The Country Of Germany – Medals Winners

Germany has long been one of the true motocross countries and while they only have three male riders who have taken gold in the Motocross World Championships, they have a long list of riders, who have shown amazing results in Grand Prix Motocross.

The German women have also shown amazing talent, with Stephanie Laier being a four-time world champion, while many German men and women collected medals in championships throughout the years.

It was back in 1957 when Fritz Betzelbacher took Germany’s first major title, when he was crowned the 250cc European champion. The 250 class had not yet been given world status, but many people feel those early European championship should maybe be seen as world champions. Second in that same championship in 1957, was Willi Oesterle and a year later, Rolf Muller finished third in the 250cc European series.

While the Swedes, Belgium and British were dominating the world motocross championships, the German riders were learning and in 1965 Paul Friedrichs finished second in the 500cc world title behind British rider, Jeff Smith, scoring German’s first world title medal.

Friedrichs quickly became a dominant force, winning the 500cc world championship in 1966 and backed it up with championships in 1967 and 1968. He also finished third in 1969 and second in 1972 and until this day is the most successful German in the history of Grand Prix motocross.

Many German riders started appearing on the World Championship medal tally, with Adolf Weil scoring third in the 1971 500cc championship, second in the 1973 250cc championship, again third in the 1974 500cc championship and finally third in the 1976 500cc championship. Willy Bauer joined Weil in the medals with second in the 1973 500cc championship and third in the 1975 250cc championship.

Hans Maisch finished third in the 1978 250cc championship and suddenly, German riders scoring top three medals in Grand Prix motocross stopped and it wasn’t until 1997 when Pit Beirer finished third in the 250cc world championship. Beirer became a regular medal winning, again finishing third in the 250cc class in 1998, second in 1999, third in 2000, and third in 2002. All these results came in the 250cc class.

Female rider Stephanie Laier won the women’s world title in 2005, was second in 2006 and 2008, before winning again in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Maria Franke also finished third in 2007 and 2008. Larissa Papenmeier finished second in 2009 and third in 2010, 2011, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022.

Finally, after more than 35 years, Ken Roczen scored a world title in the MX2 class in 2011, having finished second the previous year. While Max Nagl finished second in the MX1 championship in 2009 and third in 2016 in MXGP.

Today, Germany is back on top of the MX2 World Championship whith Simon Längenfelder clinching the title in 2025 and is actually the MX2 Championship red plate holder before the 2026 Liqui Moly MXGP of Germany.