On January 28th 1938 Bernd Rosemeyer was once more pushing his luck. While trying to outdo his teammate on the latest Auto Union type R streamliner, he reached 429, 491 km/h (269 mph) on the first run. During the second run, the car was hit by a gust, pushed onto the median, went into a somersault and crashed into an embankment. Rosemeyer was thrown from the cockpit and killed immediately. His funeral became a huge state affair with Hitler himself in attendance. His widow Elly Beinhorn, being under intense media scrutiny, left her son with his grandfather and took off for another record setting flight. Just two years later, all this became utterly meaningless as the world descended into WWII

Rosemeyer Memorial at autobahn A 5 milestone 508