The Walter Rutt Hall
The monument to the world champion
In March 1999, I suggested to the mayor of Würselen that the memory of Walter Rutt be kept alive by naming a street after him. It had not occurred to me that a far more impressive monument could be erected in his honor.
As luck would have it, a sports hall had just been completed in the Morsbach district at that very moment, and it did not yet have a name. In April 2000, the Würselen City Council unanimously decided to name this building the “Walter Rutt Hall”. The official ceremony was scheduled for November 25, 2000.
The city of Würselen asked me to make suggestions for the guest list and to present exhibits from my collection in the foyer of the hall as part of a small exhibition.
I considered it a special honor to be allowed to give the laudatory speech in which I traced the life of the world champion. I concluded my speech with the words: “May this hall always be a symbol of unshakeable belief in one's own abilities, of modesty in success and sporting fairness. May it always remind the citizens of the city of their son who carried the name of Würselen out into the world.”
I then presented Mayor Werner Breuer with a photo autographed by Walter Rutt for the city archives and received a medal from the city of Würselen in recognition of my efforts.
A commemorative plaque was then unveiled, referring to the hall's namesake and his world championship title. The event concluded with a toast, during which the guests raised their glasses to the new structure.
The event was duly honored in the local and national press and even received attention in “Radsport”, the official organ of the German Cycling Federation.
The most important guest was missing
Every time I remember the ceremony, despite all the joy of the day, I am also filled with sadness. The reason for this is a name missing from the guest list that should have been at the top: Orla Rytt.
Since I began my research on Walter Rutt, I had repeatedly tried to find traces of his sons Oskar and Orla. The information available to me at the time indicated that the two had settled in Denmark. I therefore contacted the Danish Embassy in Berlin and asked for their help in my search. The fact that my request was rejected later proved to be fatal.
In August 2006, motivated by a visit to my website, Peter Rutt, a grandson of the world champion living in Denmark, contacted me. During a meeting with him, his wife Ester, and his sister Ester Falck, I learned interesting details from the Rutt family chronicle.
While Oskar Rutt had died in 1958 at the age of only 52, his brother was still alive at the time of the ceremony in Würselen. Orla Rutt (*1915) had adapted his surname to the Danish language and was now called “Rytt.” For the then 85-year-old, participating in the celebrations would certainly have been a moving moment. Fate had other plans.
Orla Rytt died in November 2004 at the age of 89.
25 years of Walter Rutt Hall
November 25, 2025 marked the 25th anniversary of the naming ceremony. This seemed to me to be a particularly appropriate occasion to once again focus attention on Walter Rutt.
I therefore contacted the Aachen regional studio of Westdeutscher Rundfunk by telephone and suggested that on this day, the television program “Lokalzeit Aachen” (“Aktuelle Stunde”) should explore the question of who was the person whose name is emblazoned above the entrance to the sports hall. My contact promised to submit the suggestion to the editorial team for consideration. Unfortunately, it was not taken up.
I also informed the “Aachener Zeitung” about the anniversary and sent them text and image material, which I assumed would be used in the local section of Würselen. In this case, too, my hopes were dashed, and I was not given a reason for the rejection.
Photo: Peter Havers
Exterior view of the Walter Rutt Hall
Kuno Römers (Honorary Chairman of RV 1899 Würselen), Bernd Wagner (Laudator), Werner Breuer (Mayor), Alfred Hammers (1st Chairman of RV 1899 Würselen), Gisela Cox (1st Chairwoman of RV 1899 Würselen)
Photo: Press office of the city of Würselen
View from the grandstand
The adress:
Walter-Rutt-Halle
Bardenberger Straße 5
52146 Wurselen