Classic Car Owner Discovers He Bought "Hitler's Mercedes" Online

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

I wonder which general?

Not surprising though, Mercedes were just as popular back than as they are today. However it being an un armored open top car I would say it would be either a general staff car or used early in the war than put away. After Heydrich was assassinated Hitler ordered that anyone of any importance only travel in armored closed top cars.

Also isn't it neat that MB still provides parts support, GM on the other hand wouldn't want to know anything!

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

As late as 1943, Mercedes Benz produced, on demand, for the Third Reich government, a handful of high end Mercedes, often the 770K Grossers, often fully armored, for the leaders.

Less than two weeks ago I saw one such, at the Sinsheim Museum und Technik in Stuttgart, and it was Himmler's personal auto, discovered and preserved.

It was a black armored 770K 4 door sedan, with one spotlight on each door, the drivers side one was a red one!

The open 6wd G Wagen that Hitler rode in after the Anschluss in Austria in 1938 was on display, as was the open but armed 4 door 770K he rode in, when in public was there too.

I am still looking for the photos of those vehicles, I took but so far I only found these.






And my fave, that needs no further description..

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

i have a 1/16th die cast of that red one setting on my dresser

That's pretty interesting, I bet Mercedes loves finding those.

about 1978 or so I visited the Gilmore museum near Kalamazoo with my father. they had an armored Mercedes there from ww2. The story was that it had pulled up somewhere and with one window down the driver or passenger or both were shot through the open window. There was bullet mark on the inside of the other front window to prove it. I seem to remember it had a large six cylinder engine. I recently looked on their website. Apparently they don't have it any more. I looked it up when I saw a similar one had sold for over a mil.

I have pics of it somewhere. I keep thinking i will run across them one of these days.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Hitler also owned a Mercedes G4 offroad model, he also gave one to Spain's Franco as a gift. Only 54 of these were produced, for pics of Franco's G4 see: No-expense-spared restoration of a rare G4 1939 Mercedes Benz

The car is now owned by the the Spanish royal family, and it still wears the factory paint, and interior. Franco used this car primarily for hunting game, and would rest his shotgun on the drivers shoulder. Most of Franco's close henchmen were provided with Adenuaer models during the '50s, though Franco was driven mostly RR Silver Dawns.

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"I was a dirty bird, Carol's not grungey - she's *****in" John Milner....American Graffiti

Some man in the Czech Republic also found Heydrich's car in a barn. He decided to donate it to a museum rather than selling it, for some reason:

Heydrich's car found ! - World War 2 Talk

It would be easy to think that Heydrich was killed outright by the bomb blast, but that is not correct.

The attempt on his life was made at a point where the road took a hair-pin turn so the car had to slow to about 10 mph. There was also a bus stop located very close by, so a fellow standing there with a package would not look out of place.

As the car slowed the bomb thrower pitched it into Heydrich's lap, but the driver speeded up and the bomb landed in the back seat where it then went off.

Now have you ever had a Mercedes seat apart and seen all that crumbling horsehair they have in them? Well, in those days they used real horsehair, and when the bomb when off Heydrich's body was filled up with bits of springs and leather and horsehair. He lived for several days, but died of infections from all the stuff that was floating around in him.

Hitler threw him a big state funeral and then ordered Mercedes to build armored cars for what were known as 'the big heads'. Mercedes did not have a chassis that could take the weight, so they bought up a bunch of SSK's from the 30's, stripped them down and built new bodies.

The one that was sent to Prague was used by their fire department after the war and is now on display there.

And..... Heydrich insisted on riding in an open car since he thought it would show the Czechs just how brave he was and/or how inferior Czechs were to Germans.

Not one of his better decisions.

I don't think Hitler ever owned a car while he was in office. He could not drive so why would he own a car?

He always traveled in a convoy, so he had a driver. And he would likely ride in whatever car was correct for the moment.

One of the G4's had a passenger seat that would fold out of the way so he could stand flat on the floor during a parade, but he would travel from one town to the next either by air or train and would then be driven around in whatever staff car was handy.

No he owned at least one car. Hitler was a Mercedes enthusiast but could never afford one, the sale of his book enabled him to buy his first car which was a Mercedes. After that other than gifts I don't think he really owned a car.

I bet his Mercedes was in Munich at the end at his apartment.

I don't know how many of the records from the early 30's survive, but I bet somewhere deep in MB's vaults is the vin number of the car that he bought when he was a best selling author and the 30's equivalent of a talking head.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Sounds like a good death for a butchering pig. The other theory is that the bomb ("donated" by the British Special Ops Exec) was actually deliberately laced with bacteria and/or a slow-acting poison. Either way, Heydrich got his, and nothing less than he deserved.

I fully agree.

You know, I kind of like the slow part of it all. It would have been very dramatic if it had blown him into small bits, but slow is good when it comes to someone like him.

Yes, but I was speaking of when he was in office.

You are quite correct in that he owned a Mercedes after his book started selling. And I don't know if there is any record of if he sold it or just parked it somewhere after he attained higher office.

And if the records survive I would also bet that someone at Mercedes has done the research on Hitler's VIN. If it ever came up for sale.......

I'm sure the research has been done, and I think Hitler like a lot of MB owners was reluctant to part with his first one. I bet it was at his flat in Munich at the end.

MB doesn't like to talk about this part of their history but they should, history should not be forgotten.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200