Fritz Hillebrand

Friedrich "Fritz" Hillebrand (born November 22, 1917 in Weißbach near Lofer ; † August 24, 1957 in Bilbao , Spain ) was a German motorcycle racer whose roots were in the Austrian state of Salzburg and who took on German citizenship .

Life

Fritz Hillebrand, whose parents died early, went to a German boarding school . He learned the trade as a mechanic and emerged victorious from what was then the Reich career competition in 1933 . He drove his first motorcycle race in 1935 in the sidecar of Hans Strohmeier from Munich . During the Second World War he was shot down twice as an aviator in the Wehrmacht's air force . In between he drove dirt track and hill climb races in the Balkans.

After the end of the Second World War , Hillebrand settled in Amberg and began racing again in 1948 with a 600 cm³ NSU team that had been freshened up. In 1950 he tinkered a 750 BMW from parts and in 1951 he won his first race at the Nürburgring . But at the first international race, Rund um Schotten on the Schottenring , he had a hard fall. His co-driver Kurt Praetorius died as a result of the accident.

1953 Hillebrand took the Berlin high school student Manfred Grunwald into the sidecar boat and made his debut in the motorcycle world championship . The daring couple won race after race in 1954. Hillebrand recovered quickly from another serious fall in 1955 in Barcelona , Spain , and the duo - now equipped with BMW factory equipment - was behind the couple Wilhelm Noll / Fritz in 1956 after victories at the Isle of Man TT and the Dutch TT in Assen, the Netherlands Cron only barely second in the sidecar class of the motorcycle world championship.

In 1957 Hillebrand / Grunwald were on the way to becoming world champions. They won the first three World Championship races with the German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring , the Isle of Man TT and the Dutch TT. At the Belgian Grand Prix in July they were third. At the end of August, during training for the Bilbao Grand Prix, Hillebrand / Grunwald brushed a kilometer stone with their BMW team in a curve. At a speed of 150 km / h both were hurled against a lamppost. Hillebrand was dead on the spot, Grunwald got away with minor injuries. Nevertheless it was enough in the world championship. With the Great Prize of Nations in Monza there was only one run left and the toughest pursuer, Walter Schneider , decided not to start as an expression of his sadness. It was won by the Italian duo Albino Milani / Rossano Milani on Gilera and Fritz Hillebrand / Manfred Grunwald were posthumously before Walter Schneider / Hans Strauss and Florian Camathias / Julius Galliker and Hilmar Cecco team world champions in 1957 .

After Hillebrand's death Manfred Grunwald retired from racing and married the motorcycle racer Inge Stoll (1930-1958) in May 1958 . A street in Amberg was later named after Fritz Hillebrand.

statistics

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• 1952 - German 750 cm³ team master in a BMW (with co-driver Georg Barth)
• 1957 - World team champion in a BMW (with co-driver Manfred Grunewald)
• 1957 - German team master in a BMW (with co-driver Manfred Grunewald)

Isle of Man TT victories

year	class	Co-driver	machine	Average speed
1956	Sidecar ( carriages )	Manfred Grunwald	BMW	70.03  mph (112.7  km / h )
1957	Sidecar	Manfred Grunwald	BMW	71.89 mph (115.7 km / h)

In the motorcycle world championship

(Points in brackets including deletion results )

season	class	machine	Co-driver	Victories	Podiums	Points	Result
1953	Sidecar	BMW	Manfred Grunwald	-	-	1	13.
1954	Sidecar	BMW	Manfred Grunwald	-	1	14th	5.
1956	Sidecar	BMW	Manfred Grunwald	2	4th	26 (29)	2.
1957	Sidecar	BMW	Manfred Grunwald	3	4th	28	World Champion

References

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• Motorcycle literature and image archive Prof. Dr. Helmut Krackowizer

Web links

• Fritz Hillebrand on the official Isle of Man TT website.
• Fritz Hillebrand. www.motorsportmemorial.org, accessed on May 25, 2015 (English).