Great tractors: huge rush to the Eicher meeting in Hohenlinden

Created: 06/18/2022, 04:58

By: Joerg Domke

A good 400 vehicles from Eicher production in Forstern could be admired at the folk festival in Hohenlinden (all dz) © Dziemballa

A good 400 old Eicher tractors came together at the folk festival for the big vintage car meeting.

For some it was a journey into their own past.

Hohenlinden – It seems that Peter Lehmann looks particularly attentively at one vehicle after the other in a field right next to the fairground and below the battle memorial in Hohenlinden.

The big Eicher classic car meeting mobilized around 400 vehicle owners yesterday, Corpus Christi day.

In addition, up to 3000 visitors should not have missed the excursion into the past of the Forstern cult company.

The Hohenlindener himself started in 1950 in the neighboring village across the district border as an apprentice at Eicher, in order to become a machinist there.

In 1954, the now 85-year-old passed his journeyman's examination in order to study later.

A close emotional connection to the company and its globally valued products, primarily tractors,

Former employees are amazed at what they can see there

And specialist knowledge: in a vast sea of ​​old Eicher tractors, Lehmann found a vintage vehicle that was fitted with a Deutz engine.

One that was not yet air-cooled, according to the expert.

After all, air cooling, he adds, was the Forsterner trademark: in 1947 with the first diesel engine converted in this way and in 1948 with the world's first air-cooled diesel tractor.

The basic idea came from Josef Eicher and the engineer Christoph Winkler.

The great advantage of this invention, according to Lehmann: air-cooled devices were winterproof, so they could be used all year round.

Egon Eicher, 72, member of the board of the Eicherfreunde © Dziemballa

This is also how Egon Eicher, head of Eicherfreunde Forstern and son of Josef Eicher, explains it.

The 72-year-old Forsterner has a lot to do on this public holiday morning on the sidelines of the Hohenlinden folk festival.

Again and again he has to shake hands, because the classic car meeting has long been a meeting of members from a real scene of people who feel connected to the company and the old commercial vehicles made in Forstern.

The Eicherfreunde association has around 650 members worldwide.

Trend: Definitely not falling, because according to Eicher's observations, a new generation of fans has long since grown up, whose interest seems to be focused in particular on the Eicher vehicles with their high horsepower.

Old designer remembers

One person who seems to know every Eicher inside out is Herbert Haberzettl.

The man from Hohenlinden worked for Eicher for 32 years, from 1951 to 1983.

First as a machine fitter, later in a team in construction.

The main task was to improve vehicles over and over again.

"The tractors have practically grown with the agricultural technology," says the now 88-year-old.

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Herbert Haberzettl, 88, former designer © Dziemballa

It seems that the former Eicher employee is allowed to celebrate two public holidays on this Corpus Christi day: the religious one and a very personal one.

He seems to have his very own memories of almost every vehicle that he looks at in the morning with great joy and a recognizable sparkle in his eyes.

As if there weren't any details about any of the Bulldogs presented that weren't somehow directly related to him or at least to his former team in construction.

In any case, as Haberzettl tells and tells, Alois Mayr, one of the numerous Eicher owners from near and far, listens attentively.

And so the market Schwabener learns in passing that the headlights of his old Eicher from the 1960s were originally headlights from a BMW motorcycle production facility.

Improvements were invented again and again

What Mayr still has with him that day: A portable pump trailer, TAS for short.

Just as it used to be used by many fire brigades in the past.

Mayr's TAS appears to be old, but has never been used in practice.

Here and there, for example on hoses, there are references to the "BUND".

Possibly a trailer that was once stationed at an airport, suspects Mayr, who has been active in the Ebersberg district fire inspection for decades.

In any case, his fire brigade friends in Markt Schwaben secretly provided the TAS with a deceptively real lettering.

"Paulimühle fire brigade" is written there in silver on red.

Of course they don't exist;

and of course it never was.

Mayr actually got his EM 500 S, built in 1965, by accident.

He once bought a property in Paulimühle;

and at the same time the old Eicher, who must have stood there in the Stadl for many years.

But the Bulldog ran again straight away after replacing the battery and the oil.

According to many Eicher fans, this loyalty and reliability seems to be the unique selling point of an Eicher.

Alois Mayr, proud Eicher owner © Dziemballa

"It practically always runs," says Rudi Gröninger, for example.

The Ebersberger got his vintage car, built in 1955, as a gift from an uncle, finally had the tractor restored and quickly had it passed the TÜV especially for the big meeting in Hohenlinden.

Peter Lehmann, former employee, and his brother-in-law Bruno Werndl.

© Dziemballa

In the afternoon, to the delight of many participants and visitors, some of the Eicher owners set out on a tour of parts of the Ebersberg and Erding districts.

"It's time for you to get your autograph cards," exclaims a enthusiastic female fan to club boss Egon Eicher as he passes by.

The 72-year-old smiles back in a friendly way - and quickly draws attention to the next Eicher meeting on June 8, 2023 in Neuching.

You can read more news from the Ebersberg region here.

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