Pritzwalk Truck Meeting 2024

The most beautiful didn't just come from the region

For the tenth time, the "Extraordinary Therapy Weekend" took place in Pritzwalk on the company premises of truck interior designer Andy Tägder, whose luxurious cab design can be admired on his Facebook page "AT Lkwpolsterung". Around 120 highly polished tractor units, most of them with expensive tuning parts and elaborate paintwork, attended the event from July 5 to 7, 2024. Matthias Herrfurth from Berlin was on site for truckinfocus.com and photographed some of the most beautiful trucks for us. Matthias has also made a name for himself on Facebook, he has almost 30,000 followers on his very successful page "Transport - Fotografie Matthias H. / Truckspotter".

Every year, the small town of Pritzwalk in the north-west of Brandenburg, Germany, with a population of around 12,000 provides the backdrop for an event with the original name "Extraordinary Therapy Weekend", which has been attracting the most beautiful trucks from more than just the region for ten years now. Trucks from further afield can also regularly be admired at the Pritzwalk truck meeting.

This year, the number of visitors was initially restrained, although the public was offered a colorful program. With bouncy castles, face painting and a magician, families with children were also catered for. Coffee and cake were served in the hall, while a food truck, beer and cocktail trolley and an ice cream stand catered for the guests' physical well-being. On Friday and Saturday evening there was a music program with DJ Emanuel.

Among the tractor units on display, it was noticeable that the airbrush paintwork that used to be so popular is no longer so common. Instead, tasteful multi-colored paintwork dominates, which often skilfully underlines the design of the respective truck model. Times are changing, and there are also fashion trends in truck paintwork.

Arrival at the festival site: two tractor units from Reuss Transports in Leizen, carefully painted and fitted with elegant accessories, on their way to their stand.
Beautifully lined up: tractor units from different fleets gleam in the Pritzwalk sun.
The Scania 4 series was launched in 1996, and the design was retained and optimized several times until 2017, when the new generation appeared. Today, the "green hornet" almost looks like a vintage truck.
Two "Z-Liners" from the Konrad Zippel transportation company with different outfits, plus two Scania tractor units from the 2013 generation.
The Scania-Vabis L 75 came onto the market in 1958, ten years later the second name was dropped, and since then the Swedish manufacturer's vehicles have only been called Scania. The trucks with the round shapes changed type designation several times and were replaced in 1981 by the angular Series 2 conventionals.
Many of the participating tractor units impressed with their elaborate paintwork and often also with unusual add-on parts.
This carefully restored IFA W 50 with crew cab comes from GDR production.
Airbrush designs on truck cabs were once all the rage. Today, they are rarely seen. Paint finishes that skillfully emphasize the shapes of the respective truck model are now predominant, above all the blue Scania from the transportation company Dieter Schumacher from Neuendorf near Rostock.
Wood transportation of the noble kind: Scania with S cab and 770 hp from Mathias Bürger from Spornitz.
Many of the tractor units on display were very individually designed, each one more beautiful than the next.
Color-coordinated: MAN, DAF and Scania trucks in great color designs.
Some tractor units were also true works of art from the rear. The green DAF from Roland Graf Güterverkehr from Grabow near Ludwigslust also caught the eye with its extra-long cab.
The food truck, which provided refreshments for the participants and visitors, was not actually a truck at all, but a former International school bus. The fantastic trike wasn't a truck either, but pulled the caravan of one of the participants.
Finally, a picture from the early hours of Saturday morning, when there were still no visitors to restrict the photographer's view of the lined-up tractor units.

You might also be interested in:

The omnibus trucks of the "Cuentapropistas"

Cuba Report: Private passenger transport with truck conversions

In Cuba, in addition to numerous cars, there are many commercial vehicles from the 1950’s on the road, built in the USA, the former Eastern Bloc, Asia and Europe. Our article is about vintage trucks built with unique bus bodies. All over Cuba they chug from place to place, often lovingly restored and lavishly painted. Alongside regular buses they play an important role in passenger transport on the approximately 777-mile-long Caribbean island.

Not only on the road for the potato harvest

British truck veterans in Cyprus

Cyprus, like Malta, was a British colony for almost a century. It is therefore not surprising that relics from this era are still present on the island. For truck enthusiasts, it is the old English trucks that arouse interest. It may be that there are not many of these veteran vehicles left in the meantime. But about twenty years ago, truck spotting on Cyprus was still quite worthwhile. Christoph Büch from Berlin had a look around Cyprus in 2003 and shows some of his finds in this article.

Cakes on wheels and rolling coffee pots

Commercial vehicles as advertising

Today they are rare, but in earlier times they used to enrich the street scene: vehicles that served solely as advertising. The advertising vehicles were on the road, for example, with a body in the form of a baby carriage, a rolling shop window, and moving bottles of various contents. Most of them were based on truck or bus chassis, but there were also smaller variants on passenger car chassis. Their time has long since passed, supplanted by television and the Internet.

Construction machinery, dump trucks, light rail and models in action - a family festival

Historic construction site at the Brecht gravel works near Philippsburg 2024

For the 17th time, a special kind of classic vehicle festival took place on the site of a southern German gravel works between Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Participants were able to let off steam with their historic vehicles and construction machinery to their heart's content and spectators were invited to marvel at the colorful goings-on without barriers and fluttering ribbons. In addition, the meeting was, as always, characterized by a variety that could hardly be surpassed. Andreas Fehsenmeier and his son Linus from Heidelberg were there for truckinfocus.com and sent us an interesting report with great photos.