Unknown vintage cars from Hesse: It's roaring in the Odenwald

Photos: Marcus Kaufhold

It roars in the Odenwald

By THOMAS GEIGER

Photos: Marcus Kaufhold

September 4th, 2022 · Cars from Hesse?

They are Opel, and you also know Adler from Frankfurt.

But Röhr from Ober-Ramstadt is almost forgotten.

In the 1930s, preparations were made to compete with Mercedes and Horch.

A pharmacy, a few offices and apartments, a day care center and a free church community - there is not much left of automotive history on Falconstraße in Ober-Ramstadt.

But it could have turned out very differently, says Werner Schollenberger.

He is a historian and local patriot and probably knows the history of the area better than anyone here in the 15,000-strong town in southern Hesse.

Because the retired coachbuilder has dedicated himself to the Röhr company, which put his hometown on the automotive world map from this site, at least for a few years.

And if the National Socialists hadn't intervened, then the towns at the foot of the Odenwald would perhaps be the second major automobile location in the country alongside Rüsselsheim, and Mercedes-Benz would not have to defend itself against Audi and BMW alone,

One of the most impressive things about cars from the 1930s are the headlights.

Once they built magnificent cars in Ober-Ramstadt that were in no way inferior to a Mercedes or a Horch, says Schollenberger and raves about the R8, whose premiere at the Berlin Motor Show in 1928 began the short Röhr interlude.

Because the factory on Falconstraße was too small for mass production and Röhr therefore had to earn money with small quantities, the Hessians made a big splash right from the start: They developed their own eight-cylinder and around it a car that they could use were inspired by aircraft construction.

No wonder, after all, Hans Gustav Röhr and his designer Joseph Dauben came from aviation, designed high-altitude engines and set themselves the goal of "building the airplane for the country road," reports the historian.

And when they absolutely couldn't find anyone who wanted to produce their Röhr car, they went into business themselves in 1926 and ended up in Ober-Ramstadt more or less by accident.

Because there they could cheaply take over the halls of the Falcon works, which had to file for bankruptcy after only four years of operation.

For local patriot Schollenberger, the founding year of 1922 marks the start of the Ober-Ramstadt automotive location and was reason enough for extensive anniversary celebrations a few weeks ago.

Instead of Emily as in Rolls-Royce, an R like Röhr pulls the radiator.

Röhr's and Dauben's rather inconspicuous debut was a car that outperformed the competition primarily with its exceptional driving characteristics.

After all, the sedan with a top speed of 90 km/h was one of the first cars with independent wheel suspension and rack-and-pinion steering, and it was also lighter and significantly flatter than the others and therefore had a lower center of gravity: "With the lightweight construction and a low-bed box frame made of sheet steel, aircraft construction showed the way here ' says Schollenberger.

And when Röhr and Dauben then brought the somewhat tired eight-cylinder into shape by increasing the displacement from 2.0 to 2.25 liters for the Röhr R8 Type R and thus the power from 40 to 50 hp and the top speed from 90 increased to 100 km/h, the breakthrough was within reach:

The engine has eight cylinders, but only 2.25 liters and a modest 50 hp

But success faltered during the global economic crisis after 1,200 cars had been produced, the company had to file for bankruptcy and started again as "Neue Röhr Werke AG" in 1931, with fresh money from Switzerland and a new car - the Röhr Junior.

Built in 1932 on the basis of a Tatra license, this car, which is significantly smaller and only half the price of the R8, was also well received and sold no less than 1,700 units - before the Nazi reprisals against Jewish capital became too great in 1934, and so did the new ones Röhr works go bankrupt, so that automobile production in Ober-Ramstadt finally comes to an end in 1935.

The curved R can also be found on the steering wheel

Only very few know Röhr today, not to mention the Falcon works before that.

However, the automotive history at the foot of the Odenwald is not quite over yet - even if the long neglected factory site is now a shopping center, residential and commercial area.

But five kilometers further as the crow flies, the Würth subsidiary Baier & Michels sees itself in the tradition of the horsepower pioneers.

And even if it only supplies connecting elements for the automotive industry, the company's showroom still has one of the little more than two dozen tubes that have withstood the ravages of time to this day.

Almost like a motor vehicle license: sticker in the engine compartment with data

"We just had to bring a car like that here," says managing director Jörg Pohl and talks about an almost hopeless search.

Because anyone who still owns a Röhr today will hardly give it up.

When he did find an R8/R in France a few years ago, paying for it was not enough.

"I had to formally apply for it, the owners are so careful with the fragile legacy of the brand." Apparently with success.

Because the car has been adorning the showroom since Christmas 2018 - and Pohl is always on tour with it and is always surprised anew at how well the pre-war model is to drive.

This weekend, too, the exotic veteran is on the move again - and at the vintage car gala in Schwetzingen is part of what is probably the largest gathering of Röhr models since production in Ober-Ramstadt ended.

It's big when a total of less than 4,000 cars were built and, according to the current state of knowledge, not much more than two dozen have survived.

In the front a Röhr Junior from 1933 with Dutch license plates

Pohl's R8 Type R is therefore a real rarity.

But no other tube is as rare as the "Tatzelwurm", which is one of the bizarre stars of the anniversary celebrations.

Because as a test car for high-speed test drives on the Reichsautobahn, it is a one-off - and on top of that it is uniquely ugly.

That may be because the car wasn't an official development project, Reiner Seume has found out since the Düsseldorf collector bought the exotic car in a questionable quirk of fate a few years ago.

Rather, the Tatzelwurm is the self-construction of the trainee Karl-Wilhelm Ostwald, who was doing his training in Ober-Ramstadt at the time and had discovered the excess chassis of a Junior for himself.

Absolutely one-of-a-kind: A Röhr test car.

Because he is so ugly, he was baptized Tatzelwurm.

Photo: Thomas Geiger

He comes from a family that literally has gasoline in its blood.

After all, grandfather received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and father invented the most important additives for Aral petrol.

And as if that wasn't enough, the senior is also considered a co-inventor of the motor press, a co-initiator of the Berlin Motor Show and, above all, one of the initiators of the Autobahn.

So it's no wonder that juniors also crave speed.

At a time when streamlined racing cars were being built for record drives between Berlin and Rome and the autobahn between Frankfurt and Darmstadt was becoming a racetrack, he too was striving for something faster.

That's why he draws a body that isn't pretty, but is supposed to be sleek, builds a closed radiator and presses the car down as low as possible on the asphalt.

Even the cardan shaft does not run backwards under the floor, but between the seats.

With his work, Ostwald at least qualifies as a "speaker for standard measurements and motor vehicles" for comparative drives on motorways and country roads.

The car was even registered in Heppenheim in October 1934 and somehow survived the turmoil of war.

It is said that it was too ugly even for the military, when everything else that could drive was confiscated.

Hence the name: Tatzelwurm, because it is so ugly.

The car was even registered in Heppenheim in October 1934 and somehow survived the turmoil of war.

It is said that it was too ugly even for the military, when everything else that could drive was confiscated.

Hence the name: Tatzelwurm, because it is so ugly.

The car was even registered in Heppenheim in October 1934 and somehow survived the turmoil of war.

It is said that it was too ugly even for the military, when everything else that could drive was confiscated.

Hence the name: Tatzelwurm, because it is so ugly.

Röhr at the Classic Gala in Schwetzingen

This Röhr Junior Roadster once belonged to Marion Gräfin Dönhoff.

Today it is owned by a couple from Brandenburg.

Read more

This weekend, for the eighteenth time, the Classic Gala in the extensive palace gardens of Schwetzingen will feature precious automobiles and all sorts of other things.

One of the focal points are the Röhr automobiles, 15 of which will be on display.

That's almost half of the entire inventory.

Curator Hans Hedtke, who has been on the organizing team for years, put a lot of effort into putting the Röhr cars together.

The white roadster was specially brought from Brandenburg.

In addition to the Röhrs, there are 150 other classics to see.

Topics include 120 years of Cadillac or 110 years of Bertone.

There are also rare one-offs on site, such as the Glas M61 or a Kaiser tricycle from the 1930s.

Admission is eight euros, concessions four.

A tour of the seventh Eco-Gala on the Schlossplatz is free of charge,

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