Mi.686-688 (17.02.1939) Automobile Exhibition, Berlin
Postcard issued for the International Automobile and Motorcycle Exhibition in Berlin. Featuring a Mercedes M154 racing car, as well as a full set of postage stamps issued to commemorate the event (Mi.686-688). Ref: 01.03.1939
Mi.686-688
International Automobile and Motorcycle Exhibition, Berlin
Mi.686 - The first motor car of Benz (1885), a three wheeler with Karl Benz at the wheel, and a four wheeled car with Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler and his son Paul Daimler at the wheel (1886).
Mi.687 - 1938 racing cars, the Auto-Union (D-Type?) and the Mercedes Benz (W154?) models on the Nurburgring racing circuit.
Mi.688 - The Volkswagen - The People's car, designed by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche. The cost of the car was to be 990 RM. Their sale and manufacture was a state project. A new factory at Fallersleben was built in 1938, destined to be one of the largest car factories in the world.
The public had to register for one of the new cars, and then pay monthly instalments (or you could pay cash up front), but one would not receive the car until their registration number was reached. Once you owned a Volkswagen no one could take it away from you and at the same time you could neither sell it or give it away. The state deemed the Volkswagen a necessity and not a luxury (in this way the owner could still apply for charity relief etc.) If you stopped payments, 20% of the money already paid was deducted and the remainder returned, although it was not in that person's interest to do so and it could be construed as anti-state.
By the time the factory was ready to start production, the war had broke out and the factory was immediately turned over to war production. The few cars that had been delivered were immediately confiscated and used in the war effort, the owners given a voucher promising replacement after the war. Unsurprisingly, none of the money collected was ever refunded and post war civil actions against Volkswagen were unsuccessful.
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