Hermann Lang

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Hermann Lang (disambiguation) .

Hermann Lang

Nation:	Germany
Automobile world championship
First start:	1953 Swiss Grand Prix
Last start:	1954 German Grand Prix
Constructors
1953  Maserati  • 1954  Mercedes-Benz
statistics
World Cup balance:	WM-17. ( 1953 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 2 - - -
World Cup points :	2
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

Hermann Lang (born April 6, 1909 in Stuttgart-Cannstatt ; † October 19, 1987 Bad Cannstatt ) was a German motorcycle and automobile racing driver .

Career

Hermann Lang at the 1954 German Grand Prix

In the Mercedes-Benz W 125 at the 1937 Italian Grand Prix

Hermann Lang on August 16, 1986 in a Mercedes-Benz W 154

Grave in the Uff churchyard in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt

Hermann Lang came from a humble background and had to fight hard to get to the top at a time when racing drivers often came from aristocratic or well-to-do families.

After an apprenticeship as a mechanic, he began his career as a motorcycle racing driver in 1927 and won the German mountain championship for sidecar machines in 1931 . In 1933 Lang became a mechanic in the racing department of Mercedes , where he looked after Luigi Fagioli's car. In the spring of 1935 he took part in test drives in Monza as one of three young drivers , where he impressed race director Alfred Neubauer with his start and his cornering technique. In his first race, at the Eifel race on June 16, 1935 at the Nürburgring , Lang finished fifth and at the Swiss Grand Prix on August 25, 1935 sixth place.

At the 1936 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, he broke his finger and still drove eight laps, which earned him great sympathy from the audience.

Lang had a predilection for high-speed lines, he won the Gran Premio di Tripoli three times at the Autodromo della Mellaha in what was then the Italian colony of Italian-Libya and the AVUS race in 1937 in Berlin .

1939 was Hermann Lang's most successful year, he won four Grand Prix ( Pau , Tripolis, Belgium and Switzerland ) as well as the Eifel race on the Nürburgring, the hill climb on the Freiburg Schauinsland and the Viennese high road race . Therefore many of was the President NSKK , the highest at that time national motor sport authority, Adolf Hühnlein declared as the most successful driver of the season unofficially the European Championship, as the international automobile sports federation AIACR had its activities already set due to the outbreak of war. However, according to the point system used in the European Grand Prix Championship up to that point , Hermann Paul Müller ( Auto Union ) would have been the European champion.

In 1943, his book Vom Rennmonteur zum Europameister was published by Knorr & Hirth in Munich .

After the Second World War , Hermann Lang initially started with a Veritas Meteor, which he had acquired from his own resources , before Mercedes-Benz resumed racing in 1951. In two races in Buenos Aires (February 18 and 25, 1951), he finished second and third in a Mercedes-Benz W 154 , which, however, did not meet expectations in the pre-war supercharged racing cars.

A year later the great era of the Mercedes 300 SL began . The works team included Rudolf Caracciola , Karl Kling , Hermann Lang and Fritz Riess . Hermann Lang won the Eifel race in 1952 and, together with Fritz Riess, the 24 Hours of Le Mans ; at the “Prix de Bern” and at the Carrera Panamericana (Mexico) he came second behind Karl Kling.

In a Maserati , Lang finished fifth at the 1953 Swiss Grand Prix and then played a key role in Mercedes' entry into Formula 1 in 1954 . After slipping off the track in third place at the 1954 German Grand Prix , he retired from racing. But he continued to work for Mercedes.

statistics

Pre-war grands prix results

season	team	dare	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	Points	position
1935	Daimler-Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz W 25								45	12.
			DNS			DNF	6th	DNF
1936	Daimler-Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz W 25 short								24	10.
				DNF	4th
1937	Daimler-Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz W 125								19th	3.
			3	7th	DNS	2	2
1938	Daimler-Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz W 154								17th	3.
			3	DNF 1	10 2	DNF
1939	Daimler-Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz W 154								14th	European champion 3
			1	Ret	Ret	1

Legend
colour	meaning		EM points
gold	victory		1
silver	2nd place		2
bronze	3rd place		3
green	Classified, covered more than 75% of the race distance		4th
blue	not entitled to points, covered between 50% and 75% of the race distance		5
violet	not eligible for points, covered between 25% and 50% of the race distance		6th
red	not eligible for points, covered less than 25% of the race distance		7th
colour	abbreviation	meaning	EM points
black	DSQ	disqualified	8th
White	DNS	did not start
	DNA	did not arrive
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)

¹During the race, Lang took over the car from Rudolf Caracciola , who was unable to drive due to illness, and drove him into second place. With technical problems, he handed over his own car to Walter Bäumer , who then retired.

² Lang handed his car over to Bäumer during the race after he was injured when a stone smashed his racing driver's glasses in the rain.

³From NSKK declared European Champion.

Statistics in the automobile world championship

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1953	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati A6GCM	Maserati 2.0 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-	2	17th
1954	Daimler-Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz W196	Mercedes 2.5 L8	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
total				2	-	-	-	-	-	2

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9
1953
								5
1954
						DNF

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1952	Mercedes-Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz 300 SL	Fritz Riess	Overall victory

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	Maserati	Maserati A6GCS	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
							DNF

literature

• Frank O. Hrachowy: Steely romanticism. Car racing driver and National Socialist modernism. 2nd Edition. Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt 2008, ISBN 978-3-8370-1249-1 .
• Hermann Lang: From racing mechanic to master driver. Knorr & Hirth Buchverlag, Munich a. a. 1952.

Web links

Commons : Hermann Lang  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Racing driver Hermann Lang (1909–1987)
• Leif Snellman: Hermann Lang (D). www.kolumbus.fi, January 28, 2015, accessed March 15, 2015 . 
• Hermann Lang in the Internet Movie Database (English)