In the special exhibition "Razzia", the Audi museum mobile presents 14 patrol cars of various makes from almost all eras of automotive police history.
The new special exhibition runs from April 10 to August 30, 2015, and the museum is offering special guided tours of the exhibition.
While the police in the United States recognized early on that the automobile was ideally suited to fighting crime, police authorities in Germany continued to send their gendarmes and rural police officers around the police station on foot or by bicycle for a long time. It was only after the First World War that the means of transportation used by the police in this country changed. The Horch 400 police personnel carrier built in 1930, the oldest exhibit in the exhibition, dates from this era.
However, it was not until a few years later that the automobile finally became established in police services. Both Auto Union GmbH and NSU Motorenwerke AG models were used by the police "on patrol" at the time. Exhibits in the museum include a DKW 1000 S (1963), which was used by the Münster highway police, as well as an NSU Prinz 4 from 1964.
The exhibition also features a Volkswagen Type 18 A (1949) and a Hanomag L 28 GruKW (group truck), built in 1951, as further automotive witnesses to the economic miracle era.
Many visitors will also remember the legendary series "Funkstreife Isar 12" from the 1960s when they see a BMW 501 in the museum. It made television history as the "Baroque Angel". Also on display is a Porsche 356 belonging to the highway police from 1964.
The Audi 100 (C1) also wore a police uniform - the exhibit on display rolled off the production line in 1971. Audi supplied the spacious sedan primarily to the highway police in Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony and Bavaria. In the German Democratic Republic, on the other hand, the People's Police used the Wartburg 353 - the special exhibition features a model from 1983.
The Audi models from the 1990s follow in a green and white design. The Audi 80 (B4) produced in Ingolstadt achieved television fame in the TV series "Hubert und Staller" from November 2011. The powerful Audi A6 (C4) - produced from 1990 to 1994 - was particularly suitable for service on the highway. With this model, the patrol car began to develop into a modern, digitally networked workplace, where many officers now spend more than half of their working time.
More recent history is represented by an Audi A4 Avant from 2005 and a Lamborghini Gallardo Polizia, which is considered one of the fastest police cars in the world with 500 hp.
The most recent exhibit is from 2009: a VW Scirocco in blue and silver. However, the sports coupé never made it into police service. It was built especially for the safety initiative of a tuning association.
Motorized two-wheelers complete the journey through police history: the NSU Quickly as a police moped (1953), an NSU Supermax Polizei (1961), the Ducati 600 Desmo Polizia Urban (1983) and an MZ ETZ (single-cylinder telescopic fork central box frame) 250 VP (Volkspolizei) from 1985.
A specially developed children's program takes young visitors (aged six to twelve) on a journey into the world of the police. In "Tatü-tata, the children's police are here!" they learn why the blue light is blue, where the siren comes from or what is behind the term "the white mice". The children's police officers can then "experience" what they have learned in an interactive activity with a pedal car converted into a patrol car. But be careful, because there are flash photos and tickets for traffic offenders.
In addition to the new special exhibition, another attraction awaits visitors to the Audi museum mobile. From now on, "Treasures from Neckarsulm" can be seen on the large paternoster - they document the automotive history of the Audi site. The NSU company was founded in Riedlingen in 1873 and moved to Neckarsulm in 1900. Motorcycle production began there in 1901, followed by automobile production in 1906. On the paternoster in the Audi museum mobile, a selection of eleven cars and five motorcycles bear witness to NSU's long history.
Among other things, very rare contemporary witnesses can be seen: for example, the first NSU racing car, the NSU 6/60 PS, which won the first "German Grand Prix for Sports Cars" in 1925. Also on display is the NSU Baumm II, a special motorcycle that set world speed records in 1954 and 1956. In addition to the NSU classics Ro 80, Wankel Spider and NSU TT, visitors can also see an NSU Uruguay P6, which the company produced exclusively in this South American country.