If Bernd Rosemeyer had not existed, historian Anthony Pritchard remarked, then the National Socialist Party would have had to invent him.
Tall, blond, strong, and domineering, Rosemeyer became the pride of Adolf Hitler's motorsport program, and the epitome of its goals. The press couldn't get enough of him, hailing him a “radiant boy,” a “bold fighter.” “Beautiful blond Bernd,” they gushed, as they linked him to the true superiority of Aryan blood and praised his overt willingness to compete with a swastika armband, to attribute his success to the glory of his mother country.
Rosemeyer burst onto the Grand Prix scene with Auto Union just a few years after the company brought together four automakers on the verge of bankruptcy in a last-ditch effort to avoid fading into obscurity, and he instantly elevated the outfit to immortality.
Of course, Auto Union was one of two German automakers heavily funded by Hitler as a covert way to bolster the country's weakened military. Building aircraft was illegal, but building state-of-the-art racing machines with engines that could be easily installed in an aircraft? Well, Europe never blinked an eye. Add in a superstar like Rosemeyer behind the wheel, with his Grand Prix victories and his world speed records, and you had a potent recipe for the kind of rampant German pride that could be easily mobilized into the war effort.
This week on “Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys,” we're continuing our discussion of the Nazi party's impact on motorsport. In the previous episode, we covered all things Mercedes as well as the complex ways the Treaty of Versailles contributed to the vacuum of power that allowed genocidal Nazi ideals to flourish.
In this episode, we'll turn our attention to Mercedes’ biggest rival, Auto Union, with an eye to ultimately pinpointing the exact ways these Grand Prix teams directly contributed to the deadliest war in all of human history. Let's dig in.
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Episode Bibliography:
Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler's Best by Neal Bascomb
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20190821-how-germany-became-the-country-of-cars
https://www.audi-mediacenter.com/en/motorsport-history-3646
https://jods.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/ic90uta1/release/4
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/june-2013/109/villeneuve-thirties/