Forgotten Nazi Leaders' Car Collection

[Music] there is an existence today an extraordinary car collection that hardly anyone knows about a collection that contains some of the rarest and historically interesting vehicles the lost cars of nazi germany's top leaders the collection is to be found in a small museum in moscow russia the result of one family's careful collecting for over 60 years even more incredibly some of the world's most valuable cars cost them nothing not one ruble as they spent decades rescuing wrecks from farmers barns and gardens and painstakingly restoring them to some semblance of their former glory the lomakov museum of old timer cars and motorcycles doesn't look like much from the outside but some of the vehicles inside are worth millions of dollars if they were ever to be auctioned so we'll begin with an impressive example a black mercedes-benz 540k the classic nazi leaders limousine hitler in his circle required serious cars to be the face of the regime and mercedes-benz was more than happy to oblige hitler stated in 1934 that he did not tolerate a car manufactured by other companies in his escort and entourage a ringing endorsement of what is now called mercedes-benz though not something they like to highlight today between 1929 and 1942 mercedes-benz delivered a total of 44 cars to the reich chancellery in berlin the majority during the nazi period in 1935 hitler took delivery of three specially modified mercedes-benz 540 kw 24 limousines known with good reason as the schwabian colossus introduced at the 1935 paris motor show the 540k was one of the largest cars produced at the time a total of 12 specially lengthened wheelbase cars were manufactured for use by the german government huge six-seater convertible saloons hitler's three personal 540k parada wagons were kept in service until 1943. other leaders including hermann goering and heinrich himmler also utilized 540ks and many were kept at the new reich chancellery motor pool for the use of visiting vips and government ministers the 540k at the lomakov car museum was once owned by dr joseph gerbers who took delivery of this car in 1935 originally painted cherry red the only one of the limousines in this color scheme it was dr goebbels official car as propaganda minister until 1938 when it was replaced by a new mercedes-benz and this 540k downgraded to the goebbels escort car carrying his small contingent of bodyguards from the reichs zika heidsteinst the rsd the special unit that protected hitler in the inner circle of ministers in early 1945 goebbels moved to berlin to be at hitler's side and he sees moving about much save for a few brief visits to the order front the 540k was left in storage at goebbels villa at borgense a small lake near vandlitz some nine miles north of berlin as the red army approached berlin from the 20th of april 1945 onwards gerbil's house was quickly captured by soviet troops while its master now inhabited one room in hitler's bunker beneath the shell-ravaged reich chancellery in central berlin the ranking soviet officer that found the crimson car ordered it walled up to prevent him having to hand it over to a more senior officer but his plan fell through when someone tipped off the soviet occupation authorities and the officer concerned was encouraged to hand over the car in return for a good post-war job and an apartment goebbel's 540k was given to nikolai karatin first secretary of the communist party in estonia the car spending decades in that country from 1948 onwards used mostly in the capital tallinn the car was eventually left to rot abandoned at keratin's country dacha until found in 1972 by alexander lomikov overgrown with weeds incredibly caritan's widow gave the car to lomakov in return for removing the wreck from her property lomakov subsequently spent years restoring the car and today it is about 80 percent restored painted black and in running condition and has appeared in many russian films of the 600 540ks that mercedes-benz built only about 20 remain today making dr gerbil's car a very rare beast indeed parked close to goebbels 540k is one of the most beautiful cars ever built a horse 853. it was the only horse kept at the reich chancellery garage and was car of the year at the 1935 paris motor show unsurprisingly it caught the attention of the flamboyant reich's marshall hermann goering the corpulent head of the luftwaffe who variously collected art antiques animals guns model trains and much else including pretty cars as well as having his own mercedes-benz 540k for official business guring also had several flash cars that are used for semi-official and private engagements including most famously the blue goose a special 540k roadster that still exists today it was captured by u.s troops at the orbis alzberg in southern bavaria in 1945. the horse 853 was luxuriously appointed just like goering's vast mansion named karen how near berlin where the car was kept with a morocco leather and expensive wood-finished interior the horch unusually sports a barometer among the dashboard instruments installed on guring's order so he could monitor the weather as he traveled guring abandoned this car in april 1945 when he retreated to southern bavaria after ordering his house to be blown up soviet forces captured the huge estate shortly afterwards and the horch was among several expensive cars they found the car was commandeered by the commander of the brigade that had captured the area but when he turned up at the headquarters at the second belarusian front front commander marshal konstantin rocosovsky clapped eyes on the car and ordered it to be handed over for his personal use on the 29th of june 1945 rokosovsky in turn gave the car as a gift to red air force colonel general mikhail samokin who used it until 1956. in that same year samokin sold the horch to the head of an aviation enterprise in toshino alexander lomakov managed to acquire the wrecked horch in 1968 rescuing it it too has appeared in many films and is incredibly rare and valuable another member of hitler's inner circle who by april 1945 was living in the furo bunker with no further need of cars was martin bormann hitler's private secretary and head of the nazi party chancery governing the party and the regional gowlighters the scheming and much feared boarman who became more and more powerful as the third reich entered its death throws had many official cars assigned to him as he was always where hitler was one of those cars survives today a mercedes 320. it is difficult to precisely pin down how this particular car ended up in soviet hands as bourman's private homes all ended up in the american occupation zone including his villa next to hitler's on the obersalzberg in southern bavaria his large white villa at pulak outside munich and another house used by his wife and children from 1943 to 45 on the schluch say in the black forest we know that boarman had about 20 cars assigned to him from the reich chancellery garage and this particular mercedes may very well have been captured in berlin at war's end it is doubtful that the color scheme is original what is known is that alexander lomakov discovered the old car at zelenograd near moscow in 1995 it not having been driven for 30 years it has been partly restored thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark felton you can also help to support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box below

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 629,445

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Id: YM7mIm5cZnk

Length: 9min 13sec (553 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 12 2021