Hermann Paul Muller

Hermann Paul Müller as the winner of the French Grand Prix in 1939

NSU Sportmax, with which Müller won the 250 cm³ world championship in 1955

Hermann Paul Müller , also HP Müller (born November 21, 1909 in Bielefeld , † December 30, 1975 in Ingolstadt ) was a German racing driver . In 1939 he was European automobile champion with Auto Union and 1955 with NSU motorcycle world champion in the 250 cc class. He was also a seven-time German motorcycle champion in various classes.

life and career

Hermann Paul Müller was born the son of the innkeeper Paul Müller and his wife Amalie. He graduated from secondary school in Bielefeld with a secondary school leaving certificate. After graduating from school, he worked, among other things, as a volunteer at the Dürkopp factories. In 1929 he graduated from the flying school in Münster (Westphalia), but contrary to his original plans, he did not become a pilot, but decided to take up motorcycling. H. P. ("Ha-Pe") Müller, as he was often called, began his career in the same year with motorcycle races on Victoria . In 1930 he received the international racing driver license and from 1931 to 1933 he was a test and racing driver at the Victoria works in Nuremberg.

Success with DKW and Auto Union

For DKW he won in 1936 after the Scottish Norton pilots Jimmie Guthrie the European runner-up -Titel in the 500 cc class. In the same year he became German champion in the half-liter class on DKW .

1937 Müller joined the Automobile Sport of Auto Union . Back then it was a very common process. The large German plants recruited a large number of riders from motorcycle racing. The 1939 European Grand Prix Championship was Müller's strongest: he won the French Grand Prix with the Type D and came second at the German Grand Prix . According to the point system used up until then, he should have been European champion in 1939 , but the outcome of this championship is controversial. The Supreme National Sports Commission for Motor Sports in Germany declared Hermann Lang European Champion, although the calculation of the scores was puzzling.

War and Post War

During the Second World War , Müller worked in the aircraft factory in Łódź (then Litzmannstadt) and after 1945 was committed to forced labor in Chemnitz . After his release he moved from Zschopau in Saxony to Bielefeld in 1946 and lived in his parents' house. He soon found a motorcycle, a DKW 250 SS, which had survived the war wrapped in woolen blankets in a cellar. The wife of a person missing in the war gave him the DKW for a sack of flour, a side of bacon and 12 pounds of lentils; there was nothing to be had for money back then. Müller got the natural produce from relatives who ran small farms near Bielefeld. To his first post-war race, the "Grand Prix of Braunschweig", he drove with a motorcycle and his wife in an open train carriage. The race took place on August 11, 1946 on a section of the autobahn, a 6.2-kilometer course, essentially consisting of long straights, slight bends and two switchbacks. Müller started as the favorite in his class, but dropped out on the fifth of 18 laps.

Between 1947 and 1951 he was German champion four times at DKW . In 1953 he started both as a private and as a works driver on Horex and from 1954 on NSU. After third ranks in the 125 cc and 250 cc world championships in 1954 , he became world champion in the 250 cc class in 1955 as a private driver on an NSU Sportmax at the age of 45 . He was helped by the fact that Bill Lomas had been disqualified at the Dutch TT in Assen for refueling with the engine running.

In 1956 he undertook motorcycle world record rides for NSU with the so-called “flying deck chair” by graphic designer Gustav Adolf Baumm , a lightweight motorcycle with aerodynamic fairing, in which the driver sat low and almost on his back in front of the engine. In May 1956 - almost exactly one year after the designer had a fatal accident with the Baumm I model - Müller drove 65 laps or 500 kilometers with Baum III at the Hockenheimring at an average speed of 100 km / h and consumed 5.65 liters of fuel; that corresponded to 1.13 liters per 100 kilometers. In the summer he set speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah with Baumm II and achieved, among other things, 242 km / h with the 125 cm³ engine from NSU Rennfox .

From 1959 Hermann Paul Müller worked as a foreman in driving and quality control, and from 1965 to 1972 in the press department of Auto Union in Ingolstadt , where he has lived since then and died in 1975 after a long illness. H. P. Müller had been married since 1942 and had two sons.

Records on the Bonneville Salt Lake with Baumm II, the so-called flying deck chair

• 50 cc engine 196 km / h on August 9, 1956
• 100 cc engine 222 km / h on August 3, 1956
• 125 cc engine 242 km / h on August 7, 1956

The cars were driven with NSU engines. See also Wilhelm Herz , who set records there with NSU at the same time.

Honor and memory

In 1955 Müller was awarded the silver bay leaf . In Ingolstadt and Hockenheim, one street is named after HP and Hermann Paul Müller.

statistics

Motorcycling

title

• 1932 - German 600 cc team master on Victoria
• 1936 - German 500 cm³ champion on DKW
• 1947 - German 250 cm³ champion on DKW
• 1948 - German 250 cm³ champion on DKW
• 1950 - German 125 cm³ champion on DKW
• 1951 - German 125 cc master on FB Mondial
• 1954 - German 350 cm³ champion on NSU
• 1955 - 250 cc world champion on NSU

Race wins

(colored background = world championship run )

year	class	machine	run	route
1928	350 cc	Grindlay-Peerless	All about bulkheads	Schottenring
1936	500 cc	DKW	Eifel race	Nürburgring - Nordschleife
1947	250 cc	DKW	Eifel Cup	Nürburgring Nordschleife
1948	250 cc	DKW	All about bulkheads	Schottenring
	250 cc	DKW	Hamburg city park race	Hamburg city park
	250 cc	DKW	Dieburger triangle race	Dieburger triangle
1949	250 cc	DKW	Eifel Cup	Nürburgring Nordschleife
1950	250 cc	DKW	Eilenriederennen	Eilenriede
	125 cc	DKW	May cup race	Hockenheimring
	250 cc	DKW	May cup race	Hockenheimring
	125 cc	DKW	Eifel race	Nürburgring Nordschleife
	125 cc	DKW	Schleizer triangle race	Schleizer triangle
	125 cc	DKW	Sachsenring race	Sachsenring
	125 cc	DKW	Hamburg city park race	Hamburg city park
	125 cc	DKW	Grenzlandring races	Grenzlandring
	125 cc	DKW	Feldberg race	Feldbergring
1951	250 cc	DKW	All about bulkheads	Schottenring
	125 cc	DKW	Grand Prix of Germany	Solitude
1952	250 cc	FB Mondial	Eilenriederennen	Eilenriede
	125 cc	FB Mondial	Hamburg city park race	Hamburg city park
	125 cc	FB Mondial	Sachsenring race	Sachsenring
	125 cc	FB Mondial	Schleizer triangle race	Schleizer triangle
1953	350 cc	Fast- Horex	Dieburger triangle race	Dieburger triangle
1954	350 cc	NSU	All about bulkheads	Schottenring
	350 cc	NSU	Eilenriederennen	Eilenriede
1955	250 cc	NSU	Circuit de Floreffe	Circuit de Floreffe
	250 cc	NSU	Grand Prix of Austria	Salzburg - Liefering
	250 cc	NSU	Rhein-Pokal race	Hockenheimring
	250 cc	NSU	Grand Prix of Germany	Nürburgring Nordschleife
	250 cc	NSU	All about bulkheads	Schottenring

In the motorcycle world championship

(Points in brackets including deletion results )

season	class	motorcycle	run	Victories	Podiums	Points	Result
1952	125 cc	FB Mondial	1	-	-	2	15th
1953	500 cc	MV Agusta	1	-	-	1	17th
1954	125 cc	NSU	2	-	1	15th	3.
	250 cc	NSU	5	-	3	17 (19)	3.
1955	250 cc	NSU	5	1	3	19 (20)	World Champion
total			14th	1	7th	51 (54)

Automobile Racing - Pre-War Grand Prix Results

season	team	dare	1	2	3	4th	5	Points	position
1937	Auto Union AG	Auto Union Type C						33	14th
			DNF	DNF			5.
1938	Auto Union AG	Auto Union Type C / D / Auto Union Type D						20th	5.
			DNS	4th	DNF	DNF
1939	Auto Union AG	Auto Union Type D						12	European Champion 1
			DNF	1.	2.	4th

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)

¹ Not officially recognized.

literature

• Reinald Schumann: HP Müller. Master of all classes, J. Kleine Vennekate Verlag, Lemgo 2002, ISBN 3-935517-02-5
• Hans Christoph Graf von Seherr-Thoss:  Müller, Hermann Paul. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 415 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Steffen Ottinger: DKW motorcycle sport 1920–1939 . From the first victories of the Zschopau two-stroke model at track races to the European championship successes. 1st edition. HB-Werbung und Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Chemnitz 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-028611-7 , p. 45, 71-119 .

Web links

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

• Hermann Paul Müller on the official website of the Motorcycle World Championship (English).
• Leif Snellman: Hermann Paul Müller (D). www.kolumbus.fi, September 5, 2014, accessed September 13, 2014 . 
• Hermann Paul Muller. www.motorsportmemorial.org, accessed on July 23, 2019 (English). 
• Hermann Paul Müller in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hans Christoph Graf von Seherr-Thoß: Müller, Hermann Paul . In: Neue Deutsche Biographie 18 (1997), pp. 415-416. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
2. ↑ Eckhard Schimpf: Prinzenpark - The first car and motorcycle races of the post-war period. Delius Klasing Verlag, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-7688-3365-3 , p. 32 ff.
3. ↑ RTV drenthe . Retrieved June 8, 2020.
4. ^ Peter Schneider: The NSU story . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-613-03397-9 .
5. ^ German biography . Retrieved June 8, 2020.