Early Alfa when new in Flensburg, Germany anyone?

[svenne]

A long shot worth a try!

My father told me before passing away about him and his brother playing in my grandfathers abandoned Alfa (Romeo?) in the late twenties-early thirties.
My grandfather Helmut Hugo Tiedemann was born late 19th century, the son of a wealthy self made business man living in Flensburg in northern Germany.
I have recently spoken to my non-car-buff uncle born in 1923 and not very old when playing in it, about it, and he is the last to vaguely remember the Alfa.
What is clear is that it was a yellow two-seater. Possibly cigar shaped.
He worked out that it could have been a pre-ww1 car, but not necessarely. And scrapped late thirties? No photos are available to us.
In Sweden where I am born, bread and live (without the german language), elder car people would still know of a vehicle like this, and saved a photo if the chance emerged. But I understand this might be unique to a small country, not too involved in two world wars since.
Is there any old German register this car could be in? Vintage Car Club of Germany? Or any local car historian out there to tell/show something?

Björn Tiedemann

[iicarJohn]

Thanks for the mystery. One of many!

I have no Tiedemann listed in my listings as yet but that is perhaps not surprising. There is new (old) information all the time and I suspect it will always be that way.

If you are serious in your quest to satisfy your curiousity, I would suggest that you go to the town and look up family, friends and neighbors who might know something and/or know someone who might know something. A good excuse for an adventure. Outside of that, you will probably have to rely on luck combined with diligence that it may turn up in some record somewhere that accidentally gets shared somewhere it can be found.

If anything at all can be remembered about the car, we would have a better start. "Alfa" is good, even if not all "Alfa" or "Alpha" were necesarily "Afa Romeo". "Yellow" is good. "Two-seater" even better. However, "cigar shaped" is perhaps unlikely at that time and is certainly unlikely for a prewar (WWI) car of almost any type unless it was one of a very few advanced racing cars.

Number of cylinders, outside exhaust, cloth top or none, radiator shape would all be of some help in trying to make a tentative identification as to possibilities. Rear brakes? Fuel tank filler location? Spare tire or tires?

It will be difficult for a person who was a child to remember some of these details and there is always the chance of confusion, particularly if there was more than one car available as a gym.

Best of luck.

John de Boer
The Italian Car Registry