Heinz Stücke

In November 1962, the 22-year-old Stücke quit his job as a tool and die maker, and rode out of his hometown on a three-speed bicycle, with a plan to see the world.{{cite web|url=http://www.outsideonline.com/1876416/let-us-now-praise-crazy-mofos|title=Let Us Now Praise Crazy Mofos: Heinz Stücke: Pedaling the Planet|last=Ratliff|first=Evan|authorlink=Evan Ratliff|date=1 June 2004|website=Outside|publisher=Mariah Media Network|location=Santa Fe|access-date=28 February 2016}} He says that his extraordinary desire to travel was partly motivated by his aversion to returning to factory work.

File:Heinz_Stücke_-_Fahrrad_von_rechts_(Glauchau_2015).jpg

In the early 1980s, after two decades on the road, Stücke decided to attempt to visit every country in the world. He believed he had accomplished his goal when he reached Seychelles in 1996, but to him it felt anticlimactic. He had spent too little time in some countries, and there was still much to experience; so he carried on.{{cite web|url=http://bikechina.com/ct-heinzstucke1z.html|title=Around the World by Bicycle|last=Stücke|first=Heinz|work=China Cycling Travelogues|publisher=Bike China Adventures, Inc.|access-date=1 July 2011}} Between 1962 and 2010, he cycled more than {{convert|609000|km|mi}}, and visited 195 countries and 78 territories.{{Cite web|url=http://www.thebesttravelled.com/en/un-masters/|title=UN Masters|website=TheBestTravelled.com|access-date=21 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190504162145/http://thebesttravelled.com/en/un-masters/|archive-date=4 May 2019|url-status=dead}} From 1995 through 1999, the Guinness Book of Records described him as having travelled more widely by bicycle than anyone in history.{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/4755973.stm|title=World's most travelled bike found|date=9 May 2006|work=BBC News|access-date=30 June 2011}}

During his travels, Stücke has encountered many hazards and suffered numerous injuries:

• In the Chilean Atacama Desert, he was hit by a truck.
• In Haiti, he was chased by an angry mob.
• In Egypt, he was beaten unconscious by soldiers.
• In Cameroon, he was detained by the military for "slandering the state".
• In Alaska he got into a car accident, ending up in a freezing river.{{cite web|url=http://www.heinzstucke.com/index.php?mmod=diari&file=details&iN=4|title=An unfortunate accident|last=Stücke|first=Heinz|date=1 June 2010|website=heinzstucke.com|access-date=29 November 2013|archive-date=3 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203005337/http://www.heinzstucke.com/index.php?mmod=diari&file=details&iN=4|url-status=dead}}
• In the United States he was abandoned by an automobile driver who stole all of his supplies after offering him a ride.
• In Indonesia, 1974, he suffered a serious bout of dysentery.
• In Zambia, 1980, he was shot in the big toe when surrounded by four of Nkomos "Freedom Fighters".
• In Mozambique, 1995, he was attacked by bees while bathing in a river.
• In Siberia, 1997, his bicycle was stolen for the fifth time, along with his luggage (all of which was recovered).{{cite news|last=Seaton|first=Matt|date=21 May 2004|title=Heinz Stucke rides through life|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2006/05/21/2003309381|newspaper=Taipei Times|page=18|publisher=The Liberty Times Group|location=Taipei|access-date=21 September 2014}}
• In England, 2006, his bicycle—the same machine he rode from Hövelhof in 1962—was stolen again, this time from his campsite in Portsmouth. (The bicycle was recovered the following day in a local park.)

Although he has ridden the same steel-framed bicycle on most of his journeys, in 2002 he rode across Canada with a partner on a Hase Pino tandem recumbent bicycle, which Hase Spezialräder built and sponsored.{{cite web|url=http://www.atkielski.com/PhotoGallery/Paris/General/HeinzStuckeLarge.html |title=Heinz Stücke, World Traveller |last=Atkielski |first=Anthony |date=29 July 2009 |website=Anthony's Home Page |publisher=Anthony Atkielski |access-date=1 July 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707183039/http://www.atkielski.com/PhotoGallery/Paris/General/HeinzStuckeLarge.html |archivedate=7 July 2011 }}

File:Heinz_Stücke_03_(Glauchau_2015).jpg

Since 1962, Stücke has taken more than 100,000 photographs. He funds his expeditions with licensing revenue from his photo catalogue; donations; and sales of his travel writing, postcards, and booklets that feature his photographs, writing, and illustrations.

In 1995, around the time he set the world record for bicycle touring, Stücke self-published a memoir: Mit dem Fahrrad um die Welt ("Cycling Around the World").{{Cite book|last=Stücke |first=Heinz |title=Mit dem Fahrrad um die Welt|trans-title=Cycling Around the World|date=1995|location=Hövelhof|oclc=723710974}} In 2015, Dutch travel writer Eric van den Berg published a biography commemorating Stücke's career of global bicycle touring—a career that by then had continued for more than 50 years. The book, Home Is Elsewhere: 50 Years Around the World by Bike, also features Stücke's photographs.{{Cite book|last=van den Berg|first=Eric|date=2015|title=Home Is Elsewhere: 50 Years Around the World by Bike|publisher=Brompton Bicycle|isbn=9780993452406}}

In the 2010s, Spanish filmmaker Albert Albacete began making a documentary film about Stücke and his legacy.[https://vimeo.com/147368628 The Man Who Wanted to See It All] The film, The Man Who Wanted to See It All (2021), inquires into Stücke's motivations and philosophy. While Albacete was making the film, he learned that some villagers in Stücke's hometown of Hövelhof were building a museum to document and celebrate Stücke's travels and achievements.{{cite AV media|date=December 2015|title=The Man Who Wanted to See It All |medium=video |language=German, English |people=Albert Albacete |via=Vimeo |url=https://vimeo.com/147368628 |access-date=21 February 2016 |time=2:50 |publisher=Albert Albacete |quote=A museum will be built here in Hövelhof in his honour. I really appreciate this and I support it.}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{Official website|http://www.heinzstucke.com/}}
• {{Facebook|heinzstucke}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.worldwidecyclingatlas.com/initiatives/heinz-stucke/|title=Heinz Stücke |website=World Cycling Atlas |publisher=Selle Royal |access-date=21 September 2014}}
• {{cite web|url=http://travellingtwo.com/6553|date=4 October 2010|title=Heinz Stücke: The Interview|website=TravellingTwo.com|access-date=21 February 2016}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.kenfig.org.uk/heinz-stucke|title=Around the World by Bicycle: Heinz Stücke|last=Bowen|first=Rob|date=1 June 2006|website=Kenfig – The Complete History|publisher=Kenfig.org Local Community Group|access-date=1 July 2011}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stucke, Heinz}}

Category:1940 births

Category:Living people

Category:People from Paderborn (district)

Category:20th-century German sportsmen

Category:German male cyclists

Category:Male touring cyclists

Category:Ultra-distance cyclists

Category:Cycling writers

Category:Photographers from North Rhine-Westphalia

Category:German travel writers

Category:German male non-fiction writers

Category:Cyclists from North Rhine-Westphalia