This Old German Post Office Booklet Is Full Of Great VW Stuff: Cold Start

Back in the mid-20th century, the German Post Office, called the Bundespost, used a metric crapton of Volkswagens, ranging from bright yellow Beetles to Type 2 vans to some Type 3 Squarebacks and then, ultimately, to the purpose-designed Typee 147 “Fridolin” – it’s just a huge mass of yellow air-cooled VWs, which makes the organization almost irresistible to me. I encountered this 1964 brochure that talks about the Bundespost’s use of VWs, and it’s full of great pictures, so let’s take a peek.

That picture up top there is incredible: that’s from 1962, and it seems to be some sort of mobile telephone switching station. There’s all kinds of fascinating details going on there, and I’m a bit surprised a telephone switching station could be wireless back then? Even with such a huge circular antenna?

The van has some interesting details, too: those doors seem to be reinforced with some extra metal bracing, and the rear engine air-intake vents seem to have been made into an open-able panel. Why? There’s also lots of extra lights tacked on, it seems, which is always fun. And so many dials and switches and gauges!

Speaking of air intake slots, this brochure also seems to have the only example I can think of of a cartoon that centers around a VW’s air-intake louvers or slots, which that fine postal-using citizen is mistaking for a mail slot. If he manages to cram that letter in there, that may cause some cooling problems! Someone should warn him!

Here’s another good example of a Type 2 outfitted to do work in the electromagnetic spectrum; this guy is listening for RF interference with that massive antenna. Maybe hunting pirate radio stations? Exciting!

Mostly, though, the Bundespost seemed to have Beetles, yellow ones, and in what I think is an appealingly basic spec. These were the low-spec 1200 Beetles, with no chrome, just painted bumpers and hubcaps, and a pretty bare-bones interior, which makes sense, as these were mail-delivery vehicles. Though they also seemed to use them for other purposes, too. Look at this:

The caption said this was a special telex-repair setup in the back of a Beetle, it looks like filling up the rear luggage well and using the location of where the folded seatback would be as a sort of flat work surface? This is extremely cool to me, with my weird fascination for Beetle luggage wells, a place I used to ride in often as a kid.

I wonder how it was to fix a telex back there? Though, to be fair, I wonder that about almost everything.

The telegraphy division seemed to be eager to show that they utilized the whole VW lineup, Types 1, 2, and 3:

And speaking of Types 1, 2, and 3, this brochure also has a page devoted to that wonderful VW Frankenstein made up of Types 1, 2, and 3 parts, the Fridolin:

I love those Fridolins, they’re so practical and friendly-looking, all sorts of qualities I seek out in my cars.

On the less friendly side, I have to give the Bundespost credit for being less averse to talking, at least obliquely, about the unpleasant side of their history. They include these pics of some WWII-era Reichspost postal box trucks, one based on a wartime Kübelwagen and one just post-war using a Beetle (I guess KdF at that point) body:

The copy suggests these were all just post-war, but just referencing it directly at all is a big deal. I know VW’s Autostadt museum/car tourist destination in Wolfsburg doesn’t acknowledge anything prior to 1950, just for reference.

Oh, and you know tha post horn that’s used as the Bundespost logo? Am I the only one who learned what the hell those are by reading The Crying of Lot 49?