The Automobile and Motorcycle Chronicle - the pioneer among classic car magazines
01/06/2013
In January 1972, the first issue of the magazine "Automobil- und Motorrad-Chronik" (in its first year it was still called "Automobil-Chronik") was published, edited by Erwin Tragatsch. This was a trendsetter, as there were hardly any regularly published magazines for classic car enthusiasts at the time.
Halwart Schrader soon joined and shaped the direction of the magazine for long stretches. It was also he who wrote the closing words in the last issue 10/1985, whose cover was adorned with a Horch Sachsenring. The magazine was discontinued for economic reasons, as BLV Verlagsgesellschaft mbH regretfully announced. "We classic car enthusiasts can certainly take comfort from the fact that the subject of 'classic cars and motorcycles' is in competent hands. We are thinking of Motor Klassik, the current magazine for all friends of classic cars and motorcycles ...", was the closing statement. Motor Klassik was indeed designated as the official successor magazine.
Many well-known authors had written for the automobile and motorcycle chronicle: Erik Eckermann, Ferdinand Hediger, Adriano Cimarosti, Roger Gloor, Stefan Knittel, Dr. Helmut Krackowizer, Ulrich Kubisch, Michael Graf Wolff Metternich, Jan P. Norbye, Jerrold Sloniger, Wolfgang Schmarbeck, Claus Benter, Hans-Heinrich v. Fersen, F. Wilson McComb, Hans-Otto Neubauer, Karl Reese, Michael Sedgwick, Dr. Paul Simsa, Fritz B. Busch, Dieter Herz, Ernst Leverkus, Klaus Rabe, Dirk-Michael Contradt, Halwart Schrader and Erwin Tragatsch.
Halwart Schrader wrote in 1985 that the automobile and motorcycle chronicle was the model for a whole series of classic car publications in Europe, and he also said: "The world of classic cars - despite all the dimensions it has taken on in the meantime - is ultimately small". He was probably not quite right, because 28 years later there are a surprisingly large number of publications on the subject and the number of people interested is also constantly increasing, not least due to the addition of the youngtimer segment.
With this article, we want to start a loose series on (almost) forgotten classic car magazines. We think it's a shame that these well-told stories were only printed in relatively small editions and have largely been forgotten, as only a few collectors probably still have these magazines stored in their cellars (or storerooms).
