Thirteen Flowers: The Story of Bernd and Elly Rosemeyer
Until she passed away last year, and for the past 69 years, Elly Beinhorn made sure that thirteen flowers were placed every January 28th on the grave of her husband, Bernd Rosemeyer, in Berlin's Walfried Dahlem cemetery. Why January 28th? Why thirteen flowers? Thomas O'Keefe tells the remarkable story of Bernd and Elly Rosemeyer
They are both gone now, the uber-couple of the Golden Age of Grand Prix racing: Elly, the dashing, tomboyish aviatrix, who flew solo flights around the world at the tender age of twenty four; and Bernd, the handsome young racing driver who mastered the magnificent rear-engined V16 Auto Union in the high summers of the 1930s when the Silver Arrows of Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union raced across the earth.
A lucky couple who seemingly had everything, they nonetheless bucked the odds and adopted the unlucky number 13 as their talisman since so many good things - for example, some of Bernd's most important race victories and their marriage - seemed to take place on the 13th day of the month or on multiples of 13.
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