Visit to the old lady

The long life of a Saurer tipper

Saurer commercial vehicles were built in Arbon on Lake Constance from 1903 to 1986. A number of buses and trucks from the traditional Swiss manufacturer have been preserved, including an S4C tipper built in 1953. Its history can be traced back without any gaps and all previous owners are known. Today, Holger Hahn from Munich looks after the 70-year-old veteran truck. This report is about his visit to an old lady who earned her living with the conventional truck many years ago.

On May 8, 1953, the Wilhelm Meister company in Basel took delivery of a brand new Saurer S4C with 24-inch tires and a Wirz three-way tipper body. A few days later, the seven-tonner started work and provided the Swiss contractor with ten years of loyal service. During this time, it was fitted with new aluminum side walls and a hydraulic steering aid. The first change of ownership took place when the Saurer was taken over by the Wullschleger trucking company in Zofingen in the canton of Aargau. The tipper remained in use at the company run by Helene Wullschleger until the early 1980s. The next owner was “Beverage Shop Robi Banz” from Engelberg in the canton of Obwalden, but the vehicle did not stay with them for very long. Robert Banz found that the tipper, which was now thirty years old, did not really suit his business and sold it to Germany in 1983. He brought it to the Sauerland on his own wheels and loaded his car onto the tipper body, which he used to drive back to the Engelberg Valley in Switzerland after the sale.

The new owner was Peter Michels, a Borgward specialist from Schmallenberg in North Rhine-Westphalia. Here the Saurer was dismantled and put through its paces. There were hardly any rust spots and the drivetrain was also in good condition. At some point, the vehicle had been fitted with a new engine, but it was impossible to find out who had installed the new unit and when. So everything was left as it was, only a new paint job was due.

Peter Michels, who had owned the vehicle the longest but had driven it the least, had always kept in touch with Helene Wullschleger. They had known each other since Michels had asked her for spare parts for the vehicle after buying it. They liked each other straight away and stayed in contact. When the tipper changed hands again in 2023, the old lady in Switzerland was informed immediately.

This brings us to the actual topic of this report, as only the back story has been told so far. The new owner of the now vintage tipper was and is Holger Hahn from Munich, a manager at Ford Trucks Germany. In his increasingly limited free time, Holger Hahn has been a passionate lover of classic vehicles since his apprenticeship at Daimler-Benz in Duisburg. The tipper with the large wheels is the second Saurer in his collection of historic commercial vehicles, which already includes a Swiss Alpine bus with the type designation L4C. There are also two Mercedes trucks (LA 312 and NG 1633 semi) and two other buses (FBW-Europabus 50 U 54 R and Mercedes O 309 D). He also owns some classic cars.

When Holger Hahn took over his Saurer S4C tipper from Peter Michels, an L4C Alpine bus from the same manufacturer was already waiting to receive the new addition to the family. The two Swiss vintage vehicles complement each other perfectly.
With the steering wheel on the right-hand side, it is safer to drive on narrow mountain roads because the edge of the road is easier to see - that was the thinking in Switzerland and other European countries in the past. It was also thought that overtaking maneuvers were out of the question for trucks anyway.
Classic Saurer details: emblem with stepped gable, dashboard with many instruments, windshield wiper drive with compressed air and the logo engraved in the headlight glass

Shortly after Holger Hahn bought the now seventy-year-old tipper, Beatrix Aeschlimann, the younger daughter of the former owner Helene Wullschleger, got in touch. The almost 70-year-old Swiss lady said on the phone that her mother, who used to drive the Saurer, was still alive. She must really be very old, thought Holger Hahn, and decided to pay her a visit. In June 2024, he made his way to Zofingen, where the Wullschleger trucking company once had its headquarters. Deeply impressed by the sprightly and lively old lady, he promised to return a short time later with the Saurer. Meanwhile, her age had been revealed: 101 years.

The journey started at the beginning of July. Holger Hahn had attached a large wooden crate to the tipper body of the old truck, which contained a door to get inside. There he had set up a cozy shelter with a skylight to spend the nights on the road. When he arrived at the Wullschlegers' home in Switzerland, there was a very emotional moment: the old lady saw her old Saurer again after almost half a century. Then they sat down together and Helene Wullschleger talked about the old days.

Back home after a long journey: the more than 70-year-old tipper was once located on the site of the former Wullschleger truck yard
The first visit to the old lady took place without the Saurer, but a few weeks later there was a reunion with the vehicle with which she had earned her living in the sixties and seventies. The photos show Helene Wullschleger with her daughters.

Johann Wullschleger had founded the trucking company in Zofingen around 1895 and acquired a plot of land at Aarburger Straße 8 in 1905, where there was enough space for the necessary buildings and stables for the horses. Business was good and there was always enough to transport. After Wullschleger died in 1925, his wife Emma continued to run the business until 1950, when she handed it over to her son Hans. The horses were now joined by the first motorized vehicle. The elder daughter Elisabeth still remembers the trips they took together in the small truck, a Borgward.

In 1958, Hans Wullschleger died unexpectedly of lung cancer at the age of 47. After this severe shock, his wife Helene had to continue running the trucking company on her own. This was only possible with the support of grandmother Emma, who took care of the household and the two daughters. The small haulage company was now renamed “H. Wullschleger Transports, Zofingen”. Helene obtained a driver's license, initially only for trucks, later also for cars after a new test. The fleet now consisted of two Swiss Berna trucks, and after five years she acquired the second-hand Saurer as a third vehicle. “We then always had two to three trucks in use,” she says. There was a good reason why this Saurer with the unusually large wheels was purchased. It was difficult to estimate what was up there on the loading area, so it was hardly noticeable during police checks if the vehicle was a little overloaded.

Photos from the old days, when Helene Wullschleger was in daily use with the Saurer tipper truck

In 1958, Hans Wullschleger died unexpectedly of lung cancer at the age of 47. After this severe shock, his wife Helene had to continue running the trucking company on her own. This was only possible with the support of grandmother Emma, who took care of the household and the two daughters. The small haulage company was now renamed “H. Wullschleger Transports, Zofingen”. Helene obtained a driver's license, initially only for trucks, later also for cars after a new test. The fleet now consisted of two Swiss Berna trucks, and after five years she acquired the second-hand Saurer as a third vehicle. “We then always had two to three trucks in use,” she says. There was a good reason why this Saurer with the unusually large wheels was purchased. It was difficult to estimate what was up there on the loading area, so it was hardly noticeable during police checks if the vehicle was a little overloaded.

Once, she reported, heavy scaffolding poles were loaded onto the Saurer, far beyond the driver's cab. When she arrived at the unloading point, she was supposed to unload by hand. But the workers urged her to simply tip the poles. She was against it, but the men wouldn't let up. Then the inevitable happened: the load's center of gravity shifted during tipping and the tipper ram broke out of its guide. Not only was the desired time saving lost, but repair costs were also incurred.

The biggest mess was driving ready-mixed concrete. Helene remembers how there were already problems when loading, because there was a device at the loading point that demanded great effort from her and the Saurer to drive out again. After unloading, everything had to be thoroughly cleaned immediately to prevent the concrete from sticking and hardening. It was really bad when the customer called after the laborious cleaning and said: “Helene, there's another cubic meter missing” - then the whole thing started all over again.

 Holger Hahn could have listened to the old lady for days, but work called and he had to make his way home. When he arrived in Munich, he had covered 950 kilometers in his Saurer veteran in two days - an adventure in itself.

This report has already been published in a modified form in the German truck trade magazine Fernfahrer and in the Swiss Saurer-Gazette. We thought that our readers would also be interested.


The Visit of the Old Lady” is a tragic comedy by the well-known Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921 - 1990). We have slightly changed the title of the play for this story.