FROM MY REVIEWS IN THE 356 REGISTRY:

HUSCHKE VON HANSTEIN THE RACING BARON, Tobias Aichele.  Aichele wrote the well regarded PORSCHE 911 FOREVER YOUNG --but even it received mistakes during its translation.  Most of the 356 ENGINE photographs leading off his 911 ENGINES book are miscaptioned.  Hence I approached the von Hanstein biography with some trepidation.  Luckily HvH, as he was referred to in short hand, provided the vast majority of material for the book himself.  As part of literally inventing publicity, HVH shot vast numbers of photographs and wrote reams of quotable material and he invented himself as the indispensable link between the Porsche and the rest of the world.  The book is fascinating in that it is simultaneously written from up to three points of view: frequently in HvH’s own words, sometimes in those of his wife Ursula, sometimes Aichele.  Apparently all of the photographs are from the von Hanstein albums and are captioned by him.   Von Hanstein was an inveterate photographer and apparently took many of the publicity photographs himself – excepting of course the many photographs of him with the great drivers and the rich and famous. One can not overestimate the importance of HvH’s connections in the early growth of company.

While many stories have been written about coming of age in England and America, this is the first description I have read of nobility growing up in Germany early in the last century.  HvH was obviously of considerable wealth – though, like the English nobility lack of hot water was deemed to be virtuous – which allowed him to have a Leica and race sports cars in the 30s.  HvH not only raced cars but was talented; talented enough to be invited to try out for the Auto Union team.  Even though racing director Karl Feuereissen was impressed with HvH’s talents, it was HVH who turned down the team after deciding that driving a Grand Prix car was too arduous for a crushed and poorly healed shoulder.  Still he raced the streamlined Adler at LeMans – “Straight line stability was greatly improved by front engine location and the resulting forward shift in center of gravity.  Yet the drivers suffered from poor cabin ventilation and criminally ineffective brakes.” – as well as the streamlined BMW, where he won the 1940 Mille Meglia.

Most remainder of the book is devoted to his life with Porsche.  Part of Von Hanstein’s successful promotion as sales manager for Vespa was the 160 km ADAC Heath trials, which netted gold metal.  More importantly, this lead to the ADAC 6 hour races on the Nurburgring and the Monte Carlo Rally driving VWs.  These efforts were supported by Dr. Feuereissen, now at VW, sent HvH to Porsche for an interim job – “Later, after a year, we would be happy to take you back as assistant to the management in Wolfsburg.” 

HUSKE VON HANSTEIN - THE RACING BARON, Aichele may be THE 356 book of the year, even though it is not strictly a 356 book.  HvH (as we find he was known) was the consummate insider. HvH, starting with little more than a noble title -- when it still meant something -- a large fortune, and an excellent education, managed to make himself into a noted race driver; at least on a national level prior to world war II.  He raced for Adler, driving the streamlined cars at LeMans.  They were fast; but who knew that curve in a horizontal plane of the windscreen was so great that the driver couldn't reach it and had to stop in the evening to have a mechanic wipe condensation off?  Or that the breaks were "criminally" bad.  HvH also knew when to stop.  When the cars broke at LeMans, he spent the night in a pup tent with a female driver. Also, he tried out for the Auto Union Grand Prix team.  Apparently, his speed and technique impressed Auto Union's racing director, Dr. Karl Feuereissen, but HvH realized that a previously injured shoulder left him too weak to race the car - he did become a test driver.  While HvH had no problems racing for the Nazis, his general philosophy of life was incompatible soldiering for them.  However, even though imprisoned (and ultimately freed by the intervention of Siegrid von Wieteersheim, who passed herself off as his fiancee.  Himmler, himself ordered HvH's release to marry Sigrid -- no he didn't marry Sigrid).  Through all of this HvH hung on to his Leica.  HvH was a superb photographer and essentially all the photographs, except those of HvH himself (and there are many) were take by HvH and maintained in huge albums.  Apparently, he wrote many of his own captions.  

The book is actually written on three levels: the first of which are HvH's own words, including captions, second are those of his wife Ursula and third of author Aichele.  These are cleverly intertwined.  Aichele pulls one magnificent stunt - he traces HvH's life through Germany with a red S-90 coupe supplied from by the Porsche factory!