Fritz Held (racing driver)

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Carl and Bertha Benz , their daughter Clara and Fritz Held (from left to right) on a Benz Victoria 1894 on a drive near Schriesheim

Fritz Held (born October 2, 1867 in Mannheim ; † August 2, 1938 in Baiersbronn ) was a German entrepreneur and racing car driver .

Career

Fritz Held is one of the pioneers of the automobile and motorsport in Germany. From the mid-1880s he was closely associated with Carl Benz and his family. He was the owner of the company Fritz Held, Automobile, Mannheim and also acted as a representative of the Benz brand .

At the turn of the century between the 19th and 20th centuries, Held started successfully in automobile races. At the beginning of July 1899 he drove the Benz 8 PS racing car , the first real racing car from Benz & Cie. , together with co-driver Hans Thum on the long-distance journey Frankfurt - Cologne over a distance of 193.2 km with an average speed of 22.5 km / h, the class victory and won the big gold medal . Another 8 hp, driven by Emil Graf, came in second. With a 12 hp version of the “Contra-Motor” invented by Carl Benz , Held achieved second place behind the winner Eugène de Dietrich ( De Dietrich ) in the Innsbruck - Munich run three weeks later . In September 1899 he won the Berlin - Leipzig race together with Carl Benz 'son Richard on the 12 PS .

On May 13, 1900 , Held won the Mannheim - Pforzheim- Mannheim race together with his co-driver, the 25-year-old Benz chief mechanic Mathias Bender, in a 16 hp Benz racing car . The event was held in honor of the first successful long-distance drive in an automobile that Bertha Benz had managed to achieve on the route in 1888 with the Benz Patent Motor Car number 3 .

Fritz Held died in Baiersbronn in August 1938 at the age of 70.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Long-distance journey Frankfurt-Cologne, 1899. In: mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com. Mercedes-Benz Archive, accessed on May 27, 2020 .
  2. ^ Benz 8 PS racing car, 1899. In: mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com. Mercedes-Benz Archive, accessed on May 27, 2020 .
  3. ^ Benz 20 hp racing car, 1900. In: mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com. Mercedes-Benz Archive, accessed on May 27, 2020 .
  4. ^ Mannheim-Pforzheim-Mannheim, 1900. In: mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com. Mercedes-Benz Archive, accessed on May 27, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Hero, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German automobile racing driver
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim
DATE OF DEATH August 2, 1938
Place of death Baiersbronn