Aris Donzelli

When Aris started working for the trade magazine publisher "Manfred Mayer" in Singen in 1982, both the German BMX sport and Aris' career as a sports journalist were still in their infancy. But his publisher had a vision: he wanted to publish a BMX magazine and wanted Aris to run it. However, as Aris had no idea about BMX sport, he sought professional help: with the support of Ekkehardt Teichreber, an editorial team was put together for the first German BMX magazine.

And this team had it all: with Andreas "Elle" Gillmeister and Karsten Moeller, Aris had two colleagues who, as BMXers from the very beginning, were not only as fast as an arrow and extremely stylish, but could also recognise every German BMXer by their shadow and were very well connected in the scene. While Karsten concentrated more on the editorial side of things, Elle also contributed the artistic side with his comics and both of them were of course regularly used as photo models for bike tests, reports and trick tips. Karsten then introduced photographer Uli Aust (RIP) to the team, who from then on supplied the magazine with images.

The very first issue of "BMX Special" was published in December 1982 as a supplement to Motocross Enduro magazine. The magazine sold extremely well, as the film "ET", which was released in cinemas at the same time, brought the BMX sport its first real boom. The very next issue of BMX Special was therefore published as an independent magazine with an obvious cover boy: ET.

The magazine existed for about a year until financial problems at the publishing house led to BMX Special being downgraded to a supplement again. The editorial team did not want to accept this and changed publishers at the end of 1983 to bring out their own magazine under the name "Speed Jump". So for a short time there were two magazines in Germany, until the Singen publishing house finally discontinued BMX Special, the new editor-in-chief Rolf D. Meißner also switched to "Speed Jump" and the decision was made to produce the magazine together. With this merger, the addition "Jump" was abandoned and so from the middle/end of 1984 there was the BMX magazine "Speed", which existed until the beginning of 1986. Around 1985, Elle and Karsten retired from the editorial team and "Speed" was continued by Aris and Meißner. In 1986, the magazine was renamed "BMX Sport" to reflect the increasing professionalisation and Olympic ambitions of the racers.

With the end of "Sport" after just under a year, Aris also ended his career as a BMX journalist and turned to radio and television. His reporting on the 1988 air crash in Rammstein, where he worked for SWF, brought him to the attention of ARD and, after a short time at RIAS TV Berlin, he switched to ZDF, where he continues to work as a live commentator for alpine skiing, motorsport and tennis.

BMX Special, Speed (Jump) and BMX Sport were the glue that held the scene together in Germany for many years. Alongside the occasional BMX dealer, they were the first and only source of information on BMX parts, dates and schedules and acted both as the official organ of the association and as a source of motivation and enthusiasm for the kids. It is thanks to Aris' tireless and all too often unpaid efforts that these magazines existed and for this he was elected to the German BMX Hall Of Fame in 2024 as part of the BMX Special Crew.