I am writing a book on the lady in the picture. She came here from Germany and brought with her the harlequin Great Dane. All our American harlequins go back to this ladies dogs. She is pictured here in Nurnburg with a British Officer. I think the car is a Jaguar because of the hood emblem but I cannot find the model or year anywhere. I had a guy in Germany look at it and he suggested it might have been a prototype. My guess is this was taken in the 1940’s. Also, notice the strange tractor/jeep in the background. It looks very much like a John Deere in disguise. I think this was used to transport luggage and people from the Rail Station that is very close by the Grand Hotel. If this was taken in 1945 or 1946 than 90% of the city was in ruins and the War Crimes Trail would have begun at the Palace of Peace. The hotel and the Palace were not totally destroyed and only received minor damages by the Allied Forces. Toni (the lady in the picture) is 94 years old now and cannot remember things very well at times. Her life is a remarkable one and she has given me 6 very large boxes dating from the 1920’s to publish on her famous dogs and many glimpses back in history of WW1 and WW2. She knew Presidents here and worked with many famous people to show their Danes. Burt Reynolds had her dogs as well as Chubby Checker. Japan exported her Danes as well to begin their breeding lines. Sadly, the AKC suspended her and took away all her dogs in the 1990’s shortly after her only child was murdered. She has no family left and she and I have become great friends. I have what is left of her dogs bloodlines and have struggled to bring these old lines back.
Thanks for any help you can give me.
You forgot to post the picture or a link to it. We can’t identify what we can’t see.
I did post it on my profile. I haven’t figured out how to post it in the text box though. Can you help instruct?
I think I got it!
Logic says U.S. Army staff car - maybe 46 Dodge.
I think you’re right, '46ish Dodge.
Dodge? Never would have guessed that one. I was sure it had to be a European make that I failed to look at American made vehicles. The hood emblem looked to be a Jaguar but the styling does look decidedly American.
Thanks and I’ll let you know what I find.
Looks like a Dodge or Plymouth to me. Not even close to being a Jaguar.
Where’s the harlequin?
Yep, Dodge - here’s its near-twin:
Found it! It’s a 1946 Dodge. I’ve attached a picture of one for sale on the Internet. Not a bad price either! I’m sure parts would be hard to acquire but I would not mind owning it. Love the red color.
The harlequin is a very rare color (wild gene not seen in any other domesticated dog) of the Great Dane variety. It has a white base coat with torn patches (not spots) evenly distributed over the entire body of the dog. Usually the neck, chest, forelegs, toes and tip of the tail are a solid white pattern that is known as a mantle pattern. They are very hard to breed for and getting 1 or 2 in a litter is considered exceptional. The harlequin Great Dane was almost lost during the world wars in Germany where is was developed. Toni came here in 1952 with what was left of the very best harlequin offspring that the dane fanciers of the day could hang onto. The bloodlines of The Meistersinger Great Danes (Toni’s Dogs)can be traced back to the Chancellor of Bismarck in the 1500’s. Today’s breeders have done a injustice to the harlequin by not understanding how to breed them. This as resulted in about 60% of our harlequin lines that do not genetically carry the wild gene but a hybrid called a “plattenhound” German for disc or plate. The torn patch is rapidly being changed to very white dogs with a few round spots of body paint. White is a lethal genetic in most canine breeds (there are a few exceptions) and many of the white dogs are deaf and or blind.
Betcha didn’t need all that information huh?
Yup!
It is most definitely a Dodge of the 1946-48 era (they were essentially unchanged during that span of years), and as was said, may well have been a US Army staff car.
The Army’s Top Brass rode in Cadillacs and Packards, and a lot of Ford sedans were used as staff cars. I can’t say authoritatively that Dodges were also used for that purpose, but they might have been.
Highlands–If you think about it, you almost answered part of your question yourself. Europe was indeed in ruins, and as a result, there was essentially no car production in several European nations for several years after the war. Coventry, where Jaguars were made, was in ruins. Ergo–little likelihood of a late-model British-make of car!
One exception was in Germany where the US rebuilt the factory for Hitler’s “People’s Car”, thus giving the world the mass-produced VW Bug that would soon give US car makers a run for their money.
I’ve looked at your website. I know what harlequins are. My girlfriend has three Danes and we work with a Dane rescue organization. I didn’t know, however, that all harlequins came from this one blood line.
Fascinating.
I have been looking for a few months to figure this out. It did not take you guys any time at all! You know your stuff. Thanks for the help. In my interview with Toni she made several statements about her part in aiding Jews during the war. As I have researched her statements (this picture was important in putting her in the right place at the right time) I have discovered that she has certain knowledge of facts and correspondence with USO persons in aiding to get people out of Germany that might have otherwise not made it. She lived on Meistersinger Street right down from the famous Wagner Opera House. Meistersinger translate to “singing Maestro”. In researching the Opera House I found a few accounts of Jews being hid there during the war. Robert Wagner who built the Opera house in the mid 1800’s was very anti-semitic but I think the staff had compassion for their plight. Toni was also very good friends with a lady named Martha Ray. She was a tv star and I think she was nicknamed “Big Mouth”. Her website details her efforts during wwII and her work with the USO. This picture just helps me put all the pieces together from different angles. It is hard for many survivors of WWII to talk about their experiences and many to this day still feel hurt, embarrassed or guilt over the atrocities. It is hard to get them to fully open up and so Toni has given me hints here and there but like a little child she feels that she is saying things she should not reveal.
Thanks again.
Wow! Someone else who loves the Harlequin Great Dane. It does not surprise me that people have not figured out the bloodlines. In fact, many breeders go to great lengths to disguise and discredit other breeders and bloodlines. I guess its all about marketing and feeling that they have created the best dogs out there. Try going to a dog show one time and you will see just how ruthless people can be. I had known that the Meistersinger kennel had brought over these lines but we also had 2 other big kennels in the 1960’s and 1970’s. I was not sure about their starts. As it turns out I can document all these lines going back to I.W. Harper von der Stadt Hamburg who came here with Toni and was the start of the American Harlequin Great Dane. Which by the way is the name of my book. BWM (Black, White & Merle) and Riverwood Ranch were the other 2 big kennels. BWM started her line with 2 Meistersinger Champions a half brother and half sister. She mated these 2 dogs and produced a male by the name of Bill Miller’s Village Squire. She then breed this male to a female out of fawns (a big no-no in color code ethics) and then did a father to daughter breeding out of that litter. The concentration of Meistersinger in her bloodlines was probably more at that time than the true Meistersinger lines. BMW than bred to Riverwood Ranch and a dog that was a half brother to I.W. The history is fascinating and I’m sure will be a little disconcerting to breeders who hate the Meistersinger name because she had over 70 champions in her day and no one had a chance at a title until they disbarred her from the AKC. I often wonder why we can’t be as “noble as the dogs we raise and love”. It is very rare to find this in show breeders who only look as far as the next champion to breed to and nothing more. The Danes that are now winning in the ring are mainly white (for some reason this is more appealing to the eye to them) and do not carry the genetics of the harlequin or the merle which is needed to pass on the torn patch. I don’t breed very much but my only goal in raising the Dane is to keep the genetics true to the standard.
Defintitely a Dodge; our neighbor in the fifties had one , and my very first car in 1958 was a 1948 Dodge with nearly the same grill. The US and Canada shipped many cars over to Europe since there were virtuallly no vehicles available locally.
I know my dogs and I know off-road motorcycles but cars I don’t have much of a clue. See attached photo. That is why I came to this site. It took only a matter of minutes for you to nail it!
When I spoke with a scientist who came over here with Von Braun he told me that the Germans were very innovative in building cars during the era. They were the first to use ethanol because of the fuel shortages. I think he made a comment that not only did they use ethanol and alcohol but that many committed suicide drinking the mixtures used to make the cars run. That is what lead me to think it was a German made car plus the emblem looked very much like the Jag emblem.
Thought you all might like to see my “beauty full” Danes. The male is named "Little John and the female next to him is his daughter at 4 months of age. Her name is Cleo.
I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I’ve enjoyed finding out about the car!
The car pictured is a Dodge Custom. It could be any year from a 1946 through the first series 1949. The true 1949 appeared in March of 1949.
It is the Custom (top of the line series) because it has a chrome strip on the rear fender. The lower DeLuxe series did not have this chrome strip on the rear fender. The DeLuxe series included a 2 door sedan, a 4 door sedan and a business coupe. The custom series included a club coupe, four door sedan, convertible, and a town sedan where the rear doors were hinged at the front, instead of at the rear and did not have the window behind the rear door. As I remember, the knobs on the dashboard for the 1946 Dodge were black, while in the later models, the knobs were brown. Starting with the 1948 model, the tire size was switched from 6.00 x 16 to 7.10 x 15. The custom series had electic wipers, while the DeLuxe series had vacuum wipers. My Dad owned a 1947 Dodge 2 door in the DeLuxe series. Many years later, I owned a 1948 Dodge 4 door in the Custom series.
Well, I guess I’m back to researching the year again! I read somewhere that the allies did not stay long in Nurnburg. Mainly just through the war crime trails in 1945 and a few others in 1946 because the city lay in ruins. What about the tractor/Jeep in the background? Would that provide any information that might narrow the year? I might be able to figure out the tire size if I can find pictures of both 1946-47 and 1948 to compare to my picture?
I’m so much closer to knowing about this picture than I was this morning. It’s progress and even if I can’t narrow the year down more than this I’m still able to put it in the 1940’s which I could not do before this! Actually, the history of the car and the military has been very interesting for me. You just never know when being able to identify a 1946 Dodge Custom will come in handy in life!!!
Thanks for sharing.
It is entirely possible that the Dodge in the picture was produced in late 1945. Production of U.S. cars started around August of 1945, but were labeled as 1946 models. There were also a few cars produced during the war for military use, but these cars resembled the 1942 models that were produced through February of 1942. The Dodge in your picture is definitely a postwar model. I would guess that some of these early production 1946 model year vehicles may have gone to the military.