Deutschland-Rundfahrt Bicycle Race 1937

Sixty-eight professional cyclists set off on the first leg of the Deutschland-Rundfahrt cycling race, a precursor of today's Deutschland-Tour, on June 6, 1937. After a six-year pause, this was the first time that the international race had been held in Nazi Germany. The 12 legs of the race led throughout the German Reich, with the start and finish line in Berlin.

Newspaper clipping with a black and white photograph. Three cyclists at a victory ceremony with their arms raised in the Hitler salute. To the left of them is the Reichsportführer Hans von Tschammer and Osten. — Newspaper clipping from the July 6th, 1937 issue of "Deutsche Illustrierte," about the award ceremony for the Tour of Germany on June 20th, 1937 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin.

©Deutsche Illustrierte

The third leg of the race stared on June 8 in Chemnitz and ended in Erfurt. Shortly before the finish line, the race passed through Weimar. Renowned for its cultural sites, the city was the state and so-called "Gau" capital, and the centre of the Nazi movement in Thuringia. The Nazi "Gau" head Fritz Saukel sponsored the victory prize for the first cyclist to reach Weimar, which Reinhold Wendel from Schweinfurt managed to win.

Approximately five weeks after the celebrated ride of the Deutschland-Rundfahrt cyclists, 149 men reached Ettersberg Mountain, just outside Weimar. These were the first inmates of the newly established Buchenwald Concentration Camp.