From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
THE INCREDIBLE SCHLUMPFS: For many years automobile enthusiasts and collectors heard rumours of a near legendary private collection of cars in Alsace. There were rumours of over 100 Bugattis, of Hispano-Suizas, Voisins, Delaunay-Bellevilles and many more.
But the rumours remained rumours until the spring of 1977, when the contents of the collection were revealed for the first time under highly dramatic circumstances. Such was the unbelievable richness of the revealed collection that The Guardian newspaper described it as the equivalent of "the breaking open of Tutankhamun's tomb".
The story of the Schlumpf brothers, Fritz and Hans, that was revealed is an extraordinary tale of obsession and tragedy.
Fritz and Hans Schlumpf were born to a Swiss father and to a mother born in Mulhouse, then part of German Alsace. Prior to the outbreak of the second World War the brothers acquired control of a mill at Malmerspach which processed wool for export. Throughout the war the brothers played a dangerous double-game with the Nazis but survived with their business intact.
The war over, they began to develop their wool business, and their new-found hobby, the collection of cars.
In many ways they were model employers and had a very paternalistic attitude to their workers. However, they grew suspicious, particularly when the Communist trade union, the CGT, began to organise some of their workforce. Their answer was simply to buy-off the communist shop-stewards and this worked for a while, but by 1971 matters had come to a head with an ugly strike which forced the brothers to flee to Switzerland.
Amidst much bitterness the strike was eventually settled, but things were never to be the same again for either the Schlumpfs or their workers.
The brothers' collection of cars had in the meantime continued to grow. It is impossible to say how large it had become at this stage, but by the 1960s they already employed a small army of carpenters, coachbuilders, metal fabricators and skilled mechanics working on the restoration of the collection.
From the outset the brothers were incredibly secretive about their collection. It was well known that they were buying-up cars and that the cars were disappearing from view but many of their acquisitions were private sales so the full extent of their collection was not revealed.
But if the collection was an obsession with the brothers so too was it with the Mill unions. By the early 1970s the whole Alsace region was seen as an economic backwater and the brothers came to symbolise what was worst in it in the eyes of their unhappy workers.
Incredibly, as labour problems mounted the brothers turned more and more of their attention to their collection. At the same time synthetic fabrics were replacing wool and it came as little surprise when the brothers put their factories into receivership with debts of eight million francs. What quickly became apparent was how much money the brothers had siphoned off for their hobby.
In early 1977 a criminal warrant was issued for Fritz's arrest for embezzlement. The following day a similar warrant was issued for Hans' arrest and in April the assets of the brothers were seized. The brothers fled to Switzerland where they settled in the considerable comfort of the elegant Hotel Trois Roi in Basle.
Finally, after years of legal argument the Schlumpf collection finally opened to a bedazzled public and to the wonderment of car enthusiasts all over the world.