Bonn museum exhibition Rare cars on show at Bonn’s Haus der Geschichte

Bonn · Germans love their cars and the Haus der Geschichte currently has a special exhibition of rare cars entitled “Loved. Needed. Hated.”

Germans have a very special relationship with their cars. The vehicles are symbols of freedom, dreams, lifestyle and power. They have long been an indispensable means of transport and are also often a luxury good. The Haus der Geschichte has dedicated an entire exhibition to the topic, entitled “Loved. Needed. Hated,” and it has already had more than 130,000 visitors. Last Sunday, the museum teamed up with the Dresden Transport Museum to show several Oldtimers, which are rarely on show.

Just in front of the entrance, a Hillman Minx catches the eye. It is the only car in the exhibition that was not made in Germany. “You could get this in East Germany, but only with a ration coupon,” explains Joachim Brenninger, director of the Transport Museum. He and Professor Hans Walter Hütter, President of the Haus der Geschichte Foundation, were giving lively short presentations and he had something to say about every vehicle. “They tried to use it to keep certain people in the east, but it didn’t really work. We were able to find this example and we take part in the Saxony rally in it every year.”

Cars with character

However, in terms of German history, other exhibits are much more interesting. The Zündapp-Janus has doors that open to the front and back and has rear seats facing away from the direction of travel. The superb Opel Kapitän is a true luxury vehicle with baroque shapes. “At that time, Opel had a completely different reputation than later in the times of the Manta,” said Brenninger.

Other cars were merely functional, such as the modest Lloyd 400, which Hütter found in a barn in Westerwald. “It looked exactly as it does today in the exhibition,” he said. “The owner only used it to drive to church each Sunday and then only if the sun was shining. If it was raining, he preferred to take his bike.”

Such anecdotes give the vehicles character. “We are always looking for exhibits that can tell a story,” says Hütter, such as the “Kempe” motor scooter from 1949, that a blacksmith designed himself after the war and built from scrap parts. Or the Mercedes Benz 300, which was Konrad Adenauer’s first official car. It had an adventurous journey to get here: “We found it in Memphis, Tennessee,” says Hütter. “The owner got it sometime in exchange for diamonds. We were in negotiations with him for more than two years until Mercedes finally offered him a brand new Mercedes 300E in exchange and we funded a European trip for him and his wife.”

These sorts of stories make history come alive. They also bridge the time between now and the middle of December, during which the roof of the museum is being repaired and so the permanent exhibition is closed.

(Original text: Thomas Kölsch. Translated by Kate Carey)

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