AUTOCULT - DAIMLER - DERNBURG-WAGEN GERMANY 1907

In 1907, the German Imperial Colonial Office placed an order at the “Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft” to design a particularly suitable vehicle for the usage in the heat-and-sand colony of German South West Africa. The responsibility for the design of the car was put in the hands of Paul Daimler – the son of the company founder Gottlieb Daimler. At the plant in Berlin-Marienfelde, the technical crew immediately set about fulfilling the wishes of the Colonial Office in form of a truck basing on a standard chassis. Daimler invoiced the Colonial Office the amount of 34,750 gold mark (the currency of the former German Empire) for the special car, which was over four meters long and weighed 3.6 tons. The vehicle passed an extensive, 1,677 km long endurance test trip on German ground in the spring of 1908 and in May 1908 the vehicle was loaded onto the steamship “Kedive” – with destination Swakopmund in German South West Africa. Together with the car, Paul Ritter, provided by Daimler, also set out on his way to fulfill his task as a Chauffeur, but was also responsible for maintenance and repair. Accompanied by other vehicles of Daimler and Benz, the convoy set off with Bernhard Dernburg in today’s Namibia to explore the German colony. The praise of the truck, which became known as the “Dernburg-Wagen” (Dernburg car), was expressed by an immense time saving – for the 600 km long trip the convoy needed only four days, while the same route on horseback took nine days.