Rudolf Caracciola

Born in Remagen, this Rhinelander with Italian roots became the most successful Silver Arrow driver in the 1930s. His racing career, which spanned a total of over 30 years, began on a motorbike. At the age of 21, he won the "Rund um Köln" ("Around Cologne") race, after which the Fafnir automotive works sent him to Berlin as a works driver for the AVUS race. After a respectable fourth place and a victory on an Ego small car in the Berlin stadium soon afterwards, Caracciola applied to join Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG).

In 1923, he contested his first race as a works driver in a Mercedes 6/25/40 hp touring sports car in Baden-Baden and won eleven more races in the same year. Caracciola won the Teutoburg Forest Race in 1924 in the new Mercedes 2-litre racing car, and in 1925 and 1926 he won 16 times in a total of 18 races in the Mercedes 24/100/140 hp Model K racing touring car. His international breakthrough came in 1926 at the Berlin AVUS in the German Grand Prix, which he won despite an unsuccessful start in pouring rain.

In the "White Elephants" of the S series, the Remagen native was able to further extend his dominance with countless successes between 1927 and 1932. With the exception of the years 1932/33, Caracciola drove exclusively in Mercedes and Mercedes-Benz cars. When Daimler-Benz AG withdrew from racing for two years in 1931, he signed a contract with Alfa Romeo. After their withdrawal, he founded a private racing team with fellow racer Louis Chiron, but had a serious accident during practice for the 1933 Monaco Grand Prix.

After his recovery and return to Mercedes-Benz, "Caratsch" won a total of ten Grand Prix races in the Silver Arrows W 25, W 125 and W 154, including the German Grand Prix five times, and was able to win the European Championship in 1935, 1937 and 1938. First held in 1935, this racing series is considered the forerunner of today's Formula One World Championship.

Caracciola's impressive string of successes also included winning the European Hill-Climb Championships from 1930 to 1932, a victory in 1931 in the legendary Mille Miglia, which he was the first non-Italian to win, and various world records with the record-breaking Mercedes-Benz cars. He mastered the primitive racing cars of this era like no other and proved his high driving skills on rain-soaked tracks in particular. When European motorsport activities ceased in the autumn of 1939 due to the war, he was considered the most successful Grand Prix driver ever.

After the war, Caracciola made a comeback and in 1952, at the age of 51, was able to finish fourth in the Mille Miglia in one of the new Mercedes-Benz 300 SL racing sports cars. The Remagen man's grandiose career ended two weeks later at the Bern Grand Prix for sports cars. In a serious accident, his left leg was shattered, leaving him dependent on a wheelchair and crutches for a long time afterwards. Until his sudden death in September 1959, he remained with Mercedes-Benz as a representative at presentations of new models and motorsport events.