Two years ago, a bicycle joined the Deutsches Historisches Museum\u2019s collection. Not a sleek racing bike, nor one of those Pedelecs equipped with auxiliary motors that are so popular right now. No, a perfectly normal, classic man\u2019s bicycle. It has back-pedal brakes (but no gears), front and rear lights, a good-quality leather seat with suspension, a cargo rack with basket \u2013 and visible signs of wear, rust, and repairs. The pushbike of some run-of-the-mill cyclist, then? Hardly: this bike belonged to the political activist Fritz Teufel (1943\u20132010). He moved from his home in Swabia to study in Berlin in the 1960s. However, academic life quickly became secondary to his activities in the student movement and, alongside Rudi Dutschke (one of the most prominent figures in the 1968 student uprising), the Socialist German Student League. A gentle and affectionate character, Teufel co-founded \u201cKommune 1\u201d in early 1967 with other well-known figures from the era, including Dieter Kunzelmann (who died in May this year) and Rainer Langhans. Their provocative campaigns gained public notoriety, although the long-haired \u201cbogey of the bourgeoisie\u201d was more a self-styled \u201cfun guerrilla\u201d \u2013 as, perhaps, befits the mischievous associations of his name (Teufel is the German word for devil) . He planned to use pudding and flour bombs in an \u201cassassination\u201d of US Vice President Humphrey, and in 1982 sprayed German Federal Finance Minister Matth\u00f6fe with magic ink.<\/p>\n
The major demonstration held on 2 June 1967 to protest against the Iranian Shah\u2019s state visit to West Berlin signalled a turning point in Teufel\u2019s activism. While the policeman \u2013 and, as it later transpired, Stasi agent \u2013 Karl-Heinz Kurras, who shot dead the student Benno Ohnesorg on the periphery of the demonstration, was subsequently acquitted, the \u201ccommunard\u201d Teufel spent nearly six months in prison for allegedly throwing a rock. The reply he gave to the judge on being instructed to stand up before the court \u2013 \u201cIf it helps establish the truth\u201d \u2013 has been popularly quoted ever since. Fritz Teufel became more radical in the following years as a member of a terrorist group known as the \u201c2 June Movement\u201d. He was also close to the militant far-left Red Army Faction, and by 1980 had served several years in prison.<\/p>\n
Freedom on two wheels<\/h3>\n
After his release, the veteran anarchist discovered his new passion: cycling. Teufel not only considered cycling to be an enjoyable and profoundly humane form of transport \u2013 for a time, it was also his means to earning a living. For in 1992, Teufel founded the bike courier service Moskito and took on many of the jobs for himself. Even then, working as a cycle courier could be pretty dangerous in a city like Berlin, and far from financially lucrative. However, what mattered for Teufel was the fun involved. In an interview shortly before his death in July 2010, Teufel talked about the twists and turns of his life \u2013 including those on two wheels. He spoke passionately of the effortlessness of travelling from A to B.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Witt_Fahrrad_web.jpg\")
Fritz Teufel’s Bicycle, Deutsches Historisches Museum, um 1980, AK 2016\/11 \u00a9 DHM, Sebastian Ahlers<\/p><\/div>\n
Admittedly, the bicycle held at the museum today is not the one Fritz used as a courier. However, it does seem to be the one he rode on a cycling tour of Sweden and Finland in the early-1980s, as attested by a rather blurred photo from the period. It was likely manufactured some years (even decades) earlier by Baronia, a traditional company that from 1921 to 1973 produced bikes in the (West) German towns of Bielefeld, Einbeck, and Rahden. The rather faded sticker adorning the frame with the slogan \u201cAtomkraft \u2013 nein danke\u201d (\u201cNuclear energy \u2013 no thanks\u201d) is another reminder of turbulent times.<\/p>\n
Since 1998, 3 June has been designated European Day of the Bicycle, which celebrates the greenest and healthiest form of transport. According to estimates by the Federal Ministry of Transport, some 7.5 million tons of CO2<\/sub> could be saved every year in Germany if 30 percent of all short journeys less than 6 kilometres were made by bike rather than car. About half of all urban car journeys fall into this category. Fritz Teufel\u2019s bike won\u2019t be coming out of retirement to mark the occasion, so we\u2019ll instead take the opportunity to wish \u201chappy cycling\u201d to everyone \u2013 and not just for 3 June!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every year, 3 June celebrates the greenest and healthiest form of transport: the bicycle. Sabine Witt, head of the DHM\u2019s \u201cEveryday Life\u201d division, thinks the day marks the perfect opportunity to present a special bike from her collection on our \u201cWhat\u2019s That For?\u201d blog section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1765],"tags":[1522,1524,1526,1528],"class_list":["post-2061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whats-that-for","tag-bicycle","tag-fritz-teufel-en","tag-raf-en","tag-rudi-dutschke-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2061"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9666,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061\/revisions\/9666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fritz Teufel\u2019s Bicycle<\/h2>\n