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The legendary Bayern Curve – 58 years after the official closure of the Riessersee Olympic bobsleigh track, it is still impressive. Thanks to volunteers, you can now walk around the entire complex near Garmisch-Partenkirchen again. Anyone who climbs the long overgrown Bavarian bend will discover a memorial plaque at the former key point, while four bobsledders rode to their deaths on the then feared track, including the Swiss Felix Endrich in 1953.
While bobsled pusher Sandro Michel in Altenberg, Germany, got lucky despite his serious injuries and escaped with his life on Tuesday, this was not the case for Felix Endrich in his four-man bobsleigh 71 years ago.
Particularly tragic: Endrich’s wife Edith (the couple had only married a few weeks earlier) is said to have been on the track in the Bayern bend, saw the accident and subsequently had a nervous breakdown.
The bobsleigh crashed into a tree
What exactly happened on that Saturday, January 31, 1953 during the World Bobsleigh Championships in the Bavarian bend can be read in the NZZ of that time: “Endrich seemed to have lost the overview for a moment because the sled was already shooting. the first third of the Bayern corner proper and was carried off the track. The bobsled hit several flagpoles and eventually crashed into a tree twelve meters away. The doctor diagnosed Endrich with a serious skull fracture and a fracture of the cervical vertebra, which must have led to death after a short time.
The other occupants of the four-man bobsleigh were also injured: “The passengers Albert Gartmann and René Heiland suffered fractures, sprains and bruises, while Stöckli, who was on the brakes, was thrown from the bobsleigh and landed in a high arc on the ground. the tarpaulin roof of a jeep and got a nervous shock and some bruises.”
Endrich became world champion and Olympic champion
On the same day, two obituaries appeared in the NZZ. The family wrote: “We are deeply shocked to announce that Felix Endrich was suddenly taken from us at the age of 32 by God’s unfathomable decision.” And the Engelberg Bobsleigh Club announced: “We are deeply shocked to inform all our sporting friends of the tragic passing of our highly valued and beloved friend and member Felix Endrich.”
Why Endrich lost his course in the Bayern bend on that cold January day remains a great mystery to this day. The jury said at the time that it was “absolutely incomprehensible” to them how this accident could have happened.
By the way, typewriter dealer Felix Endrich was one of the best bobsleigh pilots in the world at the time. In 1948 he won Olympic gold in the two-man bobsleigh in St. Moritz. And just a few days before his tragic death, he won his third world title in the pairs on Lake Riessersee.
Source : Blick
I’m Emma Jack, a news website author at 24 News Reporters. I have been in the industry for over five years and it has been an incredible journey so far. I specialize in sports reporting and am highly knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in this field.
