Hitler’s limo to sell for millions
AN ARMOUR-PLATED convertible used by Adolf Hitler is set to sell for millions of pounds at auction next week.
A charity named after a Nazi hunter is set to benefit from the sale.
The 1939 Mercedes-Benz 770 Grosser Offener Tourenwagen is being described as “the most historically significant automobile ever offered for public sale”.
Ten per cent of proceeds from the sale will go to charities dedicated to educating people about the Holocaust, including The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. Considered the most technologicallyadvanced car of its time, the four-seater convertible was used for the 1937 state visit of Mussolini and the 1940 victory parade in Berlin after the Nazis defeated the French.
It was fitted with a 7.7-litre engine, giving the enormous limo a top speed beyond 100mph. The armour-plated car, with inch-thick bulletproof glass, was last used on parade at the Old Reichstag in Berlin on May 4, 1941, when Hitler celebrated the defeat of Yugoslavia and Greece.
When the war was over the Mercedes was seized by the American army and placed under the control and use of its military police stationed in Le Havre, France.
The car was shipped to the US in 1946 and changed hands many times until 2004, when it was bought by a European collector for $18million (£13.3million). It is one of five surviving Offener Tourenwagens and one of three in private hands. Worldwide Auctioneers is due to sell the iconic vehicle in Arizona next Wednesday.
A spokesman said: “It is hard to determine the market value on such an important and singular piece of history. Without any history it is a $5million car.”
Mercedes built 88 Grosser 770 models until the programme was cancelled in 1943.
All were produced by renowned craftsmen at Mercedes-Benz’s Sindelfingen Werks.