Rediscovering a lost streamliner: Hanomag's overlooked Autobahn-Stürmer

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It's well-known that the mid-1930s saw some extraordinary Art Déco designs for motor vehicles. If we concentrate on Europe, the French stand out most of all with their Delahayes, Delages and Bugattis by Pourtout, Figoni et Falaschi and Franay. In Great Britain, however, there was also a proliferation of streamlined models, which were less ornate but no less attractive, with names like Aero, Airline amd Speedline. Think of the coupés built in small numbers by SS, MG, Triumph, Hillman, AC, Riley and Rover. Germany’s interpretations were perhaps the least showy and must have been built in the lowest volumes, too. There were some proposed designs for Autobahn-Kuriers or Autobahn-Stürmers, as they were known, from Auto Union and DKW, while Mercedes-Benz actually built a few. These cars are among the most coveted Mercedes today and will fetch millions easily—if they ever come up for sale.

Then we come to this: the Hanomag Sturm Autobahn Coupé, as bodied by Karrosseriewerke Hebmüller of Wuppertal in 1937. It’s a car that seems to have been almost totally forgotten now, probably for no reason other than that the make disappeared as a passenger car manufacturer years ago and has never been considered remotely glamorous. Post-war, Hanomag became a constructor of wheel excavators and construction machines before it was taken over by Komatsu in 2002.

Perhaps you have seen the factory photographs of this one-off creation before, but the one of it parked on a street by what appears to be a town square with fountain is new to us. Does anyone recognise the location? The car was based on the company’s top of the range model, the 55 hp Sturm Limousine with its 2,250 cc six-cylinder engine, but little else is known about it. Who commissioned it? Who drove it? Where did it end up? Did it survive the Second World War at all? We found that a similarly styled convertible existed, also bodied by Hebmüller, and wondered if it might have been built in very small numbers, but that was not quite so Art Déco as the coupé variant with its closed spats under two-tone painted wings and fully integrated door hinges. Had it been a BMW or Mercedes it would have been recreated, surely?

Words: Jeroen Booij; pictures: archive
 

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