Congratulations to "Katastrophen-Sepp" on his 90th birthday!
In 1938/39, my father was already following the Silver Arrows' great performances as a seven-year-old, albeit still on the radio. After the war, on June 4, 1950, he personally stood at the start of the Swiss Grand Prix in Bern, armed with his father's Leica.
Fangio, Herrmann, Moss, Clark, Stewart, Siffert, Regazzoni, Lauda and Andretti posed in front of his lens, as well as most of the other warhorses of motorsport at the time.
In central Switzerland, he became a legend as a raving photo reporter under the name "Katastrophen-Sepp" (Disaster Sepp), and his pictures of early car accidents and other disasters lightened up the lead deserts of the daily newspapers of the time.
The reportage in the Zwischengas annual magazine shows a few of his accident pictures from back then and without the currently prevailing shortage of raw materials, the first part of our joint racing book "Inside Formula 1" would already be on the market.
At the age of 90, Sepp is still active and enjoys following the Silver Arrows just as much as he did back then, today it's simply the great duels between Hamilton and Verstappen.
With his license plate OW 777, he toured all over Europe, including to Berlin in 1961 in a Renault Dauphine to document the construction of the Berlin Wall.
Whether in "Automobil-Revue", "powerslide", "BLICK", "Sport", "Auto-Jahr" or "Grand-Prix" (by Ulrich Schwab), his pictures were always welcome and even today they are still great witnesses of times gone by, as the "Rück-Licht" of the "SwissClassics Revue" proves time and again.
Dear "Dädi", you have shaped me, molded me and supported me always and everywhere, for which I am incredibly grateful. Together we were able to experience an absolutely sensational time that will never be the same again. Whether it was with Herbert Müller in the Porsche pits at the 1000 km race in Monza in 1973, with Jo Siffert in his garage in Freiburg in 1971, or with Hermann Lang in his private distillery in Stuttgart in the mid-1970s, they are all great memories that I hope not even the most severe dementia can ever take away from me.
All the best wishes for your 90th birthday today from your family and, of course, the whole "zwischengas team"!
