Otto Merz

Otto Merz was born on 12 June 1889 in Esslingen am Neckar to Karl Gottlob Merz, a locksmith, and Christine Margarete Merz née Blessing. In 1906, Merz was hired by Daimler as a mechanic. He also served as a chauffeur and mechanic for several wealthy motor car enthusiasts, such as Theodore Dreher, the Austrian motor sport sponsor and son of Anton Dreher, and the Saxon industrialist Willy Pöge. Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand On 28 June 1914, as the chauffeur for Count Alexander von Boos-Waldeck during Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie's visit to Sarajevo, Merz drove the third car in the motorcade. There were two attempts on the archduke's life that day. In the first one, Nedeljko Čabrinović threw a bomb with a 12-second fuse at the archduke's car, which was first in the motorcade, which bounced off and rolled under the wheels of Merz' car where it exploded, injuring Boos-Waldeck, Eric von Merizzi and a number of spectators. Later in the day, after the archduke's chauffeur Leopold Ljoka took a wrong turn on their way to visit the wounded at the hospital, Gavrilo Princip stepped up to the archduke's car and fired twice, killing the archduke and his wife. ==Racing career==

Merz took up on racing in the early 1920s and achieved victories at both Solitude Racetrack and at the Klausen hill climb in 1924. He followed this up with a 1925 victory at the Solitude Ring, a closed road course around Castle Solitude, in a four-cylinder two litre Mercedes. He repeated the victory there in 1926 at an average speed of , in an ill-handling Porsche-designed straight-eight Mercedes. These wins did not catapult Merz into a full-time racing career; he participated in races on occasion, such as in the 1929 Tourist Trophy in Ireland, won by his teammate Caracciola; that year's Ulster Tourist Trophy was less auspicious, for the Caracciola/Merz Mercedes came 13th. Mercedes-Benz returned to racing in 1933; the company's management wanted to win the AVUS race; that event, to be held on 21 May in the German capital, was to be attended by high government dignitaries and would be a great opportunity to demonstrate Mercedes' technical prowess. Taking the -long straights of the Berlin track into consideration, the Mercedes-Benz team produced a streamlined SSKL for the occasion. Caracciola, who was back to the firm, would be the first choice to drive it, but he was still in the hospital, convalescing from fractures and injuries suffered during a practice accident for the Monaco Grand Prix on 23 April in a privateer Alfa Romeo. Under such circumstances, Merz had the SSKL seat in the AVUS race. Possibly he was invited by the team to drive: Merz had been a popular employee since 1906, and was in good standing with the management; it is also possible that Merz offered his services. Although only 43, he had semi-retired from racing, but enjoyed driving and may have considered this race as his last chance to compete in a widely publicized event. Whatever the reason, Mercedes outsiders were surprised to see Merz in the car. ==Death==

The first official practice session for the 1933 Avusrennen took place on 18 May 1933. A heavy rain drenched the track, and Daimler Benz drivers Merz and Manfred von Brauchitsch wanted to try their heavy SSK streamliners under those conditions. Witnesses reported the cars were sliding in several locations on the track and it was very difficult to drive. A few minutes after 13:00, Merz crashed his SSK on the long straight, overturning near the Grunewald station and nearly from the finish line. At the place of the accident, the surface changed from cobblestones to tarmac, and traces of the car trajectory were clearly visible on the cobblestones - but suddenly ended. The next mark left by the vehicle was found further on, where the car hit the ground again. The Mercedes-Benz crashed into a cement milestone on the right side of the track, and, according to the single eye-witness, it somersaulted and rolled several times. The car stopped with its wheels in the air near an embankment. Cause of accident Investigators later concluded Merz had lost control for a few moments. A fundamental difference between Brauchitsch's and Merz's Mercedes was determined to have caused the accident. Brauchitsch's had a differently streamlined body than Merz's: on the Brauchitzch SSK, modified by König-Fachsenfeld, the tail comes a high point. Mercedes had modified Merz's SSK differently, and the Sindelfingen-made body of Merz's car curved down markedly at the rear, a configuration much more likely to create substantial lift. The characteristics of the accident, and the fact it happened in an untested vehicle, has led many experts, including Karl Ludwigsen, to believe the aerodynamic configuration of Merz's car may have played an important role in this tragedy. == Personal life ==

On 19 October 1918 in Schelklingen, Otto Merz married Maria Hoch, who was born in Allmendingen on 22 January 1889 to Leo Hoch and Maria Hoch née Autenrieth. Otto and Maria were of Protestant faith. ==Racing record==

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