In 1884, The diverse African continent It was distributed among the European powers as if it were a cake. The Berlin Conference regulated the colonization of Africa and established which country stayed with each portion. Germany stayed with a good piece of the continent and, although it lost everything after the World War Ithere is something that no one can snatch them: having been the first to demonstrate the reliability of the first cars “4×4”.
The feat? Simple: Crossing Africa from coast to coast on a trip of about 10,000 kilometers through unknown territories for the car.
The adventure begins. The protagonist of this story is called Paul Graetz. He was a German officer who, between 1902 and 1904, served as a lieutenant in German Eastern Africa. After a brief return to his homeland, 1907 returned to Africa with a goal: to find a route between what was German and Africa Africa of the Southwest German (which is currently Tanzania and Namibia) to establish a motorized connection. A direct route between the two territories (each in a different coast) would allow a better economic development and, therefore, a benefit for those German regions.
Thus, he got to work to devise a route that was from Dar-Es-Salam (Tanzania) to Swakopmund (Namibia). It would not be easy, since it would be necessary to cross mountains, deserts, jungles, savannas and rivers in an unexplored territory for the car. All this, obviously, without having roads or roads. Basically, he would make his way. The problem was, evidently, the car itself.
The car. It was the first challenge of the trip because, if it would be something complicated for the best 4×4 current, for a great -grandfather of 1907, imagine. That is why he did not use a conventional car, but one made “custom”. Graetz began to contact several companies and-heard air-it was the Süddeutsche Automobil-Fabrik Gaggenau who accepted the challenge.
They only existed from 1905 to 1910 and subsequently became part of Benz & Cie (which, in turn, became Daimler-Benz Agbetter known as Mercedes-Benz), and what they did was to modify one of their numerous models for the conditions it would find in Africa.
- Chassis made to measure with an elevation of 35 centimeters on the standard of the time to circulate through complicated territories. The elevation was achieved with wooden blocks.
- A four -cylinder engine and a power of 35 hp.
- Two gas tanks for long marches: one 250 liters in the rear and another forward with another 125/145 liters.
- “Mortital” and reinforced body to transport heavy loads.
- Wooden wheels, eye, with a diameter of 1,120 mm and a width of 120 mm.
The wood for certain components may seem a barrabasada, but it was the technology of the time. It had a large storage capacity due to size, the interior could be transformed into a bedroom (with mosquito net and everything) and had oil lamps to drive in the dark.
Issues. We cannot say that Süddeutsche Automobil-Fabrik Gaggenau did not give Gracez a good ‘car’, but the problems would soon appear. The expedition (basically, Graetz) departed on August 10, 1907. The tests for the car had been done in Germany, so both the driver and the vehicle would enter ‘Terra Incognita’. The rain was a problem and forced to improvise a metal reinforcement (the first wheels with chain), remained stuck in dunes, gasoline evaporated and even had to wear the car by boat during a section of Lake Tanganika.
The worst was mechanics. The one of Graetz the only one in colonial Germany and a rare Avis in thousands of kilometers around the engine so, when the engine had a breakdown, he was forced to wait three months for the spare parts to arrive. In addition, there were no mechanics, so they learned on the march to repair it.
It is believed that it has a C15
“Gut Gemacht, Graetz”As it may be, about 630 days later and With about 10,000 kilometers on the counterthe German explorer and his car managed to reach Swakopmund. It was on May 1, 1909 and Kaisewr Guillermo II himself congratulated him with a telegram that was not too effusive. “Gut Gemacht, Graetz”, which becomes a “good job, Graetz.”
In that congratulation I should have included the hundreds of collaborators that the explorer had during his journey, but we already know how these things are going.
History. The feat was followed by the press and was seen as an example of the industrial and power advances of the new engines and vehicles against nature. Currently, that first 4×4, that deeply modified vehicle that allowed an adventurer to cross Africa from coast to coast more than a century ago, is a piece of a museum and a reminder that, perhaps, was the first Road Trip of history.
The bug of exploration was still within Graetz and only one year later, in 1911, he launched A second expedition with the aim of traveling the Bangweulusee river from Mozambique to the Atlantic in a motor boat of more than eight meters. On this occasion, he took a filmmaker with him that he captured some images, but after an attack of a buffalo, the filmmaker died and Graetz was seriously injured.
The images were considered ‘Lost Media’ for almost a century, but in 2007 they were found in the basement of the Gracez’s own house, and part are the ones you can see just about this paragraph. It is clear that explorer is born, it is not done, and since everything has to be capitalized, There are tours to emulate the route of the German explorer.
Images | Mercedes-Benz, Paul Graetz
In Xatala | The US needed to confuse the Nazis in World War II. So it deployed airplanes and lie tanks
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings