Hitler's Car Being Auctioned – Super Mercedes Seized By US In '45

SCOTTSDALE, AZ — On Oct. 6, 1939, a brand new Mercedes-Benz 770K Grosser Offener Tourenwagen made its debut. With its owner safely inside, the car was a part of a large motorcade headed to the Old Reichstag Chancellery in Berlin.

With international and German media watching along with members of the Nazi Propaganda Ministry's Technical Service Department, the car's owner stepped out and headed into the building.

The owner? Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

On Jan. 17, that very car will be auctioned off by Worldwide Auctioneers in Scottsdale, Arizona. It's expected to bring in tens of millions of dollars, 10 percent of which will be donated to a charity that works to promote Holocaust education and racial tolerance.

Worldwide calls it "the most historically significant automobile" ever offered for public sale.

"We are acutely aware of the responsibility attached to presenting such an impactful piece of history for public sale," Rod Egan, principal and auctioneer at the auction house, says. "However, this motorcar did not choose its original owner nor its use.

"No car does for that matter."

Egan says that even if you were to set aside the car's previous owner, it is still historically significant — one of only five of the models surviving and one of only three that is privately owned. Only 88 had been built.

"This vehicle is one of the most outstanding and historically important cars ever built," says Egan. "It is however so much more than a car. It is an artifact that continues to stand and serve as a singular piece of irreplaceable living history and as a reminder that the evil which is a part of its history must never be permitted to recur."

That said, Egan concedes, it can't really be separated from its ownership history.

"There's a reason that this car is coming for sale now," Egan says. "We're living in a dangerous time and this is an important reminder that one man can change the world and not necessarily for the better.

"And it's a reminder that that person was defeated."

Egan says with threats such as North Korea facing the world, it is very important to remind people of what has happened before.

"Our hope is that it will be used in a setting such as a public museum or collection where it can be shown and used to continually educate generations to come."

As part of their effort to make sure that that happens, the auction house says that not everyone will be allowed to just go in and bid on the car. Potential bidders will be interviewed by Egan and others at the auction house.

Slightly more than one dozen people — from as far away as China, Hungary, Germany, and Russia — have registered so far.

Known as a "Super Mercedes," the auction house says that the car was ordered by Hitler's primary chauffeur, Erich Kempka and designed specifically for Hitler. it includes bulletproof glass and armor plating.

The car was used to carry Hitler in parades celebrating the defeat of France, Yugoslavia, and Greece, and one celebrating a 1940 state visit by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

It was seized by the U.S. Army at the end of the war and used by their military police stationed in Le Havre, France.

The car then made its way to the United States where it was bought by a man who donated it to the Greenvile, North Carolina, branch of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

They used the car in parades to carry dignitaries and Gold Star mothers for several years before placing it into storage.

It remained forgotten until 1976 when it was rediscovered and sold.

The new owners confirmed the car's history and had it restored.

The car was displayed around the country, eventually landing at the Imperial Palace Casino and Hotel and Las Vegas.

In 2004, it was one of 21 Mercedes-Benz cars sold to a European collector.

Egan says there's no way to guarantee how the car will be used but he is hopeful.

"I know we can't mandate that someone use the car for educational purposes," he says. "But wouldn't it be great if it were displayed at a museum where people could see it.

"It would be great if it could serve as a reminder of the evil that can happen and the sacrifice that was needed to defeat it."

Photos courtesy Worldwide Auctioneers