15 people died with the German legend

He was a heartthrob, a son of a good family with perfect manners, a scion of nobility, a farmer, a bon vivant and one of the best Formula 1 drivers of his time – until his tragic end on the racetrack.

On September 10, 1961 in Monza, Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips was killed in a crash shortly before the infamous Parabolica on his way to the world championship title. His raging Ferrari took 15 people with it to their deaths on that fateful day 63 years ago. (NEWS: All current information on Formula 1)

Trips was born on May 4, 1928 in Cologne, as the last descendant of a noble family from the Lower Rhine who resided at Hemmersbach Castle near Kerpen – where the Schumacher racing dynasty later had its origins.

Wolfgang Alexander Albert Eduard Maximilian Reichsgraf Berghe von Trips, as his full name was, did not have an easy childhood despite his privileged background. He was seriously ill several times, had polio, meningitis and had to undergo middle ear surgery.

Racing was initially a way to balance out his health. Trips initially drove a VW Beetle under the pseudonym Axel Linther, thus concealing his career from his worried parents. Trips excelled in various racing series, was initially a model driver for Mercedes, then Ferrari brought him into Formula 1 – exactly five years before his death.

Travelling was extremely popular in the scene, he was open, friendly, always fair. In 1957, he let Ferrari colleague Piero Taruffi take the longed-for final victory as a farewell at the traditional Mille Miglia race, even though Taruffi's gearbox had failed shortly before the finish.

But Trips was also a tough guy, a racing driver through and through, who sometimes spared his opponents but not his own car or himself, which is why they called him “Count Crash”, the crash count.

Enzo Ferrari took Trips out of the race for a year after repeated accidents, and Countess Tessa von Trips asked her only son in an open letter in the World on Sundayto finally stop racing.

Trips didn't listen to his mother: he was too good at what he did.

In the 1961 season, Trips' Ferrari was the measure of all things after a rule reform, and on May 22, 1961, Trips made history at the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort as the first German to ever win an F1 race.

Another victory at the British GP in Aintree and various other good placings put him in first place in the drivers' championship. The title was within reach, but Trips had to finish ahead of his teammate Phil Hill in Monza to secure the world championship. Instead, disaster struck.

It was the second lap of the Italian Grand Prix, Trips had taken his foot off the accelerator on the approach to the Parabolica, Jim Clark, who was driving alongside him, could no longer react and his Lotus touched the left rear tire of Trips' car.

Like a jet, the Ferrari with starting number 4 took off to the left, skidded up the embankment, hit the people behind the fence, rolled over several times and crashed back onto the asphalt. (DATA: The Formula 1 drivers’ championship)

Destructive forces ripped the driver out of the cockpit, a lifeless doll lying in the inferno with a shattered neck. Trips had long since died, 15 spectators also died as a result of what remains the worst crash in Formula 1 history, and 60 others were injured, some seriously. Among the fatalities was a group of Swiss fans who filmed one of the videos of the crash that was later made public. The clip, at the end of which Trips' Ferrari flies towards the camera, also documents their final seconds.

After Trips' accident, public prosecutors initiated and then discontinued investigations against Clark, who was involved in the accident and who himself died in an accident seven years later in Hockenheim.

When Wolfgang von Trips was buried in the family crypt at Hemmersbach Castle on September 14, 1961, Kerpen was bursting at the seams. Mourners from all over the world came to the small community to say goodbye.

In December 1961, the deeply saddened parents Eduard and Tessa von Trips posthumously accepted the award as Sportsman of the Year for her son. The family, who had no descendants after Trips' death, had their fortune used to create a foundation and a racing museum in Villa Trips.

“In Morte Vita” is written under the von Trips coat of arms. In death there is life.

With Sports Information Service (SID)