What is really important What touches us today – and does not go away tomorrow? It’s the things that have moved us since human existence has existed: happiness, love, family, partnership, time, stress, loneliness, farewell, grief.
BILD columnist Louis HagenComing from a German-Jewish family, he sought answers to the eternal questions of mankind from poets, thinkers and researchers. And found a few answers that are amazingly simple – and yet can enrich our lives.
★★★
My favorite story of the last few weeks was: Beckenbauer buys back his dream car. After more than four decades, the blue Mercedes 450 SEL is back in his garage.
When I close my eyes and think of my old cars, a world full of beauty, power and uniqueness opens up.
How proud I was of my Triumph TR6 convertible! I was 24 and loved English sports cars. It had a mahogany dashboard and sand-brown pigskin seats. I put the car in our front yard, circled it over and over and petted it. Sometimes I went with him too.
BILD columnist Louis Hagen
My best friend, schoolmate, car connoisseur, had warned me: “It has an electronic injection pump, it always breaks, don’t buy it.” But you can’t stop people in love. During a trip through Göhrde in Lower Saxony – a lonely forest area – there was a sudden bang and the fuel pump was broken. Four hours on foot to the nearest gas station, towing and so on …
It was an engine failure – and the car was scrap. I mourned him like a friend, I really loved him. Later I drove other English sports cars: right-hand drive, old-fashioned, fast ones. All had to be shifted, automatic was despised in sports car circles back then. That was something for Sunday drivers, it was said.
Many of these cars were only double-declutching. Older readers will remember this phenomenon. If you didn’t shift properly, you stalled the engine or let the gearbox crack. The aisles literally had to be beaten into it. If it didn’t work out, you looked at gleeful faces on the side of the road.
Today I am a cyclist. I like to move, I live in the city. Cars are a different world for me. But when a Morgan Plus 8 drives by, I see myself again as a young man in this sports car. Always two sponges with you to soak up the water (a Morgan only had clip-on windows, it always rains in).
Always wear your coat even in summer, otherwise you could have early gout. Other drivers got out at the traffic lights and leaned over my hood to see what brand I was driving. The chassis was made of wood, the car was completely unsprung. Unfortunately, I have not taken any photos of my dear Morgan. But when I close my eyes and dream something, I see him in front of me like a boy, proud of his model car.
How nice that such cars still exist. And people who appreciate it.
Louis Hagen (74) was a member of the BILD editor-in-chief for 13 years and is now a consultant at the communications agency WMP. You can also find his texts at: thebusinessbeast.com. More about the author: www.louishagen.de.