Children's automobile race
Children's automobiles are the forerunners of the soapboxes . The term originated in connection with the reproduction of the first racing car by children who wanted to imitate the great role models. The name goes back to the first children's automobile race in 1904 in Oberursel (Taunus) , which was driven with small replicas of the racing cars of that time. The fifth Gordon Bennett race, also the first in the Taunus, was the ignition spark. This race inspired fathers and boys to build the first children's automobiles. The racing fever was rampant all over the Taunus. There were children's car races, especially in 1907, in many communities along the racetracks. They are imitations of the second major racing event in the Taunus in 1907 for the Kaiserpreis race . Hundreds of thousands stood in the streets to enjoy the unusual spectacle, including of course many children.
Great car races as a model
Children's automobile races would be inconceivable without the great automobile races, the first of which took place in 1894 from Paris to Rouen . It can be assumed that the races moved many children in towns and cities along the racetracks to replicate the cars they admired. The Berlin magazine Die Woche refers to a children's car race in Champigny near Paris, which was held in the wake of the Gordon Bennett race there, and pays tribute to the Oberursel race on July 31, 1904 as a follow-up event. Since the big race in Champigny was held in June 1902, the children's car race should have taken place in the same year, but in any case before the Oberurseler. However, while there are press reports and numerous testimonials from the Oberurseler race, the small marginal event in Champigny has apparently not been reflected in the press and local researchers there are also not aware of it.
The children's automobile sport even came to the cinemas early on. The short film Kid Auto Races at Venice with the later famous Charlie Chaplin was made in 1914 . Venice is in the neighborhood of the film metropolis Hollywood .
For the children in the Taunus, the incentive to imitate came from the Gordon Bennett race of 1904. There were six such races between 1900 and 1905. They were named after their sponsor, the publisher of the New York Herald , who, by the way, was not considered a downright racing enthusiast and neither did any of them look at himself. The race on June 17, 1904 led from Saalburg Castle via Usingen , Weilburg , Limburg an der Lahn , Idstein , Königstein im Taunus , Oberursel , Homburg vor der Höhe through Taunus and Westerwald back to the starting point. It was considered the social event par excellence and attracted around a million viewers. The racing drivers were the great heroes of their day, and the little heroes in their replica boxes basked in the glory of their role models.
Other children's car races took place on July 14, 1907 in Oberursel , July 21, 1907 in Usingen , July 28, 1907 in Weißkirchen (Taunus), August 4, 1907 in Idstein , and August 18, 1907 in Kronberg im Taunus .
The princes Friedrich, Maximilian, Wolfgang and Philipp von Hessen , who lived in the nearby Schloss “Friedrichshof” , also took part in the Kronberg race . Court pharmacist Julius Neubronner , one of the first film amateurs in Germany, recorded the children's car race “cinematographically”. His Ernemann camera was mounted immovably on a tripod and had to be operated with a hand crank. Probably the oldest film that was shot of a children's car race still exists today.
literature
- Children's cars, soap boxes, minicars: it all started in Oberursel . With contributions from Adolf Heil, Christoph Müllerleile, Adam Opel AG, Deutsches Seifenkisten Derby eV, Oberursel 1991 German Library
- Renate Messer: Once upon a time in Oberursel: from the children's car to the soap box . Sutton, Erfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-86680-100-4 German library
- Christoph Müllerleile: Oberursel and the first children's cars . In: Communications of the Association for History and Local History Oberursel. Issue 12-1969, p. 21ff. ISSN 0342-2879 German Library
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Die Woche, Berlin, Scherl-Verlag, August 27, 1904
- ^ The Internet Movie Database on November 11, 2009, 1:00 a.m.