Team story
Origins
Paul Greifzu worked in his father’s workshop in Suhl and had been racing since the 1920s. His 1951 BMW racing car was part of Germany’s post-war sporting recovery. That season he won at Dresden, the AVUS, the Halle-Saale-Schleife and the Sachsenring, where he beat Hans Stuck: results that preceded the name’s brief appearance in the World Championship.
The Formula 1 journey
Greifzu died during practice at Dessau on 10 May 1952. The car continued to be used: at the 1953 German Grand Prix, Rudolf Krause drove the BMW Special entered by Dora Greifzu. The classification records him in fourteenth place, with sixteen laps completed, in the race won by Nino Farina at the Nürburgring.
Historical timeline
Three chapters in the story of Greifzu
Three episodes to revisit the people, cars and races that shaped this journey.
First appearance · German Grand Prix
Rudolf Krause · German Grand Prix 1953. The recorded position is P14; this number alone does not show whether the driver completed the race distance. This is the first recorded race start, or the first entry if the team never started a race.
Sporting landmark · German Grand Prix
Rudolf Krause · German Grand Prix 1953. The recorded position is P14; this number alone does not show whether the driver completed the race distance. This marks the first win or podium where one exists, otherwise the highest recorded placing for this constructor.
Latest recorded appearance · German Grand Prix
Rudolf Krause · German Grand Prix 1953. The recorded position is P14; this number alone does not show whether the driver completed the race distance. This is the last race start attributed to this constructor in the archive, not necessarily the end of the organisation behind it.
A distinctive way of racing
The BMW 328 six-cylinder engine linked this project to the other German, hand-built single-seaters admitted during the Formula 2 regulation years. The constructor’s name, the entry’s owner and the driver referred to different people. Krause’s appearance should therefore not be presented as a World Championship outing by Paul Greifzu, who had already died.
What remains
Suhl’s Fahrzeugmuseum preserves the Greifzu-BMW and documents its 1951 victories. That domestic racing activity gives substance to the name beyond its sole World Championship start in 1953. The surviving car and Dora’s entry keep a project recognisable that continued briefly after the death of its original driver.