Täve Schur strives for 100

On his big day, Täve Schur closes everything. "There is no party, I canceled everything. I will not let anyone in," says the cycling idol.

Actually, the 90th birthday on Tuesday was to be celebrated in the bicycle business of son Gus-Erik, now the closest family members come together in the house in Heyrothsberge near Magdeburg. Schur wants to attach a sign in the garden to prevent the well -wishers from ringing the doorbell. The risk is simply too high for him in Corona times.

After all, Gustav-Adolf Schur still has a few plans. "I have firmly planned for the next ten years. Herbert Köfer also did the 100, so I have to high," says Schur from the German press agency and laughs loudly. He will soon be sitting on a television program with the popular actor. At the moment he is more than happy to have survived the first 90 years to some extent.

Schur is still on the road, keeps the house in good condition and goes through the city a few kilometers every evening. But it has also become a bit lonely in his life since his wife Renate died after 58 years of marriage last May. He is now taking care of the numerous fan mail alone. The children come to visit as often as possible. And Schur can no longer devote himself to his other great love, the racing bike. "It only works when it gets warmer. My right knee has caused problems since I fell in Mallorca," reports the most popular athlete in the former GDR.

It is the mixture of sporting success and its enormously fun -loving, human and human -oriented nature that Schur has made so popular. When you talk about Täve, everyone in the east knows who is meant. Overall victory in the 1955 and 1959, World Cup victory in 1958 and 1959 and the selfless handover of the World Cup title in 1960 to Bernhard Eckstein on the Sachsenring, bronze at the 1956 Olympic Games and Silver 1960 series Nine times in a row GDR athlete of the year. Its successes moving generations.

"To ride the bike for your wedding when 100,000 people are on the Sachsenring - it is clear that it will take a lifetime," said son Jan in the MDR. He was a successful cyclist himself and was an Olympic champion in team time trial in 1988. "It was always clear to me that I wanted to become a cyclist myself."

At home, Täve Schur has only one trophy. A large brass shell that he got in 1960 at the Baltic Sea week for third place. The rest buzzes around somewhere in the world or is exhibited in the peace travel museum in Kleinmühlingen.

For many people, Schur is a hero. His name is also related to the injustice of the GDR, for which he was available as a propaganda figure. From 1958 to 1990 Schur was a member of the Volkskammer. His romantic views of the GDR system and the doping of minors after the fall of the Berlin Wall were often criticized. They prevented the Hall of Fame of German Sport twice - which insulted him. "Schur was not chosen, and there will be no third attempt in this way," said Michael Ilgner, CEO of Deutsche Sporthilfe, 2017. The door to the Hall of Fame remains closed forever.

Schur has long opposed the topic. "And if someone would offer me today that I would be accepted: the case is over for me," he told the "Magdeburg Volksstimme". But he also has famous lawyers. "If Germany wants to create a Hall of Fame for German sport, then Täve Schur is one of them. No matter what political attitude he has. It is about sport and not personal things," emphasized Olaf Ludwig and Henry Mask: "What Täve Schur did for sport, it is without a question comparable to many others who have long since arrived on the level."

Schur cannot complain about lack of attention or employment. He wrote books and published his current work "What is important to me" last year. He already has an idea for the next book - and it has nothing to do with cycling. "I could still write something about my childhood in war and the bombings. I was afraid like never in my life. But I will think about it twice," says Schur. First of all, there is a festival, if only in a small group.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210218-99-499098/4

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