MAY 31, 2007

Happy Birthday Mrs Rosemeyer

Elly Beinhorn Rosemeyer, celebrated aviatrix, and wife of Auto Union legendary Grand Prix driver, Bernd Rosemeyer, celebrated her 100th birthday yesterday at her home in Germany. Beinhorn was a woman with a taste for adventure and, in addition to being a pioneer pilot, she drove her husband's 550 horsepower AutoUnion at Monza during one of the team's tests! On another occasion Rosemeyer took her for a lap of the old Nurburgring, in the cockpit of his car.

Bernd and Elly were married in 1936 but in January 1938 he was killed while attempting a new speed record on a stretch of autobahn that ran between Frankfurt and Darmstadt. Beinhorn went on to write a biography of Rosemeyer, called Mein Mann, der Rennfahrer (My Husband, the Racing Driver).

To read more about her extraordinaray life, click here.