Once upon a time ... the insurance vending machine
01/23/2025
It's a silly situation: you spontaneously have to give a business friend a lift in your own car, but the insurance only covers car owners and their families. And of course, as always, it has to be quick. If there is no telephone at hand and, in the worst-case scenario, even on a Sunday, accidents at the wheel can be quite expensive.
From the fall of 1951, there was a solution to this unfortunate set of circumstances, at least in Frankfurt am Main: the insurance vending machine. For DM 1.50, the square-shaped savior in an emergency issued a policy valid for 14 days, which covered the spontaneous passenger against accidents in someone else's car.
So much for the theory. In practice, most drivers were probably of the opinion that their liability insurance should be sufficient. In any case, the extra insurance cover to take along did not catch on.
