MBMC: Newsletter No. 12 - September - October 2020

A virtue out of necessity! The Wartburg-Mercedes 170 V (GDR, 1956)

Autocult is announcing its newest model “with the Star”. I did not write: ”its newest Mercedes-Benz model”, because it is not quite a Mercedes, but a mixture, a combination if you will of a Wartburg 311 of GDR production and a Mercedes-Benz 170V…but since Mercedes cars are identified by their chassis numbers, well, we are talking of a Wartburg-Mercedes, or of a Mercedes-Wartburg. Thank goodness, nobody had decided to call it a “Waredes” or a “Benzburg”, although I personally sort of like “Benzburg”. It has a nice ring to it!

That being said, I have heard from well-informed sources, that the release date of this model will be in a few weeks only, due to unforseen and unfortunate production-related circumstances…but take heart, go and pre-order your model at your hobby-dealer. This new model of a unique car is really quite interesting!

Survivors in a new guise

As the 'Iron Curtain' continued to be lowered after the end of the Second World War, and the last surviving vehicle relics of the 1930s gradually gave up their spirit in the still young GDR (aka East-Germany), the wave of uniformity mandated by the state system continued to sweep over the country. For the passenger cars, this meant that the two-stroke Wartburg 311, first produced in 1955, advanced to become the top model. Regardless of the political guidelines and state policy objectives, the last surviving Mercedes 170V were still in use. Owning one of those Mercedes models became an increasingly prestigious value as socialization progressed.

In the privately run workshop of the Schwarze family in Görlitz (Saxony), the idea of generating a new life for the 170 V in a new guise was born.

With a great deal of craftsmanship and the art of improvisation, the skilled sheet metal craftsmen fitted the front of a 170 V body into the body of the Wartburg 311. Great attention was paid to the exact integration of the distinctive Mercedes radiator, which had to be shortened for its new use.

Even today, the Schwarze employees have to be credited with the fact that they were very skillful in creating this mixture considering their limited resources.

The original 1.7 liter four-stroke engine from the Mercedes 170 V continued to operate under the hood. Here, too, a great deal of ingenuity may have been necessary to breathe new life into the Swabian engine, which was already old and had travelled many miles.

With its 38 hp at 3,200 rpm, the West German engine had the same power as the modern Wartburg drive, but the driver got his horsepower from four strokes and not only from two!

With a top speed of 110 km/h, the passenger car mixture corresponded to the driving values of that time. The privately manufactured conversion found mainly buyers in the Görlitz cab driver scene from 1956 onwards.

How many such conversions/creations the coachbuilder Schwarze ultimately made in his workshop is not exactly known. While some literature sources mention the number 20, others speak of 'at least three dozen'. The period of the private conversions reached right up to the threshold of the 1960s.

Here now a fitting article from the "Sächsische Zeitung", dated June 26th 2016:

By Ralph Scherman

Anyone who thinks that in the past only Zwickau (Trabant), Eisenach (Wartburg) and Dresden (Melkus) played a role in the development of passenger cars in the GDR is mistaken. There was an official fourth car manufacturing city in the German East after 1945, and that was Görlitz.

All right, what was built there cannot be compared to the big names in the industry. After all, only a small production run came to life here. But it is still recognized in all vehicle listings today. It goes back to complaining Görlitz cab drivers. Their pre-war models became increasingly dilapidated from 1950 onwards, and spare parts were in short supply. Rusting through car bodies made the cab drivers more and more often to tinkerers. Especially so in the workshop of Oskar Schwarze on Konsulstraße 18. The master coachbuilder was a gifted tinkerer and thought about how to help the cab cooperative, especially since they also always had problems with their cartrunks which were too small in their old cars.

Two observations gave Oskar Schwarze an ingenious idea: On the one hand, right next door, at Konsulstraße 19, in Richard Rauh's Mercerdes workshop, there were more and more chassis from decommissioned 170V types.

On the other hand, the Wartburg 311 was starting to come from Eisenach as a brand new vehicle, whose bodies were not yet needed as spare parts for accident vehicles. Schwarze added up both facts and developed the Mercedes-Wartburg. Based on a prototype-sample, the registration and official approval for series production was granted in 1956.

By 1960, 14 taxicabs had been built on Konsulstraße, mostly in gray or black, some with the once common black and white "belly band" on taxis. In addition, Meister Schwarze built a two-tone luxury sedan, a hatchback station wagon and even a convertible version. There was a simple reason why after 17 vehicles production was discontinued: the master craftsman had left Görlitz, probably because of the  required [read: “forced”] creation of a PGH (“Produktionsgenossenschaft des Handwerks” i.e a communist so-called “Production cooperative of craftsmen”), and moved to "the West".

On the other hand, the required parts were also slowly becoming scarce. The accessory parts plant in Meissen stopped production of Mercedes 170V spare parts in 1960. And, of course, [the Wartburg plant in] Eisenach saw the conversions with increasing discomfort. After all, parts of the brake system and the interior equipment were delivered from there as originals. For a cab, however, the original combination was ideal. Master Schwarze placed a Wartburg body extended by 25 centimeters at the front on top of the indestructible Mercedes 170V chassis, most of which having been built around 1938.

This was only possible with a great deal of craftsmanship, because everything had to fit properly and blend into each other. The very massive looking 16-inch wheels did not disturb very much, but they made the result appear stylistically quite balanced. Contrary to the original Wartburg, the Görlitz company built stick shifters and solved the problem of the required larger rear trunk space: In the case of the Mercedes Wartburg, the 46-liter gas tank was moved to the front area, so that a very generous trunk was available for the conditions of that time. The large tank was indeed necessary: In city traffic these taxicab vehicles consumed at that time around eleven liters per hundred kilometers.

In the years until about 1970, such vehicles were constantly seen in the streets of Görlitz. Many a policeman may have had a hard time – coming from the front he saw the Mercedes radiator grille,and when cars drove past, the typical Wartburg rear. The cars continued to drive as cabs parallel to the EMW 340 from Eisenach for a while and were then gradually replaced with new Wartburgs and vehicles of Soviet production. After that, all traces of the results of the Görlitz car manufacturing vanished.

From the cigarette-butt era (part 2): These Mercedes-Benz 300SL ashtrays (made of porcelain?), were also manufactured by the Novelli

 

From China, this very detailed and well-made 1:43 model by “unknown”,of a turntable ladder on Mercedes Actros chassis.

As far as known, the model is not available in stores. Nevertheless, it turned up on Ebay, for a price well over 200 €

It is said to be a promotional model of the Chinese State Fire Administration, which was, or is, given away to local fire brigades, probably to encourage them to buy modern fire-fighting equipment.

The plaque on the model likely gives some information about the purpose and the details of the vehicle. Also, a production quantity of 300 pieces is indicated.

Another 1:43 model by the same unknown Chinese modelmaker shows a water/foam tower, Type TWT44, manufactured by Vema Lift Oy, of Finland. This tower has an operating height of 44 meters, a 26-meter reach and an ouput of 10,000 liters per minute.That just for your interest(now you can brag with your knowledge!) Same lack of availability, likely same price.

 

 

 

 

 

From Matrix comes the news that sometime in October 2020 the 1/43rd scale model of the Mercedes-Benz W140 will be released in an estate car version by the Binz company.

(с)BERND D. LOOSEN