Rosso Bianco Collection

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Main hall of the Rosso Bianco Collection

According to the company, the Rosso Bianco Collection was the largest sports car collection in the world with over 200 vehicles on display. It was in Aschaffenburg (Bavaria). Sporty oldtimers and racing cars , especially two-seater sports cars, but also motorcycles and exhibits on car art were shown. The museum called its main collection area “two-seater sports cars for street and competition”.

history

Museum founder Peter Kaus saved many former sports prototypes from scrapping in the 1960s and 1970s, which was still common for discarded racing cars at the time. At the beginning of the 1980s, after 15 years in Frankfurt am Main, he assembled a private collection of over 100 vehicles. He intended to open a museum in Frankfurt am Main to exhibit his collection, but Hilmar Hoffmann , the head of the cultural department at the time , showed no interest. Therefore, Kaus chose Aschaffenburg as the location and at the beginning of 1987 relocated his collection to the factory halls of a former weaving mill at Obernauer Straße 125. At that time he invested three million DM in the building alone. The car museum opened there on October 3, 1987. The museum name Rosso Bianco should still remind of its origin, because red and white are the Frankfurt city colors.

In 1990 the museum was supplemented by the Art & Auto-Forum car art collection with around 600 paintings, historical posters, sculptures and reliefs.

After expensive repairs to the roof became necessary, Kaus wanted to receive a financial grant in the order of 10,000 to 20,000 euros from the city of Aschaffenburg. The Lord Mayor Klaus Herzog , however, refused any financial support. For this reason, the museum was only open on Sundays.

After many years of conflict with Klaus Herzog and the city of Aschaffenburg , Kaus tried to find a new location for his collection. Kaus initially tried to keep his collection in Germany for five years. It was possible to accommodate the collection in Frankfurt am Main. However, he would have had to pay a disproportionately expensive rent and received no support from the city, which ultimately led to the failure of his plans. He couldn't keep his collection in Germany, but found an interesting offer in the Netherlands.

In February 2006 the museum closed and the automobile and art collection was transferred to the Dutch Louwman Collection . In retrospect, however, Evert Louwman, owner of the Louwman Collection, showed no interest in the collection and used it almost exclusively to make a profit through auctions. The collection was then gradually sold at auctions, so that only 15 vehicles of the original “Rosso Bianco Collection” can be found today.

Most recently, the German Motor Scooter Museum with around 150 exhibits was located in the buildings . However, the scooter museum had to move out later as the buildings were to be demolished.

Exhibits

The museum comprised eight halls and had a total exhibition area of ​​14,000 square meters. The outdoor area, which was used a lot for classic car club meetings and car picnics, offered space for around 300 vehicles with a museum meadow and road circuit. Around 220 sports cars from more than 50 brands from 1906 to the present day and 50 motorcycles were on display in five halls. The car art collection with over 600 works from 1860 to the present day was located in two other halls.

The main hall of the museum, also known as the “Nice Promenade”, was located at the entrance area. There were mainly street sports cars from the 1930s in the front part. Italian sports cars from the 1960s and 1970s were on display in the rear.

In Hall 1 there were racing cars and street sports cars from the 1950s and 1960s. The upper floor of Hall 1 contained further sports cars and from 2005 the separate scooter museum.

On the ground floor of Hall 3, racing cars and sports prototypes from the 1960s and 1970s, mostly former Le Mans racing cars, were on display over a length of over 100 meters .

Former CanAm racing cars from the 1960s and 1970s were located in the basement of Hall 3 . Other sports prototypes from the 1980s and early 1990s as well as historic motorcycles were also to be found here.

From the opening of the museum in 1987 to 2006, due to numerous new additions, a third of the exhibits had already been replaced.

Special exhibitions were held regularly in the halls of the “Rosso Bianco Collection”. Some topics were small cars from the economic boom, historic pedal cars and, most recently, super sports cars .

The "Rosso Bianco Collection" had the following individual collections:

Others

  • In its time, the museum was equipped with the latest technology. In 1988 ten information terminals were added, where various videos could be accessed. The videos were stored on the then new medium laser disc. The videos were selected using a PC with an on-screen menu, which in turn controlled the laser disc player. However, these processes remained hidden from the visitor; Externally, the terminals were designed as "info robots".
  • The walls were adorned with historical posters and pictures. Cups or model cars could be viewed in showcases.
  • In the reception area there was a shop where mainly model cars could be bought.
  • In 1992 a book of 320 pages and over 500 illustrations about the museum was published in an edition of 3000 copies.
  • From September 2009 to 2012 the workshop of the former Rosso Bianco Collection was used by Vespa Classico Aschaffenburg eV.

literature

Web links

Commons : Rosso Bianco  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Agnes Schönberger: Aschaffenburg car museum will be left. In: FAZ.net. February 11, 2004, accessed November 20, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Press release about the closure of the museum and the future of the collection (PDF) ( Memento from November 25, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Our association. In: Vespa Classico Aschaffenburg eV. Retrieved on March 9, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Anke Mersmann: From collector to museum founder. In: Rhein-Zeitung.de. September 22, 2016. Retrieved November 20, 2017 .

Coordinates: 49 ° 57 ′ 29 ″  N , 9 ° 7 ′ 58 ″  E