Mercedes-Benz L312 "MELISANA", 1956
AutoCult 11002
Klosterfrau Melissengeist 'Promotion Truck
Grundig had at least one, as did Graetz and Kienzle. Neckermann and Miele owned several, and even NSU two-wheelers crossed the economic wonderland behind “rolling shop windows”. Almost every more or less important producer of consumer goods in post-war Germany relied on chrome-laden advertising semitrailers, behind whose generously glazed vehicle sides the appetizing symbols of increasing prosperity sought to satisfy the consumer thirst of the German citizens.
The attractive exterior design of the mobile boutiques was continued in the interior. Lushly draped with walnut veneer and formica, the rolling salesrooms offered just the right ambience to convince potential customers of the need for the magical eye in a Graetz “Fidelio”. In times when specialist retailers and hypermarkets had not yet penetrated every corner of the republic, the advertising cars opened up completely new groups of buyers.
The vast majority of these special vehicles were built at Käsbohrer in Ulm, the leading manufacturer of commercial vehicle bodies in Germany. Since the Käsbohrer bodies designed for chassis from different manufacturers were built in series with a large number of identical parts, their creativity inevitably fell by the wayside. Although they are quite handsome, they were only able to compete with the casual lines of corresponding individual pieces from smaller bodyworks in exceptional cases.
One of the most attractive and typical of the time advertising vehicles was built in 1956 at Buhne in Berlin's Kaiserin-Augusta-Allee. It must have been at the beginning of the year when a bottle of champagne smashed against the prominent bow of a semitrailer in the delivery hall, which the Cologne-based pharmaceutical manufacturer Klosterfrau had commissioned from the renowned bodywork forge. The star on the radiator grille indicated that a Mercedes was hidden under the truck's sweeping body shape. But that it was a hooded vehicle of the type L 312, which had been produced many tens of thousands of times, and whose chassis had clad the Buhne in a highly imaginative way, could only be guessed at.
Mercedes-Benz trucks as a mobile shop window
The four-and-a-half-tonne truck with a 3.60 meter wheelbase was originally ordered by Klosterfrau as a repair vehicle for the around 9,000 exterior banners and neon signs at the time. For this purpose, he was to receive a box body with an integrated driver's cab. Why these plans were never put into practice and the L 312 instead turned into the excitingly designed train vehicle of a mobile shop window will probably never be clarified, on the other hand, it is known that the Buhne-Spengler tailor-made a coupé-like dress with rear-hinged doors that was strongly attached reminded contemporary passenger cars of the same body.
The exhibition room with its airplane-like pulpit at the front end was created as a filigree tubular frame construction covered with aluminum sheets. It was built on a single-axle semi-trailer, the axle of which was designed to be steerable for reasons of better maneuverability.
In the first few years of its commissioning, the Klosterfrau train toured across the whole of Germany. On the long sides of the trailer, there were two wide display cases in which the various Klosterfrau products and their history were presented in an effective way. Interested people reached the interior, which was equipped with shelves and sales counters, by means of a covered folding staircase at the rear of the vehicle. Every three months, the advertising related to redecorating the shop windows returned to Cologne. When the large number of rolling shop windows in this country was drawing to a close, those responsible at Klosterfrau decided to have their eye-catching showpiece advertised in Spain from now on.
"Melisana" - Melissa spirit for abroad
When advertising broke south for the first time in 1963, it advertised “Melisana”, as the coveted spirit of lemon balm was called outside of the German-speaking world. The original Cologne license plate as well as the lettering “Colonie (Alemania)” on the doors of the towing vehicle left the Spaniards in no doubt about the origin of the unusual mobile.
Between 1963 and 1965, the groynes proclaimed the beneficial effects of the lemon balm spirit between the Pyrenees and the Strait of Gibraltar on behalf of the three nuns. Always accompanied by at least one of the numerous Seat 600 of the Spanish toilet woman branch. The convoy stopped in almost every major city and introduced interested Spaniards to the history and production process of the lemon balm spirit preparation. Even after dark, the advertising was still able to attract the public: Illuminated like a luxury steamer and equipped with backlit glass banners, it became the night focus of numerous small towns on the Iberian Peninsula. In the autumn of each year, the truck returned to the Rhine for technical overhaul and redecorating.
The Mercedes semitrailer has disappeared
Although he still presented himself in a decent condition after almost ten years of service, Klosterfrau finally ended his advertising agency's involvement in Spain in autumn 1965. After that, the unique Mercedes semitrailer was noticeably forgotten, and nobody just decorated their shop windows. Sometime in the second half of the sixties, the trace of K-DA 221 was finally lost in the thicket of the rapidly growing fleet of the Klosterfrau company. As with the vast majority of his recruiting colleagues, the body of the exciting groyne train is likely to have found an inglorious end in a dark corner of some muddy junkyard.
