The Call of a Mountain 

On Friday we started for an expedition to the highest mountain in the “Fläming” (a countryside of Saxony-Anhalt), anyhow 600 ft high and by no means to smile: the mountain named “Hagelberg” is still 25 ft more than the famous rock of Loreley. Hiking boots, however, the crews of the caravane of historic automobiles did not need: from the nearby car parking to the meeting place at the Hagelberg led an easy-going and slightly sloped walk of approximately 500 yards length.

At the destination, a picnic was promised, whose culinary background consisted of a sausage, a roll and a biscuit, sweetened by the German cult drink "Capri-Sonne". Most participants will not have remarked, that this drink, with abundant 12% real fruit juice containing, has been renamed into english as "Capri-Sun". Everyone sees the well known package and associates "Sonne" instead of "sun". But it does'nt matter: in Germany already whole cities have been renamed. Wolfsburg is one example (formerly named “Stadt des KdF-Wagens”) and renamed by the British occupying power on May 25, 1945, and Chemnitz is another (named “Karl-Marx-Stadt” during time of Eastern German regime "GDR"), renamed after the reunion with formerly "Western Germany".

 Fright Of French 

The historic importance of the Hagelberg probably most of the drivers did not realise: about 300 yards away from the place of picnic there is a "new monument” located, which reminds of a crushing victory over Napoleon in the late summer of 1813. Probably the beginning of Napoleon's end.

The monument reminds us of a German-Russian brotherhood-of-arms, which came the Prussians to help – both of them had a common enemy: the French, or more precisely, Napoleon.

 The Hagelberg is quite a historic place: 

Already in late summer of 1913, a patriotic spectacle has been performed to commemorate the "butt slaughter", in theese days just hundred years ago. On the 27th of August, 1813, a Prussian contingent of about 12,000 men under General von Hirschfeld here on the mountain of Hagelberg encountered a French corps with 10,000 men under General Girard. By heavy rain, powder and rifles had become wet, so the soldiers had to hit onto each other with bayonets and butts. The battle was extremely bloody, demanding thousands of killed and wounded, and is therefore called "butt slaughter". The Prussians threatened to get defeated in this battle, but received support from Russian Cossacks being quartered at the City of Belzig, located nearby. Thus, the battle could be decided against Napoleon. The tide began to turn:

After Napeleon's defeat in the „Völkerschlacht” (slaughter of peoples) near Leipzig in October 1813, Napoleon for the present escaped with his elite troop across the river Rhine back to France. But just two months later the Prussian field marshal von Blücher followed him. Von Blücher wanted to join to the Russian and Austrian main forces, and on the 31st of December he reached the village of Kaub on Rhine with two of his corps. From here, a surprise attack on France took place: at midnight of the icy winter, Russian pioneers of von Blücher's army began to construct a pontoon bridge, the first part led to “Pfalzgrafenstein” Castle in the middle of the Rhine. The second part was much more difficult to finish because of strong water flow, but he succeeded in crossing the River at Kaub and thus started an invasion into France: on January 7th, 1814, 50,000 soldiers, 15,000 horses and 180 cannons marched towards France.

 A Trip to Thießen Village 

As I said before, the knitting pattern of Garitz follows a strict recurring tradition: on the next day there was a round trip planned to the village of Thießen to visit a pottery and a café. As every year, in the surroundings of Garitz the ambience could not have been a better scenery to the old cars. The shape of this DKW represents the lifestyle of the 50s and the beginning of the 60s better than any other vehicle model and harmonises to the architectural style of many buildings, which have lasted the time and have not been replaced by concrete, as happened in the western Part of Germany during reconstruction after worldwar.

The brick building of an old church together with the old trees in the surroundings once again provided wonderful photo-motifs.

By luck, number 50 and 51 are parking side by side - my DKW F5 "Cabriolimousine" (sedan convertible) next to a more elegant IFA F8 Cabriolet (pure convertible).

 Unikum on 3 wheels 

After the round trip, as usual, the obligatory meeting "on the meadow at Garitz" took place. But this time - long live the change - unexpectedly appered such an ugly vehicle that it mutates again to be beautyful. Not a DKW, but a Goliath F 400.

What's that? Goliath, the great warrior of the Philistines from the Old Testament, was defeated by the dwarf David, who defeated the giant with his stone sling.

Truely no one can say, that the Goliath car is a giant on three wheels, nor anyone can say, who may have had that crazy idea of giving this rear-wheel driven wheelbarrow such a name! Goliath may have been great, but he was a tragic loser. But as a donkey for traders and craftsmen the tricar named Goliath certainly was a giant, because after all, this soapbox with loading area of 750 kg, had 396 cm³ displacement and whopping 12.5 hp.

So we have to remember, that this time the DKW did not have a power-to-displacement ratio like the Goliath although the DKWs had a Schnürle reversal flushing (which gives more power and efficiency to a two-stroke engine).

Of course, such a commercial vehicle can be overloaded in practice, and that this sometimes has been happened for sure, does not have to be discussed here. Not infrequently there may have been a ton loaded on the back.

A view through the rear window into the cabin gives an impression on the driver's workplace: simplicity dominates the picture.

The steering wheel looks very similar to that of my F5 except for the silvery shining ring of the horn button: it should be the same. The overly optimistic speedometer reaches up to about 60 mph (100 km/h) and the rather chunky clock has probably been retrofitted some time. The two-stroke engine heals with air cooling under the passenger’s seat, on which, in addition to the vehicle driver, more than one passenger may be possible to be squeezed in.

That this tricar has no heating, just like my F5, so what! The two-stroke engine should have acted not only in the winter as a seat heating, but certainly will have heated the trouser bottoms of the driver and his passenger(s) in the summertime.

Between 1934 and 1938 - from this time the F 400 came, that was, in any case, better than walking and pulling a handcart behind. The maximum speed should have been 30 mph, but at that time with 750 kg on the load floor and on mostly unpaved roads with three wobbly wheels surely a real adventure! Rapid curves have probably only been something for very courageous or bold drivers.

Somone reported a Goliath to be blown away from the road by strong crosswind.

Nevertheless, after the worldwar such a vehicle must have been of value like pure gold, because the Goliath factory at Bremen had been bombed and did not produce for a long time. Since 1949 tricycle transporters were built again, and the GD 750 quickly became a bestseller in the west of Germany. Goliath transporters were part of the street scene in post-war Germany. They helped to effect the reconstruction and to quicken the economic miracle in the Federal Republic of Germany. But on this way they also dug their own grave: the "prosperity for all" (a book of Germany's minister of economic affairs Ludwig Ehrhard) soon provided better vans and swept away all the Goliaths, as well as the DKW Schnellasters (and the old wooden pre-war DKWs), by the end of the fifties scene. VW transporters, Ford Transits and Hanomags took over the regiment.

 Desertion 

For the Saturday, according to the old tradition, an excursion was planned for the community of two-stroke-friends, this time to a shipbuilding museum. But friends of us and we by ourselves did not have desire for old traditions and always same habits.

So we stayed away from the troops, took a private trip and visited the copper hammer, a technical cultural monument dating from around 1600.

Here, again, photo-motifs in abundance, after a stopover in the nice Café “Kupferhammer” and a view into the historic smithy workshop with its hammerworks driven by the hydropower of a mill, we continued our journey over the River Elbe ferry in front of the City of Coswig.

During the leisurely crossing on the river Elbe to the other waterside, we and our vehicles did not yet suspect what should happen now: after leaving the ferry, a three miles long cobbled trail of the evilst kind followed.

On these three miles, our chassis should certainly have suffered the wear of 3,000 miles compared to today's usual roads. Suddenly, it became clear to me why the cars of the 1930s and 1940s mostly could not reach a distance of 62.000 miles (100,000 km) of running.

This road was the worst route I ever saw and traveled in my life, apart from driving off the road in the vicinity of Quarzazate in Morocco. Probably the just punishment for the “removal of the troops” of the DKW and IFA drivers.

Read more obaut the DKW? For 44th int. DKW- and AUVC-Meeting click the wheel cap left