Monckmeier was born in Stolzenau, Germany[2] and emigrated to the United States in 1901, where he had an uncle in Brooklyn, New York;[3] within a year at age 14, he found work at the American Mercedes factory in Queens.
[4] In 1910, he appears as an entrant in the Wisconsin State Association Reliability Tour's Milwaukee Sentinel Trophy, driving a Staver entered by the Stephenson Motor Car Company.
[10] Ned Crane didn't make it back for the 1911 season, killed while testing a Buick in April, but Monckmeier continued to win efficiency contests, hillclimbs and endurance events, soon joined by driver Emery T. Knudsen.
[20] After his career with Staver finished, Monckmeier settled in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he began marketing a "Universal Piston Inserter" of his own design.
While most of his inventions were for automotive applications, he also registered a US 2259390 "Portable collapsible clothes drier" and US 2632629 "Pawl actuated cable lift" in common use today.
[24] In 1961, he recreated the 1911 Around Lake Michigan run with reporter Hal Foust, detailed in a four-part series of articles in The Chicago Daily Tribune.