German Hill Climbs

Like France, Switzerland, England and Italy, Germany had a bustling hill climb scene in the 1970s and, like France, was able to attract some big names from sports car racing and Formula 2 to its bigger events. However, unlike Switzerland and Britain, the national championship was not a major factor in German hillclimbing and most events operated as standalone events. Competition for BTD was usually between the larger sports cars, with F2 cars appearing more as the 1970s progressed, led by Swiss and French cars visiting Germany's round of the European Hill Climb Championship.

Although these pages will focus on the 2-litre sports racing categories, there was much of interest in the smaller 1150cc and 1300cc sports racing classes which were dominated by German Eigenbau at the start of the decade, often using NSU or BMW componentry. One of the successful constructors that started in the 1150cc class was the Swiss Sauber team which worked up from that first pair of cars through Le Mans victories with Mercedes in the late 1980s and, as of 2018, is in its 27th season of Formula 1.

The main German hillclimb championship, the Deutsche Automobil-Bergmeisterschaft, will not be covered us here as it was only open to cars in Groups 1-4.