It has been around since 1930, and in addition to the spectacular renewal of the car fleet and its conversion to flow production, the company is now focusing on the production of a light truck. Opel has been partly assigned to the US manufacturer General Motors some time ago. Shortly before Black Friday 1929 the transmission is increased to 80 percent. According to this the Opel Blitz is also based on German-American cooperation.

The launch will be accompanied by a kind of competition in which the majority of the 1.5 million participants will probably have chosen to keep the name 'Blitz' (lightning). One car and 4 motorbikes can be won. The Opel trademark still reminds us of that until today (pictures below).

Here we have it as a flatbed truck from 1930. On the next pictures you can already see clear changes. The original is from the American GM truck programme, a 2.6L four-cylinder and a 3.6L six-cylinder from Buick, side- steered with 50 kW (68 PS) at 2800 rpm. There are three wheelbases and payloads from 1.5 to 2 tonnes.

The American genes and constant refinements lead to an advantage over Mercedes, whose vehicles are almost a ton heavier with a slightly lower payload. The war production of the Nazi government, which clearly favours the Opel Blitz, began early. In 1935 a new factory was even built in Brandenburg, again with truck flow production, of course.

Consequently, during the war, Mercedes was forced to produce the product of its biggest competitor as part of the unification of car production, which was passed on to General Director Wilhelm Kissel, Board of Management of Daimler since 1926, apparently not without trace. Early on he had advised a new design in the direction of the Opel Blitz. He died in 1942 and Mercedes produced the standard model only from mid-1944, without any reference to his own brand, last with a cab made of hardboard.

And another celebrity from the automotive sector has something to do with the Opel Blitz, Heinrich Nordhoff, who was responsible for the success story of mainly the VW Beetle for 20 years from 1948 onwards. He was from 1942 on General director of the Opel truck factory in Brandenburg.