Wolfgang Gronen

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Wolfgang Gronen (born July 20, 1916 in Erkelenz ; † December 29, 1995 in Bad Ems ) was a German journalist , cycling official, cyclist and collector.

Career as a cycling official

Wolfgang Gronen grew up in Aachen and did an apprenticeship as a precision mechanic there. As a member of the RSC Zugvogel Aachen 1909 , he raced from 1931. Labor service, military service and imprisonment, however, prevented the career he aspired to as a racing cyclist. From 1950 he supervised and managed, among others, the record drivers Karl-Heinz Kramer and José Meiffret as well as the American stalker Walter Summers .

From 1950 to 1967 Gronen was the sporting director of a cycling team supported by the Hagen chain factory Ruberg & Renner. Under his wing he had such prominent athletes as Hennes Junkermann , Karl-Heinz Kunde , Werner Potzernheim , Jan Pronk , Wilfried Peffgen and Adolph Verschueren . After the end of the “ Ruberg team”, Gronen worked for Batavus .

For many years, Gronen represented the interests of managers and supervisors in the German Professional Racing Drivers Association (BRV), and has been a board member since it was founded in 1948. He also worked as a journalist and spokesman for cycling races and organized cycling events such as German mountain and criterion championships . In 1967 he was assistant to the German team leader for the Tour de France , Hans Preiskeit . The German team, which consisted of ten drivers, including Kunde, Rolf Wolfshohl , Junkermann and Wilfried Peffgen , ended up in the rear.

Founder of the recumbent bike scene

From the late 1970s, Wolfgang Gronen turned to the development of fully encased racing recumbents and founded the "Vector Team". He developed the "Vector", an American racing recumbent bike , with which the German cyclist Gerhard Scheller became German and European champion in 1986 and also took part in world championships in Canada. The "Vector" was also tested by Francesco Moser . Gronen was one of the co-founders of the Human Powered Vehicles Association - Germany and on the board of the International Human Powered Vehicle Association .

Cycling collection

Throughout his life, Gronen collected books, documents, photos, stamps and works of art on the subject of cycling as well as bicycles, jerseys and other devotional objects. His "International Cycling and Aviation Archive Wolfgang Gronen" was one of the largest cycling collections in the world at the time. In 1979 Gronen sold the library part of his collection - books, photos, documents and magazines - to the German Sport University Cologne , in whose archive he had worked from 1973 to 1978.

Journalist and author

A fundamental work in terms of cycling history is Gronen's book History of Bicycle and Cycling , published in 1978 , which he wrote with Walter Lemke from Munich . Together with Fredy Budzinski , he supported Carl Diem in drafting the cycling part of the book "World History of Sports". In his capacity as a cycling expert, Gronen took part in numerous television programs, for example in 1982 in the quiz program “ Der Große Preis ” and in 1983 in the “ WWF Club ”. In 1985, the ARD broadcast a documentary about Freiherr von Drais , on which Gronen had worked, and in 1990 he was interviewed for the film "In search of Albert Richter - cyclist". He also worked as a freelancer for numerous trade magazines, including Radsport , English Cycling and US Bicycling .

Wolfgang Gronen died on December 29, 1995 after a long illness in the Bad Ems Clinic.

Honors

In 1985 Gronen was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon ; the following year he was honored with a medal by the German Sport University Cologne.

Works

  • Wolfgang Gronen, Walter Lemke: History of the bicycle and cycling : History of cycling. Fuchs-Druck und Verlag, Hausham 1987.

literature

  • Jürgen Schiffer: "Expert in 'cycling matters': Wolfgang Gronen", in: Kurier , No. 5, October 1986
  • Rheinische Post , Düsseldorf-Neuss edition, June 25, 1980
  • Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , July 25, 1986
  • Carl Diem: World history of sport and physical education . Stuttgart 1960, p. 1163
  • "Gronen died", in: Radsport , January 9, 1996
  • Alfons Friderichs (Ed.): Gronen, Wolfgang , In: Personalitäten des Kreis Cochem-Zell, Kliomedia, Trier 2004, ISBN 3-89890-084-3 , p. 135.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Association of German cyclists (ed.): Radsport . No. 2/1967 . German sports publisher Kurt Stoof, Cologne, p. 8 .
  2. ^ Association of German cyclists (ed.): Radsport . No. 29/1966 . Deutscher Sportverlag Kurt Stoof, Cologne 1966, p. 19 .
  3. ↑ CYCLING / TOUR DE FRANCE: him or me . In: Der Spiegel . No. 31 1967 ( online - 24 July 1967 ).
personal data
SURNAME Gronen, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist, cycling official and racing cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH July 20, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Erkelenz
DATE OF DEATH December 29, 1995
Place of death Bad Ems