Report: World tour in the Goggomobil TS 300 Coupé

Fortunately, the Glas-Automobilwerke added 5,000 marks to the travel budget and also provided the brand new Goggomobil available. World travel festival, of course: there were filters against the desert sand, a sunroof for more fresh air, the instrument panel was provided with a compass and clock as well as a plug for a kettle and a shaver.

The Dingolfing team built a 30-liter Water tank, an additional fuel tank increased the range. And because the coupé was also to serve as a hotel, the entire rear seat bench was removed - so that the travelers could build a 2.30 meter long and 1.30 meter wide bed in no time at all.

A trip around the world in style

We then did not rest in ordinary sleeping bags, but in freshly shaken, cozy feather linen. And otherwisethe people of Hamburg attached great importance to style on the way: Both presented themselves neatly dressed; Peter Backhaus was always freshly shaved behind the camera, Marlotte in front of it, cleanly made up. 'Peter and I thought it was important that we didn't look like Stromer,' says Marlotte Backhaus, 'that was just our thing, and we kept it up well.'

It was in a bar at Christmas Perhaps it would have been better in Baghdad if the blonde woman from Hamburg hadn't looked quite so pretty: An Arab sheik fell in love, pulled out a whole wad of banknotes and said: “I'll buy this woman” - and sat when Peter Backhaus waved off , sadly added: 'I don't have more money.'

Forced switch to T700

After five months and 6,000 kilometers, the small expedition reached India, the first stage destination, and the Goggomobil, which had long been nicknamed 'Sniff', had survived all the hardships well up to then. The subtropical roads and the climate, however, hit the coupé badly, and there was also a conflict with a truck. Heavily damaged, it went by ship to Singapore and on to Japan - at the customs office there it was over: the Japanese wanted neither the car nor the ones that had arrived Let out spare parts.

For the onward journey from San Francisco, the Glas-Werke provided the newly presented large Goggomobil, the Isar T 700. The small coupé, however, finally made it back to Dingolfing, and senior partner Hans Glas let the two travelers know that there was a smell inside ' like in a monkey cage ”.

It then went on with 30 hp from a 700 four-stroke boxer, and the new vehicle soon had a nickname: Gitano, which means gypsy. Unfortunately, the Glas-Werke only wanted to see the new model in the planned film, which is why the Backhaus family had to leave for Africa after their return from South America to re-shoot the beginning of the world tour.

Overcome 200,000 kilometers

In Lagos, Africa, Marlotte and Peter Backhaus finally boarded a plane to Frankfurt on July 17, 1962 (the T 700 followed by ship) and reached Germany 13 hours later for the first time in almost five years and around 200,000 kilometers Ground. “Our homeland now seemed as exciting and new to us as the exotic countries used to be,” says Marlotte Backhaus.

At home, boxes of film rolls with twelve hours of material were already waiting, from which Peter Backhaus put together a one and a half hour film. “Traumreise zu tritt” had its world premiere on March 5, 1964 in the Munich Premier Theater, and the Wiesbaden film evaluation office judged it: “Predicate valuable.”