S1 Ep60: Hitler’s Racing Program
Past Gas
Donut Media
4.9 • 7.2K Ratings
🗓️ 28 December 2020
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Just a year before WWII, a 28 year old German driver named Bernd Rosemeyer crashed while driving over 260 miles per hour on a public road, killing him instantly. Just a few years earlier, Rosemeyer had been a humble mechanic, working at his dad’s garage. But now, he was part of a Hitler-funded racing program-- a violent effort to make Nazis the fastest drivers in the world. Today on Past Gas, the dark origins of Mercedes’ and Audi’s racing programs. How did these teams get started? What was their link to the Nazis? And why were some of the drivers not even Germans?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today on Good Different News, reality TV star admits it's nothing like reality, and more |
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| 1:00.4 | In 1938, a year before World War II broke out, a 26-year-old German driver named Bern |
| 1:09.1 | Rosemir crashed while driving over 260 miles per hour on a public road, killing him instantly. |
| 1:17.1 | Just a few years earlier, Rosemir had been a humble mechanic, working at his dad's garage. |
| 1:22.4 | But by the time of his death, he was a grand prix champion, with a wife who was also one of |
| 1:26.9 | the biggest German celebrities at the time. |
| 1:29.9 | As Bern's tragic rise and fall played out, so too did the ascent of the grimest figure |
| 1:35.2 | in World History, Adolf Hitler. |
| 1:38.1 | In Rosemir's story, Hitler saw an opportunity to convince the world of Germany's dominance, |
| 1:43.7 | in auto-racing and beyond. |
| 1:46.6 | And even in death, Rosemir was a pawn in Hitler's propaganda scheme, as Hitler transformed |
| 1:52.4 | his funeral into a massive Nazi rally. |
| 1:56.2 | Rosemir's widow protested but to no avail. |
| 1:59.0 | The fear would have his way. |
... |
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