My fathers first car: a 1938 Opel Olympia

Rothaar-Mountains 1956: My father, 17 years young and a real automobile aficionado, is on a visit at his cousin´s farm where he was told, that a new car, a Mercedes 170 S-D will be bought. And immediately he starts to dream about buying his cousins old car, an Opel Olympia, built in 1938. He could drive to school with his friends, and that as a pupil in a decade, even most teachers didn´t own a car. He could make trips through the country, visit friends without using the railway, but he also knows, that his parents wouldn´t allow that dreams to come true. But of course the temptation was too big and after consulting his schoolmate Werner, the two boys pooled all their conserved money, an amount of 250DM each, and soon after, the two pupils became proud automobile-possessors. But now he had to confess it to my grandparents, because he wanted to register the car. Of course he couldn´t do that alone, at an age of only 17. He also was able to drive a car, but for a license, he had to be at least 18 years old. So after a lot of back and forth with his parents, the Olympia finally got its registration, but still there was the “little” problem, that my father still was too young to legally drive the Opel on the road. What a luck, Werner just got 18 and successfully completed his driving test. So, for the 10 miles route to school they found a solution: They were four boys (sometimes a fifth classmate joined), three of them 17 years old and because of that, Werner was the only one of them, who was legally allowed to tame the engines 37 horses. At the beginning of every month, they pooled the money for the fuel and so they enjoyed the comfortable tours between the villages of Erndtebrück and Hilchenbach. No comparison to the loud and uncomfortable railway of course and no more station platform waiting during rain or/and snow. The first setback soon appeared: Werner got ill and for about weeks, he had to stay in bed. But it was the beginning of a month, the fuel-money already flowed into the petrol tank and so my father decided to drive the car on his own, still without a license. “Of course”, he soon was stopped by the local policeman. He mumbled, that he forgot his license at home, but the policeman knew, he didn´t have one, yet (in a small village, a policeman knows his peers). Glory days: he only was exhorted, that the next time on the driver´s seat, he should better have his license on board. Needless to tell, that he nevertheless drove the tour to school till his friend had convalesced. Autumn passed and it began to get really cold during the nights. My uncle had told my Dad, that the cooling water has to be drained overnight, because if it freezes, the engine might burst. My father did, as he was told, but unfortunately he didn´t know, that there were two drain plugs, one at the radiator and an additional one at the engine. So he only drained the radiator and it happened the way it had to: the cooling water in the engine froze and the engine burst. Sadly it was a total write-off and after not even one year of proud ownership, the Olympia got scrapped. For my father seven long years without an own car started, until after his student time (with a Hercules bike), he was finally able to buy an Auto Union 1000S saloon. But that is another story…

Words and photos: Hubertus Hansmann