Frankfurt-Darmstadt highway, southbound, January 28, 1938.
An Auto Union and a Mercedes, challenge each other to speed records to determine who between the house of the four circles and the Führer’s favorite brand, Adolf Hitler, is the fastest in the world. Driving them are Germany’s two best drivers, Bernd Rosemeyer and Otto Wilhelm Rudolf Caracciola, nicknamed Der Regenmeister “the Wizard of Rain.”
It is windy, not constant, but strong. Strong enough to transversely bother the test of two drivers who will drive their cars at over 430 km/h.
In the morning, Rosemeyer sets a very good record, but Caracciola, soon after, manages to improve on the previous record and reaches a speed of 423 km/h. Bernd thinks nothing of it and although everyone advises him against trying again, he climbs into the cockpit of his Auto Union. Even Caracciola tries to prevent him from making another attempt.
But Rosemeyer does not want to put it off until the next day. He knows that the newspapers, the next day, will headline that Mercedes has the lead. Pride prevents him from listening to the advice of his more experienced colleague. He immediately wants to take back the lead.
He starts off, pressing hard on the accelerator. He feels the car struggling to stay on the road. This won’t be long, Rosemeyer is thinking as he looks at the odometer, which reads 452 km/h. There’s the underpass. That’s the spot where Caracciola signaled to him that the wind is scary. He pops out. A gust of wind shifts him: he manages to correct and hold the Auto Union.
Is it perhaps done? No, because shortly afterwards the wind, hitting him like a stone thrown from a giant slingshot, catches him right sideways, causing him to swerve with no chance to do anything.
Rescuers struggled to find pieces of the car, let alone Bernd, who nevertheless averaged 432 mph. Honor was saved, but all that remained of the driver who only 978 days earlier had begun his career was valor.
Born on October 14, 1909, Rosemeyer had become one of the most important drivers on the world’s circuits in just a few months, thanks to the overwhelming power of the German brand, able to stay ahead of even Mercedes, and to an innate talent that had led him to be among Tazio Nuvolari’s best friends.
So much so that the flying Mantuan, together with his wife Carolina, had been the godparents at the christening of Bernd Junior, the son of the German champion and his wife Elly, an airline pilot and well-known figure in Germany, only a few days earlier, on December 30. In 1936 Bernd Rosemeyer, won everything there was to win in Europe, trying the following year to curb the growth of Mercedes.
Upon his death, Nuvolari was called to replace him at the helm of the Auto Union. Even today, 80 years later, the figure of Bernd Rosemeyer is remembered for that splendid adventure that lasted little more than two years, but was able to leave an indelible mark on the minds of postwar motoring enthusiasts.
Alexander Zelioli
