Father-Son Story on MDR Television

Eberhard and Peter Riedel on February 23, 2014 in MDR program “Sagenhaft - The Ore Mountains”

RASCHAU – MDR's program “Sagenhaft - The Ore Mountains” takes its viewers on February 23, 2014 into our homeland. It shows not only the nature that makes the Ore Mountains so worth living, but above all the people who shape it today and yesterday. On February 23, 2014 at 8:15 PM a father-son story will be presented, which, with “Spuren des Erfolgs” last year, made it into bookstores.

Eberhard Riedel is still a household name to devoted winter sports fans. Although he celebrated his 76th birthday on February 14, his successes in DDR alpine skiing remain legendary today. His victory in the giant slalom at Adelboden in 1961 is unforgettable – until Felix Neureuther accomplished this feat early this year, no other German had won on the difficult course. Less known is what Riedel did after DDR stamped out professional alpine skiing. In a diploma thesis, as early as 1974, he dealt with the further development of the takeoff tracks in ski jumping. For a long time his test results and proposals lay forgotten in a drawer, until his son Peter Riedel took up the diploma thesis. The father had led, the son developed from it the world’s most modern takeoff track, which today is used at international hills up to distant Japan. The two describe this in a striking way in the 2013 book “Spuren des Erfolgs,” how the father’s diploma influenced the son’s success story. While Eberhard Riedel previously worked without snow cooling due to limited technical possibilities, the modern ice track has now become standard repertoire for Peter Riedel GmbH. In Sapporo it celebrated a World Cup premiere in December, but you do not have to travel to Japan to marvel at the result of the father-son work, as the MDR report will show.

 Right here in the Ore Mountains, with the launching track on the hill in Oberwiesenthal, the same high-tech development is basically on your doorstep. “Oberwiesenthal was a matter close to my heart,” says Peter Riedel. “The location and the many dedicated people here in the region have earned the refurbishment of the hill facilities more than deserved!”