A Funny Story

[MikeSimon]

Elsewhere here is a thread where "alcohol (beer) at the workplace in Germany" was briefly touched on. Not wanting to hijack that thread, here is a Daimler Benz story that was told in the 70s:

In the late 50s, a well-to-do or prominent person bought a Mercedes 300 W186, nicknamed "Adenauer" after the first chancellor of the federal republic of Germany after WWII.
The customer took delivery and after a few days returned to the dealership with the complaint of a mysterious rattle and cluck in the car.
Service checked the car out and did not find anything.
The customer left but came back after a few days with the same complaint.
This scenario repeated itself several times until Daimler Benz decided to buy the car back and provide the customer with a replacement.
The rattle and clunk car was shipped to Untertürkheim to factory service, where they started to thoroughly inspect and subsequently disassembling the vehicle.
When it was down to the bare frame and nothing was found, they cut the frame apart and - behold - inside one of the frame tubes they found an empty beer bottle that one of the assembly workers slipped in there before it was welded...
 
Not sure if any other of our German members ever heard this and can add something to it??

[mdsalemi]

It's certainly believable as the Adenauer had a heavily boxed frame in the center.
Doesn't sound like something the German workers would have done, more like the Americans that would stuff their old lunch bags into doors...

[Shvegel]

It has been a few years but I have heard that story before.

[MikeSimon]

It's certainly believable as the Adenauer had a heavily boxed frame in the center.

May be the same thing, the 300 had a steel tube frame.

[49er]

I have heard it too years ago, but the car in question was a Chevy. Pretty sure you could plug in any automobile brand and get the same joke.

John

[MikeSimon]

Yeah! Like the story with the guy who chokes on a "chicken" bone in a restaurant and they find out it is from a rat...Any "ethnic"restaurant you can think of has been used.

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

I never saw it before, however, it does sound like a German story since having a beer with your lunch in Germany is a way of life with the German worker. I know from first hand experience as a student in Germany supplying Bricklayers with bricks for a short period on weekends (my second job on weekends to make extra money) during my Apprenticeship. I need to add that our Master did not allow this practice. It was strictly “verboten” not allowed.

I have no idea if Mercedes would allow it, perhaps someone here would know for sure like Alfred or Achim


Dieter

[MikeSimon]

While I was still in Germany in 1988, our company had already done away with the beer in the vending machines on the shop floor and alcohol was no longer allowed in the workplace.
This was the general policy in many companies. Daimler Benz being an industry leader was most certainly on the forefront of implementing stricter rules. While the wine bottles were still on the tables in the cafeterias in France, most of Germany was "dry" as far as the workplace was concerned.