1949 - Scheller Track

Fritz Scheller, born 1914 in Erlangen was a German cyclist. It was 1932 when he joined the German Championship for Amateurs for the first time. Back then he was aged 17 and therefore the German cycling federation had to grant an exemption. After about 235 km he finished with an elongated final sprint and under the tremendous applause of the audience the German Championship Run in Nuremberg before the favorites Charles Hornig from Essen and the two Berliners Putkammer and Stach and became the youngest German Road Champion. 

In 1936 he was able to repeat this success. The same year he competed at the Olympic Games in Berlin in the road race and finished fourth. In 1937, he became the German Road Champion for the third time, and finshed the Road World Championships in Copenhagen in third place. Scheller also won the Harzrundfahrt in 1934 and 1936.

In 1938 Scheller became a Pro. In 1939 he again won the Harzrundfahrt, and at the Deutschlandfahrt he finished third in the overall standings. In 1940 he was third in the German road championship and won around the Hainleite. After WW II he became German champion in 1946 and in 1948 he finished at third place in the Grünes Band of the IRA, a predecessor of the Tour of Germany.

After the end of his active cycling career Fritz Scheller started his own bike shop in Nuremberg, did organize race days on the velodrome at Reichelsdorfer Keller and sold several track bikes to Reichelsdorfer Keller and Tourenklub Nürnberg.

The frames Scheller sold in his bike shop were made in Neumarkt, Oberpflaz at the Express factory.

 

Please stay tuned for more pictures of this rare find.

1949 - Bismark Modell 126 Toni Merkens - Part One

On 12 September 1896, the Fahrradwerke Bismark GmbH was registered in the commercial register of Lennep. Before that the oldand retired Reich Chancellor Prince Otto von Bismarck has given his personal consent to use the Bismark brand. Thus in 1897 the first bicycles were produced in  Bergerhof, Radevormwald. In 1918 the company was renamed to Fahrradwerke Bismarck, Schütte & Co., Bergerhof Rhld.

In the 30s a two-speed gear, which was integrated into the bottom bracket, was developed. Bicycles equipped with this gear mechanism got the name "Berg wie Tal". Although the Bismark racing team earned many national and international victories the greatest success of the racing team took place in the postwar period. For instance earned the Bismark team victory in the Deutschlandrundfahrt 1951 and 1952.

In autumn 1957 Bismark went bankrupt and was sold in pieces. The naming righs went to a firm called Falter in Bielefeld, which build and sold bicycles up to the late 90s under the Bismark brand. 

Unfortunately I didn´t  come over more information about the Modell 126 and the relationship between Toni Merkens and Bismark. Toni Merkens was born in 1912.

Merkens completed an apprenticeship as a bicycle mechanic at Fritz Köthke in Cologne. In 1933 he won his first German Championship in the sprint. In 1934 he was able to repeat this success and also won at the British Open Championships and the Grand Prix de Paris. At the track world championships in the same year in Leipzig, he finished fourth. In 1935 he again won the championship in the sprint from Germany and Great Britain as well as the Paris Grand Prix.

At the World Championships 1935 in Brussels Merkens could also win the title, as he successed against the Durchman Arie van Vliet with 2:1 runs. At the 1936 Olympic Games he was able to repeate this victory.

 

The above photograph shows Toni Merkens at the 1936 Olympics with a Hetchins, not with a Bismark. Other sources also report to have seen him mostly on frames build by Hetchins.

Immediately after the 1936 Olympics Merkens became a professional. In 1937 and 1939 he was German Vice Champion in the sprint. In 1940 he was the German Champion stayer, 1941 Vice Champion, 1942 Merkens became German Champion in the sprint and again stayer Vice Champion.

The Catalog picture shown above explicitly refers to victories won after WW II. But even in these days Toni Merkens demonstrably couldn´t have been involved anymore, because he already passed away in 1944 in a field hospital in Bad Wildbad to meningitis, after he was injured in 1942 on the Eastern Front (Russia) by a shrapnel.

Stay tunes for an update with pictures of my Bismark Model 126