Atlas

Gottfried Vollmer from Essen-Kettwig, in the Ruhr Valley, had a series of Coopers which he christened Atlas after the brand of cigars which he manufactured. The first was a Mk IV which he imported to Germany in 1950, not an easy task in the era of austerity and exchange control.

Here it is being loaded at port.

and at Freiburg in 1950 just prior to the start. This is probably the 6th August when Gottfried finished third to the Monopoletta of Helmut Polensky.

Gottfried had a fairly successful 1950 season, winning at Hockenheim in May, Schottenring on the 25th June and Feldbergrennen on 1st October to finish sixth overall in the West German Championship. The Mk IV was subsequently sold to Kurt Kuhnke who also had considerable success with this car.

For 1951, he purchased a new Cooper Mk V which had an interesting body by Josef Hebmüller, who had been responsible for the VW cabriolet.

1951 would not prove especially successful with only a few good placings and no wins but 1952 would start with a win at Krefeld on the 4th of  May and a third at Hockenheim on the 11th. Vollmer finished eighth in the 1952 West German championship. Some time later, Gottfried acquired a later Cooper (probably a Mk IX) but we have no recorded finishes for this car. Vollmer asked August Wurring (motorcycle racer and manufacturer from Ratingen) to help him as a mechanic with his Atlas cars and the final Atlas is now owned by Thomas von der Bey, grandson of August. Later Vollmer turned away from cars to the very different field of dove breeding.

Our thanks to Lothar Mildebrath and to the AWD Museum.