Recently, Agnes Adolff-Szederjei,  wife of 1950′s racer Kurt Adolff supplied, via one of WATN’s more helpful contributors, a number of articles and photos of her husband’s career. Kurt was, sadly, in ill-health at the time and the reason for creating this profile was mainly as a tribute to him. Kurt sadly passed away on the 24th January 2012.

Some of the articles have been posted – I have been careful to stipulate who they originally belonged to, but can remove them as necessary if required. The other photos belong to Mr Adolff’s private collection.

Thanks to Gergely Gabris for arranging this and for thinking of OldRacingCars.com regarding putting these photos online – it is our pleasure to honour Mr Adolff’s racing career in such a way. Gergely wrote a tribute to Mr Adolff, which follows below. Despite Mr. Adolff’s passing in 2012, I have kept the tribute unchanged as it captures the essence of the man. I am greatly thankful to Gergely for his time and efforts towards this page.

Feel free to contact myself with any queries or additional information.

Gergely Gabris’ tribute to Kurt E Adolff  (as of 2010, when this was written):

 

Kurt E. Adolff is one of the few people who are both lucky and privileged, by being born into an industrialist family with numerous textile production facilities. Due to his family background he had the opportunity to pursue any hobby he liked. He inherited excellent physical and mental aptitudes and was an outstanding in all sport he tried his hand on.

 

 

He is a natural risk taker, who is in his element where immediate actions are required. Fear is something motivating for him. He lived for the challenge and with his natural endurance, some say stubbornness, he always got and survived what he wanted. He was a paratrooper in the war, and had several adventures from which only some of his peers came back.

 

 

He had an offer from Mr. Neubauer, but he rejected it because of his business commitments and also because he has never liked to be an employee, he is very much his own man. He instead retired from racing to concentrate on his business, and having good connections abroad, later also worked as a consul of Chile.

 

 

He has always been very loyal to his friends, often doing the most extraordinary things to help them. He loved to be in the company of his good friends and he liked to practice his hobbies with them.

 

 

When Michael Schumacher signed for Ferrari, the interest in Mr. Adolff’s career also increased as he was the first German to drive a Ferrari in a Grand Prix. He visited many fan club meetings and was always happy to welcome visitors at his home.

 

 

He loves BMWs and had many of them over the years. Even though he had great mechanical skills as a younger man, because of his illness he wasn’t interested in modern technology in his older days. He didn’t fancy using a CD in his car and never used a computer. However he had no problem driving 1600 km in one go at the age of 80.

 

 

He was a very keen hunter and organized many wonderful hunting trips all over the world. He enjoyed the company of the experienced hunters in the hunting area he was in, as he did the company of the rich and famous of the high-society with whom he hunted with. Amongst his other friends were many of the big names in German-speaking sport.

 

 

In the past 30 years he has been travelling a lot with his Hungarian wife Ágnes Adolff-Szederjei. When they got tired of being on the road, they happily retired to their domicile in Achenkirch, Tyrol, close to the German border. Sadly Mr. Adolff’s health has deteriorated in the past year and he’s now living in a retirement home, where he is looked after very well, and he is still the same immaculately behaved and dressed gentleman as ever. Although he only recognises his wife, he is still happy about visitors and Formula 1 races.