{"product_id":"freiheit-auf-der-strecke","title":"Freiheit auf der Strecke","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1961 the motorcycle races on the Sachsenring near Chemnitz (Karl-Marx-Stadt) became part of the Motorcycle World Championship. Whenever the international racing circus stopped there, it drew up to 200,000 enthusiastic fans. For them, the fast machines symbolised independence and freedom across the divide between the two political systems — all the more so in the GDR. Victorious riders from the West, who embodied cosmopolitanism, a spirit of adventure and daring, were much celebrated, and that was viewed with disfavour under state socialism. A highly political struggle over social freedoms began, involving the People's Police, the Stasi and the SED. Some motorcycle fans came “unter die Räder” (under the wheels) in the process — at the Sachsenring as well as at the races in Brno (Czechoslovakia), after the GDR stopped inviting Western riders from 1973 onwards.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished in the series Schriften des Bundesarchivs, vol. 85.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gebr. Mann Verlag","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":65711812215133,"sku":"3-7861-2949-5","price":59.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1081\/8620\/6557\/files\/Wunschik2026_3786129495_1_cover.jpg?v=1789555123","url":"https:\/\/gebrmann.de\/en\/products\/freiheit-auf-der-strecke","provider":"Gebr. Mann Verlag","version":"1.0","type":"link"}