Sandra Prechtel / Sascha Hilpert
SPORTSFREUND LÖTZSCH
Germany, 2007, HD, 16:9, 85 min

In the 70s Wolfgang Loetzsch was the most promising cycling talent in East Germany. An unwilling revolutionary, he refused to be an opportunist within the state sport apparatus. For 17 years he won race after race in East Germany but was never allowed to participate in any important international race outside of the country. The secret service, the Stasi, arranged for an icy headwind to blow in the face of his career, assigning more than 20 people for permanent surveillance. The state affiliated sports clubs would always try to keep him from starting. Although Loetzsch was sometimes only able to start with a 10 minutes delay, he would always win.

After serving a sentence for anti-communist crimes and spending almost a year in jail, Loetzsch still kept on cycling having a lot of success. Today Loetzsch, who after the German reunification was too old to continue his career as a professional, spends his days as a mechanic for the Milram cycling team. SPORTSFREUND LOETZSCH tells how an apolitical man develops a personal resistance against opportunism, cowardice and betrayal and in doing so upsets the entire machinery of a repressive state.