The local press was full of praise at the time: "Of wonderful sporting and scenic charm," enthused the "Allgemeine Automobil Zeitung" after the racing elite chased through the baroque gardens on the outskirts of Kassel for the first time at the Herkules Bergpreis. "There is no more ideal racetrack in the whole world than Wilhelmshöhe. Can you think of a more beautiful panorama for an hour of racing?" the chroniclers cheer, and are heard everywhere. With the first hill climb in the country, Kassel becomes the hub of the racing world overnight, at least temporarily: names such as Rudolf Caracciola, Karl Kappler, Adolf Rosenberger and Carl Jörns appear on the posters, from which the Hercules statue proudly waves.
The reports date back to the 1920s and the last hill climb around the Herkules was a long time ago, because first the circuits stole the show from the uphill section and then the first Federal Garden Show, which was held in Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe.
And even the new editions for classic cars are now history again. But now a few enthusiasts have revived the good old days and sent over 50 old cars and motorcycles to the mountain test once again for the 100th anniversary.
After 100 years once again
Collectors from the region and from far and wide have come and, as in the first edition in 1923, have once again driven cars such as one of only 15 surviving BMW Wartburg DA3s, a Bugatti Type 35, the victorious Simson Supra from 1926, a couple of Porsche Spyders or a Lotus Eleven through the bends just before the old guardhouse and the castle hotel, which colleagues from the past described as decisive for victory: "The race track, which is only 4.5 kilometers long, unloads into a wide, flat right-hand bend soon after the starting line at the foot of the hill. This bend is the only one that a virtuoso driver can take at full throttle. It should therefore also be the one where victory is actually decided. Because further up it gets terrible. The road climbs steeply, with gradients of up to 18 percent in some places, to form a very tight hairpin at the foot of the Water Arts, the so-called cascade curve, which is only the first of four no less difficult hairpin bends, the uppermost of which is at the foot of the Cyclopean walls of thee of the Cyclopean walls of the Octogon, from the height of which the stone giant Hercules, the old master of this mountain, leans calmly against his club, looks down on his beech- and fir-shrouded territory and welcomes the lords of the wheel, the new masters of the mountain."
With respect for the world heritage
This year, the participants are no longer going quite so wild - because unlike 100 years ago, the park itself has long been out of bounds for the pilots, in consideration of its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the only way around it is on the district road. But even the bends there are tight and the gradients steep enough to put the old engines to the test and awaken the drivers' sporting spirit.
While the here and now is slowed down every now and then for half an hour and the new cars have to wait at the barrier, the past turns up the heat once again and from time to time it sounds in the park just as the colleagues of yesteryear described it when local hero Karl Kappler drove the second edition of 1924 with that whitewhite Mercedes 6/40/65 PS and its 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine with just 65 hp, which a Berlin collector has brought back to the place where it was used:
"It had a sensational effect when the spectators heard the wonderful high-speed machine, which they had not yet seen, approaching from a distance with its bright and high, almost singing siren sound. And when Kappler, in his calm driving style at the wheel of the racing supercharger, and Carraciola, in his stormy daredevil style with his touring supercharger, passed them, they knew that, if no outside obstacle intervened, these two would be the heroes of the day."
And no, there was no obstacle in the way. For Kappler, the drive was the best time of the day at four minutes and seven seconds and for Carraciola, the successes in Kassel were an important milestone on the way to the Mercedes works team - and thus to the undisputed greatest German racing driver career of that time.
Machines take center stage today
Today, however, the participants start in the opposite direction. While the drivers were the heroes back then, it is now the machines that deserve the glory. For centenarians, this mountain is an even greater test. But just like back then, the vast majority of them mastered the Herculean task with flying colors.
