A German backyard beauty…

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Why people like us love prewar cars so much is difficult to explain. Either, one shares the passion – then no further reasoning is needed – or one doesn’t – then any effort to “convert” the poor wretch to the “true belief” is futile. But can someone really ignore the attraction of prewar cars, if he is confronted with a contemporary picture like the one from my collection that I’d like to share with you today?

It’s an original print from the late 1930s which has survived in excellent condition and is the pure delight in my opinion, even if the car was definitively not in the focus of the person shooting the photo. I am aware that the lovely young woman with her “Marlene Dietrich looks” clearly outshines the car on which she is posing like a professional model somewhere in a backyard. Still, the car deserves some attention, too.

It’s one of the most attractive medium-class automobiles available in Europe in the late 1930s – a Fiat 1100 which was presented in 1937 as Fiat 508C “Balilla 1100”. The Fiat 1100 was a well-designed and robust car whose 32 h.p. ohv-engine continued to be produced for a very long time after WW2 and also provided an excellent basis for sports-cars. Thanks to independent front suspension, hydraulic brakes, a maximum speed of 105 km/h and moderate fuel consumption it sold very well. Quite a number of these beautiful cars with the tastefully streamlined body were produced in the former NSU factory in Heilbronn (Southern Germany). It’s very much likely that the Fiat in the picture was one of them. Its license plate – the “IK” combination, to be precise - tells us that the car was registered in the German province of Silesia (today a part of Poland).

Soon after the picture was taken, the Nazi rulers in Germany decided to start a war against their neighbouring countries which brought immense suffering to the peoples of Europe and resulted in the ultimate defeat of Germany. Millions lost their lives or homes in the process including our young lady who at least managed to save her photo album when she had to flee from Silesia in early 1945, as the victorious Red army advanced.

The nice Fiat 1100 was probably requisitioned by the German “Wehrmacht” during the war and was most likely destroyed at the eastern front or ended as a supplier of a stationary engine somewhere. Absurdly, this beautiful picture reminds us of the catastrophic events in the 1930s and 40s whose devastating consequences are still being felt today. Let’s hope today’s politicians and people in Europe have learned their lesson thoroughly…

However, I’d like to end on a positive note and take the second picture of our “backyard beauty” as a good omen promising a better future, even if the self-appointed advocates of political correctness – a new threat to our freedom, by the way - will probably disapprove...

Words by Michael Schlenger.

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