Albert Richter

Albert Richter

Albert Richter, wearing the World Champion 1932 jersey.
Personal information
Full name	Albert Richter
Nickname	The German eight cylinder
Born	(1912-10-14)14 October 1912 Cologne, Germany
Died	2 January 1940(1940-01-02) (aged 27) Unknown
Team information
Discipline	Road and track
Role	Rider
Major wins
1932 – World amateur sprint champion 1932 – Grand Prix de Paris (amateur) 1934 – Grand Prix de Paris 1938 – Grand Prix de Paris 1939 – Grand Prix de Berlin

Albert Richter (14 October 1912 in Cologne, Germany – January 2, 1940) was a German cyclist who won the world sprint championship. He was taken from a train by the Gestapo and never seen alive again.

Albert Richter, known to friends as Teddy, grew up in Sömmeringstraße 72, Ehrenfeld, Cologne. He was one of three brothers born in Cologne to a talented musician. Charles learned the saxophone, Josef the clarinet and Albert the violin.

Albert worked with his father and Charles in a family business making plaster figurines, although some sources say he was a plasterer, but he was frequently out of work in the Depression. He used his spare time to train on the velodrome in Cologne, in secret because his father disapproved. He rode his first races, on the road and on the track, at 16. His father found out when Albert broke his collar bone. His rides, however, attracted the attention of Ernst Berliner, a former cycling champion who ran a furniture business in the city and who had become a reputed cycling coach. Berliner was Jewish and had had his business ransacked several times by Brown Shirts.

In 1932, after winning the Grand Prix de Paris, Richter hoped to be picked for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. But he was disappointed. The German federation could not afford his fare.

Richter went to Rome and won the world sprint amateur championship on September 3. He was greeted enthusiastically in Cologne. He turned professional and Berliner sent him to Paris, the centre of European track cycling. Agnès Granjon said in her short biography:

There were races all through the year on the four vélodromes in Paris. Richter quickly learned French in particular by watching films, and adapted quickly to his new life. After uncertain beginnings, the young German triumphed at the Vélodrome d'hiver by winning a competition for foreign sprinters. His fluid style, dynamic and powerful, won him the admiration of all. Adopted in a few months by the Parisian public, Albert Richter became very popular in France and gathered a new nickname: the German eight-cylinder.