RACING BEHIND THE

Horsemen kept on trotting under socialist rule in East by Ulf Lindström

HISTORIC TRACK: The Karlshorst track in East still races clockwise today, as it did in this photo from 1956.

PHOTO COURTESY OF FRANK SORGE 62 HOOF BEATS NOVEMBER 2014 “THEY WANTED TO GIVE US STALLIONS FOR FREE, BUT WE WEREN’T ALLOWED TO ACCEPT THEM FROM WEST BERLIN; THEY HAD NO ‘SOCIALIST BLOOD,’ WE WERE TOLD BY THE MANAGEMENT OF THE TRACK.”

Manfred Schulz, 74, was champion amateur driver at Karlshorst racetrack in East Berlin, Germany, for 20 years with a few gaps in the 1960s. As the country celebrates the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall that divided the capitalist western side of the city and the socialist east- ern side, those who raced in East Berlin remember their time and troubles racing at the state- controlled racetrack. “Never, not one single time, was I invited to an official cer- emony at which my champion- ships were recognized,” Schulz recalled. "The party didn't allow that since I was denied a training license because my parents weren't working class." Today Schulz has his reg- ular table at what was then West Berlin’s , at the Casino cafe by the southern turn of the track. He keeps his race card and tip sheets neatly arranged in front of him, tak- ing calls on his cell phone from friends who suggest bets for the next race, briefing them on why the previous race didn’t go quite as they had expected.

HOOF BEATS NOVEMBER 2014 63 “In the outbound transports to Budapest we stashed money in fodder sacks, then bought tack that was loaded around the horses for the homebound journey. Customs, if the officers cared at all, lost inter- est in checking if they had to crawl around the horses.” Manfred Schulz

Sound familiar? Yet to Schulz, every- ly taxed during World War II. More occupation sector included Mariendorf, thing is new—and old. Harness racing in than 100 head, most of them owned banned feeding grain to horses. Still, Berlin has always been marked by poli- by the Jauss Stable, were lost in a con- the Red Army sent veterinarians, troops tics. For Swedes, Mariendorf is known flagration following an Allied bombing and vehicles to ship trotters over to the as the track from where Nazis tried to raid in 1943. Freed POWs and starving Karlshorst track, under Soviet jurisdic- abduct Big Noon—Menhammar Farm’s Berliners took their toll across the city tion, for the return of racing on July 1. founding stallion—after he finished sec- after May 1945. Tens of thousands of Berliners, perhaps as ond in the 1942 Matadoren. By then Close to the Casino building, when many as 50,000, flocked to the premiere. the track had lost its president, Bruno Schulz was 5 years old, was a prison “Why didn’t Schulz flee before the Cassirer (who purchased Walter Dear to camp that was later used as stalls for the wall went up in August 1961?” one may stand in Germany after winning the 1929 40-46 horses that had survived on straw. wonder with the benefit of hindsight. Hambletonian), who fled to England in Trotting now came to stage a preview “We had no clue on what was in the 1938. of the Cold War and the building of offing, at least no clear signals,” said the Mariendorf’s horseflesh was severe- the Berlin Wall. The U.S. Army, whose amateur driver. “I personally was visiting

DERBY COURTESY OF BREEDINGTROTTERS.COM • ALL OTHER PHOTOS BY MARIUS SCHWARZ 64 HOOF BEATS NOVEMBER 2014 SURVIVORS OF SOCIALISM: Clockwise from left: Manfred Schulz, 74, won 20 amateur driving championships in East Berlin, but wasn’t allowed to compete against Westerners.• • The Karlshorst track in East Berlin today. The West Berlin-based Mariendorf track con- ducts a regular meet there now. • Roswitha, a filly by Stepp, won the 1976 GDR Derby, ’s greatest race.

friends in West Berlin on Saturday, and his is something peo- it’s only a half-hour by car between the returned later the same evening.” ple in Sweden don’t tracks,” he said. “No, it was impossible A few hours past midnight on Sunday, understand,” said Rolf to maintain contacts across the wall. An Aug. 13, all points of transit were blocked Hafvenstrom, forgetting East German trainer at Karlshorst who by barbed wire and the construction of “Tthat his steamed salmon with vegetables was caught with an old—an old!—race the wall started. The preparations to is getting cold. A Swedish fixture of many card from Mariendorf risked his license.” close the border were held so secret that years on Berlin’s racing scene, successful Hafvenstrom said the director at not even the guests at party leader Walter at both tracks, Hafvenstrom is enjoying a Karlshorst was in trouble if too many Ulbricht’s garden party on Saturday night meal with his buddies in the cafeteria of races were won by horses in private knew about the border closure. the Teehaus, at the top of the stretch of training. That would make the Ministry “Perhaps, for a few days afterward, it the clockwise Mariendorf track. of Agriculture summon the management was possible to get across over into West “For the horsepeople at Karlshorst of the track for a scolding, for not Berlin, but not with horse transports,” in East Berlin, the Moscow track was having understood the “socialist spir- Schulz said impassively. closer than this one, really, even though it” of harness racing. Hafvenstrom is

HOOF BEATS NOVEMBER 2014 65 convinced that races were fixed, especial- the East German Derby Day, however, nearly on a similar scale, the sympathies ly on Sundays when crowds were larger. 10,000 people turned out, drawn also by were like those that reflected the politi- “Perhaps not the exact order at finish, the peculiar German tradition to put on cal fronts in East Berlin soccer, between but no one was left in doubt about the fashion shows at harness racing meets. the people’s Union and Stasi’s Dynamo. message to the drivers at the manage- At the 1988 Derby, the crowd was enter- The attendants at the track knew that, ment’s roll-call ahead of the first race,” tained by the model group “Na Und” or just like in every other sport in the GDR, he said. “Punters, though, and especially “So What?” Self-irony wasn’t exactly the private competitors were deliberately dis- bookmakers outside the track’s entrance, middle-name of the German Democratic advantaged in favor of those of the state’s were not fooled.” Republic (GDR). own teams. Karlshorst was the only track in East Private trainers—always four, never “The private trainers never got fodder Germany with pari-mutuel races. As fewer or more licenses were granted— with mineral supplements, always the such, some 1,500 people would show and amateur drivers were the favorites of low-end forage hay, and seldom got calls up on a Sunday during the ’60s. For the Karlshorst spectators. Although not from the vets,” said Thomas Heinzig, 48,

PHOTO BY MARIUS SCHWARZ 66 HOOF BEATS NOVEMBER 2014 EASTERN BLOODLINES

The top names in East German har- “There were private breeders, ness racing are largely unfamiliar to too, with one or a couple head,” students of bloodlines living in the said Heinzig. “They owned farms West. slightly larger than regular house “Solo, Lusen, Ritterstern, yards, and cut grass for fodder by “It was impossible Virtuose, they were among the hand along the roads in the vicin- best horses at Karlshorst that I ity.” to maintain con- can recall,” said Thomas Heinzig, Stallions born in the USSR were who was a veterinarian in East available. However, if they were tacts across the wall. Berlin. “They were owned by of good quality, like Sorrento (by VEBs (Landwirtschaftliche Reprise), they were often sold off An East German Produktionsgenossenschaft), or agri- to Western Europe, most likely trainer at Karlshorst cultural collectives. Among the pri- Finland. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t vately owned and trained were stars help much to hold conferences on who was caught like Komet, Kadett and Kersten.” horse breeding, like the one in East Renowned stud farms, like Berlin in August 1979 when the with an old—an those that Bruno Cassirer left in Congress for Horse Breeding in the trusteeship with Charlie Mills Socialist States was held. Genetics old!—race card from (Lindenhof, Staffelde, Damsbruck), was a science practically banned Mariendorf risked were expropriated by the state after in Eastern Europe; the effect of 1945 (Damsbruck is now the train- heredity and environment had been his license.” ing camp of world record holder in distorted by Soviet biologist Trofim driving wins, Heinz Wewering). Lysenko and his political doctrine. Rolf Hafvenstrom The leading sire of the GDR was It was out of the question to buy Stentor (b. 1957 by Allegretto). His stallions with hard currency. Barter dam, Stella Maris (by Muscletone) became the solution. “Take one, won the German Derby in 1943 pay with two” was the inverted and and later stayed with the owner devastating business concept of the in East Germany. A dozen of his planned economy of the East. For a incompletely registered crops born stallion from West Berlin, breeders between 1969 and 1981 earned in East Berlin offered two mares. more than €18,000, two (Marathon Rolf Hafvenstrom was a broker and Lennert) about €100,000 each. of sorts who brought promising Even though the earnings data are sires to East Germany, including fraught with a series of unrealistic the American-born Pursuit, by currency exchange rates (rubles Nevele Pride and Swedish-born Up to ost-marks to d-marks to euro), In Smoke, half brother to the 1984 they commanded respect as they Elitlopp winner The Onion. were won in East Berlin, Moscow, But it was too little, too late. Budapest and Prague. Their offspring came of racing age

WESTERN WITNESS: Interestingly, the record kilome- after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Swedish trainer-driver Rolf ter times of Stentor’s offspring over market for yearlings out of “com- Hafvenstrom was his coun- the years got stuck at about 1:20, mie mares” imploded. Still, Up In try’s go-between across or 2:08 mile rate. In comparison, Smoke’s best performing progeny, the Berlin Wall. “A socialist the winning times in the national Agamemnon (b. 1988), met the spirit was expected from Swedish championship were cut competition. He won every other Karlshorst’s drivers,” he said. from 1:19 to 1:15 (2:07 to 2:00 race he entered, a stellar career mile rate) between 1975-1984. considering his maternity five As late as 1988, the second edi- generations back originated with tion of the GDR studbook was Peter The Great, born in 1895. published, but new blood in the Otherwise, Up In Smoke had an breeding barns was almost impos- appropriate name for where he sible to get. ended his days.

HOOF BEATS NOVEMBER 2014 67 RACING BEHIND THE WALL

“The private trainers never got fodder with mineral supplements, always the low-end forage hay, and seldom got calls from the vets.” Thomas Heinzig

PHOTO BY MARIUS SCHWARZ 68 HOOF BEATS NOVEMBER 2014 RESOURCEFUL: Thomas Heinzig (in silks) and his groom, René Robl, started out at East Berlin’s Karlshorst, where they tried to copy Western equipment, but rubber trotting boots Let’s Be were so rare they were treated like currency. Friends

you’re a fan of Hoof who worked as one of the state-licensed dow on the world, an oasis, and a tack Beats, why not make trainers at Karlshorst until the fall of the shop. Available for sale were tack, min- wall on Nov. 9, 1989. eral supplements, and just about every- it official? Like us on Heinzig became a trainer, even though thing equine. Budapest was also where Facebook and join in the fun his was a family background without the East Germans got hold of old race as we discuss the industry, horses. cards from neighboring West Berlin. share stories and photos, and “I just loved animals as a kid, and “We just devoured old Mariendorf network with harness racing as part of the job training program at race programs, studied pedigrees, time fans just like you! school I did an internship at a zoo while records, purses, stats,” said Schulz. “In www.facebook.com/hoofbeatsmagazine aiming at becoming an apprentice at the the outbound transports to Budapest track,” he said. “As an apprentice—and we stashed money in fodder sacks, then of course as a professional trainer—one bought tack that was loaded around had to be a member of the party. the horses for the homebound journey. “Yes, I was club leader of the FDJ Customs, if the officers cared at all, lost (Freie Deutsche Jugend, the youth interest in checking if they had to crawl branch of the party) at the track,” he around the horses. Sometimes I took the said, somewhat apologetically. “But no, I plane to and from Budapest to free extra never invited comrade youth members to space for merchandise in the horse trans- study tours of the track in the spirit and ports home.” intent of the FDJ. It was useless. Trotting Heinzig and René Robl, his stable wasn’t an Olympic event. [There were] groom at the time in East Berlin, remem- no medals, no national anthems.” ber how one tried to copy tack from the At any one time there were about West by secretly contracting shoemakers 20 licenses available, with a waiting list and tailors to make copies with whatever for applicants, according to Heinzig. material was at hand. Schulz and Hafvenstrom do not doubt “But rubber boots, they could not that some candidates were moved up be substituted; they were hard currency the waiting list with the help of political items,” said Heinzig. connections; they had “high political (Manfred Zwiener, who fled the GDR schooling.” That didn’t win the hearts of and won the 2000 drivers’ European the public, though. Championship, told Die Zeit how he used to make horse whips out of green o warst Du, Man- branches as an apprentice at Karlshorst.) fred?” Hungarian It was a stunning moment when the amateur colleagues Wall finally came down, according to “W asked Schulz when those training and driving in the East. he drove at the Budapest track. “We were “It took several weeks for the fall in Copenhagen for a European amateur of the Wall to sink in for us; we could drivers’ match, where were you?” never believe it before it happened,” said Hungarian drivers (and the occa- Heinzig. “Of course we realized that our sional driver from Czechoslovakia) horses would not meet the competition were allowed to participate in events of West German horses. Average record in Western Europe. Schulz, with some times for East German horses were 4-6 difficulty, hides his feelings about never seconds behind those in the West.” being allowed to test his talent outside Eastern Europe. Werner Bandermann, Ulf Lindström is a professor of political 10-time professional driving champion at science and breeder living in Sweden. He Karlshorst, was never allowed to compete operates the European Research Network in the drivers’ European Championship on Trotting ([email protected]). y To comment when held in Western Europe. on this story, e-mail us at readerforum@ Budapest was the East German win- ustrotting.com.

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