After a year away at Hockenheim, the German Grand Prix returned to the Nürburgring where the track had been resurfaced, additional run-off area had been created, and barriers and catch-fencing had been installed.

Missing from the regular grid was Jean-Pierre Beltoise who had been a further period of license suspension which resulted from the accident in Buenos Aires in January which had claimed the life of Ignazio Giunti. He was not replaced. Vic Elford reappeared as the wheel of a BRM (replacing Pedro Rodríguez, who had been killed a few weeks earlier in a sportscar accident). Ferrari was back up the three cars again with Mario Andretti not having any USAC commitments that weekend.

Qualifying resulted in Jackie Stewart taking pole position for Tyrrell with Jacky Ickx alongside side him on the front row in his Ferrari. Jo Siffert (BRM) and Clay Regazzoni (Ferrari) were on row two with François Cévert (Tyrrell) and Denny Hulme (McLaren) on row three. The top 10 was completed by Ronnie Peterson (March), Emerson Fittipaldi (Lotus), Tim Schenken (Brabham) and Henri Pescarolo (Frank Williams March).

One man who failed to qualify was F1 new boy Helmut Marko from Austria who was running in Jo Bonnier's old McLaren. He fell out with the team when the car ran out of fuel on the first lap out of the pits.

There was a huge crowd for the race on Sunday and as Graham Hill (Brabham) and Reine Wisell (Lotus) both hand problems before the start only 20 cars lined up on the grid. Ickx took the lead from Stewart but the Tyrrell was soon back ahead again and pulling away from the rest with Ickx being chased by Regazzoni, Hulme, Siffert, Peterson and Cévert. On the second lap Ickx spun off at the Wippermann corner and Regazzoni went off as he tried to avoid his team mate. This left Stewart with a big lead over Siffert (who had overtaken Hulme). Regazzoni rejoined in third and Peterson (who had also overtaken Hulme) was fourth. The McLaren driver soon fell behind Andretti and Cévert, and the Tyrrell driver soon passed the Ferrari so was up to fifth. In the laps that followed Cévert was the man to watch as he overtook Peterson, Siffert (who soon dropped behind Regazzoni) and then Regazzoni himself. Thereafter the order remained stable at the front with a Tyrrell 1-2 the result. Regazzoni was third with Andretti catching and passing Peterson for fourth.