During the 1930s Bernd Rosemeyer was considered one of the most naturally talented racing drivers of the era, especially in regard to his ability to get to grips with his 520-horsepower 16-cylinder rear-engined Audi grand prix car. Bernd was born in Lingen, Germany in 1909 and at the age of 29 he was signed by the German team despite his relative lack of experience and immediately proved he could handle the notoriously difficult Audi, a feat only equalled by one other fearless and gifted driver, Tazio Nuvolari.
The Audi grand prix cars were competing against the equally competitive Mercedes team cars but during the 1936 season Mercedes were experiencing problems with the car and Rosemeyer took full advantage, winning eleven major races to take the European Championship title. The photograph shows him at the wheel of his Auto Union during the 1936 Swiss Grand Prix in Bremgarten, en route to another victory and leading home two other team cars driven by Achilli Varzi and Hans Stuck. During this decade, numerous attempts were being made to establish a new land speed record for which the current grand prix cars proved ideally suited. In January 1938, Rosemeyer died when he was thrown from his streamlined Auto Union during a land speed record attempt that took place on the newly constructed autobahn between Frankfurt and Darmstadt. He was attempting to improve on the speed of 268mph (431kph) set earlier in the day by Rudolf Caracciola in his Mercedes but it is thought that the Audi was caught by a gust of wind that caused it to spin out of control.
