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  Lauda-Linksknick (Lauda Left-kink): unofficial name for the slight left-hander between ExMuhle and Bergwerk where Niki Lauda had the horrendous crash that ended Formula 1 racing on the Nordschleife. His Ferrari burst into flames after crashing into the Armco at Bergwerk. Locals sometimes refer to this as Grill Kurve...

  Bergwerk (Mine - mountain work): named after the lead and silver mine worked here until around 1900.

  Kesselchen (Little valley): Talkessel means the bottom of a valley and ‘chen’ is a diminutive, meaning little.

  Klostertal (Convent Valley): There used to be a convent (kloster) here in the 14th century, nestled in the valley (tal).

  Steilstrecke (Steep Stretch): not a curve at all, but the 33-degree test hill that runs up to Hohe Acht.

  Karussell (Carousel): obvious once you have driven or ridden round the 270-degree banked curve. It is now known as the Caracciola-Karussell.

  Hohe Acht (High Lookout): There is a nearby mountain of the same name which is the highest point in the Eifel district. The Gallic ‘Mons Achon’ means stone rock, so Hohe Acht could mean High Rock. It is also said to be named after the lookout hut to be found here. Hohe Acht is the second highest point on the circuit, slightly lower than the original start/finish area at the bridge after the Shikane, next to the modern GP circuit.

  Hedwigs-Hohe (Hedwig’s Height): a well-hidden sign on the right at the start of Wippermann, which Dr Otto Creutz - the Father of the Nurburgring -named for his wife.

  Wippermann (Seesaw Man): this section was apparently very bumpy before it was smoothed out.

  Eschbacb (Ash Brook): another bend named after a nearby brook, in turn apparently named after one or more ash trees.

  Brunnchen (Little Wall): this section includes a bridge over a creek which used to supply water for the village of Herschbrioch.

  Pflanzgarten (Plant garden): named after a plant nursery patronised by the Counts of Nurburg. Schwalbenschwanz (Swallow Tail): the workmen apparently considered it to be in the shape of a swallow’s tail.

  Kleines Karussell (Little Carousel): a slightly banked bend, also paved with concrete blocks – so a little Karussell.

  Galgenkopf (Gallows Head): the site of a gallows where public executions used to take place back in the middle ages. Kopf means head, but hills are often called kopf, and if you ever want to frighten yourself, wander up there when the Ring is closed and take a look over the Armco to the left!

  Dottinger Hohe (Dottinger Height): the high point near the village of Dottingen.

  Antoniusbuche (Antonius’ Beech): named after the huge beech tree which used to stand here. Legend has it that there used to be a memorial at the foot of the tree dedicated to Saint Antonius. He is the saint of lost things, so you will find even non-religious Germans appealing to him for help when they lose something.

  Tiergarten (Animal Garden): a pleasantsounding name for a place where animals were buried. These animals were either: unfit to eat; the hunting animals of a nobleman; the pets of a nobleman or horses which died in combat fighting for the glory of Nurburg. Take your pick!

  Hohenrain (Elevated Field-boundary): a rain is a boundary between two fields and hohen means that the boundary is raised.

  Schikane (Chicane): this was added to the circuit in 1967 to reduce the speed of the cars as they passed the pits.

  RUDOLF CARACCIOLA

  1927 - 1939

  Quite simply, Rudolf Caracciola was King of Kings at the Nurburg-Ring. His reign lasted a remarkable 13 seasons and he dominated the magnificent circuit from start to finish, winning the main race at the inaugural meeting in 1927 and the German GP of 1939, which was the last before Europe and then the world became engulfed in Hitler’s war. Between times, he won no fewer than seven more races there and his total of nine victories is unparalleled in the history of the Nurburg-Ring.

  His first success as a racing driver came in 1922. He became a sales rep for Fafnir in Dresden and persuaded the company to let him race one of their 1.5-litre cars at AVUS, in Berlin, where he finished fourth. A month later he won the Opel track race with the same car. In 1923 he was introduced to Herr Hertzing, a director of the Daimler company and, following an interview in Unterturkheim, was given a job back in Dresden - as a salesman. Rudi was bitterly disappointed, thinking he had been interviewed as a future racing driver. However, he used his new job to advantage, persuading his bosses in Dresden to lend him a Mercedes to race. In 1923 he won 11 events (mostly hillclimbs) and the next year more than 20.

  Two years later he met the first of the two remarkable women who were to play such an important part in his life. The Mercedes showroom was opposite the fashionable Europaischer Hotel and there, at a tea dance, Rudi met Charly. She was vivacious and charming - and married, but confided in him that the union was not a happy one and that she was planning to leave her husband.

  Over the next few months the romance blossomed and Charly obtained a divorce, but Caracciola was not about to rush into marriage, as he was earning only 100 Marks a month. He promised Charly that he would marry her, but first he had to make some money.

  His opportunity arose in 1926 with the announcement that the first German Grand Prix would be held at AVUS, with 17,000 Marks to go to the winner. With numerous successes now under his belt, Rudi felt sure that he would be in the Mercedes team for the race, but was stunned to learn that the company would not be taking part, but racing in Spain instead, hoping to increase their exports by winning the San Sebastian GP. Nevertheless, he and Adolf Rosenberger, a successful amateur driver, persuaded Mercedes to let them have a 6-cylinder, 2-litre car each for the German GP, which they would drive as private entrants.

  The race proved to be a triumph for Caracciola and a tragedy for Rosenberger. On the fifth lap it began to rain heavily, which saw the beginning of Caracciola’s reputation as a Regenmeister (rain master), for after stalling at the start and losing almost a minute, he drove his Mercedes superbly to win the Grand Prix. In stark contrast, poor Rosenberger crashed at the North Turn, demolishing a timekeeper’s hut. The three occupants were killed and Rosenberger’s mechanic was seriously hurt.

  There were several other crashes, in which drivers and spectators were injured. Caracciola’s victory was the talk of Berlin and the 25 year-old was hailed as Germany’s Number One driver. Now a man of means, he married Charly and used his prizemoney to go into partnership in a Mercedes dealership on Berlin’s fashionable Kurfurstendamm.

  The tragedies in the Grand Prix meant that there would be no more racing at AVUS for the next five years, so it was fortuitous that the NurburgRing should be opened in 1927 with the very first Eifelrennen, held over the weekend of June 18/19.

  Daimler and Benz had joined forces the year before and entered one 6-cylinder, 2-litre Mercedes racing car for Christian Werner and two of their vast, 6.2-litre supercharged S-type sportscars for Caracciola and Rosenberger. In charge of the team was Alfred Neubauer. During an abortive attempt to become a racing driver in the early twenties, Neubauer had been befriended by Professor Ferdinand Porsche and when the latter joined Daimler in 1923 he took Neubauer with him. Organisation, not driving, was Neubauer’s forte and realising this, his bosses at Daimler put him in charge of the racing team once the two companies had merged. At AVUS in 1926 Neubauer was shocked to realise that his young friend Rudi Caracciola had no idea that he had won the German GP until he was surrounded by jubilant supporters. He resolved to do something about this and devised a system of signal boards and flags to be shown to Mercedes drivers when passing the pits. Team Management was born.

  Run on the Grosse Rundstrecke (the North and South circuits combined), the inaugural meeting proved to be a triumph for the new company. Caracciola won the sportscar class, completing the 12 laps of the 17.56 mile/28.27 km circuit in 3 hours, 33 minutes and 21 seconds and setting fastest lap in 17 mins 11.1 secs. Rosenberger was second, more than 17 minutes behind Rudi and Werner won the up to 3-litre racing car cl
ass.

  This was the beginning of Rudi’s reign as King of the Nurburg-Ring and in the entire history of motor racing you would be hard-pushed to find another racing driver who dominated a circuit for so long yet, in his autobiography, A Racing Driver’s World, he has absolutely nothing to say about that initial victory or the circuit itself. It is an astonishing fact that he makes no mention at all of the Nurburg-Ring until he recounts his victory in the 1931 GP, his fourth on the circuit!

  A month after the inaugural meeting Mercedes-Benz returned to the Nurburg-Ring for the German GP which was run for sportscars, this time over 18 laps of the Grosse Rundstrecke. No fewer than seven S class Mercedes were entered, resplendent in white, their national racing colour and with their engines now bored out to 6.8 litres. They were to be driven by Caracciola, Rosenberger, Georg Kimpel, Christian Werner, Otto Merz, Willy Walb and Prinz Max zu Schaumburg-Lippe. Some 75,000 spectators watched as Rosenberger led for the first lap, only to be overtaken by Caracciola and Merz by lap three. Werner then set about Caracciola and the issue was solved in his favour when Rudi pulled in to retire with engine failure at the end of lap five. Merz went on to win the race, from Werner and Walb. Werner set a new lap record in 15 mins 51.6 secs (66.49 mph/107.0 kph), which was a considerable improvement over Caracciola’s best in the inaugural race.

  Those two events of 1927 were the making of the Nurburg-Ring, for news of the exciting new circuit spread like wildfire and in 1928 the vast white cars of Mercedes-Benz were challenged by the little blue gems of Ettore Bugatti. The marque had won the Targa Florio and the GPs of Rome, Tripoli and Marne, among others and now there were no fewer than 17 entered for the German Grand Prix.

  As this was still for sportscars they were fitted with lights and mudguards. Four works cars were entered, two powered by 2.3-litre engines for Nando Minoia and Count Conelli and two with 2-litre units for Louis Chiron and Count Brilli-Peri. There were also two British entrants, Captain Tim Birkin with his unblown 4.5-litre Bentley and D.M. Marendaz in his 1.5-litre Marendaz.

  Defending Germany’s honour were four factory Mercedes SS (Super Sport) cars, now with 7.1-litre supercharged engines producing 225 bhp. These were for Caracciola, Werner, Merz and Walb, with the private entry of Kimpel to back them up. The regulations now allowed the changing of drivers, so Mercedes nominated all their drivers for all their cars. With the Grand Prix properly established in the calendar, some 90,000 people descended on the Nurburg-Ring in high summer, with the temperature in the 90s. No one envied the drivers, who were faced with more than 3,500 corners during the 316.5-mile/509.4-km race.

  There were three classes, which were released at three-minute intervals, the big cars leaving first. The Mercedes of Werner, Kimpel, Caracciola, Walb and Merz were followed by Birkin’s Bentley. Walb slid off the road early on and Caracciola took the lead, setting a new lap record on his second tour with 15 mins 13.2 secs (69.34 mph/111.6 kph).

  The Bugattis were not doing too well. Louis Chiron lost much time changing wheels in the pits, although Brilli-Peri cheekily passed the Mercedes of Walb and then Kimpel, to take third position, only to lose it when he had to stop for fresh rubber.

  At the end of lap nine Werner pulled into the pits, ‘his eyes gleaming white in his oil-smeared face,’ wrote Alfred Neubauer in his autobiography, Speed was my Life. ‘His left arm was hanging limp, dislocated by the steering wheel. Those who only know the modern car with its independent suspension, small wheels and low-geared steering may find this hard to believe. But the racing car of the nineteen-twenties was a brute to handle, especially on the corners and bends of the Nurburg-Ring.’

  As a doctor was attending to Werner, Willy Walb appeared, having walked several miles from where he had crashed. Sizing up the situation immediately, he put on his helmet and took Werner’s Mercedes back into the race.

  No sooner had he done so than Caracciola came in with a tyre in shreds. Two minutes later he was off again, still leading from Merz and Walb. But the heat was relentless and at the end of lap 12 Rudi was back in the pits, where he collapsed, exhausted. “I knew that he would soon recover,’ wrote Neubauer, ‘I was much more concerned about the race - only six laps to go and our leading car was in the pits. Then my eyes fell on Werner, who was still nursing his left shoulder. For a second I hesitated, then decided that this was no time for finer feelings. ‘”Werner, old chap,” I said, “Couldn’t you take over Caracciola’s car?”

  Reluctantly, Werner agreed and, his shoulder strapped up with insulating tape, he set off in the Mercedes. Now Otto Merz was in the lead, the only team member to drive without relief. ‘We worked like beavers on Caracciola,’ wrote Neubauer, ‘cold compresses on his neck, a wet sponge for his face. The soles of his shoes were scorched and his feet were blistered. Half an hour later, when Werner stopped at the pits, Caracciola was still feeling pretty groggy, but with set face he climbed back into the car... I called Rudi in at the end of the sixteenth lap. He was bathed in perspiration and breathing in short, hard gasps. He was all in. Yet he had not only kept second place, he had gained slightly on the leader, Merz.’

  The burly Otto looked set to repeat his victory of the previous year, but halfway round the very last lap a tyre burst and the Mercedes went off the road at Breidscheid. Merz changed the wheel, but it cost him almost 10 minutes - and the race, for Werner passed him to win the German GP, with aracciola, at an average speed of 64.56 mph/103.9 kph. Sadly, it was to be Werner’s last great victory, for barely a year later he died of cancer.

  For some reason the 1929 GP was given the title, ‘Grand Prix of the Nations’ and it attracted a truly international entry. There were four Mercedes SSKs (K denoting Kurz, or short), which now produced 275 bhp, for Caracciola, August Momberger/Count Arco, Walter Rosenstein/Adolf Rosenberger and Kimpel. Bugatti sent three supercharged 2-litre cars (complete with wings and headlamps again) for Louis Chiron, Guy Bouriat and Georges Philippe and there were two Alfa Romeos and two Maseratis, not to mention four Zs (for Zbrojovka) from Czechoslovakia.

  In practice the Bugattis showed that they posed a real threat to the Mercedes, and so it proved in the race, for although Caracciola led at a furious pace initially, Louis Chiron drove superbly to take second place at the end of lap four, breaking Caracciola’s lap record in the process with 15 mins 06.0 secs (69.97 mph/112.58 kph). On lap five he moved into the lead when Rudi’s SSK came to a halt with a broken con rod. The Bugattis sailed on to a remarkable 1,2,4,5 victory, headed by the redoubtable Chiron, the first victory by a foreign car and driver in the German GR Mercedes restored some pride in September, Caracciola winning a long-distance race for unsupercharged touring cars. He drove an appropriately-named Nurburg model.

  The Wall Street crash in October that year forced Caracciola to close down his Mercedes showroom in Berlin. He and Charly moved to Arosa, in Switzerland, where they had already spent several skiing holidays. There was no German Grand Prix in 1930, but Rudi racked up an impressive number of wins, mostly in hillclimbs, in the Mercedes SSK.

  Then came the bombshell. According to Alfred Neubauer, in November Caracciola received a letter from Mercedes, terminating his contract. Rudi and Charly went to Stuttgart, where Rudi had a long talk with Dr Wilhelm Kissel, Managing Director of Daimler-Benz, who explained that, due to the Depression, Mercedes could no longer afford to go racing. Charly immediately suggested that Rudi drive for Alfa Romeo in 1931, telling Neubauer that Alfa’s Team Manager, Aldo Giovannini, had already offered him a contract.

  Shocked that Caracciola could even think of ‘going over to the enemy’, Neubauer tried to disuade him, but Caracciola rightly pointed out that he couldn’t be expected to give up his career just because Mercedes were pulling out.

  ‘After they had gone,’ wrote Neubauer in Speed was my Life, ‘I racked my brains for a way out. The thought of Rudi Caracciola driving a red Alfa Romeo while I remained chained to my desk kept me awake at nights. Then at long last a plan occurred to me.’

  The plan was that R
udi should buy a new SSK for the 1931 season at a special price, and Mercedes would provide Neubauer as Team Manager, with Wilhelm Sebastian as riding mechanic and Willy Zimmer as mechanic. The company would also pay for transport, fuel and repairs. Any prize money was to be shared fifty-fifty. Rudi agreed to this and Neubauer had little difficulty in persuading Dr Kissel to do the same.

  It is interesting to note that Caracciola himself makes no mention of this episode in his book, probably because he had actually signed to drive for Alfa Romeo by the time of his meeting with Dr Kissel, as was revealed in The Motor in April, 1931.

  ‘There has been a certain amount of excitement in Continental racing circles,’ noted Humphrey Symons, writing as Grande Vitesse, ‘because Caracciola, the famous German racing driver, apparently signed a contract to race Alfa Romeos during this season. Subsequently, it appears, he dismissed the Alfa Romeo contract from his mind and renewed his contract with the Mercedes concern, whereupon the famous Italian factory communicated with the Automobile Club of Deutschland, asking them to take disciplinary action with Caracciola on account of his breach of contract. The German club wrote to the Alfa Romeo concern: “We have severely warned Mr Caracciola for his light and incorrect behaviour. Mr Caracciola sincerely regretted his acting in such a manner and has promised us that the lesson will serve him as a guide in future.” To this the Italian concern replied: “In a true sportsmanlike spirit, we consider the question as definitely closed, also out of deference to you and to the firm MercedesBenz” - which means to say that the Alfa Romeo concern has given back to Caracciola his freedom of action, having obtained the moral satisfaction of knowing that he has been reproved.’