Berlin Type 3 Birthday Meeting

The Berlin Type 3 Club celebrates 10 years

August 1997

By a lucky co-incidence, we were planning to tour Germany in our 1974 VW Camper at the same time as the Berlin Typ 3 IG were to celebrate their 10th anniversary, so naturally we had to go, and renew friendships made at the Amsterdam Meeting.

Berlin is a lot further on from Wolfsburg, particularly when travelling fairly gently in a 1600cc Camper, but it was well worth the extra miles. The added bonus was a chance to see Berlin, a city that changes by the day, and has so much to see.

The survivors of the night before; a Type 3 Cabriolet lurks in the background, while a matching pair of 1962 Notchbacks set off the foreground

The Campsite:

Situated just near the new Europark development on the road towards Potsdam, and alongside the Teltow canal, the campsite was a former East German border guard camp, complete with tastefully decorated watchtower. Almost everything in the Berlin area is being built or re-built, so how long this memorial to less happy times will stay is anyone's guess.

The welcome we received was warm and friendly despite being in our Bus rather than the Squareback, the campsite facilities were satisfactory if a bit idiosyncratic, and even the mosquitos seemed to enjoy our company! German was the required language, but many of the enthusiasts changed to English rather than wait for us to find the right words!

Some 20 Type 3s arrived for the weekend; many were well-loved daily drivers, some immaculate show cars, and others interesting for what owners had done to suit themselves, such as the reproduction Cabrio shown below. Every owner had a story to tell, and time to listen.

This very tidy '62 Gulf blue Notch was from Austria.

Some of the Visitors' Cars

If you can supply details of cars or owners, please e-mail me. Thanks. Dave Hall

	Home-made cabriolet made from a chopped Notch. This was the first produced by the owner, and was used as a prototype and not completely finished. He has since done another, much better conversion.
Look at the strengthening needed, and yet the doors still contributed to body stiffness. No wonder VW had such trouble with the pre- production Type 3 Cabrio, and gave up in the end. A hood from a Peugeot(I think) was a good fit after modifications.

The Orienteerungsfahrt:

Saturday saw the "Orienteerungsfahrt", a mystery tour with clues to solve. We borrowed Reinhard from the Berlin club to help solve the clues on the extensive and challenging drive. The stone-block surfaced roads are none too easy on the teeth or suspension, a tribute to the Wartburg and Trabant which know little else, yet still hold together. Some 5 hours later with most of the clues solved and a big chunk of former East Germany visited, or so it seemed, we returned.

Berndt (with the colourful shorts) directs operations at the checkpoint half-way round the Orienteeringsfahrt.

A memory game was the challenge here.

Once the final teams had returned and the marking was done, everyone gathered for the answers and the prize-giving. We got 4th place in the orienteerungsfahrt and a massive road atlas of Germany and Europe as the most travelled visitor, which came in very handy for the rest of our tour, and included such useful information as German number plate information. We know WOB is Wolfsburg, and one or two others, but now we can find out them all. The evening was spent drinking beer and exchanging stories.

Berlin Visit:

Sunday morning was the photo-call and farewells, then we went off to explore Berlin itself, visiting the flea market, Unter dem Linden, Joe's Biergarten near the Zoo (great for those huge litre mugs of beer), and the Deutsches Historisches Museum where a special exhibition of Wolfsburg's history was on display, with old films of the town and many original plans and documents. It seemed very special to have found this display quite by accident, and lucky as it was due to close in 2 days time!


Berlin Used Vehicle Specialists	The Van visits the Tiergarten

Next visit we will give Berlin more time so we can explore it properly - when it's finished maybe!

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