Karl Otto Feuereissen (* 2. Juni 1897 in Teplitz, Tschechoslowakei; † 13. Juni 1955) war ein
(Team-manager 1935-1941)
And so the inevitable happened. While Dr. Porsche pushed the new racing car to perfection Auto Union appointed a new head of the racing department, Dr. rer.pol. Karl Feuereissen, on 1 September 1935, pushing Willy Walb a step down the hierarchy. Although Walb had been allowed to continue as technical director and race manager at the tracks, Feuereissen had already been promised the prize money as part of his contract - funds that in all honesty were still due to Walb. And so, on Christmas Eve, the board decided to transfer Walb to the Wanderer plant at Siegmar to oversee the development of the supercharged Wanderer W25K. Understandably, Walb became a deeply bitter man. His knowledge of supercharger development and the improvements he made to the Wanderer supercharger design were neither recognized nor acknowledged. Walb wouldn't have anything to do with the racing department for the rest of his life - and even went to court to claim unpaid wages. That was the end of it, and for the W25K as well, which had been thought as a worthy adversary to the BMW 328 but never outgrew its status as a boulevard roadster due its poor handling and lack of performance.
And so Walb's competence trickled away, a human tragedy within the walls of the Auto Union concern. What was Feuereissen capable of that Walb could not do? Perhaps it was his better representation of the company. Feuereissen was a former member of the ADAC sports department (the ADAC is the German automobile club) and for 1935 he was formally appointed as a consultant and organizer of races and other sporting events while in fact he acted as Walb's successor, as Walb had difficulty in shedding his test driver skin. Walb was not to