The Race Against the Stasi
Page 20
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Marianne Wiedemann with her first-born, Dieter. Flöha, 1941.
Miniature Peace Race, 1952. Number 25 Eberhard Wiedemann (and teddy-bear) leads, his father built the side-car. Dieter (centre, white shirt, shorts and socks) is third wheel.
A life around bikes: Karl Wiedemann in winter training kit.
Golden boy: Mayor Hense (left) holds court for Dieter and Marianne Wiedemann.
Though Karl never competed, cycling was his raison d’être.
Club lunch: Karl Wiedemann (seated, left) with little Eberhard and Dieter.
Champion in the making: Eberhard Wiedemann was prodigiously talented.
Flöha Elementary School, c. 1951. Rainer Müller is the blond boy in the middle of the front row; Dieter (in lederhosen) is third from the right on the back row. One of the boys would become ‘Orion’, a Stasi informant who reported on Dieter.
Promotional poster, 1953 Peace Race. Note the heavy industry (a classic socialist leitmotif), the cheering proletariat, the dove on the blue jersey and the flags of the three hosts.
Ian Steel, winner of the 1952 race. He and his British colleagues were given jerseys without the dove. © East News/REX
The GDR team, held over in Tirana in advance of the 1961 Tour of Egypt. Wiedemann is third from the left.
Time trial, 1964 Peace Race. Catching the Russian, Kulibin. Wiedemann would finish the stage sixth and move up to third on GC.
Classic early 1950s Peace Race photo. The billboard behind the peloton reads, ‘Praise the Polish miners – heroes of the Socialist labour’.
S.C. Wismut, winners of the 1960 GDR team time trial championships. Manfred Weissleder is far right, alongside Wiedemann.
Go east, young man: Marx and Lenin confer their approval upon the Peace Race peloton.
Warsaw, the colossal opening ceremony of the 1952 Peace Race. The banner reads, ‘Constitution – the great charter of our nation’s victory’. Stalin had just rubberstamped the ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’, enshrining communist rule in Polish law. Here he flanks Bierut, Gottwald and Pieck, party leaders of the three host nations. © East News/REX
The final podium of the 1964 Peace Race, Prague. Left to right: Dieter Wiedemann, Jan Smolik, Günter Hoffmann.
The race of millions: note the red kerchiefs and berets of the Young Socialist Movement. © East News/REX
Peace Race stage finishes were played out, almost without exception, to vast audiences in huge stadiums. © East News/REX
Täve, sporting symbol of socialism’s great victory. A pin-up boy for the regime, his popularity knew no bounds. © Deutsche Fotothek
Fourteen-year-old Sylvia Hermann at home in Mitterteich, 1960.
The end of the beginning: Dieter’s first letter to Sylvia dated 28 August 1960. Twelve months later the border was closed.
Sylvia posing with the family car in 1962.
Together at last: Sylvia and Dieter in Flöha, November 1963.
An anonymous letter of support from ‘the sporting people of Flöha’, September 1964.
Dieter (right) rode as a professional in West Germany. Here he’s preparing to race having completed the Tour of Switzerland the previous day and having driven through the night with just two hours sleep.
It’s the rest day of the 1967 Tour de France, at Belfort. The previous day Dieter (third from the left) was acquainted with the brutal climb of the Ballon d’Alsace.
Wiedemann raced for three years as a professional, before the Torpedo team folded. He never won, but would have become a solid stage racer.
Before the storm: The Tour de France peloton during the first week of the race. © Offside / L’Equipe
Crossing the line at Ballon d’Alsace. Dieter lost six minutes to stage winner Lucien Aimar. Many conceded over twenty minutes.
The worst of times: Britain’s Tommy Simpson rode himself to death on Mont Ventoux. © Offside / L’Equipe
For
P, P & T
First published in 2014
by Aurum Press Ltd, 74–77 White Lion Street, London N1 9PF
www.aurumpress.co.uk
This eBook edition first published in 2014
Copyright © Herbie Sykes 2014
Herbie Sykes has asserted his moral right to be identified as the Author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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