WHEELS ON FIRE: DEATH OF THE YOUNG COUNT LOBKOWICZ

Today in Berlin: May 22, 1932

Said to have opened as the first road worldwide built exclusively for cars, Berlin’s Automobil-Verkehrs- und Übungsstraße, better known as AVUS, was a scene of many historic automobile and motorcycle races.

It was also long infamous for its sharp curves (especially the refurbished Nordkurve) and uneven surface. Not only tended the latter occasionally to sink - the designers lacked the necessary experience in assessing special needs and potential pitfalls of automobile tracing tracks.

First covered with macadam, it proved completely unsuitable for the purpose. The defect was quickly dealt with by spreading a layer of asphalt on top. Ironically, the hyperinflation of 1923 brought with it such misery and shortage of basically everything, that Berliners stealthily removed pieces of the AVUS asphalt and used it to fuel their stoves and ovens. Often they simply sold chunks of asphalt to others.

It is not possible to tell to what extent these shortcomings were the reason for some of the crashes that AVUS audience witnessed over the years. But we can say with near certainty that it wasn’t the road that killed Count Lobkovitz.