Quickly, dust off your NSU Quickly and see you at the NSU Lido!
Three guys heading out with their NSU Quicklys
In 1955 the Italian general importers of NSU Angelo Macola and Ignazio Vok established a camping place on a piece of land on the Lido, just east of Venice. They called it the NSU Lido and welcomed anyone, especially those arriving on a NSU vehicle.
Two Prinz 3 at NSU Lido, one from Karlsruhe and one from Munich.
NSU seized the opportunity to link their motorized 2-wheelers and later their cars with the dreams of their users: vacations in Italy and getting there on a NSU motorbike or scooter. They spread the word in a 30 minute film, narrated in German of course. But here is a much shorter Italian promo:
After NSU became part of the Auto Union the name was changed to Union Lido. A summer vacation at Union Lido became a tradition for countless families from all over Europe, in particular Germany, Netherlands and Scandinavia. The Union Lido continuously added and updated their services that made the Union Lido a self contained vacation resort. You can reserve your spot on their website. Do it in time and you can join the 38. International Meet of the NSU Club from May 24 to 27, 2018. More info here.
What can you expect? Lots of NSU of course!
Wolfgang, thanks for this trip back in time to a place in Italy I didn’t know existed. I knew that these types of large campgrounds were very popular with Germans in the 50s, partly because of the huge number of German cars and motorcycles that came through Innsbruck every summer on the way to Italy. But an NSU-themed campground. Wow. I wonder if there were other campgrounds oriented to specific brands?
Reminded me of a classic scene in a Raggionere Fantozzi film. This is a character of the Italian comedy scene performed by Paolo Villaggio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JS1qq7nqos&t=26s
The first minute depicts Fantozzi and his friend arriving late at the camping site and being shouted by the germans (tedeschi) who complain that the Italians always are noisy and disturb everybody with the mandolino (guitar).
That’s hilarious!
I was quite surprised by this discovery. If you bought a new NSU vehicle you received a free stay at the NSU Lido. That’s a brilliant way of promoting both business. The German movie is 20 minutes long. I can imagine that it was shown as a pre-show in movie theaters.
This site never ceases to amaze me. As a child, my parents had two favorite places to stop off for week of R&R in Italy. One was the Lago di Garda, the other was Lido Jesolo. I had no idea that campground was right down the road. We always stayed at a hotel on the water to soak in the sun. We found this spot quite by accident. Dad’s new Mercedes was experiencing some brake issues, and the closest town was Jesolo. We nursed it into town, found a hotel and a shop. Dad bribed the mechanics to stay late at night and redo the rear drums (they were hanging up apparently). During the wait, mom discovered there was a popular beach close by. We wound up staying a week. Quite lucky- they loved visiting Venice, just across the bay, but didn’t like staying there.
Quick funny story- about 20 yrs ago we were checking into a hotel in Lido, and you could see the beach clearly from the lobby. In Europe, topless beach going is fairly common for the ladies. My wife looked out…. her jaw dropped… and the only thing she could come up with was “there’s NO WAY I’m doing that! Don’t ask! I can’t believe they’d do that with kids around.” (we had ours along for the trip). The next time we visited, about 4 years later, she must’ve had a change of heart. When in Rome…. ummm, yeah.
Thanks, again, for a great trip down memory lane.
*Another random observation. Back in the 60’s, most of the cars in the hotel parking lots had German plates. When we were there last, our rental BMW was the only German car in the parking lot. Plenty of BMW’s and what-not, but all with Italian plates. Times change.
Speaking about topless beaches, it was the big trend during the eighties on the beaches in Croatia. Almost all beaches suddenly became topless, and in many cases bottomless as well…
This years ladies are dressing more conservative, I believe that proliferation of phone cameras and compact ultrazooms took care of that.
Great images Wolgang
Great stuff, and something I knew nothing about. Of course, car travel from northern Europe to Italy/France/Spain and camp near the Mediterranean beach is familiar enough, and organised tours and package holidays just as familiar. But a camp site set up and run by a bike and car company for their customers – completely new to me, and seems to create a nice atmosphere.
From the early film, it looks almost like a little part of Germany, maybe a Baltic or Alpine holiday site, transported to the Lido, with warmer weather, complete with German language signposting. presumably NSU owners got a special rate?
And to spend your holiday that close to all those Ro80s……….:-)))))
I suspect that it may have been a more welcoming vacation spot for German tourists, since it hadn’t been that long since the war. I remember in the mid-late ’60s, here in California, there was still resentment towards Japanese products, and German cars were sometimes shunned by those with a Jewish background.
I am not sure how this worked out. In any case Italy has been a popular travel destinations for well to do Germans and with the economic success more and more could afford to go. That was and still is good business for Italy of course.
On the other hand Germany was and still is an important place for employment for people form the Mediterranean countries. It’s a multifaceted relationship between the people.
I understand that this was an initiative by the Italian importers of NSU and NSU liked it as another way of promoting their products. It was low cost for either to give away a stay at the NSU Lido, knowing that most buyers won’t be able to take advantage of it. But those who did were likely to talk favorably about the vacation and to come back the following year(s). At that time Italy was a relatively inexpensive destination because of the strong German currency and the short distance to travel.
Only a decade later Switzerland built a tunnel under the St. Gottardo because the vacation travel was unbearable for the towns and villages. Germany also staggered the school vacation from state to state to spread out the travel season.
Oh man, who could forget the old St. Gotthard.
I remember staying a week at NSU a couple of years with my grandparents.
Back then they sprayed with DDT against bugs…