Werner Potzernheim

Werner Potzernheim (born March 8, 1927 in Hamburg ; † April 22, 2014 in Arnum ) was a German track cyclist .

Career

Werner Potzernheim drove his first races at the age of twelve, inspired by his grandfather, a sea captain, who was enthusiastic about cycling. Even at that time it was his goal to become a professional; first he did an apprenticeship as a machine fitter, then he was drafted into the armed forces. But as early as 1946 he competed in 15 road and rail races. In 1950 Potzernheim, until then a member of the RV "Final Spurt" Hamburg , moved to Hanover , a. a. because he valued the cycling track there very much and there was no longer any in Hamburg. He became a member of the “RC Diamant Hannover”, the predecessor of today's “RC Blau-Gelb Langenhagen”, and remained that way until the end. At first he lived in a pacemaker cabin on the cycling track in Hanover until he could afford his own apartment. Before he finally switched to the track, he had 65 victories in road races.

Werner Potzernheim was the most successful German sprinter on the track in the 1950s and 1960s and is still considered the most successful track cyclist from Lower Saxony . Between 1955 and 1965 Potzernheim was the German champion in the sprint of amateurs five times and ten times in the professional class and was therefore considered the German “King of Aviators”. Between 1951 and 1964 he took part in several UCI track world championships . Several times he won international sprint tournaments, such as the 1958 German Grand Prix , where he beat the multiple world champion Antonio Maspes .

Werner Potzernheim won the bronze medal in the sprint at the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 . When he arrived at the train station in Hanover a few days later together with Edi Ziegler , who finished third in the street race, the two athletes and their supervisor Matze Schmidt went on a triumphant trip through the city and were cheered by thousands of people. In October Potzernheim received the “ Silver Laurel Leaf ” from Federal President Theodor Heuss . The following year he took third place in the sprint at the World Railroad Championships in Zurich .

In 1965 Potzernheim resigned from active cycling, initially took over a petrol station and later worked in the two-wheeler industry. He was also the trainer of the "Cycling Association of Hanover" and a coach for the railroad riders in the "Working Group for Cycling".

For his services to sport in Lower Saxony , he was included in the Honor Gallery of Sports in Lower Saxony - an honorary portal since 1988 - of the Lower Saxony Institute for Sports History.

Werner Potzernheim died after a long illness at the age of 87.

literature

• Walter Euhus : Spoke sport . Hanover's historical cycling , Langenhagen 2001, pp. 194–205.

Web links

• Werner Potzernheim in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Werner Potzernheim in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Portrait on radsportverband.de ( Memento from September 3, 2002 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Presidium of the Cycling Section of the GDR (Ed.): Cycling Week . No. 5/1954 . Berlin, S. 12 .
2. ↑ "Flieger" is the traditional name for sprinters.
3. ^ Paul Bering, Albert van Laethen (ed.): Le Cyclisme . Brussels 1958, p. 173 (French).
4. ↑ Honor portal. Introduction. (No longer available online.) In: nish.de. Lower Saxony Institute for Sports History V., archived from the original on January 11, 2014 ; Retrieved August 4, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Werner Potzernheim. Roll of honor. (No longer available online.) In: nish.de. Lower Saxony Institute for Sports History V., formerly in the original ; Retrieved August 4, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
6. ↑ Werner Potzernheim died. Der Tagesspiegel , April 24, 2014, accessed on April 24, 2014 .