Otto Merz
Encyclopedia
Otto Merz was a chauffeur
, race car driver, test driver and mechanic
. He died during a practice run in a modified Mercedes SSK on 18 May 1933, in Berlin
, Germany.
as a mechanic. He also worked as a chauffeur and mechanic for several wealthy motor car enthusiasts, such as Theodore Dreher (died 1914), Austrian motor sport sponsor and son of the famous brewer
, and the Saxon industrialist Willy Pöge
.
, and may have witnessed the assassination of the Archduke by Gavrilo Princip
. According to the story told later, Merz reacted quickly to the gunshots. One of the first to reach Franz Ferdinand, he lifted the rather stout Archduke from his seat and carried him to a nearby house. However, that day there were two attempts on Franz Ferdinand's life; in the first one, Nedeljko Čabrinović
threw a bomb with a 10 second fuse at the archduke's car; the driver accelerated when he saw something thrown at them, and the bomb rolled under the wheels of the following car, seriously injuring Boos-Waldeck, Merz's employer, and Eric von Merizzi. Later in the day, Princip serendipitously encountered the motorcade, and fired his weapon at the Archduke, killing him and his wife. Regardless of the veracity of the story, Merz apparently possessed great physical strength; in 1929, he ripped the parts off his damaged Mercedes with his bare hands.
and at the Klaussen Pass hillclimb
in 1924. His so-called finest hour came by winning the 1927 German Grand Prix
at the Nürburgring
at the wheel of Mercedes-Benz S sports car, beating his team mate Christian Werner
by three minutes at the finish line. The following year, Merz completed the race in second place; Rudolf Caracciola
and Werner shared the driving duties in the winning car; similarly Werner also drove the third placed car, in combination with Willy Walb. Merz was the sole driver of the Mercedes Benz SS around the 18 laps of the daunting Nürbrugring Nordschleife, at racing pace, an achievement for which he was widely praised. This tour de force, his amusing ability to hammer nails through wood with his bare hands, together with his reported attempt to rescue Franz Ferdinand fourteen years earlier, forged the imagery of Metz the colossus, as he became known.
These wins did not catapult Merz into a full-time racing career; he participated in races on occasion, such as in the 1929 Tourist Trophy in Ireland, won by his teammate Caracciola. Merz was usually listed only as a reserve driver, but he did see action at the International Alpine Trial and at the ADAC
long distance trials. In 1931 he shared Caracciola’s Mercedes-Benz SSKL in the French Grand Prix
at Montlhéry
, a grueling ten-hour race in the full 12.5-kilometer circuit, but the car's supercharger failed after 39 laps. That same year Merz obtained a fifth place at the German Grand Prix at Nürburgring in a sister SSKL car. The six points he scored with Caracciola at the French Grand Prix – the duo completed one-third of the race – tied them for the fiftieth-first place in the final classification table of the European Championship
, won that year by Ferdinando Minoia
. The following year Mercedes stayed away from the racing circles, and Merz continued to work at the firm as an experimental and test driver. Even though Mercedes was officially in hiatus, Merz was entered as an alternative driver for the Großer Preis von Deutschland, but he did not take part on the event.
Mercedes-Benz returned to racing in 1933; the company’s management wanted to win the AVUS Race; that event, to be held on 21 May in the German capital, was to be attended by high government dignitaries and would be a great opportunity to demonstrate Mercedes' technical prowess. Taking the nine-kilometer long straights of the Berlin track into consideration, the Mercedes-Benz team produced a streamlined SSKL for the occasion. Caracciola, who was back to the firm, would be the first choice to drive it, but he was still in the hospital, convalescing from fractures and injuries suffered during a practice accident for the Monaco Grand Prix
on 23 April in a private Alfa Romeo
. Under such circumstances, Merz had the SSKL seat in the AVUS Race. Possibly he was invited by the team to drive: Merz had been a popular employee since 1906, and was in good standing with the management; it is also possible that Merz offered his services. Although only 43, he had semi-retired from racing, but enjoyed driving and may have considered this race as his last chance to compete in a widely-publicized event. Whatever the reason, Mercedes outsiders were surprised to see Metz in the car.
and Merz wanted to try their heavy SSK streamliners under those conditions. Witnesses reported that the cars were sliding in several locations on the track, and that it was very difficult to drive in such a weather.
A few minutes after 13:00, Merz crashed his SSK on the long straight, near the Grunewald
station and nearly two kilometers away from the finish line. At the place of the accident the surface changed from cobblestones to tarmac
, and traces of the car trajectory were clearly visible on the cobblestones - but suddenly ended. The next mark left by the vehicle was found 36 meters further on, where the car hit the ground again. The Mercedes-Benz crashed into a cement milestone on the right side of the track, and, according to the single eye-witness, it somersaulted and rolled several times. The car stopped with its wheels on the air near an embankment. Ejected from the car, rescuers found Merz on on his back on the right side of the track. He was transported to the Hildegard Hospital at Charlottenburg
, a suburb of Berlin and very near the accident site, but his condition was beyond help.
Chauffeur
A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine.Originally such drivers were always personal servants of the vehicle owner, but now in many cases specialist chauffeur service companies, or individual drivers provide...
, race car driver, test driver and mechanic
Mechanic
A mechanic is a craftsman or technician who uses tools to build or repair machinery.Many mechanics are specialized in a particular field such as auto mechanics, bicycle mechanics, motorcycle mechanics, boiler mechanics, general mechanics, industrial maintenance mechanics , air conditioning and...
. He died during a practice run in a modified Mercedes SSK on 18 May 1933, in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany.
Early career
In 1906, aged sixteen, Merz was hired by DaimlerDaimler Motoren Gesellschaft
Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft was a German engine and later automobile manufacturer, in operation from 1890 until 1926. Founded by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, it was based first in Cannstatt...
as a mechanic. He also worked as a chauffeur and mechanic for several wealthy motor car enthusiasts, such as Theodore Dreher (died 1914), Austrian motor sport sponsor and son of the famous brewer
Anton Dreher
Anton Dreher was an Austrian brewer who was an important figure in the development of pale lager....
, and the Saxon industrialist Willy Pöge
Willy Pöge
Willy Pöge was a German engineer and racing car driver.He was born in Chemnitz, son of Hermann Pöge who encouraged him to study electrical engineering at the Chemnitz University of Technology in 1890...
.
Adventure Sarajevo
On 28 June 1914, as the chauffeur for Count Alexander von Boos-Waldeck, Merz drove the third car in an official motorcade in which the Archduke Franz Ferdinand toured SarajevoSarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
, and may have witnessed the assassination of the Archduke by Gavrilo Princip
Gavrilo Princip
Gavrilo Princip was the Bosnian Serb who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914...
. According to the story told later, Merz reacted quickly to the gunshots. One of the first to reach Franz Ferdinand, he lifted the rather stout Archduke from his seat and carried him to a nearby house. However, that day there were two attempts on Franz Ferdinand's life; in the first one, Nedeljko Čabrinović
Nedeljko Cabrinovic
Nedeljko Čabrinović was a member of the nationalist Young Bosnia movement, and one of a group of seven who intended to assassinate Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria during his announced visit to Sarajevo.Born in Sarajevo, Čabrinović spent many of his post-school years as a handyman, before...
threw a bomb with a 10 second fuse at the archduke's car; the driver accelerated when he saw something thrown at them, and the bomb rolled under the wheels of the following car, seriously injuring Boos-Waldeck, Merz's employer, and Eric von Merizzi. Later in the day, Princip serendipitously encountered the motorcade, and fired his weapon at the Archduke, killing him and his wife. Regardless of the veracity of the story, Merz apparently possessed great physical strength; in 1929, he ripped the parts off his damaged Mercedes with his bare hands.
Racing career
Merz took up on racing in the early 1920s, achieving victories at SolitudeSolitude
Solitude is a state of seclusion or isolation, i.e., lack of contact with people. It may stem from bad relationships, deliberate choice, infectious disease, mental disorders, neurological disorders or circumstances of employment or situation .Short-term solitude is often valued as a time when one...
and at the Klaussen Pass hillclimb
Klausen Pass
Klausen Pass is a high mountain pass in the Swiss Alps connecting the cantons of Uri and Glarus. The pass road from Altdorf leads through the Schächen Valley, the pass and Urnerboden to Linthal in Glarus....
in 1924. His so-called finest hour came by winning the 1927 German Grand Prix
German Grand Prix
The German Grand Prix is an annual automobile race.Because Germany was banned from taking part in international events after World War II, the German GP only became part of the Formula One World Championship in 1951...
at the Nürburgring
Nürburgring
The Nürburgring is a motorsport complex around the village of Nürburg, Germany. It features a modern Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a much longer old North loop track which was built in the 1920s around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg in the Eifel mountains. It is located about...
at the wheel of Mercedes-Benz S sports car, beating his team mate Christian Werner
Christian Werner
Christian Werner was a German racecar driver.-Indy 500 results:...
by three minutes at the finish line. The following year, Merz completed the race in second place; Rudolf Caracciola
Rudolf Caracciola
Otto Wilhelm Rudolf Caracciola , more commonly Rudolf Caracciola , was a racing driver from Remagen, Germany. He won the European Drivers' Championship, the pre-1950 equivalent of the modern Formula One World Championship, an unsurpassed three times...
and Werner shared the driving duties in the winning car; similarly Werner also drove the third placed car, in combination with Willy Walb. Merz was the sole driver of the Mercedes Benz SS around the 18 laps of the daunting Nürbrugring Nordschleife, at racing pace, an achievement for which he was widely praised. This tour de force, his amusing ability to hammer nails through wood with his bare hands, together with his reported attempt to rescue Franz Ferdinand fourteen years earlier, forged the imagery of Metz the colossus, as he became known.
These wins did not catapult Merz into a full-time racing career; he participated in races on occasion, such as in the 1929 Tourist Trophy in Ireland, won by his teammate Caracciola. Merz was usually listed only as a reserve driver, but he did see action at the International Alpine Trial and at the ADAC
ADAC
The ADAC is Germany's and Europe's largest automobile club, with more than 17 million members in June 2010. It was founded on May 24, 1903 as "Deutsche Motorradfahrer-Vereinigung" and was renamed in 1911...
long distance trials. In 1931 he shared Caracciola’s Mercedes-Benz SSKL in the French Grand Prix
French Grand Prix
The French Grand Prix was a race held as part of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's annual Formula One automobile racing championships....
at Montlhéry
Montlhéry
Montlhéry is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located from Paris.Inhabitants of Montlhéry are known as Montlhériens.-History:...
, a grueling ten-hour race in the full 12.5-kilometer circuit, but the car's supercharger failed after 39 laps. That same year Merz obtained a fifth place at the German Grand Prix at Nürburgring in a sister SSKL car. The six points he scored with Caracciola at the French Grand Prix – the duo completed one-third of the race – tied them for the fiftieth-first place in the final classification table of the European Championship
European Championship (auto racing)
The European Drivers' Championship was an annual competition in auto racing that existed prior to the establishment of the Formula One world championship in 1950...
, won that year by Ferdinando Minoia
Ferdinando Minoia
Ferdinando "Nando" Minoia was an Italian racing driver with an exceptionally long, distinguished and varied career. In 1907, he won the Coppa Florio driving an Isotta-Fraschini. In 1923, he drove the world’s first mid-engine Grand Prix car, the Benz Tropfenwagen. In 1927, he won the inaugural...
. The following year Mercedes stayed away from the racing circles, and Merz continued to work at the firm as an experimental and test driver. Even though Mercedes was officially in hiatus, Merz was entered as an alternative driver for the Großer Preis von Deutschland, but he did not take part on the event.
Mercedes-Benz returned to racing in 1933; the company’s management wanted to win the AVUS Race; that event, to be held on 21 May in the German capital, was to be attended by high government dignitaries and would be a great opportunity to demonstrate Mercedes' technical prowess. Taking the nine-kilometer long straights of the Berlin track into consideration, the Mercedes-Benz team produced a streamlined SSKL for the occasion. Caracciola, who was back to the firm, would be the first choice to drive it, but he was still in the hospital, convalescing from fractures and injuries suffered during a practice accident for the Monaco Grand Prix
Monaco Grand Prix
The Monaco Grand Prix is a Formula One race held each year on the Circuit de Monaco. Run since 1929, it is widely considered to be one of the most important and prestigious automobile races in the world, alongside the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans...
on 23 April in a private Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of cars. Founded as A.L.F.A. on June 24, 1910, in Milan, the company has been involved in car racing since 1911, and has a reputation for building expensive sports cars...
. Under such circumstances, Merz had the SSKL seat in the AVUS Race. Possibly he was invited by the team to drive: Merz had been a popular employee since 1906, and was in good standing with the management; it is also possible that Merz offered his services. Although only 43, he had semi-retired from racing, but enjoyed driving and may have considered this race as his last chance to compete in a widely-publicized event. Whatever the reason, Mercedes outsiders were surprised to see Metz in the car.
Last practice and death
The first official practice session for the AVUS Race took place on Thursday, 18 May. A heavy rain drenched the track, and Mercedes Team drivers Manfred von BrauchitschManfred von Brauchitsch
Manfred Georg Rudolf von Brauchitsch was a German auto racing driver who drove for Mercedes-Benz in the famous "Silver Arrows" of Grand Prix motor racing in the 1930s....
and Merz wanted to try their heavy SSK streamliners under those conditions. Witnesses reported that the cars were sliding in several locations on the track, and that it was very difficult to drive in such a weather.
A few minutes after 13:00, Merz crashed his SSK on the long straight, near the Grunewald
Grunewald
Grunewald is a locality within the Berliner borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Famous for the homonymous forest, until 2001 administrative reform it was part of the former district of Wilmersdorf.-Geography:The locality is situated in the western side of the city and is separated from...
station and nearly two kilometers away from the finish line. At the place of the accident the surface changed from cobblestones to tarmac
Tarmac
Tarmac is a type of road surface. Tarmac refers to a material patented by Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1901...
, and traces of the car trajectory were clearly visible on the cobblestones - but suddenly ended. The next mark left by the vehicle was found 36 meters further on, where the car hit the ground again. The Mercedes-Benz crashed into a cement milestone on the right side of the track, and, according to the single eye-witness, it somersaulted and rolled several times. The car stopped with its wheels on the air near an embankment. Ejected from the car, rescuers found Merz on on his back on the right side of the track. He was transported to the Hildegard Hospital at Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen consort Sophia Charlotte...
, a suburb of Berlin and very near the accident site, but his condition was beyond help.
Cause of accident
Investigators later concluded that Merz had lost control of the car for a few moments, leading to the accident. A fundamental difference between Brauchitsch's and Merz's Mercedes was determined to have caused the accident. Brauchitsch's had a differently streamlined body than Merz's: on the Brauchitzch SSK, modified by König-Fachsenfeld, the tail comes a high point. Mercedes had modified Merz's SSK differently, and the Sindelfinden-made body of Merz’s car curved down markedly at the rear, a configuration much more likely to create substantial lift.The characteristics of the accident, and the fact that it happened in an untested vehicle has led many experts, including Karl Ludwigsen, to believe that the aerodynamic configuration of Merz’s car may have played an important role in this tragedy.Racing victories
Record of Merz's wins in the course of his career:- 1923: 1 Romanian touring race
- 1924: 2 Zbraslav-Jíloviště (hillclimb), 1 Solitude Climb (hillclimb), 1 Klausen Altdorf (hillclimb) 5 (Class victory) Svab (hillclimb)
- 1925: 1 Solitude-Race, 5 Klausen (hillclimb)
- 1926: 1 Hohnstein (hillclimb), 1 Süddeutsche tourenfahrt, ? European GP, 2 Klausen Altdorf (hillclimb), 1 Solitude-Race
- 1927: 1 German GP, 1 Klausen (hillclimb), 1 Solitude-Race
- 1928: 2 German GP
- 1929: ? Internationelle Alpenfahrt, ? ADAC Langstreckenfahrt, 13 Ulster TT
- 1931: 5 German GP
- 1933: DNS AVUS GP, practice round