This is a real wonderful story: In 1936 Hans Oskar Hildebrandt´s father bought the one years old Tornax from a doctor. The family lived in Halle/ Saale, in the middle of Germany which became the state of DDR after World War II. Hans Oskar remembers very well the rides in the Tornax with his father when he was a child. The car survived the war and the time thereafter and it was driven by the father until 1977 when the father died. Hans Oskar drove it too until he flew to West-Germany in 1961. Hans Oskar, who lived near Hamburg now, remembered the nice car and during a visit at his home town he found it almost as a wreck. He wanted to get it out of the DDR and started to bring part by part across the border. This was quit dangerous as the DDR customs checked each outgoing car very carefully and penalties had been strong. Once he had to return parts from the border and he found that he never would be able to get the bigger parts, especially the chassis out of the DDR. So he tried the official way and with the help of Mr. Genscher, former Secretary of State, he succeeded in 1985. He had to pay for the car to the DDR state to get it out, even it was owned by his family. During following 5 years the Rex was carefully restored. Since 1990 Hans Oskar Hildebrandt brings the nice roadster to many events with historic automobiles. (KH)
