The first two Großer Preis von Deutschland races were held at Berlin's AVUS circuit before the series moved to the newly built Nürburgring, used in its full 28 km configuration. A gap followed in 1932, and in 1933 the AVUS was given another attempt before public roads near and through Hohenstein-Ernstthal in Saxony became the preferred location from 1934. The name Sachsenring for those roads was adopted in 1937.
After World War II and the founding of two German states in 1949, neither German circuits nor German riders could immediately participate in the newly formed FIM World Championship due to post-war bans. As the West German motorcycle industry recovered — led by manufacturers including NSU and DKW — a new western venue was needed, since the Sachsenring now lay within the German Democratic Republic. Various circuits served the West German GP across subsequent decades, including the Solitudering near Stuttgart, the Schottenring near Fulda, and the Hockenheimring. In odd-numbered years Hockenheim alternated with the Solitude circuit until the Solitude was abandoned in the mid-1960s, after which Hockenheim shared duties with the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
The GDR separately hosted the Grand Prix of the German Democratic Republic on the Sachsenring from 1961 to 1972 as part of the World Championship, referred to informally as the East German GP. After West German rider Dieter Braun won the race in 1971 and the crowd sang the West German national anthem, East German authorities curtailed the event's international status to prevent further such demonstrations, and the race lost its World Championship status after 1972.
In 1974 at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, championship contenders boycotted the race because the track had not been fitted with sufficient safety barriers. The conflict centred on an inherent tension between car racing's preference for armco and catch fences and motorcycle racing's requirement for unobstructed run-off backed by straw bales. With leading riders absent, German amateur riders took all class wins, and Edmund Czihak's victory in the 500cc class remains the only time a German rider has won the premier class race in either the 500cc or MotoGP era.
Following German reunification the German GP went through a period of declining popularity under promoters at Hockenheim and then the Nürburgring. In 1998 the race transferred to new promoters and to a shortened, purpose-built version of the Sachsenring — the same geographical area that had hosted East German racing decades earlier — and rapidly became a sell-out fixture, cementing its reputation as one of the most atmospherically intense stops on the calendar. The 2020 race was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Spectator attendance reached 256,441 in 2025.
The German Motorcycle Grand Prix's longevity and the diversity of circuits it has traversed — from Berlin's AVUS to the full Nürburgring Nordschleife to the compact Sachsenring — make it a living record of German motorsport history. Its current home at the Sachsenring has produced some of the championship's most memorable moments and remains among the most anticipated dates on the MotoGP calendar.