Race Against The Stasi The Incredible Story of Dieter Wiedemann, the Iron Curtain and the Greatest Cycling Race on Earth

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  • Engels
  • Paperback
  • 9781781315361
  • 14 januari 2016
  • 400 pagina's
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Samenvatting

Part cycling story, part cold war and love story, this is Ben MacIntyre meets the great escape, a sporting equivalent of Anna Funder's seminal Stasiland.



Cycling Book of the Year - Cross British Sports Book Awards When the 'Iron Curtain' descended across Europe, Dieter Wiedemann was a hero of East German sport. A podium finisher in The Peace Race, the Eastern Bloc equivalent of the Tour de France, he was a pin-up for the supremacy of socialism over the 'fascist' West. Unbeknownst to the authorities, however, he had fallen in love with Sylvia Hermann, a girl from the other side of the wall. Socialist doctrine had it that the two of them were 'class enemies', and as a famous athlete Dieter's every move was pored over by the Stasi. Only he abhorred their ideology, and in Sylvia saw his only chance of freedom. Now, playing a deadly game of cat and mouse, he plotted his escape. In 1964 he was delegated, once and once only, to West Germany. Here he was to ride a qualification race for the Tokyo Olympics, but instead committed the most treacherous of all the crimes against socialism. Dieter Wiedemann, sporting icon and Soviet pawn, defected to the other side. Whilst Wiedemann fulfilled his lifetime ambition of racing in the Tour de France, his defection caused a huge scandal. The Stasi sought to 'repatriate' him, with horrific consequences both for him and the family he left behind. Fifty years on, and twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dieter Wiedemann decided it was time to tell his story. Through his testimony and that of others involved, and through the Stasi file, which has stalked him for half a century, Herbie Sykes uncovers an astonishing tale. It is one of love and betrayal, of the madness at the heart of the cold war, and of the greatest bike race in history.

Productspecificaties

Inhoud

Taal
en
Bindwijze
Paperback
Oorspronkelijke releasedatum
14 januari 2016
Aantal pagina's
400
Illustraties
Nee

Betrokkenen

Hoofdauteur
Herbie Sykes
Hoofduitgeverij
Aurum

Overige kenmerken

Extra groot lettertype
Nee
Product breedte
129 mm
Product hoogte
33 mm
Product lengte
198 mm
Studieboek
Nee
Verpakking breedte
129 mm
Verpakking hoogte
198 mm
Verpakking lengte
27 mm
Verpakkingsgewicht
471 g

EAN

EAN
9781781315361
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