On Saturday, September 12, 2026, the focus at the German Watch Museum Glashütte was not only on the watches this time, but also on cycling. The European Peace Ride – the follow-up event to the legendary “Friedensfahrt” (Peace Ride) – made a stop on the museum forecourt in the afternoon. Today, the tour no longer has a competitive character, but the route and schedule were still quite demanding. Some prominent ex-cyclists were also there, e.g. Thomas Barth (former captain of the GDR Peace Ride team), Marcus Burghardt (German champion 2017, stage winner of the Tour de France 2008), Jiří Ježek from the Czech Republic (multiple Paralympic champion and world champion) or Lukas Kaufmann from Austria (mountain biker and extreme athlete).
Many of the participants also looked at a small exhibition in the foyer of the Watch Museum. The connection between the Peace Ride and Glashütte already existed. On April 25 and 26, 1965, the GDR Peace Ride team led by its captain Klaus Ampler was a guest in our town. The background was the start of a major advertising campaign by the Glashütte and Ruhla watch factories. During the visit to Glashütte in 1965, the athletes did not miss the opportunity to take a look at the production of the VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe.
In addition to numerous photos commemorating the visit 61 years ago, historical exhibits were also on display, such as the watch models advertised in the campaign at the time, original racing jerseys or a racing bike from the 1965 Peace Ride. As a special highlight, a current racing bike from the German professional cyclist and Tour de France participant Max Kanter was presented. This impressively showed how cycling has developed in recent decades – just like the Glashütte watches. The joy was particularly great that Max Kanter visited the museum in person on Saturday afternoon.
Thomas Barth und Jiří Ježek
Lukas Kaufmann (left) with Michael Hammer (Watch Museum) and Kai Winkler (right, organizer Europaen Peace Ride)
Max Kanter
