The German Grand Prix had moved from the Nurburgring to the Automobil Verkehrs und Ubungs-Strasse (AVUS) facility in Berlin. This was little more than a piece of motorway with banked loops at either end but it had been in operation since the 1920s, although the partition of Berlin had meant that a new south loop had to be built and this was not banked.

Because of fears that there would be tire problems it was decided to run the race in two heats. Ferrari was back in action after missing the British GP but Jean Behra was gone and the team was running Tony Brooks, Phil Hill, Dan Gurney and Cliff Allison. Behra appeared in a Formula 2 Porsche. Cooper had its usual crew of Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren and Masten Gregory with private entries from Rob Walker for Maurice Trintignant and Stirling Moss. BRM ran Harry Schell, Jo Bonnier and local hero Hans Herrmann while Lotus fielded Graham Hill and Innes Ireland as usual.

Saturday was overshadowed by Behra's death in a supporting sportscar race, the little Frenchman spinning his Porsche RSK in damp conditions and being thrown from the car into a flag pole. He died instantly.

Formula 1 qualifying resulted in pole position for Brooks with Moss, Gurney and Brabham with Gurney alongside on the 4-3-4 grid. Behind them on row two were Gregory, Phil Hill and Bonnier . Brooks took the lead in the first heat while Moss was quickly out with transmission trouble. Gregory led briefly but then Brooks was ahead again but he had to battle with Gurney and Gregory, although the latter would retire with five laps to go with an engine failure, which promoted Hill to third and McLaren fourth.

The second heat featured a grid made up of the finishing positions of heat one and at the start McLaren took the lead but he was quickly overtaken by P Hill, Bonnier, Brooks and Gurney. Brooks quickly got to the front and Bonnier dropped back to give Ferrari a 1-2-3. Herrman suffered a brake failure on his BRM and went off at high speed in the South Turn. The car hit hay bales and was launched into a series of somersaults and Herrman was thrown out but escaped serious injury.

When the aggregate times were worked out it was a Ferrari 1-2-3 with Brooks ahead of Gurney and Hill.