Thursday, December 03, 2009

Leaving Las Vegas, Hitler's Favorite Car



A car expert says he has tracked down Hitler's favorite Mercedes to a garage near the town that helped the Austrian-born Fuehrer become a German citizen.
Classic cars specialist Michael Froehlich said he found the bullet-proof touring car after charting its postwar travels from Austria to Las Vegas and back to Munich, where Hitler burst onto the political scene with a failed putsch in 1923.
"It was the best car in the world at the time. Better than the Bugatti, Bentley, Rolls Royce or whatever," Froehlich told Reuters from his office in Duesseldorf. "It was his favorite car: the one he used most often, which he used for parades."
After being commissioned by a Cypriot buyer to find the vehicle, Froehlich discovered it had been bought by a farmer near Braunschweig, where in 1932 local Nazi officials got Hitler a civil servant's job so he could claim citizenship.
The dark blue car, which Froehlich said had spent decades in the basement of the Imperial Palace Casino in Las Vegas, was recently sold by the heirs of a Munich brewing tycoon before he traced it "in under two months" to northern Germany.
Froehlich said reports the buyer was Russian were mistaken, and rejected the notion that past owners of the vehicle with the number plate "1A 148 461" were admirers of the dictator. "They weren't Nazis from what I can see, I think it's something they saw as a business investment," he said. "I can well imagine that an old Hitler banger has a certain value."
Froehlich declined to name the car's price tag, or give details about the buyer, but said the 1935 edition custom-made vehicle could fetch "more than 10 million euros ($14.91 million)."
Though he had not yet had outside confirmation of the car's authenticity, the owner's paperwork left no doubt, he added.
"The Mercedes sales register shows this 770 K model was ordered for the Fuehrer and Chancellor of the Reich in 1935," he said.
Only 88 of the series were ever made and the Braunschweig car showed all the special modifications made for Hitler, who had to be driven because he had no "Fuehrerschein" -- a German word made up from "driver" and "license" -- Froehlich said.
Editor's Comments:
I really think the no "driver's license" is just another jab at Hitler. Adolf just liked being driven. Can you imagine the leader of any country hoping in the driver's seat of a limo and driving him/herself... It is also known that Adolf had many cars and that he did drive in private. Also that he designed the original Volkswagen Beetle. Prof. Ferdinand Porsche manufactured the first Volkswagen but Hitler drew the design of the body and the air cooled engine.

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Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Director Roman Polanski House Arrest

The story of Roman Polanski continues to get deeper. The 76-year-old director must stay in his house and wear an electronic bracelet as officials decide whether to extradite him to the U.S. for having sex near 32 years ago with a 13-year-old girl. Polanski will be transferred on Friday to his chalet at Gstaad, Switzerland. Polanski has been in Swiss custody since being arrested Sept. 26 on a U.S. warrant as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award at a film festival. Authorities in Los Angeles want him returned to be sentenced after 31 years as a fugitive. Polanski was initially accused of raping the 13-year-old girl after plying her with champagne and a Quaalude pill during a modeling shoot in 1977. He was indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molestation and sodomy, but he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse. Roman fled the USA before being sentenced and has lived in France where he became a citizen. Just do a search for Roman Polanski and see all the other twists and turns...



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