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Most collectors and readers of mid-20th century history are aware that the Nationalsozialistische Kraftfahrkorps (NSKK or National Socialist Motor Corps) was an important paramilitary organization within the Nazi Party in Third Reich Germany, and that it was responsible for all things automotive, from cars and trucks to maintenance, auto shows, roads and traffic. It was even responsible for things like driving safety and giving classes on seemingly obscure things like operating a wood-gas generator when ordinary fuels like gasoline and diesel became unavailable during the war. The NSKK was declared a "condemned organization" by the Allies at the end of World War II.

The document file we offer here offers a rare insight into the workings of the NSKK in war-time Germany and the complex bureaucratic nature of things as simple as acquiring an automobile.

This is a very interesting, very detailed original Third Reich NSKK paperwork file that contains 27 pages related to the purchase of a 1939 blue two-door Adler Trumpf Cabriolet car by the NSKK-Motorgruppe Nord in Hamburg on 11 May 1944. The NSKK-Motorgruppe Nord was located at Harvestehuderweg 9 in Hamburg, and they needed a replacement for their previous Dienstwagen (service car), a Horch that had burned-up during a recent Allied air raid.

There is official inspection and ownership paperwork for the Adler as well as an official appraisal certificate which has all the important details about the 1939 blue, manual transmission, Adler Trumpf Cabriolet with 647 kilometers (about 390 miles) on the odometer. The car had two doors, four windows, leather seats, five special wheels, a two liter engine (1910 cm displacement), engine number 308 116, chassis number 206 027, and it weighed 1140 kilograms (about 2500 pounds). Nice as it was, it did not come with tires, a battery or tools so the NSKK-Motorgruppe Nord had to provide those items.

The original owner of the Adler-Trumpf, a Mr. Schulz from the Firma Elfenbein-Schulz, had used the car only to drive from Frankfurt am Main to Hamburg and it was considered near-new (fast Fabriksneu) according to correspondence from the NSKK-Motorgruppe Nord to the NSKK-Korpsführung Hauptamt Technik in Munich dated 18 May 1944. The NSKK-Korpsführung Hauptamt Technik in Munich had to approve the 5010 Reichsmark purchase price and the transfer of license plates HH-110 from a non-running Fiat car to the near-new Adler Cabriolet.

There is additional correspondence between the NSKK-Korpsführung Hauptamt Technik (the Main Technical Office of the NSKK) and the Main Administrative Office of the NSKK on Briennerstrasse 24 in Munich (just down the street from Hitler's office in the Führerbau) regarding refitting the car with a gas generator for fuel (gasoline was no longer generally available), as well as paperwork regarding insurance.

Because this was an unusual war-time automotive acquisition, this lot also includes a very rare letter directly from the NSDAP Partei-Kanzlei in the Führerbau dated 15 June 1944, that accompanied the blue Bedarfskarte for the requisition of the Adler-Trumpf. The Reichsschatzmeister der NSDAP, the State Treasurer of the Nazi Party, Franz X. Schwarz also had to sign off on the purchase. Even the Hitler combat-decorated (Knights Cross) Obergruppenführer of the NSKK-Motorgruppe Nord, Günther Pröhl sent two hand-signed letters giving his blessing to the purchase of this Adler car on 18 May 1944.

There are a total of 27 pages of text regarding this 1944 transaction in the 9-¾ x 12-½ inch (Deutsche Industrienorm or DIN size Nr. 4) orange KARDEX-Hängehefter folder which is original to the Third Reich. In a very German way there are even instructions on the front of the file folder telling all about how to use it and file it! Somebody at NSKK-Motorgruppe Nord applied the big black cut-out letters NKK to the front of the file folder.

The many layers of Third Reich legal bureaucracy involved in the acquisition / replacement / purchase of an automobile by a key paramilitary unit of the Nazi Party during the last year of World War II is absolutely mind boggling. If one was to include this single seemingly simple episode in a movie about life in the Third Reich, nobody would believe it! Very rare.