A few photos from my latest adventure in Germany.

[Rick Lee]

I came here for the Rush concert in Frankfurt last week and the 20th reunion of the class in which I was an exchange student in 1988. It's been a blast. Between beer runs and hangovers I've managed to see a few new things.

First is the concentration camp at Nordhausen Dora-Mittelbau, where slave laborers built the V1 and V2 rockets. Average lifespan of a prisoner was 10-12 weeks once they started working in the 15 km-long network of caves and tunnels.



What's left of a V1.




Although there was no gas chamber here, they worked most of the prisoners to death in short order and so needed a crematorium set up to dispose of the bodies.


Sorry, but it was pretty hard to get a good photo inside the tunnels and there wasn't much to see above ground. But it was quite a place and has quite a history.

A few days earlier we went to a car buff's paradise in Duesseldorf called Meilenwerk. It's sort of a mix between a shopping mall for classic car nuts, several repair facilities and a rental garage, where rich folks rent glass garages to show off their toys. And they have a decent bar and restaurant too, which served us well after we had lost so much drool on the cars there.









More coming soon, but as I was writing this, I got a text from my buddy who came from Pittsburgh to the Rush concert and is now home in the hospital with food poisoning, they're checking for E-Coli.

[Rick Lee]

Ok, a few more.

[wdfifteen]

Thank you for this. I'm planning a trip to Germany next spring. I have the Porsche and Mercedes museums on my list and I want to see some of the war locations too. Any other suggestions?

[ODDJOB UNO]

rickster, do you realize when the allies came upon that, they literally dropped EVERYTHING, and created another red ball express to haul all of that crap the hell out of their, as they knew the russkies where close. this was a hop sing mo fo moment, that created its own logistical nightmare, to get all this miss-kill crap to the docks and ship it toot sweet back to the u.s..


it ended up at white sands, new messiko with our friend werner von braun, as they were scared pooless of getting captured by the russkies.


hell of alot of history there.

[Rick Lee]

Yes, the museum there had some not so kind words about Werner von Braun, sort of implying that his career was never interrupted by the war and its aftermath.

[Rick Lee]

This guy has a cool garage, no?




Had a pretty good SRO spot at the Rush show.




4 cyl. diesel BMW X1, which we're (the US) getting later this year in gasoline form.


This 2.0 was only 34k Euros.


Another stupid expensive one.

[Rick Lee]

Old family photo from a dear friend. The man in uniform was captured at Stalingrad and came home 10 yrs. later. I met him a few times. His brother, the boy with his arms folded, was my dear friend and died about two years ago. He served in the Luftwaffe, was wounded in France and finished up in prison in Norway. Note his father's Iron Cross, earned in the First World War.



I stopped at a museum commemorating the former inner-German border around Eichsfeld. Very interesting stuff, though nothing new to me, as I had been to the former E. Germany several times in the old days.

[Dottore]

Jeez...I wish I had known you were over here...!

The Meilenwerk concept is interesting. It began in Berlin about 15 years ago when someone had the bright idea to provide a place where the classic car scene could focus their activities.

So you take an abandoned rail yard and renovate the buildings, and provide nice glass garages where the owners of classic cars can park their cars safely, and have access to them anytime. This was an instant success, as many people in Germany live in apartments where garage space is at a premium, and the classic car scene is huge. So now people have a place to park their car for a monthly rent, and visitors can come and look at them by paying a nominal entrance fee.

Then you rent out the remaining space to the vendors of classic cars, restoration companies, parts suppliers etc etc. and pretty soon you have the whole classic car scene in that town concentrated in one place that then becomes a tourist attraction and attracts restaurants and bars etc.

This started in Berlin, and now you have Meilenwerke in Berlin, Stuttgart and Duesseldor. I gather these are also being planned for Hamburg and Munich.

Great concept IMO.

[Rick Lee]

Dottore, I did post on one of your threads a week ago, asking if you were in Hamburg at the moment. Anyway, I'm in Neuss now and my coffee with a friend in Cologne this morning just got canceled. So I'm headed to Frankfurt soon to the Sinn factory store and then for some groceries to bring home. I fly to DC tonight and am there the rest of the week.

BTW, my friend in the hospital, who was just here with me, has been released and does not have E.Coli. Looks like it was just a real bad stomach flu. But the timing was suspect and I didn't really enjoy my dinner in Bielefeld last night because of it.

[Dottore]

Sorry to have missed your mail Rick. Have a safe trip back.

Cheers, M.

[jpachard]

Originally Posted by ODDJOB UNO

rickster, do you realize when the allies came upon that, they literally dropped EVERYTHING, and created another red ball express to haul all of that crap the hell out of their, as they knew the russkies where close. this was a hop sing mo fo moment, that created its own logistical nightmare, to get all this miss-kill crap to the docks and ship it toot sweet back to the u.s..


it ended up at white sands, new messiko with our friend werner von braun, as they were scared pooless of getting captured by the russkies.


hell of alot of history there.

Yes, it was called Operation Paperclip.

Rick, That rocket engine is actually from a V-2, V-1's used a pulse jet engine. interesting/disturbing fact more people died building the V-1's and V-2's than were killed by their landing in England.

Thanks for the cool pictures.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Old family photo from a dear friend. The man in uniform was captured at Stalingrad and came home 10 yrs. later. I met him a few times. His brother, the boy with his arms folded, was my dear friend and died about two years ago. He served in the Luftwaffe, was wounded in France and finished up in prison in Norway. Note his father's Iron Cross, earned in the First World War.

Same thing on my ex-wifes side of the family. Her uncle was captured at Stalingrad and came back 9 years later. Pure white hair at the ripe old age of 27, the family said he was never the same. I knew him for several years and he was a nice gent but very quiet and not one for conversation.

Joe A

[azasadny]

Rick,
Thanks for posting these!

[Laneco]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Sorry, but it was pretty hard to get a good photo inside the tunnels and there wasn't much to see above ground. But it was quite a place and has quite a history.

Oh sweet little baby Jesus, is that a 1957 Ferrari TRC? And if not, please tell me what it is because if I win a really really big lottery I shall MAKE IT MINE!

angela

[ckissick]

Originally Posted by Laneco

Oh sweet little baby Jesus, is that a 1957 Ferrari TRC? And if not, please tell me what it is because if I win a really really big lottery I shall MAKE IT MINE!

angela

It would take a really really really big lottery win to buy that sucker. If I owned it, I wouldn't need a garage. I'd park it in my living room and just sit there every night staring at it.

[eastbay]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

Same thing on my ex-wifes side of the family. Her uncle was captured at Stalingrad and came back 9 years later. Pure white hair at the ripe old age of 27, the family said he was never the same. I knew him for several years and he was a nice gent but very quiet and not one for conversation.

Joe A

There are some great books written by the German survivors of the Russian POW/Gulag camps. Interesting methods the German prisoners developed for food supplements and "grain reclamation"

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Ok, a few more...

$115,000 Euro! That can't be right. It must be a replica.

Who can read German?

[Rick Lee]

That's built on a '73 2.4 T.

[slodave]

Originally Posted by eastbay

There are some great books written by the German survivors of the Russian POW/Gulag camps. Interesting methods the German prisoners developed for food supplements and "grain reclamation"

My mom was captured by the Russians on at least one occasion during the War. Never sent away though. At the time the border was not really in place, but it was starting and the Russians were patrolling what was to become the border. Her town was very close, ended up on the West side, while half her family ended up on the East. They would try to sneak across the line to give food and clothes to the family. Russians fired at them (warning shots), took them to an outpost, ate or destroyed the food, destroyed the clothes, then set my mom and the rest back to the "West".