It is hardly possible in these recent times for anyone including our team here at Naijauto.com to claim not to know or heard of the great German dictator – Adolf Hitler.
He was the most popular leader of the German Nazi Party back then and was well known around the world as one of the 20th century most notorious and powerful dictator that ever lived. He was recorded to have capitalized on popular discontent, economic woes and much political infighting taking over total power in Germany starting from early 1933. Hitler also led Germany to invade Poland in 1939 which eventually led to the later outbreak of World War II.
Adolf Hitler – One of the world’s most powerful and notorious dictators of the 20th century
Hitler was probably famous because of his obsession for supremacy that led to the murder of over 6 million Jews among many other uncountable murder cases and deaths during his rule which was all resulting from his commands and rulership.
However, in this post, we are actually focusing on the car he used throughout which was the Mercedes Benz 770K Grosser. This car was known as “Großer Mercedes” which was meant “large Mercedes” in the German language. The Benz 770K was built by Mercedes from the year 1930 to 1943 and was such a luxury car in its days.
During this production period, the “1939 Mercedes Benz 770 Grosser Offener Tourenwagen” – the exact model used by Adolf Hitler was literally the most advanced technologically among the cars of that time.
It was a 4-seater, 7.7L convertible that had armour-plating with 30mm bulletproof thick glass. This car was used in 1940 for the state visit of the Benito Mussolini and was also used many times by Adolf Hitler for various rallies across entire Europe.
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Mercedes Benz 770K Grosser – Adolf Hitler’s car during the World War II period
This long 20-foot limousine was recorded to be last used by Hitler on the 4th of May 1941 at the old Reichstag during a parade as he was celebrating his defeat of Greece and Yugoslavia. Even till date, the original chassis number “189744” and plate registration number “IA148461” were still left on the Mercedes Benz 770K “Grand” or “Grosser”.
The US Army seized this partially armoured car after the war. It was said to be not much used and discovered in France by some American armed forces who were not even aware of its history but rather used it as a sort of military pool car for many months earlier.
Before the car made its way to the US, it was confined under the use of the United States Army Military Police which was then stationed in Le Havre, France.
It was used in many parades after being donated to one of the local branches of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The Benz 770K grosser at some point got parked, retired and forgotten in one storage garage for a long time until the year 1976.
Since then, the car has recorded various American owners on it before it was later sold in 2004 to a European Collector.
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Adolf Hitler standing in the Mercedes Benz 770K Grosser on one of his parades
Upon the rediscovery of this unforgettable car, it has since been appearing in various museums as well as displays including the Canadian War Museum (Ottawa), the Historical Antique Automobile Museum (Chicago), the Las Vegas Casino, and the Imperial Palace Hotel in Las Vegas.
It’s worth mentioning that this Hitler’s car is actually the last one out from a total of 8 units of the original W150 770K variant that was made and only 5 of them survived till date. Also, out of these surviving five, only 3 which include this particular Hitler’s own is in private custody while the other 2 are with different museums worldwide.
One of the Hitler’s Benz 770K was allegedly purchased as of November 2009 for several millions of euros by an unidentified Billionaire of Russian origin.
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