Wilhelm Herz (18 January 1912 – 5 January 1998) was a German professional

motorcycle racer The motorcycle sport of racing (also called moto racing and motorbike racing) includes motorcycle road racing and off-road racing, both either on circuits or open courses, and track racing. Other categories include hill climbs, drag racing and ...

and land speed racer. After his motorcycle racing career, he became the manager for the

Hockenheimring The Hockenheimring, officially Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg () is a motor racing circuit situated in the Rhine valley near the town of Hockenheim in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located on the Bertha Benz Memorial Route. Amongst other mot ...

circuit.

Motorcycle racing career

Herz was born in

Lampertheim Lampertheim () is a town in the Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany. In 1984, the town hosted the 24th '' Hessentag'' state festival. Geography Location Lampertheim lies in the southwest corner of Hesse in the Rhine rift at the Biedensand Co ...

Grand Duchy of Hesse The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine () was a grand duchy in western Germany that existed from 1806 to 1918. The grand duchy originally formed from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806 as the Grand Duchy of Hesse (). It assumed the name ...

. He started his career in 1932 with

DKW DKW (''Dampfkraftwagen'', – the same initials later also used for ''Des Knaben Wunsch'', ; ''Das Kleine Wunder'', and ''Deutsche Kinderwagen'', ) was a German car- and motorcycle-marque. DKW was one of the four companies that formed Auto U ...

and went over to NSU in 1939. He raced on national and international courses like the Berlin

AVUS The ('Automobile traffic and training road'), known as AVUS (), is a public road in Berlin, Germany. Opened in 1921, it was also used as a motor racing circuit until 1998. Today, the AVUS forms the northern part of the Bundesautobahn 115. C ...

, Grenzlandring, Eläintarhan ajot in Helsinki,

Sachsenring The Sachsenring () is a motorsport race track, racing circuit located in Hohenstein-Ernstthal near Chemnitz in Saxony, Germany. Among other events, it features the annual German motorcycle Grand Prix of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyc ...

in Hohenstein-Ernstthal,

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

Monza Monza (, ; ; , locally ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the Lambro, River Lambro, a tributary of the Po (river), River Po, in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the province of Mo ...

Nürburgring The () is a 150,000-person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long configuration, built in the 1920s ...

Schleizer Dreieck Schleizer Dreieck is a motorsports circuit located in Schleiz, Thuringia, Germany. It is the oldest racing track in Germany, and it was opened on 10 June 1923. The circuit's original length was , it was firstly shortened to between May and Augu ...

Schottenring The Schottenring was a motorsport race track situated near Schotten in the Vogelsbergkreis of Hesse, between Fulda and Gießen. After Nürburgring, Schleizer Dreieck, Solituderennen and AVUS, it was one of Germany's oldest race tracks, inaugurate ...

and

Solitude Racetrack The Solitude racetrack is an racing, race circuit on public roads used for motorsport in the Leonberg area, west of Stuttgart, Germany. It is named after Castle Solitude and until 1965 has hosted various motorcycle and automobile races. Route ...

. He gained his international reputation through numerous world records on two and four-wheeled vehicles. He set a motorcycle record in 1951 on the

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (; Austro-Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an Independent city#Germany, independent city on the Danube, in Upper Bavaria, with 142,308 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2023). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan ...

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

and repeated it at

Bonneville Speedway Bonneville Speedway (also known as the Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track) is an area of the Bonneville Salt Flats northeast of Wendover, Utah, that is marked out for motor sports. It is particularly noted as the venue for numerous land speed reco ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

in 1956. In this instance, he was the first person to ride a motorbike over 200 mph (320 km/h). From 1954 until 1992, he was manager of the Hockenheimring which he led to international prominence, especially after the

was declared too dangerous for international motorsport, as it hosted both the

MotoGP Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the highest class of motorcycle road racing events held on Road racing, road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held sin ...

and

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

rounds in Germany at the time, and also became Germany's premier drag strip after one was built in the section between the stadium section. Wilhelm Herz was honoured for his merits in the field of motorsports by former German

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Theodor Heuss Theodor Heuss (; 31 January 1884 – 12 December 1963) was a German liberal politician who served as the first president of West Germany from 1949 to 1959. His civil demeanour and his cordial nature – something of a contrast to German nati ...

who presented him the ''

Silbernes Lorbeerblatt Silbernes Lorbeerblatt (, ), the highest sports award in Germany, was endowed on 23 June 1950 by the German President Theodor Heuss. It is awarded to athletes and teams of exemplary character that have won medals at Olympic and Paralympic Games ...

'' in 1952 and in 1972 he received the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

by President

Gustav Heinemann Gustav Walter Heinemann (; 23 July 1899 – 7 July 1976) was a German politician who was President of West Germany from 1969 to 1974. He served as mayor of Essen from 1946 to 1949, West German Minister of the Interior from 1949 to 1950, and Mini ...

. The city of

Hockenheim Hockenheim () is a town in northwest Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about 20 km south of Mannheim and 10 km west of Walldorf. It is located in the Upper Rhine Plain, Upper Rhine valley on the tourist theme routes "Baden Asparagus Route" ( ...

honoured his merits concerning the

by presenting him with the ''Goldene Verdienstmedaille''. In 2006 Heinz Herz, son of Wilhelm Herz, was presented by BUB Enterprises (maker of

BUB Seven streamliner BUB Seven Streamliner is an American-built streamliner motorcycle that held the motorcycle land-speed record from 2006 to 2008 and again from 2009 to 2010. BUB Seven and two other streamliners traded the title of "world's fastest motorcycle" during ...

) with a replica of the Delphin III, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the world record 1956 in the course of the International Motorcycle Speed Trials, sanctioned by the

FIM FIM may refer to: Organizations and companies * Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, the International Motorcycling Federation * Flint Institute of Music, in Michigan, United States * Fox Interactive Media, now News Corp. Digital Media * ...

and the AMA, on the

Bonneville Salt Flats The Bonneville Salt Flats are a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah, United States. A remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, it is the largest of many salt flats west of the Great Salt Lake. It is public land ma ...

External links

The Life and Work of Wilhelm Herz (www.wilhelmherz.de)50th anniversary world record Wilhelm Herz, Salt Flats, Utah
(Website

BASF BASF SE (), an initialism of its original name , is a European Multinational corporation, multinational company and the List of largest chemical producers, largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters are located in Ludwigshafen, Ge ...

)
50th anniversary world record of Wilhelm Herz
(Website

Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme The International Motorcycling Federation (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme) or (FIM) is the global governing/sanctioning body of motorcycle racing. It represents 123 national motorcycle federations that are divided into six continent ...

)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herz, Wilhelm 1912 births 1998 deaths People from Lampertheim Sportspeople from Darmstadt (region) German motorcycle racers People from the Grand Duchy of Hesse Motorcycle land speed record people Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany World record setters in motorcycling