Thoughts on an absolute "noble feather" - In memoriam Herbert Völker
06/27/2025
There are very few people who could use wordplay as perfectly as Herbert Völker could. Unfortunately, he had to put down his pen on June 1, 2025 and his world of thought will never be able to captivate us again. What remains are all his articles and books. His writing was simply brilliant! Just a few examples:
On Walter Röhrl:
"Long guy, a key word. See Röhrl once and you'll never mistake him. So long, so skinny, so lithe when he threads his way into some steep machine, and after the knuckles, even the rest of him and his helmet fit under the roof." (50 years of Autorevue 1&2 2025)
Or to another famous figure:
"I sat right opposite the man and thought no one would notice anything about him. He looked normally good, wore an unusually colorful but tasteful shirt. Suddenly, I almost missed it because I was shoveling it in myself, the lower lip sagged, the forehead split into six transverse wrinkles of geometric severity, the nose rose to De Gaulle-like dignity, while the eyelids drooped to a mock perplexity, magnificently capped by mighty brows. Now the ears also came to life, first gracefully reaching to the side in the high position, finely drawn in their striking dimensions, and once he was in there, he didn't come out for the rest of the evening, and when he chatted, looked or asked, when he paused or nibbled on the shredded beef, the voyeur opposite had the delightful feeling: HE IS SO, ALL REAL, all he has to do is stand or sit down and be himself and you piss yourself, chuckling quietly with pleasure."
I happened to be sitting right next to Herbert at the same table and can only confirm his words. Well, it's actually quite easy to guess who we're talking about here: Mr. Bean! The story about the 7-page Ennstal-Klassik story, of which a good 6 1/2 pages were devoted solely to Rowan Atkinson, appeared in autorevue 9-04.
Or about Jochen Rindt:
"He was immediately recognizable as something special, at least as a madman. He had an apartment on Hitzinger Kai and a Jaguar E. With 270 hp, the car was hugely overpowered, ideal for Rindt and his trips, for which he found a fearless partner in Zwickl. You can't say he drove like a pig, he drove worse, at 180 in the city (at night) and 220 in the surrounding countryside, drifting and speeding like a maniac." (Autorevue 4&5 2025)
I have fond memories of our first photo stories together for "autorevue". Herbert: "Dani, we definitely don't want pictures like they all show. We're always looking for something different, so you can let your creativity run wild with me."
And indeed, pictures were printed that no other magazine would have printed then or now.
Herbert Völker was appointed editor-in-chief with autorevue issue 6/1967, which had been founded by Martin Pfundner just two years earlier. Völker, who was born on September 30, 1943 and died on June 1, 2025 at the age of 82, was an enthusiastic rally fan at the time and joined the editorial team without any long-term perspective. The fact that a car magazine became the most successful monthly magazine in Austria, with the largest number of readers, was certainly unique. Völker's nose for cultivated texts, cheeky topics and different photos certainly contributed a great deal to this, even if, coincidentally, there were always reports about cars and racing drivers.
Herbert later became the publisher of the lifestyle magazine "Dinersclub" and his early vision of the online platform "www.autorevue.at", which he was unfortunately talked out of, would certainly have made it successfully into the digital age.
P.S. To the pictures:
Top: Herbert Völker (right) with co-driver Hans Geist and the Fiat 1100 MM on the Stoderzinken on the occasion of the first Ennstal Classic 1993
Center: Herbert Völker and Helmut Zwickl, two professional colleagues and two friends. Both worked for "autorevue" and both died within just a few months of each other.
