Bremgarten was built in 1931 as a motorcycle racing track, threading through a dense mixed forest. Unlike most circuits of its era, it had no true main straight; instead it was a near-continuous sequence of high-speed corners. The road surface changed character across different sections, varying between asphalt and other materials, and the forest canopy created inconsistent lighting — bright sections alternating with deep shade. These conditions were made acutely more hazardous in wet weather, when standing water and slippery leaf-strewn surfaces could appear without warning. From its earliest events, Bremgarten was acknowledged by drivers and officials alike as exceptionally dangerous.
The Grand Prix of Bern was held at Bremgarten from 1931 to 1937 and again in 1947 and 1948. Irish motorcyclist Stanley Woods won the inaugural 500cc event on a Norton in August 1931 and went on to win three more races at the circuit: the 350cc and 500cc events in 1932 and the 500cc in 1933. Jimmie Guthrie took both the 350cc and 500cc events in 1937. Bremgarten formed part of the inaugural Grand Prix Motorcycle World Championship in 1949 and returned annually from 1951 to 1954. Italian racer Omobono Tenni was killed at the circuit during practice for the 1948 event.
The circuit hosted its first automobile race in 1934, which claimed the life of British driver Hugh Hamilton. The Swiss Grand Prix for cars ran at Bremgarten from 1933 onward, later incorporating Formula One World Championship rounds from 1950 to 1954. Additional non-championship events — Bern Grands Prix for Voiturette, Formula Two, and sports cars — were also held at the venue.
In 1948, Italian racing legend Achille Varzi was killed at Bremgarten in a practice accident for the Swiss Grand Prix. Varzi, a former Grand Prix winner and one of the great pre-war drivers, had returned to racing after the Second World War; his death was among the most high-profile accidents at the circuit.
In response to the June 1955 Le Mans disaster, in which more than 80 spectators were killed when debris from a racing accident struck the crowd, Switzerland enacted a law prohibiting motor racing for position — events involving passing and the attendant risk of contact or crash — with exceptions for hillclimbing and rallying conducted as individual timed runs. The August 1955 Swiss Grand Prix, scheduled for Bremgarten, was cancelled before it could take place. The circuit has not hosted an official motorsport event since its final races in 1954.
Attempts to lift the ban were made over subsequent decades. A 2007 amendment passed the lower house of the Swiss parliament by 97 votes to 77 but failed in the upper house and was withdrawn in 2009. The prohibition on circuit racing remains in force for combustion-engine vehicles; it was lifted for electric cars, allowing the 2018 Zurich ePrix to become Switzerland's first international motor race in 64 years.
The fastest laps set at Bremgarten's final Formula One season in 1954 were still several seconds slower than what cars of the period were achieving at the Nurburgring, a comparison that underlines how physically taxing and technically constraining the forest circuit's flowing layout was even for the most advanced machinery of the era.
Most of the circuit's road surface has been repurposed or built over. The northwestern section — including the right-hand Eymatt and Tenni curves — and some stretches within the forest survive, though many forest portions were reduced to bicycle paths without documentation or preservation effort. No racing has been conducted on any part of the circuit since 1954.
Bremgarten occupies a distinctive position in motorsport history as a circuit that was never retired due to declining relevance but was instead ended by legislation. Its combination of extreme speed, unpredictable surface, poor visibility in the forest, and a record of fatal accidents made it emblematic of the hazards that eventually drove safety reform throughout international motorsport. The ban it fell under also ended Switzerland's role as a Formula One host nation for more than half a century.