August Lehr

August Lehr

Lehr in 1889

August Lehr (* 26 February 1871 in Frankfurt am Main; † 15 July 1921 in Ludwigslust) was a German racing cyclist.^[1]

August Lehr, who was a salesman by profession, started his career as an amateur cyclist on a penny-farthing or ordinary. From 1888 to 1894 he won seven times the German championship. In 1888, only 18 years old, Lehr won in England, in the "belly of the beast", the English championship in the ordinary category (the inofficial world championship over one english mile). In 1891 he was the best cyclist in the world according to wins accumulated. In 1893 he finally decided to change to the safety bicycle, which proofed to be a good decision because one year later he won the World Championship in Antwerp, becoming the first German world champion in track cycling. As a result of these successes Lehr received invitations to race all over Europe, that led him to a total of 260 career wins (according to other sources 227).^[2] This didn't proof enough to make a living though and in 1898 he decided to finish his active racing career.

In 1909 the popular sports figure gave the start sign for the first Six Days of Berlin. In 1921 Lehr suffered a Gastrointestinal bleeding during a rowing trip on the Mecklenburg Lake Plateau, as a result of which he died a couple of days later.

When in 1925 in his hometown Frankfurt the Waldstadion was constructed next to a 400 Meter velodrome, the brothers Adam and Fritz von Opel financed the erection of a bronze memorial (by ) in his honour.^[3] In 2005, during the renovation of the Waldstadions for the FIFA World Cup, the memorial was destroyed.^[4]

Literature[]

• Hans Borowik: 300 Rennfahrer in einem Band, Berlin 1937.
• Adolf Klimanschewsky: Der entfesselte Weltmeister, Berlin 1955.
• Helmer Boelsen: Die Geschichte der Rad-Weltmeisterschaft, Bielefeld 2007 ISBN 978-3-936973-33-4.

References[]