It's a Maybach, but what's going on?

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Here's a Monday Mystery with a bit of a difference. We know exactly what the car is - it's a Maybach 12, one of the best German cars money could buy - and we even know exactly when the photo was taken - 10th August 1930. Almost certainly, the location is somewhere in Germany.

However, we can't for the life of us work out what's going on. It must be some sort of motoring event, but what could it possibly be? The cars are worthy of a concours, being very high-end models and mainly German. Behind the Maybach is a Mercedes-Benz, and the photographer has pointed out that also in shot is an eight-cylinder Chrysler belonging to Lilian Harvey, the famous Anglo-German actress and singer. We think they are referring to the large coupé with landau irons seen between the Maybach and the Mercedes.

The Maybach and the Mercedes both display numbers in their headlight lenses - 145 and 146 respectively - so this was obviously an event where attendance was by invite or pre-entry only. The fact that there are no people among the cars, but people are required to stand behind a barrier, suggests that the location is a track or closed section of highway where cars would be moving at a reasonable speed. As you can see, though, all the cars are perfectly stationary.

It's obviously a rally, tour or concours of some description, but besides that it has us stumped. It would help if we could decipher the Germanic handwriting on the back of the photograph...

Do you know recognise the event? If you have even the faintest idea, please tell us what you think in the comments below. And if you can't tell us that but you still want to show us how clever you are, why not have a go at seeing how many of the other cars you can identify?

Words: Zack Stiling; picture: Stiling Collection
 

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