Speedway in Pre-War Germany

[norbold 7,114]

Any ideas on this one, iris?

[iris123 20,989]

That was the short season that Grosskreutz and one or two others were promoters there, I think . Season only lasted a few meetings then it folded never to run speedway again. Have details at home, but I am elsewhere at the moment . Bavarian might also be able to help

The track was running into problems fairly early on. The first season 1929 went well but it was downhill from there really and neighbours were complaining about the noise and at least one complaint went before the local council. But I think it was more financial trouble and the German economy etc that was the big problem

Great photo which I haven’t seen before

Edited December 29, 2019 by iris123

[iris123 20,989]

Some info I have put up, but haven’t got as far as 1933

 

[iris123 20,989]

14 minutes ago, norbold said:

Any ideas on this one, iris?

Could be this meeting 

http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/gervaus.htm

From memory I read it was announced there would be a short break in the season as some of the riders had contracts to ride in Sweden and it seemed the season never started up again

[norbold 7,114]

20 minutes ago, iris123 said:

Could be this meeting 

http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/gervaus.htm

From memory I read it was announced there would be a short break in the season as some of the riders had contracts to ride in Sweden and it seemed the season never started up again

Thanks. Looks likely, though the photo is captioned April 1933 and the International is dated 3 May - but close enough I suspect.

[iris123 20,989]

1 hour ago, norbold said:

Thanks. Looks likely, though the photo is captioned April 1933 and the International is dated 3 May - but close enough I suspect.

Now looking at my info, it was probably 26th April 1933, which was the opening meeting of the season. The next meeting was I the meeting v Australia in May

10,000 came, which was not bad and the 4,000 for the next meeting was quite a drop!!!

Grosskreutz won all 5 of his races including a match race v Rumrich. Case won 4 out of 5. John Glass, Dicky Wise and Ernie Evans were riding and Herbert Drews was the best local rider on the night. The newspaper report states Grosskreutz, Case in partnership with A.J. Reynolds got the Dirt Track back up and running

Can add some info that was sent to me from an article in Speedway Star and news May, 1959 about Grosskreutz

In 1933 he travelled to Germany with Dick Case and several other riders to race at Hamburg but at the time the Nazis were coming to power and they frowned on the venture. At the very last meeting Case and Grosskreutz were desperately short of money. The only solution they could see was to stage an International All Star meeting for a valuable gold cup. Minus money, they sought out an enterprising pawnbroker and borrowed a gold cup from him with a promise to return it on Monday morning, the meeting being raced on Sunday.

There was no doubt in either Case's or Grosskruetz's mind that they would be able to do this, for both were far ahead of the German and Danish riders who were to race against them. Unfortunately their plan misfired. Max had engine trouble in his second outing while Case when well placed in the lead broke a chain. This meant that a tough German farmer won the cup and refused point blank to hand it back. "I've win, I keep " he told them. They offered him as much money as they could raise: they asked to borrow the cup for a short while, but the German refused and they eventually went home..... 

I am not sure of the truth in this though. I only have found record of a third meeting, the next Wednesday 10th May. No mention of the above happening and it seemed the seasons meetings were all on a Wednesday, not Sunday as mentioned, but in the final Rumrich won after a great race just beating Grsskreutz with Case 3rd and then Drews in 4th. So it is possible this was the race everything hung on and it was Rumrich that refused to hand back the gold cup........No crowd figure given, just a note from the journalist that it remains a mystery why the Hamburg public don't support what is a great sport.......

After that it was announced a short break of a couple of weeks would take place, as I stated above.......

 

Edited December 29, 2019 by iris123

[Bavarian 767]

Thanks, that is a great photograph of that opening meeting of the 1933 season at Hamburg

 

I can add an aerial picture of the Dirt-Track-Bahn at Hamburg-Lokstedt

[iris123 20,989]

Found an interesting version of the story from Ernie Evans, told in 1936,so not too long after, but still not tying u with the facts that I have from local papers

At the completion of the season in England I returned to Australia and while riding at the Exhibition speedway, Melbourne won the Victorian Championship

On arrival back in England next season I was offered many lucrative contracts from the speedways in London and the provinces, but I listened to the tempter Dick Case, who had remained in England during the winter and had formed the opinion that there was a fortune to be made on the Continent for enterprising speedway riders.

He found out that in some places the sport was booming and good speedway riders were scarce. Also that there was a track in Hamburg that could be leased for a reasonable amount. He put the proposition to Grosskreutz, Wise, Murphy, Cantwell and myself, so we decided not only would we ride but make a fortune by acting as our own promoters

In our egotism we felt that none of the German riders could come within coo-ee of us. so we decided that while we were about it, we would have a decent trophy. Dick Case, the bargainer spotted a magnificent gold cup in a pawnshop, so he 'hicked' one of our machines for it on the understanding that when one of us won it the machine would be redeemed.

On the night of the championship we all struck engine trouble and a Bavarian rider Sebastian Roth riding a fast JAP had no trouble winning the championship and incidentally the cup. Strange as it may seem we could not prevail on him to return the trophy.

The championship fiasco was a severe blow to our finances, so when we discovered that there was to be a public holiday the following week we thought that it was a heaven sent opportunity t recuperate our losses. Little did we know it would end our stay in Germany.

On the day of the holiday everything was ready, but when we arrived at the track we were surprised to see that there was not a spectator on the ground. Usually there were a few spectators who arrived early to watch the practice runs. As time went on still no spectators appeared, and then we really began to get worried.

At last people began to arrive, but to our consternation they were in uniforms and were Hitlers stormtroopers sent to see that nobody entered the ground. It was then that we were informed that Hitlers birthday was a close holiday and no sports or any other amusements are held.

We did not know until after we left Germany that the Hamburg papers had been writing about us for daring to desecrate Herr Hitlers birthday, a holiday which is regarded in the same light as Anzac day in Australia. To this day we blamed our publicity agent, as he should have told us of the mistake we were making. We thought we had our own back as we pinched his car when we decided to seek fresh fields to conquer....

Again the trouble with this story is Hitlers birthday, which was a public holiday in 1933 was 20th April, which was before the opening meeting of the season.....

Edited January 4, 2020 by iris123

[Bavarian 767]

Very interesting, and that's quite the same story that Max Grosskreutz told the press. But it just can't have been so in 1933, because only Hitler's 50th birthday, which was April 20, 1939, was a public holiday. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Führergeburtstag

[iris123 20,989]

I saw that and then elsewhere that 1933 was the first, which did seem hard to believe, so quick after coming to power. What is strange though is that this story was in the press in 1936, which would then be before it was made a public holiday, so Evans was predicting the future !!!!

 Then went on to talk about the tragic trip to Denmark and the death of Col Cantwell , again checking on his death Evans gets that wrong and places it after the Hamburg fiasco, when it was before according to Chunky’s website, and then his trip to the US

One newspaper report 

http://zefys.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/index.php?id=dfg-viewer&set[mets]=http%3A%2F%2Fcontent.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de%2Fzefys%2FSNP25128437-19330420-0-0-0-0.xml

Edited January 4, 2020 by iris123