The movie event at the Swiss Museum of Transport on 12 September 2020 was a great success, sold out within the Covid-limitations. In the brand new movie theater of the museum the guests enjoyed the wonderful 85-minute documentary from Suzanne Raes and took the opportunity to ask her and the Josef Ganz relative Lorenz Schmid their questions. Unfortunately, the Josef Ganz biographer Paul Schilperoord could not be present.
We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all those involved for this unforgettable event: the Swiss Museum of Transport, above all Daniel Geissmann, who organised so much with such verve and efficiency. Also the media, who drew attention to the event (Blick and 10vor10), the Swiss Car Register for their active support, and Suzanne Raes for her presence.
This fantastic collection was on show at the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne after the event: the Maikäfer, the Swiss Volkswagen Rapid, the Standard Superior and the Volkswagen Käfer. In the meantime, the documentary was shown again on 3Sat and there were many great reactions. Many thanks for that!
After the event, there was a meeting between René Beyer, the owner of Switzerland’s oldest watch shop Beyer Chronometrie at Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich, and Lorenz Schmid. Many years after the picture of Josef Ganz on his Standard Superior (1935), the two posed in front of the shop. Incredible!
Numerous new activities are planned. We are currently in the process of matriculating the 1933 Standard Superior in Switzerland. Exciting events around Josef Ganz are coming up in Germany, Switzerland and Hungary, which we are very excited about! We will keep you up to date here. Stay tuned!
3 Comments
I was at a dinner party in Boston, Massachusetts last night.
Somehow the subject of my family history came up.
Willy Bendit was my grandfather, the owner of the Ardie Factory after the death of Arno Dietrich.
His designer, Josef Ganz, designed the Ardie Motorcycle TM500 and then later the prototype of the VW.
I do not want my grandfather’s role lost to the past. He was a Jewish industrialist and a wonderful visionary man.
My mother was born in 1927 and they left Nuremberg for France about 1931. Later they came to the US where my grandparents lived out their lives.
Hello Peggy, thanks a lot for your comment on josefganz.org! It would be nice to stay in contact. Have a great day! Lorenz
Lorenz, hello again,
My grandson wants to know about his great great Grandfather’s role as owner of the Ardie Factory and the hiring of Josef Ganz.
Other than a very few photos of Josef Ganz and Willy Bendit in the Beetle prototype, I have little information. Do you have more?
Both of Willy’s children have died but they did live to see a photo of the Ardie TM500 in a book at a motorcycle exhibit at ther Guggenheim in New York over twenty years ago. Thank you, Peggy