Two weeks after the British Grand Prix the major players in the Formula 1 World Championship were back together again at the Nürburgring for the fifth round of the series and finally the Maserati factory team appeared in the World Championship with one of its new cars for Felice Bonetto. Escuderia Bandierantes ran two others for Gino Bianco and Heitel Cantoni. Jean Behra was back in action for Gordini, having recovered from his shoulder injury at Les Sables d'Olonnes. HWM ran three cars for Peter Collins, Paul Frère and Johnny Claes, while a fourth car appeared for privateer Tony Gaze. The field was bolstered by various private Ferraris, Bill Aston's Aston-Butterworth and a mixture of Veritas, AFM and BMW Specials which were raced regularly in German events.

There were no surprises in qualifying with Ferrari drivers Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Farina fastest and Gordini's Maurice Trintigant and Jean Behra their closest challengers. Piero Taruffi's third Ferrari shared the second row with Rudolf Fischer's Ecurie Espadon Ferrari and Paul Pietsch's Veritas-Meteor. Behra was rather off the pace behind Hans Klenk's Veritas-Meteor, Willy Heeks's AFM and Bonetto's Maserati.

Bonetto spun on the first lap - and was later disqualified for receiving outside assistance. Ascari took the lead from Farina and Taruffi worked his way to third after a battle with Manzon. Ascari suffered an oil leak and pitted a move which allowed Farina into the lead but Ascari was soon ahead again. His victory and fastest lap gave him the World Championship which was decided on the four best results. A win was worth eight points and fastest lap gained an extra point so the maximum a driver could score was 36 points and Ascari's win reached that total.

Behind him Taruffi ran into trouble with a broken suspension on the final lap but he was still able to finish fourth behind Fischer. Manzon had disappeared when a wheel feel off his Gordini and so Behra was fifth.