Motorsport Memorial -

Bernd Rosemeyer

Complete name: Bernd Rosemeyer

Birth date: 14.Oct.1909

Birth Place: Lingen, Niedersachsen, Germany

Death date: 28.Jan.1938

Death Place: Mörfelden-Walldorf, Hessen, Germany

Nationality: Germany

Gender: male

Age at death: 28

Event date: 28.Jan.1938

Series: AIACR (Association Internationale des Automobiles-Club Reconnus) World Land Speed Record

Race: World Land Speed Record Attempt

Event type: speed record attempt

Country: Germany

Venue: Frankfurt-Darmstadt autobahn

Variant: -

Role: driver

Vehicle type: car

Vehicle sub-type: speed record

Vehicle brand/model: Auto Union

Vehicle number: ??

Notes:
Without doubt Bernd Rosemeyer was one of the most charismatic and talented drivers of his or any other era in racing history. His accomplishments on the race tracks of the World have filled books, and this small space can hardly do justice to his memory - but we will try.

Bernd Rosemeyer was renowned worldwide for his driving ability and his racing accomplishments. On the infamous Nürburgring circuit, one of the ultimate challenges for any race car driver, his abilities were clear. He held the lead every time he raced there, taking three outright wins over six starts, and finishing second, third and fourth the other times. No one had been able to fully copy his driving style on the harrowing Nordschleife.

He won the German and the Italian Grands Prix in 1936, making him that year's European Champion in the AIACR (Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus) series. In 1937, Rosemeyer came to the United States and won the Vanderbilt Cup race at Westbury, New York, driving a streamlined Auto Union, setting a new race record. A few weeks previously, he had set a new World's speed records for 10 miles from a flying start. Rosemeyer was often flown to and from his racing events by his also-famous wife, Elly Beinhorn, a noted aviatrix. She often supervised the pit crew in Europe, but was not allowed to do so in the United States. The couple had a son, Bernd, Jr. born in 1937 whose baptism godparents were his father's greatest friend Tazio Nuvolari and his wife, Carolina.

Bernd Rosemeyer, Auto Union Typ C - XIV° Gran Premio d'Italia, Monza, 13 September 1936.
Photo courtesy of Fernando Arigoni's private collection. Copyright The Motorsport Memorial Foundation, all rights reserved.

On Friday, 28 January 1938, Rosemeyer was again attempting to set a new land speed record in his native Germany. His wife was not present, having given birth just 10 weeks earlier to a baby boy, Bernd, Jr. She was presumed to still be recovering in the Silesian mountains.

The track chosen for the speed record attempt was an almost straight 15-mile stretch of the A5 Autobahn, between Frankfurt-am-Main and Darmstadt, in the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region, Hessen, Germany. The road consisted of two 25-feet-wide concrete traffic lanes, separated by eight feet of grass. The timed distance was a measured mile. Minutes earlier, fellow driver Rudi Caracciola in a Mercedes-Benz had covered the distance at a speed of 273 mi/h (439 km/h).

There was a blustery wind that day, and it is surmised that a gust caused Rosemeyer's Auto Union streamliner to swerve while traveling at an estimated 275 mi/h (442 km/h), near the Mörfelden-Walldorf crossing. It skidded for about 70 yards, shedding a tire in the process, somersaulted twice, and then flew 200 yards in the air. The driver was catapulted out of the car and was killed instantly when he landed on an embankment.

Funeral services were kept private at the request of the widow. Bernd Rosemeyer is buried in the Waldfriedhof Dahlem on Hüttenweg in Berlin.

After his death a marble memorial was erected in his honor along the side of the motorway, just in the same place where Bernd Rosemeyer’s body was found after the crash.

Bernd Rosemeyer's marble memorial erected along the A5 Autobahn, between Frankfurt-am-Main and Darmstadt, Germany.
Photo courtesy of Richie Tindagni private collection. Copyright The Motorsport Memorial Foundation, all rights reserved.

Sources:

Book "The International Motor Racing Guide", by Peter Higham, David Bull Publishing, Phoenix, United States, ISBN 1-893618-20-X.
Magazine Autosprint, issue 08 July 1997, page 98.
Newspaper The San Antonio Light (San Antonio, Texas, United States) issue of Friday, 28 January 1938, page 9-A, article titled "Champ Race Driver Killed", wire feed from Associated Press.
Newspaper Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California, United States) issue of Friday, 28 January 1938, page 2-D, article titled "Race Driver Dies As Car Upsets" wire feed from Associated Press.
Newspaper The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wisconsin, United States) issue of Monday, 31 January 1938, page 11, article titled "Rosemeyer Funeral To Be Private", wire feed from United Press.
Website Motor Klassik, page http://www.motor-klassik.de/sport/sporthistorie/hxcms_article_509124_14702.hbs .
Website E90Post, "Bernd Rosemeyer Denkmal Restplatz on the A5 Autobahn", page http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=411717 .
E-mail by Doug Nicoli, dated 05 January 2008.