|
Special thanks to "Ayrton" from Pedro de la
Rosa Forum, and Michael Muller form AtlasF1
Forum
INTERVIEW WITH MR. HARVEY T. ROWE
-
Can you give us
a profile about you and your work? (your
profession, your books, your family, your
interests and hobbies)
-
I understand
that you are an englishman. Why have you
lived most of your life in Germany?
-
Tell us about
your passion for motor sport. How was your
first contact with motor sport?
-
Is Paul Piestch
the same owner of the Motorbuch Verlag
Stuttgart
-
How did you meet
Neubauer?
-
How was the
process of writing the book? (from
Neubauer's notes? Did you interviewed him?
Any other sources?)
-
What parts of
the first version of the book do you
consider are fiction?
-
In his time,
Neubauer omitted certain names, because
these were people that were still alive.
Nevertheless, in this moment is it possible
to know these names that he omitted? Who was
the "Countess Z"? Who were "Peter and Lil"?
Who was the "Signore" of the room 308 of the
hotel "Principe di Savoia" in Milan?
-
You tell me that
you did a new version of the book with an
emphasis on historical events and without
elements of fiction. What facts were
emphasized and which were eliminated?
-
In the story
there are several events which their
veracity have been doubted. For example,
that Chiron did not participate in the Grand
Prix of Tripoli in 1933. Or that Italo Balbo
could not have given start to the race
because he assumed his role (Gobernatore
della Libia) in 1934. But those which have
woken up most controversies have been two:
The first one, the history of the scraping
paint in Nürburgring 1934 to remove weight
to the cars to comply the regulation of 750
kilograms. The second one, the real origin
of the word "Silver Arrows" for the
Mercedes' cars. What can you tell us about
this?
-
You tell me that
you meet Caracciola and his wife, Hermann
Lang, Hans Stuck, Bern Rosemayer and other
prominent figures of that time. Please tell
us your experiences and your impressions of
each one of them.
-
Neubauer shows
frequently the image of a Caracciola that is
very affected and almost defeated by his hip
problem after the accident of Monaco. Was it
really like that? Or on the contrary
Caracciola, in spite of his injury, did not
give so much importance to this fact.
-
Why is there no
direct reference on Neubauer's wife?
-
I have found at
least six versions of your book in three
languages. The english version "Speed was my
life", the original version in german "Männer,
Freuen und Motoren", and the french version
"Mon royaume La Vitesse". What is really the
publishing scope of the book? How many
versions of it exist?
-
How many copies
were sold or were printed in every version?
.In the french and english versions, the
prologue was written by Sir Stirling Moss.
Who wrote the preface of the german version?
-
Could you send
me one or some photos of you? Do you have
some of the time when you wrote the book,
where you are with Neubaruer? And of
Caracciola, Rosemayer, Stuck, Lang?
-
Do you follow
the actual Formula 1?
-
.Who is, in your
opinion, the best driver ever of motorsport
?
-
Do you consider
that the races before the 70's (60's, 50's)
were better than the current ones?
-
Do you agree
with the phrase: "Before the driver was more
important than the car, and now the car is
more important than the driver"
ANSWERS
PERSONAL DATA Harvey T. Rowe
Born at den Haag (Netherlands) in 1920. Father
English, Mother German. Dual nationality (British
and German) Grown up in Berlin. Both my English
grandfather and my father journalists, the
latter managing director of a London publishing
house later in life. Like Neubauer, my wife
comes from the ethnical Austro-German region of
what is now Czech Republic. My daughter Leslie
is a radio journalist working for the semi-official
Bayerische Rundfunk at München. Residence at
Berg am Starnberger See, some 20 miles s-w of
Munich. Sports: tennis, swimming, Favourite: car
Porsche for many years, but when it became to
small for a family of three changed to BMW (Coupe).
Only once had a Mercedes 220, (in 1960) but
never really liked it.
PROFESSIONAL CAREER
Started as a freelance reporter in West-Berlin,
Munich and London, finally settling in Munich
with an exclusive contract as serial author and
features reporter for QUICK, at that time the
biggest German illustrated weekly magazine.
After 25 years changed to BUNTE Illustrierte for
a couple of years, then again freelancing for a
number of weekly magazines, QUICK included. In
addition editor-in-chief for DU UND DAS TIER,
official organ of the German Society for
Protection of Animals against Cruelty (Deutscher
Tierschutzbund) In 2000 retired from journalism.
Since then working on several documentary book
projects.
HIGHLIGHTS
Full-out Interviews with more than 100 VIPs,
among them German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer
whom I accompanied as special correspondent
during his last journey to Spain, where he met
General Franco. Interviewed the present Spanish
King and his wife at Zarzuela Palace, Madrid,
when he was crown prince. Went to Capetown as
special correspondent when Professor Barnard
performed his first heart transplant. Wrote a
book about the first heart transplants in
medical history (“The Capetown Surgeon”). 90
minutes exclusive interview with the last Shah
of Persia, Reza Pahlewi and his beautiful wife
Farah Diba at their Teheran Palace. Please bear
in mind, that I have never been a
motorsport-specialist but an
all-round-journalist and writer..
NEUBAUER STORY
When Neubauer retired in the mid-fifties, QUICK
bought for 50.000 DM the exclusive rights to
publish his memoirs . I was chosen to write this
story because I was generally interested in
sports, had personal memories of the pre-war
racing area, drivers like Caracciola, von
Brauchitsch, Stuck, Rosemeyer - had been my
“heroes” when I was a teenager. Living close to
the famous AVUS racing track at Berlin I became
a fan, did not miss any of the radio reports on
great races like the Nürburg Ring and Eiffel
races in the Thirties.
I met Neubauer for he first time at his
Untertürkheim office in Stuttgart. More than two
dozen meetings, all of them taped, were to
follow, some of them at the Grand Hotel Gardone
at the banks of Lago di Garda, Italy. The aim
being a story of motor-racing in the Twenties
and Thirties with Neubauer giving background
information and opening the doors to Carraciola
and other prominent drivers. While reporters and
correspondents of QUICK collected detailed
material world wide, I myself met all the
important characters personally for long and
detailed interviews about their lives and
experiences, both in private life and as
drivers. This took a long time, so finally I had
to start writing long before all the material
needed was complete, this being the reason for a
certain lack of chronology
Although more than 50 years have passed since
the original serial was published I vividly
remember the unique opportunity of spending a
few days with Rudolf Caracciola and his charming
wife "Baby" at their wonderful home "Villa
Scania" at Lugano. "Carratsch", as he was called
by his Berlin fans, was the "Michael Schumacher"
of the Thirties, both as a driver and as
popularity is concerned . Fundamentally, he was
a "silent" man who did not like to give
interviews . So Baby was surprised that he
talked to me for many hours about his life and
career. This happened first time ever (as Baby
confirmed) and - as it turned out - it was to be
the last time, too, for he died only one year
later of cancer of the liver. Carracciola had
been the hero of my youth . To sit with him at
the same table and listen to him was something
like a boys' dream coming true. I also
interviewed Baby for several hours about her own
story and life with Chiron and Caracciola.
Meeting other racing stars like Mercedes driver
Hermann Lang or their permanent Auto-Union rival
Hans Stuck sr. was equally fascinating, not to
mention my encounter with Elly Beinhorn, Bernd
Rosemeyers widow, telling me about her love,
marriage and life with Bernd, in particular
about the tragic circumstances of his death when
he was trying to break the world speed record
Rudolf Caracciola had set up a short time
before. When I visited her in 1959, her son
Bernd was a teenager dreaming of a career as
motorcycle racing driver - like his father.
.About 40 years later, when I was writing a
series of articles for BUNTE Illustrierte, and a
pocket book, about "aerobics", the medical
advisor sitting next to me was the same Bernd
Rosemeyer jr., by then a reknown Professor of
Orthopaedics at a Munich University Hospital . I
also met Hermann Lang but have no particular
memory of him. Neubauers wife, “Hansi”
apparently had full control over her husband. By
the way, Neubauer (at the time I met him) was a
very poor driver and more than once it gave me
chill sitting next to him – not because he was
driving too fast, on the contrary. Hansi
strictly watched that he never got beyond 50 kms
(!!) limit, a nightmare to me, personally
driving a Porsche at that time. Hans Stuck sr. I
met at his house at Grainau near
Garmisch-Partenkirchen . He was a very pleasant
and well-mannered gentleman. All his silver cups
he had won during his racing career had been
melted into a thick silver plate covering his
living-room table. His son Hans Stuck jr. was
still a good-looking teenager then, and as you
may know became quite a well-known motor-racing
driver many years later
I am still taking a personal interest in motor-racing
by watching occasionally the races on TV. I
think in comparison to the races before 1939
they are a bit dull and monotonous. It is
difficult to judge who was the best driver ever,
for the conditions have changed so much since
regards cars and track.. Pre-war no doubt
Caracciola was top, followed by Rosemeyer, who
died too early as to really catch up. Post-war
in my opinion Fangio for quite a while was the
greatest, but he was topped by Schumacher, who I
think is the unequalled Number One. Of course,
no one knows who would have won if Caracciola
and Fangio had contended Schumacher under equal
conditions I fully agree that today the car
seems to be more important than the driver, and
for the same reason the quality of the team of
mechanics and the strategy when to stop for
fuelling, which tyres to use and when to change
them is far more important than in earlier times
– in other words, the coaching as Neubauer
invented it plays an important role again.
BOOKS
The QUICK serial “Männer, Frauen und Motoren”
set up and all-time record of 52 weeks. While
the serial was nearing its end, the DULK Verlag
Hamburg bought the book rights from QUICK
Neither Neubauer nor myself were informed in
time, it was printed without any change or
corrections which in my view were necessary for
a book version with a view to chronology.
When DULK learned that there was ample of
non-published material in particular about
Neubauers private life and career, his youth,
his wife etc He asked me to compound this
material for a second book, which appeared under
the title Herr über 1000 PS.
Of the original book Männer, Frauen und Motoren
a pocket book was published by Heyne Verlag, and
two special editions were printed for book clubs
(“Büchergemeinschaft Deutschland” and “Deutscher
Bücherbund”) and translations appeared in
Spanish (“Hombres, Mujeres y Motores”) and of
both books in Swedish ( “Män, kvinnor och
motoren” and “Farten var mit liv”)
There was an English version (“Speed was my Life”)
on the market, based on the QUICK serial, but
with a completely different text written by an
unknown author. It was published without our
knowledge and consent by Barrie and Rockliff
Publishers, London, who had obtained the rights
from QUICK We were furious when we heard bout it
but it was too late to take legal actions,
however we finally received our share of the
fees. The English edition and its two
translations (French : “Mon royaume la Vitesse”
and Norwegian: “Rekordener faller”) were never
authorized by us.
In 1970, MOTORBUCH-VERLAG, Stuttgart, applied
for a licence from us to publish a condensed
version of the two originaal books MÄNNER,
FRAUEN UND MOTOREN and HERR ÜBER 1000 PS. I am
sure this request was personally inspired by the
publisher Mr Paul Pietsch who had been a driver
himself in the Thirties. However, we never had
any personally contacts with him. I had to
combine both book versions, cutting our passages
of no real importance in view of the limited
length. This last and final version of MÄNNER
FRAUEN UND MOTOREN appeared in 1970.. It was to
be followed by another unabbreviated “special
edition” It has meanwhile been sold out
completely and the rights were returned to me,
in view of the fact that Neubauer died in the
meantime.
There was no preface written for the first
version because it was nothing but the reprint
of what had appeared in QUICK: The Prologue and
the Epilogue for the final Motorbuch-version was
written by myself, just to bridge the long time
which had elapsed since the original had
appeared in 1959. I have no idea how many books
were sold in all, but I think a minimum of
100.000 would be a fair guess taking into
account the fact that the QUICK serial had been
running for 52 weeks before with an estimated
readership of 5 million
A German producer bought the film and TV rights
from me a few years ago. Preparations for a TV
film are being made which will deal mainly with
the rivalry between Caracciola and Rosemeyer. I
don’t think it will be realized before 2008 or
later.
YOUR QUESTIONS
According to what Neubauer told me , the young
German driver "Peter Paulsen”. is identical with
the publisher Paul Pietsch (Motorpresseverlag)..
Also the lady called "Lil" in the book existed
in reality, although her name was changed for
obvious reasons. Neubauer never told me her real
name However if you look up WIKIPEDA -online
under “Achille Varzi – “Career” you will find
all the names you wanted.
With “fictitious” I meant more a less the way of
telling the story. You must keep in mind that
the original was written for a popular weekly
magazine with about 5 million readers every week,
very few of them motorsport experts. They wanted
what they call “info-tainment” these days. The
technique of writing for magazines of this type
in the Fifties therefore was to transfer simple
facts if possible into action and dialogues. An
example may be the way how the first meeting of
Caracciola with Charly at a 5 o’clock tea
dancing at Dresden was described in the original
version. It was a fact that this meeting took
place, but the way it was described, including
the dialogues, was fictitious, but the
circumstances were fundamentally correct. When I
wrote the final version for Motorbuch Verlag , l
cut out this scenario and condensed it to a few
lines. The same applied to a number of other
scenes which I do not now remember in detail.
Also the story about “Countess 0.Z” was cut out
altogether in the final version, if only to save
space.. ( Neubauer never told me her real name.)
As far as Balbo is concerned, we have a problem.
In WIKIPEDA online “Grand Prix de Tripoli” you
will find a note stating that the new Tripoli
racing track was opened by “Marshall Balbo, the
new Libyan governor on 7th May 1933”. However,
there are other sources stating that Balbo
became governor of Libya in August (?) 1934. I
feel unable to decide which is correct. It is
certainly possible that he opened the race in
1933, because at that time he held the rank of
an Italian Minister of Aviation and was
extremely popular. According to WIKIPEDA -online
Chiron did take place in the 1934 race, as
Neubauer in our book correctly stated.
As for the scraping of paint from the car before
the Nürburg Ring race 1934 in order to reduce
weight, Neubauer repeatedly told me about this
“trick” of which he appeared to have been very
proud.. I have no reason to doubt his tale.
It is correct – and Baby Caracciola confirmed it
when I asked her – that Caracciola suffered
great pains during all the races after his
Monaco accident, and accordingly Neubauer, who
was responsible for the team and its success ,
had his doubts whether he would be able to carry
through. Neubauer frequently told me that he
always favoured only one the driver - the best,
what ever his name may have been, and there was
only one thing for him that counted: that
Mercedes won the race, whoever sat behind the
wheel. Caraaciola felt that Neubauer had his
doubts about his physical abilities and this led
to a certain estrangement between them which was
still being felt when I interviewed him and Baby
nearly 20 years later.
When meeting Hermann Lang, I had the impression
that there existed a certain personal rivalry
with Caracciola, the reason in this case
possibly being the fact that Lang, as a former
mechanic, had a very different sociL background
than Caracciola and most of the other great
drivers of the time: This rivalry struck me to
exist – for different reasons – between all them,
with exception perhaps between Caracciola and
Chiron who appeared to be real friends.
I do not recall a “signore at room 308” at the
“Hotel Principe di Savoia”. Please apologize I
cannot spend time to out where in the book he is
being mentioned.
END
|
