Ernst Jakob Henne
Ernst Jakob Henne, called " Fast Hen" (* February 22 1904 in Weiler im Allgäu, † 22 May 2005 in Gran Canaria, Spain ) was a German motorcycle and automobile racing driver and entrepreneur.
Biography
Ernst Jakob Henne was born the fourth child of master saddler Jakob Henne. With five years of full orphan, he grew up in a peasant family. In 1919, Henne started an apprenticeship as a motor mechanic and earned with 15 years in Ravensburg motorcycle license. Four years later, he became known as a bicycle mechanic in Munich independently and built together with his wife's motorcycle and automobile workshop with time to a large company with over 500 employees from. In the same year (1923 ) he decided when visiting a dirt track race in Mühldorf spontaneously to participate and took on a borrowed machine Megola third place. He won his first race as Fastest on June 28, 1925 at Burrenwald Mountain race on a 350cc Astra. After another racing successes BMW became aware of hen and signed him in 1926 as a factory driver. In the following years Henne was one of the most successful motorcycle racers on the road and off-road. Among other things, he was in 1926 German champion in the 500 cc class in 1927 German champion in the 750 cc class and 1928 winner of the Targa Florio in Sicily. In the years 1933 to 1935, the German national team won under his leadership at the international six-day races, the championships of the off-road rider.
From 1934 drove hen also car race, first for Mercedes, in 1935 for BMW. In 1936 he won the Eifel race on the Nürburgring with the prototype of the BMW 328, the sports car category to 2 liters and 1937 in Chimay and Bucharest.
As of 1929, Ernst Jakob Henne for numerous BMW motorcycle world record attempts. His first official world speed record he set on a 750 - cc BMW on September 19, 1929, 216.75 km / h over the mile with flying start. In the years 1929 to 1937 was followed by a total of 76 world speed records, most recently on November 28, 1937 with 279.5 km / h on a fully faired 500cc supercharged BMW. This best performance was only 14 years later, in April 1951, surpassed by Wilhelm Herz. After this last record itself hen retired from active racing.
Henne was one of the most successful motorcycle athlete in motorsport history, and was named in the 1930s with sports stars like Max Schmeling, Gottfried von Cramm, Rudolf Harbig or motor sports Rudolf Caracciola, Manfred von Brauchitsch and Bernd Rosemeyer in one breath.
In Meckenbeuren helped Ernst Henne three innocent citizens of the community to dismissal from the Gestapo prison.
After the Second World War, Ernst Henne was operating from 1948 to the " Great representative of Daimler Benz AG" in Munich and one of the largest car dealerships in Germany. In 1991 he founded with a substantial portion of its assets, Ernst Jakob Henne Foundation to support innocent people in distress.
In 1996, he withdrew into retirement. His son Ernst Theodor Henne sold (since 1987 fifth husband of the entrepreneur and the Aga Khan -law Renate Thyssen- Henne ) the company Auto-Henne in 1997 as one of the last independent general agencies in Germany to Daimler - Chrysler AG.
Hen lived last withdrawn in Gran Canaria and died on 22 May 2005 at the age of 101 years.