Tuesday 28 July 2020

Jottings from the Journals…

…and I've been reading about a visit to a car museum in Mulhouse…

Friday, 21st
 
...I'm visiting the Schlumpf museum today.  A friend has told me that I will be mesmerised… hmm, we'll see.  As it is a museum dedicated to cars, I'm kind of finding it hard to believe that I will be 'mesmerised'.  So I'm going to take my book with me and if I get bored I will find somewhere along one of the quais beside the river and sit and read and have my lunch…

The Schlumpf museum was the brainchild of two brothers, Hans and Fritz Schlumpf.  The brothers, a banker and a salesman respectively, were the sons of a Swiss industrialist.  Born in Italy, the family settled in Mulhouse in 1908 when the boys were still small children.  The brothers grew up on the family estate - Malmerspach - and as adults they amassed their personal fortunes by making smart investments in the woollen industry.
What began as an enthusiastic interest in cars for Fritz became an obsession for the pair of them.  Fritz was also a keen racing driver and one of his earliest acquisitions was a Bugatti racing car which he had in his possession before the 39/45 war.  With the war at an end, Fritz began to purchase other vehicles, which he kept, purely for his own amusement, in a shed on the estate.  In the decades following the war, Fritz and his brother Hans began buying up any classic cars that they could find.  They made offers of vast sums of money for whole collections that had already been established by others privately.  Their obsession became so ingrained that they let their business interests slide.  In the wake of industrial problems with their workers and an extensive strike in 1977, the brothers found their business interests in dire straits.  It was at this point that the world first became aware of the extent of their joint and secretive obsession with cars.
What you can see today, in a beautifully designed and purpose-built space is a history of the development of the motorcar.  There are also some of the most expensive and exclusive cars ever built.  The collection came under the direct control of a consortium in 1981 and it is that financial collective that ensures that this incredible homage to motor vehicles is now available for everyone to see.

… So, that didn't quite go as I expected.  Despite having carried my book around a vast museum all day, I haven't read a single page of it.  There are cars there that are the stuff of dreams.  Something that was quite disturbing was in the Grand Prix room.  As I sauntered along the rows of cars, checking out the photos of the drivers, I had the shocking realisation that I could recognise just about every one of them.  From Fangio right up to Ayrton Senna and his racing rivals.  I'm not supposed to know any of this, I thought.  But then, I am member of a motor club, so I guess all that knowledge has been acquired by osmosis…  Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

The museum, Cité de l'Automobile, often referred to as the Bugatti Museum because of the number of Bugatti's held there, can be found at 17, rue de la Mertzau, 68100 Mulhouse

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