Start The Week By Reflecting On The DKW Schnellaster Headlight Setup: Cold Start

I found myself thinking, as I often do, about some headlights that are of interest to me, the famous, usually Hella- or Bosch-made ones that can be found on pre-’67 Volkswagen Beetles and Buses, Porsche 356s and early 911s, lots of DKW/Auto-Unions, some Mercedes-Benz buses and vans, and a number of more obscure European cars like the Maico 500.

I’ve written about these headlights back at the old site, where I did some research and found that they seem to have been first used on the 1937 Adler 2.5/Adler Typ 10. I’m not sure if they were designed by Adler and those designs sent to a supplier like Bosch or Hella, or if Hella or Bosch came up with the design and Adler’s designers just picked it out of a catalog. Believe it or not, I’ve actually reached out to both companies about this and gotten no good answer! From what I can tell, no one seems willing to take credit for designing this iconic headlight!

I mean, I get that both Hella and Bosch during this period were engaged in some, um, unsavory labor practices, but I’m not here to rake them over the coals for using forced labor (though that’s fucking awful, of course), I just want to know who designed the damn light.

I’m telling you all of this because thinking about this made me remember one very strange application of this headlight, strange enough that I’m not even sure it can count as the same headlight unit at all, but maybe just incorporates a part of the headlight assembly. I’m talking about the DKW Schnellaster – that means fast transit in German-talk – a remarkable two-stroke, one-box minivan that is in many ways a predecessor of what we understand modern minivans to be.

Unlike its rival, the very popular rear-engined VW Type 2 Microbus, the Schnellaster was a front-engine FWD machine (there was a two-cylinder version that was even transverse-engined, just like a modern minivan!). The Schnellaster had excellent packaging with all the oily bits jammed up front under a stubby, sloping hood, and the rest of the van was just an open box with a nice, low, flat floor.

But I’m getting off-topic; I’m here just to focus on the headlights of the Schnellaster! Looking at those pictures above, it looks pretty much just like it has the same sloping Bosch/Hella headlights as an old Beetle or a 356. But they’re not the same! Because of this:

See what’s going on there? Here’s an actual photo:

The Schnellaster’s version of these famous headlights seems to be using just the outermost lens and bezel assembly, which is mounted on the hood, and under the hood are some simple dune-buggy-like lights, mounted on stalks in the engine bay. I think the Schnellaster only uses this much of those Bosch/Hella lamps:

I wonder if you can rotate the headlights in the engine bay so you can work on the motor at night? Because that would be cool. You know what else is cool? The lights still retain the small extra bulbs used for city lights/parking lights that the normal headlight units use:

It’s a very strange setup; there are other cars where the headlights open with the hood, or the hole and trim bezel open with the hood (as on a modern Mini) but I’m not sure I know of another headlamp setup where the outer lens of the headlight is separate from the rest of it and is on a separate body panel.

It’s kind of a bonkers setup, but there’s something undeniably appealing about it, too? This setup also allows for changing the lighting tech without making any real visual changes, which is cool, too.

I think Beau has a Schnellaster somewhere. I need to find that thing and at least do some kind of video with it, even if it doesn’t run!