The race was inseparable from the Circuit Bremgarten, a 7.280-kilometre course built through the Bremgartenwald forest north of Bern in 1931. Originally constructed as a motorcycle track, the circuit comprised public roads threading between dense trees, with no meaningful straight and a succession of high-speed corners. Its character was defined by the forest canopy: even after rain stopped falling, water dripped from the trees onto the tarmac for an hour or more, keeping the surface treacherously wet long after conditions appeared to have improved. The combination of poor light filtering through the tree cover, variable grip, and unforgiving tree-lined walls made Bremgarten one of the most demanding and dangerous circuits in European motor racing.
The first Grand Prix of Bern was held in 1931 as a motorcycle event. The Irish rider Stanley Woods, competing on a Norton, won the 500cc event at that inaugural meeting and returned to claim further victories — the 350cc and 500cc races in 1932 and the 500cc race again in 1933, all on a Norton. Jimmie Guthrie took the 350cc and 500cc races in 1937. The Bremgarten circuit subsequently became one of the original venues in the Grand Prix Motorcycle World Championship when it was inaugurated in 1949, hosting Swiss rounds again from 1951 to 1954. Riders who raced there included Freddie Frith and Geoff Duke. Italian motorcycle racer Omobono Tenni was killed at Bremgarten during practice for the 1948 event.
The first automobile race at Bremgarten was held in 1934, the same year the circuit graduated to hosting the Swiss Grand Prix. The Bern Grand Prix ran as an additional event at the circuit in years when separate non-championship races were scheduled, including the 1939 Bern Grand Prix and the 1952 Bern Grand Prix, the latter running as a Formula Two or sportscar event alongside the main Formula One calendar. These additional Bern Grands Prix served as important supporting fixtures in the European racing calendar, drawing entries from the leading constructors and drivers of the period.
The 1934 Swiss Grand Prix — the circuit's inaugural automobile race — claimed the life of British driver Hugh Hamilton when the left front wheel of his Maserati broke at the fast Wohlenstrasse corner, sending the car into a tree. The accident set a sombre precedent for the circuit's history. In 1948 the circuit claimed the life of Achille Varzi, the veteran Italian pre-war champion, during a rain-soaked practice session for what was that year designated the European Grand Prix.
Motor racing at Bremgarten came to an abrupt end in 1955 following the Le Mans disaster of that June, in which more than 80 spectators were killed. The Swiss government responded by banning circuit motor racing within the country, and the scheduled 1955 Swiss Grand Prix was cancelled. Bremgarten hosted no further events after the 1954 Swiss Grand Prix. The ban remained in force for decades: a 1975 Swiss Grand Prix and a 1982 Swiss Grand Prix were held at the Dijon-Prenois circuit across the border in France, organised by the Swiss Automobile Club on French soil to circumvent the domestic prohibition. A 2007 attempt to lift the ban through the Swiss parliament failed when the upper house rejected the legislation twice. The ban was eventually lifted, though by that time the circuit itself had largely been dismantled, paved over, or converted to bicycle paths, with only the northwestern curves through the forest surviving in approximately their original form.
Circuit Bremgarten and the races held there occupy a prominent place in European motor racing history. The combination of extreme natural beauty and genuine danger gave the venue a mystique shared only by tracks such as the Nürburgring and the original Spa-Francorchamps. Lap records set by the Silver Arrows — the dominant German cars of the late 1930s — were never bettered in Formula One competition, as the circuit's closure came before the cars of the mid-1950s had the opportunity to surpass the pre-war times. The Grand Prix de Berne, in its various motorcycle and automobile incarnations, formed an important chapter in the story of a circuit that remains legendary in motorsport memory despite its premature end.