Classic car cold case: in search of the ‘real’ Hitler parade Mercedes

Not many cars have come close to exemplifying wealth and power more than the luxurious, coach built Mercedes-Benz 770K type W150. These peerless machines were usually seen carrying royalty, heads of state, the very rich and famous – and often infamous, like dictator Adolf Hitler, who used his for propaganda as a parade car.

From 1938 Hitler had also ordered several of the 770K models from the Mercedes-Benz factory as gifts to his allies, namely Marshal Ion Antonescu of Romania, Benito Mussolini of Italy, General Francisco Franco of Spain, Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim of Finland and Emil Hácha of the Bohemian Protectorate.

Nicknamed the “Grosser Mercedes”, the huge type W150 Mk2 was more than 20 feet long and nearly seven feet wide. It was powered by a supercharged, 7.7-litre inline eight-cylinder engine developing 203hp. The car was capable of 106mph despite weighing more than 4,100kg.

While other manufacturers’ flagship cars such as Bugatti’s Type 41 Royale, the 12-cylinder Hispano-Suiza and the Rolls-Royce Phantom III competed for the same customers, none was in demand as much as the W150 770K. All but the cabriolet model had full armour plating and 30mm bullet-resistant laminated safety glass indicating the volatility of the period.

Only a few of the 88 examples of this prestigious car, produced from 1938 to 1943 at the Mercedes-Benz factory at Sindelfingen near Stuttgart, made it past the end of the war. But a few did.

In each case the owners of the surviving cars have tried to link their 770 Grosser to Hitler at some point simply because they know it could double its value. Yet despite vast amounts of research spanning 80 years, only a few Mercedes specialists have found sufficient evidence to support that connection.

After many years of investigation, Robert Klara states in his book The Devil's Mercedes that the 1940 Mercedes-Benz W150/2 in the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Canada is one of the authentic “Hitler cars”.

The car on display is heavily modified and has extensive armour plating including 40mm (1.6in) glass all round, with 18mm (0.71in) steel armour plate in the bodywork around the main passenger compartment, including a moveable armoured plate between driver and rear passenger compartment. It is also equipped with 19in armoured steel wheels and bulletproof, 20-chamber tyres.

In 1945 American troops found the car damaged on a train carriage near Salzburg in Austria but it needed a new engine. They found one in a similar car parked at Hitler’s Berghof villa on the Obersalzberg, fitted it, repainted the car in US army green and displayed it to the troops as Hermann Goering’s staff car. It later toured the USA and Canada and was last heard of in 1948 in Syracuse, New York.

Investigations show that in 1949 lawyer John Bradley went to Syracuse police headquarters and spoke to Detective Sergeant Arthur Casey, asking him to help find the car.

He allegedly told Casey “You can’t miss it, it’s 20 feet long, 6 feet 5 inches wide and weighs five tons and it belonged to Adolf Hitler!”

The duo discovered that the car had been parked outside a general store for some time before being placed in storage to stop it being further vandalised.

Seven months later Bradley and Casey found the car in a warehouse but on examination the hand-painted registration and chassis plate – plus wax dummies of Hitler and Goering in the back – didn’t convince them that this was the real car.

Later inspection notes by a police examiner, however, showed that the 770K did have armour plating, bulletproof windows and special compartments for pistols, along with an additional 70-gallon petrol tank that would have made it possible for Hitler to escape to Switzerland from Berlin without stopping for fuel.

The front passenger seat also had a platform under it on which Hitler could stand if he wanted to greet crowds. A handle was also attached to the windscreen which the dictator could hold while he stood.

A few days later, on 12 February, 1949, a representative from the French Victoire society arrived with documentation that confirmed the car was real and belonged to them.

After further bouts of storage it was sold in a 1956 US Army surplus auction as Goering’s car to a Montreal-based businessman for $2,725.

It was later given to the Canadian War Museum to be displayed among several other Nazi cars.

In 1980 German librarian Ludwig Kosche, with help from Mercedes-Benz and the West German embassy, identified the car from the chassis number of 429344 along with engine number, paint and modification records, and discovered part of its original number plate IA-148 697. Many of Hitler’s car registration numbers started with IA-148.

Kosche’s additional evidence showed the car also had a number of features such as an ornamental hole in the radiator, four vents directly beneath the windscreen, two door hinges on either side, curved side rear windows and 20 cooling-slits on top of the bonnet.

Conclusive proof that it was not Goering’s car came in the form of the central light mounted on a curved bar ahead of the grille and between the front mudguards. It was the 770K delivered to the Reich Chancellery, Berlin on 8 July 1940 and had served Hitler personally.

Another car, a 1939 Mercedes-Benz 770K Grosser Offener Tourenwagen (open tourer), chassis number 189744, can also lay claim to that connection. This was an open tourer with a soft-top that was ordered by Hitler’s chauffeur SS officer Erich Kempka as the fourth of the Fuhrer’s guest car for use by various heads of friendly states as a propaganda machine.

It was to be of the same specification as another in Hitler’s stable, chassis number 266482 being used by Hermann Goering but was to be right-hand drive.

It was known to be used by Hitler on a state visit of Benito Mussolini and victory parades in the falls of France, Yugoslavia and Greece.

In 1943 chassis 189744 was sent back to Sindelfingen for maintenance at the factory which was subsequently badly bombed by the advancing Allies.

Following the Allied invasion of France the car was captured by American forces in Le Havre and was later taken by its new owner Tom Austin to his home in Greenville, North Carolina, USA and donated to the charity Volunteers for Foreign Wars. The charity discovered the car had also been used by notorious SS commander Heinrich Himmler.

In 1976 it was rediscovered by classic car hunters Steve Munson and Joe Ogden from Kentucky, who were startled to learn that chassis 189744 was in fact one of the four original “Fuhrer cars”. The car, which had covered only 33,309km, was completely restored soon after the Mercedes-Benz factory confirmed that this was indeed another of Hitler’s cars

In 1978 it was eventually displayed at the Chicago Historical Antique Automobile Museum in Illinois and offered for sale at $1 million.

It was purchased by Earl and Tom Blakely from Georgia and sold by them to Ralph Engelstad, owner of the Imperial Palace Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas, the home to his famed Imperial Palace Auto Collection.

Engelstad died in November 2002 and chassis 189744 was sold to a new European owner in 2004 as part of a 21-car package of significant Mercedes-Benzes. This transaction remains the single most valuable private sale in the classic car world today.

In 2018 the car was offered at an auction in Scotsdale, Arizona but a bid of $7 million failed to secure it.

Another 770K that was alleged to have been a parade car was originally owned by Field Marshal Baron Gustav Mannerheim of Finland who sold it to American collector Christopher Janus, the managing director of an export-import company in Chicago, who fabricated a story that Hitler had gifted the car to the Finnish leader in the hope that Finland would cooperate with Germany against the Soviet Union.

This car was later featured in the 1951 film The Desert Fox, a story about Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. In 1973 it was sold at auction for $153,000 to Earl Clark, a businessman from Pennsylvania, on the understanding that it too was Hitler’s parade limousine. Unfortunately further investigations discovered it was not Hitler’s parade car and that Hitler’s only contact with the vehicle was to accompany it to Finland. It was later sold again at auction for $176,000 and has been in private ownership since 1984.

At the same auction yet another 770K was sold for $93,000 to Billy Tanner, an Alabama developer who was also the campaign manager for George Wallace’s bid in the 1964 US presidential election. However, he could not secure financing to complete the transaction and subsequently sold his option to Don Tidwell, a mobile-home manufacturer. This car is believed to have been under restoration for the past 20 years in a garage in Los Angeles.

A patriotic Russian billionaire collector of Nazi vehicles recently paid several million Euros for a blue five-ton armour-plated Mercedes-Benz 770K parade car registration number IA 148461 which allegedly belonged to Adolf Hitler, suggesting it was the Fuhrer’s favourite car. It is known that Hitler did like his ‘blue’ parade car so this car is likely to be classed as genuine until proved otherwise. A car with that registration features in many archive images of Hitler and Mussolini taking part in a parade.

That deal was brokered by Düsseldorf car dealer Michael Fröhlich, who also sold five other similar vehicles to the same man, four of which once belonged to Nazi leaders including foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, Joseph Goebbels and Martin Bormann.

Fröhlich stated that he had traced the provenance of the 770K back to Austria where it was sold after the Second World War for 2,000 Reichsmarks.

That car later spent time in the cellar of the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas and then in the collection of a Munich brewery billionaire. When he died his widow sold it to the Russian for an alleged 6 million Euros.

A 2010 Mercedes-Benz club magazine article on a 770 W150 Offener Tourenwagen suggested that General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst took possession of a 770K for the sole use of the King of Norway.

It was later sold to a buyer in the United States who displayed it at the Pebble Beach concours d’elegance in 2003, winning the prize for the best unrestored pre-war car.

Two similar 770K W150s were also taken to Norway during the war, one for Josef Terboven and the other for Vidkun Quisling.

Bizarrely when the conflict was over one of these was later offered for sale to the Norwegian public for only 50 Krona but no one wanted it and it was scrapped. All that now remains of the car is part of the bulletproof glasswork.

The other car, a 1939 cabriolet, went to Czechoslovakia where it was used as a VIP transport for state functions. In 1948 the communists used it as a work car but in 1952 it was stripped of its imperialist bodywork and given a new body and interior. Today the car is on display at the National Technical Museum in Prague.

A 1938 Mercedes-Benz 770K, chassis and engine number 182066, is on show at the Museu do Caramulo in Portugal. This car, is which is also armour-plated, was originally ordered by the country’s secret police for the Portuguese dictator António Salazar following the bomb attempt on his life the year before. While similar in specification to Hitler’s car, this does not appear to be one of the Fuhrer’s parade cars.

Another black 1938 770K that was allegedly owned by the German central government office for use by Adolf Hitler during parades remains on display at the Technisches Museum in Sinsheim, Germany. The car was fitted with mine-proof floor armour, plus thick glass and bodywork. As a convertible, the safety of the car’s occupants was limited to say the least. The museum states that the car was used by Hitler and there is no reason to doubt this claim.

A 1939 770K two-door, five-passenger cabriolet finished in dark red with a tan leather interior has made at least one appearance at the Pebble Beach concours d’elegance in California. We are unsure at this time of its provenance.

In 1939 another Mercedes-Benz 770K Grosser Offener Tourenwagen chassis number 189744, an open tourer with a soft-top, was ordered by Hitler’s chauffeur SS officer Erich Kempka as the fourth Fuhrer’s guest car for use by various heads of friendly states. It was to be of the same specification as another in Hitler’s stable, chassis 266482, being used by Hermann Göring but was to be right-hand drive.

It was known to be used by Hitler on a state visit of Benito Mussolini and victory parades in the fall of France, Yugoslavia and Greece.

In 1943 chassis number 189744 was sent back to Sindelfingen for maintenance at the factory which was subsequently badly bombed by the advancing allies.

Following the Allied invasion of France the car was captured by American forces in Le Havre, France and was later taken by its new owner Tom Austin to his home in Greenville, North Carolina USA and donated to the charity Volunteers for Foreign Wars as the car used by notorious German SS commander Heinrich Himmler.

In 1976 it was rediscovered by classic car hunters Steve Munson and Joe Ogden from Kentucky who were startled to learn that chassis number 189744 was in fact one of the four original Fuhrer’s-cars. The car had done just 33,309 kilometres and was restored. Its documentation was confirmed by the factory that this was indeed another of Hitlers cars

In 1978 it was eventually displayed at the Chicago Historical Antique Automobile Museum in Illinois and offered for sale at $1 million dollars.

It was purchased by Earl and Tom Blakely from Georgia and sold by them to Ralph Engelstad, owner of the Imperial Palace Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas, the home to his famed Imperial Palace Auto Collection.

Mr. Engelstad died in November 2002 and chassis number 189744 was sold to a new European owner in 2004 as part of a 21-car package of significant Mercedes-Benz automobiles. This transaction remains the single most valuable private sale in the classic-car world today.

In 2018 the car was offered auctioned by Worldwide Auctions.at Scotsdale but a bid of $7 million dollars failed to secure the car.

The Spanish Royal Guard displays a 770K once given to General Francisco Franco by Hitler in the Royal Palace of El Pardo in Madrid.

Another open armoured tourer 1943 Tourenwagen 770K once owned by King Abdullah II of Jordan is on display at the Royal Automobile Museum in the capital Amman.

This is not, however, the same car that was recovered when US troops entered the Hussein family stronghold in Iraq in July 2003, but was part of a 1,300-car collection kept in seven garages belonging to Uday, son of Saddam Hussein. The whereabouts of this car today is unknown.

There are between 20 and 30 Mercedes-Benz W150 770K cars known to exist, with possibly another half dozen secreted in private collections around the world, all of which could claim to have a wealthy, famous or powerful owner at some time in its life.

A handful can be proven to have been used by Hitler, however. That dubious distinction makes them one of the most expensive and desirable cars in the world.

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