Born: Aachen Germany 1901
Died: Kassel, September 28th 1959

Racing Career

Rudolf Carracciola was born in Aachen, Germany just after the turn of the century; the son of a hotel owner, his parents originated from Italy.
In March 1923, aged 22, Rudi was working in a car factory when a violent argument with a Belgian Army Officer altered the course of his life. After this argument his father felt it wasn't in Rudi's best interests for him to stay in Aachen and packed him off to Dresden with a letter of introduction to his friend Mr Otto, an industrialist who manufactured dolls.

Caracciola loved cars and started racing when one of Otto's friends lent him a car to enter his first race, which he won. Still in Dresden he moved on to work as a salesman for Daimler and occasionally took part in hillclimbs and Sunday race meetings.

Two years later, in 1925, when the opportunity arose, Rudi entered his first Grand Prix at Monza and finished down the field; but the next year, when he persuaded the General Manager of Daimler Benz to lend him a factory car and cover his racing costs, Caracciola drove to victory to win the German Grand Prix.

The 17,000 Marks prize money Rudi invested in a Daimler-Benz showroom on Berlin's famous Kurfürstendamm and took another prize that year: his new wife Charly, the daughter of a wealthy restaurant owner.

Over the next six years, driving the big, white SSK for Mercedes, Rudolf Caracciola became an exceptional driver and a true genius at handling racing cars in wet weather conditions: sadly it was during this period that Rudi lost many of his friends in motor racing accidents.

Daimler-Benz stopped racing as a team in 1932 and Caracciola signed with Alfa Romeo, but the following year he formed the Scuderia CC racing team with his good friend, the racing driver Louis Chiron from Monaco. Chiron drove a blue Alfa Romeo with a white stripe and Rudi raced in a white one with a blue stripe.

In April of that year, during the Monaco Grand Prix, Rudi was involved in a terrible crash and suffered a complicated broken leg. Trouble with the leg, which after the accident was shorter by 5 cm, put him out of competition for almost a year. A year in which despite ill health he tried to negotiate a new contract to race for Daimler Benz.

On February 2nd, 1934, Rudi's wife Charly was killed by an avalanche whilst out skiing for the day. This tragedy sank Caracciola into a deep depression, which was to last for months, but despite this, Rudi was back behind the wheel in May of the same year, when he drove in the Monaco Grand Prix for a reluctant Daimler Benz team, who didn't think he was ready to race.

Rudi started racking up the Grand Prix victories and clinched the European Championship in both 1935 and 1937, sadly he paid the price with his health. It was apparent that Caracciola couldn't live without motor racing. To enable him to drive in the summer, Rudi spent most of his winters confined to bed with violent periositis, a bone disease, and because of his leg injury he drove in pain for the rest of his life.

In June, 1937 Caracciola married Baby Hoffman, who had helped him over the death of his first wife. Baby was an American, had lived in France for some years and had left her first husband, Freddy Hoffman (of Hoffmann Laroche), for Rudi's old racing partner Louis Chiron. When Chiron refused to marry her, Baby finally accepted Caracciola's long standing proposal. They were married in Lugano, Switzerland, where Rudi was resident and took their honeymoon aboard the 'S.S. Bremen' bound for New York, where another motor race awaited Rudi!

In January 1938 Rudi Caracciola became World Speed Champion, recording a speed of 270 mph in a Mercedes Benz, he had disputed the title with Rosemeyer in the Auto Union, who unfortunately died in the process.

Caracciola's career was interrupted by the onset of World War II and he didn't race again until 1946.
Rudi continued racing right up until 1952, when he shattered his other leg in the Bern Grand Prix. This accident left him in plaster for five months and confined to a wheelchair for the next two years.

Rudi Caracciola died at the age of 58 in Kassel, Germany on 28th September 1959.

Caracciola in SSK Mercedes in Gasworks hairpin 1929

Monaco 1933 Rudi with a badly broken leg again


With Louis Chiron in the port of Monaco 1936

The duel Brauchitsch - Caracciola in Monaco 1937

Rosemayer fatal crash at the World Land Speed Record 1938

Rudy's crash in the USA 1937
Rudy in Lugano with his racing trophees

Received by Adolf Hitler who was a great fan of Rudy

Caracciola biography by Dennis David