Following the Free France forces taking the region of Sigmaringen in April 1945, it came under French control following the collapse of the Vichy government. Later that year, the former head of BMW Works’ racing department, Ernst Loof, along with motorcycle racing legend Georg Meier and Lorenz Dietrich—a former BMW engineer—built their first car in the post-war era. It was built around a BMW 328 chassis. Dietrich, as he recalled in a 1975 interview, still had strong ties to BMW, and sought to name their new creation as a “BMW-Veritas”. However, this was prevented as BMW’s new representative in American occupation forbade the use of the manufacturer’s name. The “BMW” part of the proposed name was dropped, thus creating the Veritas sports car company.

Nameless at its time of construction, the car was nearly taken by the American Military Police. It assumed the identity “85335”, associated with a NSKK Works BMW 328, and was the first Veritas to be built. By 1950, it had earned the name Grossmutter, or Grandmother in English. It was powered by a tuned 2.0-litre BMW 328 engine—with a cylinder head designed by Loof—that had twin-camshafts, thus meaning the car had three camshafts including the one in the engine block, and generated a reported 140 horsepower. The bodywork was constructed from French supplied aluminium—sourced by Dietrich—in a “pontoon” style of what later would become known as the Veritas RS.

While German-produced cars could not compete in French racing, the Grossmutter had been built in French-controlled Germany with French funding and materials. Eugène Chaboud visited Loof’s workshops in June 1947 and was impressed by the Grossmutter after testing. Loof offered him a Works drive, believing it would please the French authorities to see a French driver behind the wheel of his creation. However, when Chaboud arrived with the car at the second Alsace Grand Prix in Strasbourg, the French race director realised crowds could not be fooled, and after a few laps they were ordered to remove the Grossmutter and were escorted off the circuit by military police. Chaboud continued the remainder of the race with his Delahaye 135 S.

Tucked away as a Veritas test car following the Alsace Grand Prix, Georg Meier would begin to race this Veritas for the 1948 German Formula 2 season. Chaboud returned to Reims that year and finished 2nd in a Formula 2 race at the French Circuit. The car was entered under the name of M.E.T.E.O.R., a French-based company that masked its identity as a German vehicle. Meier ended up driver winning the German Formula 2 Championship in 1948, having scored a total of five races.

For 1949, Meier continued to race the Grossmutter, but he was slower than Karl Kling and not happy with the car. Loof had discussions with racer Toni Ulmen and following Meier’s last race as a factory driver in Nürnberg, Ulmen acquired the car. Ulmen recounted in a 1975 interview that he first had Loof modify his personal BMW 328 to be a Veritas RS, and that in 1949 he struck a deal with Ernst Loof and acquired the Grossmutter in exchange for a lathe.

First racing at the Eifelrennen Nürburgring and the first Riemer Flugplatzrennen with the Grossmutter, Ulmen went on to place 2nd in the 1949 German 2-Litre Sports Car Championship. He raced seven times that season, winning twice and coming 2nd on three occasions.

In his interview Ulmen mentioned that for 1950 he felt a single-seater monoposto would be more effective than the “pontoon”-style body. A design of his own, it reduced the weight by 50 kilograms and he commissioned Karosseriewerke Joseph Hebmüller Söhne to fabricate this new body. Photos of the work from Ulmen can be viewed on file. Running in seven known German Formula 2 races, Ulmen scored 13 points and became the German Formula 2 Champion in 1950.

For the 1951 season, Ulmen opted for further body modifications, and transformed the Grossmutter into a two-seater open-wheel race car (as the car is configured today). This year, Ulmen would race the Grossmutter, but also his Veritas RS in the German 2.0-Litre Sportscar Championship, which he became the Champion in 1951. He used the Grossmutter to compete in five events.

For 1952, sports car racing requirements changed and Ulmen had removable cycle wings fitted to the car, these were used in a handful of races. Following his crash in 1952 at the fourth Sachsenringrennen in testing, he was thrown from the car and unhurt. Ulmen decided after the final race of the season to retire for good. He finished his career being 2nd in the German 2.0-Litre Sportscar Championship in 1952.

He sold the Grossmutter wreck to German team owner Hans Klenk, who rebuilt the car as per Ulmen’s two-seater open wheel configuration, and sold the it to his team driver Hans Herrmann. On file is a copy of a 1953 invoice from Klenk to Herrmann for preparation of the Grossmutter and delivery to the Nürburgring. Hermann raced the car twice, achieving a 4th-place finish at the IX Internationales AvD Avusrennen. Klenk reportedly sold this Veritas to a German dentist, which Ulmen recounted in his 1975 interview, where he said that this dentist still had the Grossmutter. A detailed race chart can be seen on file and it contains information for each of the 30 races the Grossmutter took part in.

In 1983, a Veritas enthusiast Gehard Ulmer discovered the Grossmutter in a German estate, likely the dentist who had bought the car some 30 years prior. Despite having no engine, Ulmer purchased this significant race car and began a restoration. Completed sometime in 1986, he took the car to a Veritas meet in 1987 outside the old flour mill in Hausen am Andelsbach, where Loof, Meier, and Lorenz had built the Grossmutter 40 years earlier.

Norbert Nowak was the next owner of the car, obtaining a FIVA passport in 1988. It is believed that following his acquisition of other Veritas, that Dieter Aumann then purchased the Grossmutter, carrying out some minor changes to the nose in the early 1990s. Mr Aumann spent over 20 years researching the history of the Grossmutter and the car is accompanied by an impressive history file detailing all his findings. There are numerous period photographs on file and interested parties are encouraged to view these fantastic images.

The Grossmutter is the first car that Veritas built, and it is highly likely that it is the first German-built race car constructed following World War II. It has an impressive race record, driven by some of German’s greatest drivers in the early post-war years and it helped to secure three German Championships in 1948, 1950, and 1951.

Presented today in restored condition, the Grossmutter is in its final body configuration as a two-seater open-wheel sports car which Toni Ulmen had designed for the 1951 season. For all collectors of post-war German race cars, the Veritas Grossmutter would the focal point of any collection and is highly eligible for a variety of historic racing events.