For the favor of the gods,
not the Third Reich. (UPDATE IV: one more in Australia...)

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Tomorrow's sale of the McMullen collection features a 1910 KRIT, like the one shown here. It isn’t a very special kind of car, but what makes it special is the use of swastikas, as well on the radiator as on the door trim. Nowadays we associate the swastika as the controversial symbol of Nazism, but the use of the swastika - in a very different meaning - dates back to pre-historic times. It was used in religious ceremonies of many western and eastern civilizations, for instance the Hindu culture (Hindubooks.org). Because it was also known as an American Indian good luck sign, the KRIT Motor Car Company used it as a motive, some twenty years before the Nazi’s did. When the KRIT company was founded in 1909 they said the symbol was to “ensure the favor of the auspicious gods”. It didn’t really help them, because they were constantly in financial trouble and in 1915 the company went out of business. Apart from this Dutch KRIT and the one in the McMullen Collection there can’t be many more KRIT’s around, can there? [email protected]
UPDATE IV by Barry Stalker, Australia:"There's a well known and well photographed veteran Krit here in Australia."
UPDATE III by Lars-Göran Lindgren (Swedish Brass Cars)"According to my notes, there is at least 2 KRIT cars in Sweden to day. A musuem on the island Gotland (Swedish biggest island) shows a restored 1909 Roadster. A later car, maybe from 1914, is currently under restoration."
UPDATE II by Tim Martin who spotted a surviving 1913 KRIT 5 person Tourer.
UPDATE I by Wiggo Karlsen who has seen a bright yellow 1912 Torpedo Roadster for sale in the US just a few months ago. He lost track of the car and wonders if anybody knows where it did go.

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