Clärenore Stinnes

Adler Standard 6, the model which Stinnes drove on her journey.

Clara Eleonore Stinnes (known as Clärenore; 21 January 1901 – 7 September 1990) was a German car racer; she and Swedish cinematographer Carl-Axel Söderström were the first people to circumnavigate the world by automobile.

Stinnes was born in Mülheim to the German industrialist and politician Hugo Stinnes. At the age of 24 she participated in her first motor race; by 1927 she had won 17 races and was one of the most successful race car drivers in Europe. On 25 May 1927 Stinnes started to journey around the world, together with Carl-Axel Söderström, whom she had met only two days before her departure, in a mass production Adler Standard 6 automobile and escorted by two mechanics and a freight vehicle with spare parts and equipment. The journey was sponsored by the German automotive industry (Adler, Bosch and Aral) with 100,000 Reichsmark.[1]

They passed through the Balkans via Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Tehran to Moscow, where the two mechanics left, then they travelled to Siberia, crossed the frozen Lake Baikal and the Gobi desert and came to Peking. They travelled by ferry to Japan, later to Hawaii and South America. They transited Middle and South America, travelled the Cordillera as far as Buenos Aires, and then continued to Vancouver and New York. In Washington, D.C. Stinnes and Söderström were welcomed by President Herbert Hoover. They travelled by ferry to Le Havre and arrived with their car in Berlin on 24 June 1929, after a journey of 47,000 km (29,000 mi) by car.[2]

After their happy return Carl-Axel Söderström was divorced; Söderström and Stinnes married and lived on an estate in Sweden, where they raised three children of their own and several foster children. In later years they spent some time of the year in Irmenach. Söderström died in 1976, aged 83, while Stinnes survived her husband by 14 years.

References

  1. ↑ Welt Online: Vor 80 Jahren um die Welt
  2. ↑ Winter, Michael (2001). Pferdestärken. Die Lebensliebe der Clärenore Stinnes. ISBN 3-499-23536-6.

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