Bernd Rosemeyer

Infobox Person
name = Bernd Rosemeyer
birth_date = birth date|1909|10|14
birth_place = Lingen, Germany
death_date = Death date and age|1938|01|28|1909|10|14
death_place = Frankfurt-Darmstadt Autobahn, Germany
occupation = Racing driver
spouse = Elly Beinhorn (1907-2007)

Bernd Rosemeyer (October 14, 1909 in Lingen, Lower Saxony, Germany – January 28, 1938 on the Frankfurt/Darmstadt Autobahn) was a German racing driver.

Career

His father owned a garage and repair shop where young Bernd Rosemeyer worked on motorcycles and cars. Having started by racing motorbikes, Rosemeyer became a member of the Auto Union racing team with hardly any experience in normal race cars. This was later considered a benefit as he was not yet used to the handling of traditional layout race cars. The mid-engined Silver Arrows of Auto Union were hard to drive, and only he and Italian Legend Tazio Nuvolari truly mastered these 500 bhp beasts.

In only his second ever Grand Prix, at the daunting Nürburgring, Rosemeyer took the lead from the great Rudolf Caracciola and was almost in sight of the finish line when he missed a gear and was repassed. However in subsequent years he made up for this mistake by winning three consecutive races at the Nürburgring, one famously in thick fog. Later in 1935 he won his first Grand Prix at the Brno Masaryk Circuit in Czechoslovakia.

Whilst on the podium he was introduced to the famous aviatrix Elly Beinhorn. Their celebrity relationship was too good an opportunity to miss for the Nazi Party and Heinrich Himmler chose to make him a member of the SS, an 'honour' he would have been unwise to refuse. All German drivers were required to join the National Socialist Motor Corps, but Rosemeyer allegedly got away with never wearing a uniform.

Several sensational Grand Prix motor racing victories in 1936 and 1937 (also in the Vanderbilt Cup in the USA) made him popular not only in Germany. He won the European driving championship in 1936.

His marriage to young flying ace Elly Beinhorn added even more celebrity hype. It also made him learn to fly a private plane, something which many race pilots of later generations would do also. Before a testing session, he once used a now defunct airfield next to the "Flugplatz" section of the Nürburgring as a landing strip, and rolled his plane to the pits via the race track - in opposite direction.

His son Bernd Jr was born in November 1937. Only ten weeks later, Bernd Snr was killed during a world speed record attempt.

Rosemeyer considered 13 to be his lucky number. He was married on July 13th 1936. 13 days later he won the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. His last Nürburgring victory came on the 13th June 1937. His last race victory came at his 13th start of the 1937 season at Donington Park.

Fatal Record Attempt

Bernd was killed during a world speed record attempt on the Autobahn between Frankfurt and Darmstadt, on January 28th 1938.

Competing for the record on the same day against Rudolf Caracciola, the Mercedes driver went first and set a new record of 432 km/h (268 mph) in the early hours of the day. Rosemeyer went out next in his Auto Union Streamliner despite report that the wind was picking up. After two preliminary runs he was on his third and final attempt at 11:47am when the car was probably caught by a gust of wind or an unforeseen aerodynamic effect and skidded to the left and then to the right and off the road. Rosemeyer was thrown out of the car that was somersaulting through the air, and died at the roadside.

Memorial

Today, there is a monument south of the Bundesautobahn 5 exit of Langen/Mörfelden, roughly where his car left the road due to wind gusts. On the south-bound exit of a rest area on the western lane, named "Bernd-Rosemeyer-Parkplatz", a sign indicates that the Bernd-Rosemeyer-Denkmal is 70 meters away. It used to be hidden in bushes which are removed now, and is apparently visited frequently as a foot path, or foot prints in snow, lead there.

There is also a bronze memorial situated next to the entrance to the Donington Park Museum in Leicestershire.

Bernd Rosemeyer is buried in the Waldfriedhof Dahlem on Hütten Weg in Berlin.

Major career victories

*European driving championship 1936
*ADAC Eifelrennen (1936), (1937)
*British Grand Prix (1937)
*Coppa Acerbo (1936), (1937)
*Czechoslovakian Grand Prix (1935)
*"Feldbergrennen" in Hochtaunuskreis (not at Feldberg in Black Forest) (hillclimbing) (1936)
*German Grand Prix (1936)
*Großer Bergpreis von Deutschland at Schauinsland in Black Forest (hillclimbing) (1936)
*Italian Grand Prix (1936)
*Swiss Grand Prix (1936)
*Vanderbilt Cup (1937)

Publications

* Chris Nixon & Elly Beinhorn Rosemeyer: "Rosemeyer!", Transport Bookman Publications 1989, SBN 0851840469

External links

* [http://www.ddavid.com/formula1/rose_bio.htm Bernd Rosemeyer]
* [http://www.kolumbus.fi/leif.snellman/rose.htm Crash report]
* [http://www.kolumbus.fi/leif.snellman/dr.htm#RO Career summary]