Hermann Paul Müller (21 November 1909 – 30 December 1975) was a German sidecar,

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar from a saddle-style ...

, and

race car Race, RACE or The Race may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

driver. Müller started his competitive career on an Imperia in 1928. He became German Sidecar Champion in 1932, then in 1936, he took the German 500cc Motorcycle title. He switched to cars the next year, driving for Auto Union. He won the 1939 edition of the FIA French Grand Prix held in

Reims Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French Departments of France, department of Marne (department), Marne, and the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 12th most populous city in Fran ...

. The winner of that season's European Championship was never officially announced by the AIACR due to the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Although Müller would have won the championship on points, despite this the president of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

's highest motorsports organisation declared Hermann Lang the champion. After the war he returned to motorcycle racing, winning the 1947 and 1948 German 250cc titles on DKW. In 1955, he won the 250cc

world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

riding an NSU Sportmax. He also set quite a number of world speed records in five classes over six distances for NSU on the Bonneville salt flats in 1956. To this day he remains the oldest person to win a Grand Prix Motorcycle world championship, at the age of 46.

Racing record

Complete European Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Motorcycle Grand Prix results

Points system from 1950 to 1968. ( key) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

1909 births 1975 deaths German motorcycle racers 125cc World Championship riders 250cc World Championship riders 500cc World Championship riders Sportspeople from Bielefeld People from the Province of Westphalia German racing drivers Racing drivers from North Rhine-Westphalia National Socialist Motor Corps members European Championship drivers 250cc World Riders' Champions {{Germany-motorcycle-racing-bio-stub