Former Porsche Racer Hanstein Dies in Germany

03/07/96

The Associated Press reported that "the gentleman race Baron," Fritz Huschke Baron von Hanstein, died at age 85 in a hospital in Stuttgart, Germany this week. The Porsche company press office announced the death of Hanstein, a former Porsche racing team chief. Hanstein was born in Halle/Saale near Leipzig in 1911. He he completed apprenticeships in agriculture and sales, and then attended colleges and law school in England and Germany.

Hanstein took up long distance motorcycle racing in defiance of his father in 1930, when he was 19. He raced cars for Hanomag, Adler and BMW, and became the German sports car champion in 1938. He won the Mille Miglia in Italy in 1940.

Hanstein managed an animal breeding operation in Mahndorf near Bremen during WWII, and became assistant manager of an agriculture seed development company at Herford after the war. Hanstein married his wife Ursula, who survives him, in 1950.

In 1952 Porsche hired Hanstein as race team chief, and he brought the company's car international acclaim at LeMans and in other European races. Stirling Moss, Graham and Phill Hill, Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips, Bruce McLaren and Jochen Rindt all raced the Porsche car while he was team chief. In 1962 Hanstein drove a Porsche to victory in the 2-liter class at Daytona. He stepped down as Porsche's team chief in 1968, although he continued his association with the company as honorary president of the German national sports commission for automobile racing. Hanstein was also honorary vice-president of the international racing federation, FISA.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel