After Jo Siffert's unexpected victory for Rob Walker at Brands Hatch, the F1 teams headed off to the Nürburgring and more bad weather, the previous four races having all been affected by rain. The field was much as normal with the only major additions being Kurt Ahrens, driving a third Brabham and Hubert Hahne entered in a BMW-entered Lola-BMW Formula 2 car, the Munich manufacturer having a look at the state of competitiveness in F1.

It rained throughout practice and Jacky Ickx took pole position in his Ferrari by a full 10 seconds with Chris Amon (Ferrari) second and Jochen Rindt third in his Brabham. Graham Hill was on the second row in his Lotus, alongside the Cooper-BRM of Vic Elford. The third row featured Jackie Stewart's Matra-Ford, John Surtees in the Honda and Piers Courage in a Reg Parnell Racing BRM.

At the start of the race - in pouring rain - Hill took the lead from Amon, Rindt and Stewart. In the course of the first lap, however, Stewart moved to the front and built a nine second lead, using his Dunlop wet tyres to maximum effect. By the end of the second lap his lead was out to 34 seconds and after 14 laps he was over four minutes ahead of second-placed Graham Hill, who spun at one point but was able to get out of the car, push it back into the right direction and get it restarted before Rindt arrived, third-placed Amon having spun off earlier on the same lap. Hill managed to keep Rindt behind him third, while fourth place fell to Ickx.

It was Stewart's greatest Grand Prix victory.