Effect of Memory 

„People always remember the good things and the bad things, even after 10 years. Whether the food was great or bad, whether the organisation was perfect or a mess, whether the mood was great or not. We want the participants to be satisfied and happy so they will talk about it for a long time", said Harry Broers, the incredibly sympathetic and ubiquitous chairman of the Dutch DKW club and organiser of the 44th International Auto-Union and DKW meeting.

 Welcoming committee 

Harry and his numerous volunteers have succeeded in doing so in the best possible manner! This started with the registration at home: no form to be completed by hand and faxed or cumbersome scan and mail, no; in the Web page on "register on website" simply fill out; click, click, and finished! With a total of five newsletters, the participants were informed about the meeting and how the participants increased. In the meantime it was "already 160 participants ..."! On arrival, nice ladies dressed in orange sat in a tent, having all the data in the twinkling of an eye by means of a barcode and hand-scanner. Everyone got his bracelet with coded rings according to the options he had booked and were greeted with a friendly: "welcome, here are your documents ... have much fun in Holland".

At the gate in an international airport you will not be served more professionally!

As was the case at Freiburg last year, the "Union" was unfortunately not represented by all of the four prewar brands, including (real) Audi, Horch and Wanderer. In addition to "real" DKW, only the names "Auto Union" and "Audi" (but post-war) were mentioned on those bonnets, following the disappearance of the "DKW" brand in West Germany after 1963. Auto Union and Audi continued the tradition of the former east german manufacturers in the shape of the four rings. However, everything, which had four rings, belonged to the family festival.

Probably the oldest represented vehicle was an F5 sedan from 1935, which showed its surely turbulent past unpainted on market: once in all the decades that had lasted for a long time, the car tacitly told of its past history. Inevitably over all the long years it was not completely original anymore, but still largely authentically preserved. The dashboard has not been spared certain pragmatic interventions, but the artificial imitation of the wood was one-on-one, only drawn by inevitable bruises. A small rolling museum piece.

Between the cornerstones of this time window, in 1935 with the DKW F5 and 1975 with the Audi 50, the large mass were mainly numerous elvens, twelves, thousands, coupes, convertibles and roadsters. There was practically everything there, also Mungas and Monzas and from the two-wheel division "Hummeln" (german word for "bumblebees"), RTs and other delicacies. A total of 222 entries from many different nations were listed in the booklet.

 Air Traffic Control 

The DKW meeting took place under the (nearly) constant supervision of a radio controlled small unmanned aerial vehicle with camera. This drone, from low flights up to high altitude flights, swarmed around and its battery capacity seemed almost inexhaustible. Just a few hours later, breathtaking movies of the "Enlightenment flights" flickered across the big screen by projector in the visitors' tent and compensated for the constant buzz of the electronic teaser.

 Under the Water 

On Saturday, most of the participants started their trips into the wonderful surroundings. This day was perfectly organised, too, and the entire route including height profile (from -10 ft up to 30 ft) was described in the Internet and led as planned along 70 miles of route. Nevertheless, some teams - including ourselves - lost their bearings from time to time. For miles along the dykes side by side with the water, parallel to professional and sporting navigation, and occasionally also "under water"; inside of Holland the lowest places just lie below sea level.

A clever trick from the "race management center" ensured a smooth run and avoided traffic jams on the road, as well as on the stages: there was no closed start like on the Monte Carlo rally and therefore no long Corso, too. Each team decided by itself when it was going to start, the result was more or less small groups of vehicles, which caused no problems with the local road traffic, nor on their own. This did not harm the community experience at all, quite the contrary.

 Open Air Festival 

Above the dyke, too, Big Brother showed up abruptly; the little unmanned aerial vehicle from the campsite with a camera inside swooped with impressive maneuvers over our small groups of historic cars, sometimes flying parallel to us. We look forward to the pictures when they are released! While the weather showed improvement, we let ourselves be led to the lightness by opening the top and continuing to travel under fresh air. But this was not a good idea; after a wile first small drops of rain appeared on the windshield. At a certain speed, in theory, we should be able to hurry faster than the drops are falling down from sky, so that it would be only moderately wet in the car.

 Washing Program 

With a modest 18 hp on the one hand and the traffic situation, on the other hand, counteracted this theory, so that it soon became very wet in the car. When, from the beginning, fine ruddy droplets began to change into really thick blobs, which not only dropped on the windshield, but also on our foreheads and according to the pace became harder, then came the moment of a decision! Truly A few kilometres ahead were some blue spots in the clouds which promised improvement, but the atmosphere in the cockpit became increasingly irritating during the time between. So, in a daring driving maneuvre, we pulled over into the next lay, and hurriedly closed the convertible top. With a DKW F5 in the version "Reichsklasse" this however is not as simple as it sounds, because there are a few skilfully handled handles more than the modern car driver of today have to use.

 Stopover 

It's sorcery. After completion of the tent construction on the F5 "Cabriolimousine" and immediately after setting off again the rain stopped! During the ensuing interim stop in Leerdam and shopping in a cheese shop, the atmosphere of the Netherlands was once more widespread:

...between houses and boats in the water, Walter Giller, Hans-Joachim Kuhlenkampff or Heinz Erhardt (german pupular comedians) could have come around the corner. The famous chaotic guys from the 1961 german movie version of "Three Men in a Boat" (in the German film version of the humorous novel by the English author Jorome K. Jerome of a two-week boating holiday from Kingston on Thames to Oxford and back, the three crazy guys did not make their trip along the river Thames, but on the Rhine from Lake Constance to Amsterdam making for a lot of confusion). In view of the beautiful cars from this time an obvious association .

Hard-working yellow dressed helpers stood at their gas grills and sipped little spears and other delicacies. There was no battle for the buffet driven by a traditional hunger, as we know it from other places inside of Saxony-Anhalt: there was more than enough for all, and the organisers also said this: "Serve yourself ample, it will always be refilled!" The participants were simply spoiled by abundance - perfect at this point, too.

At dusk, punctiliously after the meal, and not a minute too early, suddenly gloomy clouds rose and made a cloudburst, which caused everyone to run. Rapidly the spacious tent was no longer spacious, but quite full. Here, however, films and freshly shot pictures were on the cinema screen for a while, and occasionally there were also recordings from the camera drone, that had flown long the dikes parallel to the routes and had made wonderful, never-seen aerial photographs and movies.

 Dank je wel! 

Sunday for some of the visitors was the day to return home. This was in every sense successful 44th International AUVC-Meeting.

This thoroughly was wistful, because so much in any case can be said: we truly will not forget an will talk about it for many years. And with this exaltation – a sincere “dank je wel” to the hosts!

However, the thesis mentioned above, that people who are living nearby the water having thrown openness and tolerance into their self-consciousness through trade, change and prosperity, has to be completed by a second thesis: that people who are living nearby important trading and travel routes, do not have less openness and hospitality in their traditions. Because it does not always have to be water:

In Caesars and Hannibals times, before the invention of the railway, and before the most daring tunneling projects, goods and people transported through alpine mountains have been life-threatening adventures over the passes of the Alps. They brought wealth, prosperity, influence and farsightedness to wagoners, innkeepers, merchants and communities.

So we hopeful look forward to the 45th International AUVC Meeting, which will take place in Switzerland in 2018, in a country no less traditionally aware than the Netherlands. An improvement compared to Holland is difficult to imagine but not impossible: the Swiss are famous for their perfect precision.

Read more obout the DKW? For 41st DKW-Meeting of Saxony-Anhalt simply click the wheel cap left