The recent strife in Ukraine, which has seen the flight of President Viktor Yanukovych from the capital Kiev, has included a scene that is obligatory in the fall of corrupt dictatorships around the world: the revealing of a lavish presidential residence with a vast collection of cars. In the case of Ukraine, journalists found a significant item missing from the presidential car collection: a Horch 855 Special Roadster, one of only seven examples of the flagship model of Auto Union built between 1935 and 1939. Only three are known to survive.
1938 Horch 855 Special Roadster at Pebble Beach in 1999. Photo from www.classics.com
The Horch 855 Special Roadster represented the peak of Horch and Auto Union before the Second World War, a flagship model intended to compete with the Mercedes-Benz 500K in the small and rarefied market for ultra-luxury grand touring cars. First announced in 1935, it had a 5 liter straight eight engine rated at 120 horsepower and a maximum speed of 87 miles per hour. Priced at 22,000 Reichsmarks (approximately $150,000 today), the 855 proved to be less popular than the more powerful and prestigious 500K, and Horch sold only seven from 1936 to 1939, including one to Hermann Goering.
1938 Horch 855 Special Roaster from the Audi Museum. Photo from www.audi.com
The two 855 Special Roadsters in these photos are two-thirds of the world’s surviving examples: one in black that lives behind glass in the Audi Museum, the other in silver displayed at Meilenwerk in Berlin. The silver car had a series of noteworthy owners: originally purchased by Hermann Goering, it then went to movie director Veit Harlan, one of the leading filmmakers of the Third Reich, whose productions included cast-of-thousands war epics and an anti-Semitic propaganda film that led to him being charged with crimes against humanity after the war; then to Walter Ulbricht, leader of East Germany from 1950 to 1971.
With Yanukovych’s Horch 855 Special Roadster now disappeared, photographs of it are currently unavailable among the photographs that journalists have taken of Yanukovych’s vast car and motorcycle collection, only a fraction of which is shown in the photograph above. It includes examples of most of the products of the Soviet Union’s automotive industry, Mercedes-Benzes, a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, and even a 1964 Chevrolet. The presence of the Horch is known only from an empty parking space with a data plate, which misrepresents the car as being from 1935, the year that the model was first displayed at auto shows and not the first year of production. Based on a brief reference to the car in a story about a 2012 auto show in Kyiv, which does not mention Yanukovych being the owner, it is from 1938.
Viktor Yanukovych with the two tone GAZ M20 Pobeda (Victory) seen in the previous photograph, at an automobile event with Prime Minister of Russia Dmitri Medvedev. Photo from the Moscow Times.
The provenance of Yanukovych’s Horch 855 Special Roadster is also currently unknown, but it no doubt will prove to be interesting. Originally purchased by one of the most wealthy and powerful individuals of the Third Reich, it quite likely went to the Soviet Union as a spoil of war of a top Red Army commander, such as Marshal Georgiy Zhukov or Marshal Ivan Konev, the commanders of the conquest of Berlin. It then somehow came into the possession of Viktor Yanukovych. If real life were an episode of Archer, Yanukovych would be using his prized Horch as his getaway car, but alas a conspicuous car like a Horch 855 Special Roadster is the worst possible vehicle to drive while on the run; instead, the Horch is probably in the hands of a powerful and connected person who knew about it and sent men to take it away before the press and public arrived at Yanukovych’s mansion. Its story is still being written.
It seems Yanukovytch wasn’t taught how to disguise his wealth as well as his Western counterparts.
Has anyone disguised their wealth better than Putin?
Antiquities going missing. This is becoming a common story. What an absolutely beautiful car.
He has set them back 50 years. They loot our very history.
What a mess. Tempted to talk politics here, but won’t. I just looked up Mussolini’s escape car. I always thought it was the Lancia Astura, but that would have been a bit too visible. It was a black Fiat Berlinetta.
Don, I know what you mean but I enjoy talking about cars MUCH more than politics. Our society seems to have become much too extreme to discuss politics. You can discuss cars with almost anyone.
+1
Governmental collapse is a scary thought since you can either have a Tunisia-like situation or a Syria-like situation. Then there are all the citizens that would go hog wild when they feel the police do not have them under their thumb.
Robert, Thank you for this posting. I think Horch is a marque that is often overlooked. I am a big fan of German cars from this era. I like Horch just as much as Mercedes and in the case of certain models, sometimes more.
I really hope nothing bad happens to that collection. I’m not entirely up to date with the situation over there other than it being anarchy, but hopefully those cars and motorcycles are saved and later shown in museums or something.
It sounds like the Horch might be the rarest or most expensive from that collection and therefore was tucked away fearing the worst.
I’m sure the story is sad and maybe mundane, but I’m always interested with these cars that went through World War II and were lost. I’d like to know what happened to the other 4. Was it bombings? Considered not valuable after the war? I’d like to know.
Looks like a heck of a collection. I, like Leo318, hope that they won’t be damaged or lost in the months ahead.
Better a thief than a sinkhole, I suppose. Seriously, a fascinating and beautiful car. This is one that I know absolutely nothing about, so I very much enjoyed this piece.
My father taught me the story of Horch and Audi. After August Horch was forced out of his company (in 1909), he started a new company. Since he couldn’t use his own name, he used the Latin version of it: Audi (the imperative of “hear” or “listen”).
Horch was bought by DKW in 1928, and in 1932, DKW, Horch, Wanderer and Audi merged to for Auto Union. Horch lived (and died) in the shadow of Mercedes, but they made some superb cars.
Linguistic CC Effect- Having Latin as a second language, I am learning 3rd-4th conjugation verbs right now and learned the Latin word, audi (I hear) in Latin last week.
Edward, Don’t forget Volvo (I roll).
Oh yes, the good old Swedish tanks, like the Volvo CCXL and DCCXL.
Hehehe +XXIV
VW should have revived Horch brand name for its top of the line W8 engined cars, the same as did MB with Maybach brand.
It was a huge marketing mistake by Ferdinand Piech to put the VW name on those expensive cars.
No surprise as good engineers are always poor marketeers.
Pronounced, I suppose, “Hork” , rather than to rhyme with “porch”.
Needless to say, if VW-Auto Union had chosen to reanimate it rather than Audi, there are places where it would be pronounced the latter way…
Pronounced “horch” with the “ch” pronounced as only native-born Germans/Austrians pronounce it. How to describe it?
I was truly stunned when I heard Americans who had studied German extensively (and even taught it) pronounce “ch” like “k” or even “sh”. They just couldn’t pronounce it properly. Same goes with a German guttural “r”; Americans roll it, totally different.
Of course, you should hear how Germans pronounce the English “th” 🙂
I was lucky, being seven when I moved to the US: young enough to pick up American pronunciation; old enough to remember the German way too.
Does this sound correct to you ? Pronunciation in German and, mind you, in Mainfrankisch (click on the small blue arrows): http://nl.forvo.com/word/horch/
Same with my Dutch. I can’t do it, but at least I know I can’t do it although I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse.
Fantastic car, sad in general what happens when goverments change like this
Not to this Tirolean 🙂 Sounds very North German (obviously). Down here in the Alps, we pronounce “ch” in a very guttural way. As if we were trying to clear our throats….
Actually, to my ears, the Spanish pronunciation of “j” as in Mejico comes quite close to the German “ch”.
There is even the same variation in pronunciation as between the different dialects/accents of German. Some speakers say “Me-hi-co” and others “Me-khi-co”. Most Germans say “Horr-hhi” (with a muted i) while Swiss Germans say “Horr-kh”.
I hope this helps for those readers more familiar with Spanish than German…
Paul, I think your last sentence says it all.
“Horch lived (and died) in the shadow of Mercedes, but they made some superb cars.”
Bernd Rosemeyer owned a Horch Coupe that looked very similar to these roadsters. Could it have been an 855 coupe?
I like to think the ex President fled the country in its passenger seat.
” To the border, Ludmilla!”
If this car still exists, it’s probably being driven across Siberia by Dirk Pitt, with shadowy gangsters leveling AK47’s at every bend in the road.
Looks very similar to, but scaled up, a 1939 Wanderer W25K Sports Roadster I saw a couple of years ago. I don’t think there is any substantial connection between the two other than reflecting the style of the German auto industry at the time, and it is interesting how these are quite distinct in appearance from a similar British or Italian car of the time.
Or Travis McGee is playing poker with it in the pot right now.
I hope that the collection is opened up to the public, like what happened to the Schlumpf collection in Alsace when it was discovered.
I think this may be the missing 855, judging from its maroon-over-silver paint job (picture from flickr):
Tom,
Great find. What was the museum where this car was photographed, and where did you find the photo? I am quite interesting in tracking down all of the details that I can about this story.
As an aside, we seem to have been the first to break this story in the English language. Autoweek picked it up two days later, and a small online new service that I had never heard of before also did the story, in abbreviated form, later in the same day.
Robert,
I have no idea what museum it was in or when it was photographed, but it was on Flickr. Here is the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/83067426@N02/8996438364/in/photolist-eGZ6Gh-9D7zPj-6trrhD-6tvniJ-5PuuPM-gBc2EK-6zBDyr-akVAJw-skM2r-eYaSCX-j2MN61
This photo was taken (by me: Clay) at the EFA-Museum für Deutsche Automobilgeschichte in Amerang (Germany)
Do not mix up this car with the “855 Gläser Spezial-Rodster” (1938-1939 and 7 built). The Gläser bodies were built after the “855 Spezial-Roadster”, built by “Auto Union AG
in-house”.
Horch prepared the “855 Spezial-Roadster” for sales with the top German officials.
The 855 “Spezial-Roadster” was a shorter version of the “853” and was fitted the best German coachwork available.
Known as the third-series Spezial Roadsters, these 855s were the ultimate Horch.
Gr. Clay
This photo was taken (by me: Clay) at the EFA-Museum für Deutsche Automobilgeschichte in Amerang (Germany)
Do not mix up this car with the “855 Gläser Spezial-Rodster” (1938-1939 and 7 built). The Gläser bodies were built after the “855 Spezial-Roadster”, built by “Auto Union AG
in-house”.
Horch prepared the “855 Spezial-Roadster” for sales with the top German officials.
The 855 “Spezial-Roadster” was a shorter version of the “853” and was fitted the best German coachwork available.
Known as the third-series Spezial Roadsters, these 855s were the ultimate Horch.
Gr. Clay