. Wherever one does not bow to the demands of these gentlemen, one is exposed to the reprisals of numerous couples who are at their service, as well as the jury. In practice, Mr. Miethe supervises all juries ”. At a meeting of the Professional Drivers Association, the majority of the delegates refused to allow him to take part in the event as a guest and to grant him a new supervisor license. Then Miethe withdrew completely from cycling.

Suspected as a traitor

In the course of investigations into Albert Richter's death , Miethe was also targeted by the public prosecutor in 1966. Richter, a track cyclist from Cologne , had become the amateur sprint world champion in 1932 . At the end of 1939 he tried to smuggle money into Switzerland for a Jewish friend from Cologne , which customs officials discovered. A few days later he died under unexplained circumstances in the prison in Loerrach ; presumably he was killed by the Gestapo . Miethe was named as one of several people suspected of betraying Richter's proposed smuggling to the authorities. Miethe could point to having allegedly sat in prison in Belgium during the period in question. Albert Richter's father did not believe in Miethe's betrayal. Although he was a Nazi, he was well-disposed towards his son.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sports album of the cycling world 1924–1927 . Berlin 1928, p. 12
  2. ↑ a b c mirror v. May 7, 1949
  3. ↑ a b c Renate Franz : The forgotten world champion , Bielefeld 2007, p. 140f. ISBN 978-3936973341 . In 1964 Miethe made a list of his imprisonment and service times to justify his pension claims. However, the accuracy of his statements could not be confirmed on the basis of files.
  4. ^ Cycling , March 3, 1953
  5. ↑ SIX-DAY RACE: Mause-Paul is faxing . In: Der Spiegel . No. 50 , 1951 ( online ).
  6. ^ The cyclist , February 1, 1956

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Miethe, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German track cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH July 17, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 1968