Ehrhardt / 21

Ehrhardt 21 police special car around 1921

The Ehrhardt / 21 was a wheeled armored vehicle that was used as a special vehicle by the protection and order police of the Weimar Republic . From 1921 to 1925, the Ehrhardt company built and delivered 30 vehicles. Presumably, the construction was basically based on the Ehrhardt EV / 4 road armored car . As far as is known, the Dresden police had two Ehrhardt / 21s in 1926. The prototype produced in the Ehrhardt works in Zella-Mehlis was used in March 1920 to suppress the Kapp Putsch .

Common features of the special cars Daimler, Benz and Ehrhardt

The common features of all Daimler / 21 , Benz / 21 and Ehrhardt special cars were a tank structure with two diametrically opposed rotating towers, each with a machine gun , a front engine, a reverse transmission and a disused double steering , so that the vehicles could be reversed at the same speed if necessary could be like forward. They were built high to make getting into the vehicles difficult. Due to their great weight, they were able to push barricades aside with the help of built-in battering rams. In the so-called police fight they were used for violent reconnaissance , as vanguard or as support for the officers deployed in infantry .

Werner Oswald : The vehicles of the police and the Federal Border Guard. Police vehicles from 1920 to 1974 , Stuttgart (Motorbuch Verlag) 1974.
(Gustav) Schmitt: Street armored car: The special car of the protection police , Berlin 1925.