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Škoda Auto is celebrating 130 years of its existence, and Škoda Storyboard is bringing unique moments from the brand’s history back to life through rare artifacts from archives and museum collections. This time, the story is told through a photo album capturing an incredible adventure.
The early 1930s were marked by the Great Depression, which hit the young Czechoslovak Republic hard. As the economy declined, unemployment soared – at its peak, nearly one million people were without work, with the unemployment rate exceeding 20%. So, it’s no surprise that once these difficult years passed, people longed for entertainment and adventure, especially the younger generation.
One photo album preserved in the Škoda Auto archive tells the story of four young men who, in 1936, set off from Prague for the Arctic Circle in a Škoda Rapid. On their way back, they even took part in a star rally connected to the Summer Olympic Games in Berlin. Leafing through the album, you relive an almost unbelievable travel adventure.
One photo album preserved in the Škoda Auto archive tells the story of four young men who, in 1936, set off from Prague for the Arctic Circle in a Škoda Rapid. On their way back, they even took part in a star rally connected to the Summer Olympic Games in Berlin. Leafing through the album, you relive an almost unbelievable travel adventure.
Škoda Auto purchased the album from a private owner – this is one of the ways of acquiring rare historical artefacts relating to the company. The hand-bound album contains not only photographs with handwritten captions, but also newspaper clippings reporting on the unusual journey. A true rarity is a map carefully tracing the entire route. The level of detail suggests the work of a natural storyteller, making it easy to recount the adventure even after nearly 90 years.
The crew left Prague on 25 June 1936. Škoda Auto itself supported the trip with a contribution of 20,000 crowns, presented as “a subsidy for a promotional drive beyond the Arctic Circle and the Olympic Rally.”
The route to the first destination led through Germany and Denmark into Scandinavia. Passing through the capitals of Stockholm and Oslo, the Škoda Rapid’s tire tracks continued to the Norwegian port city of Trondheim and then farther north. On 11 July, after a marathon 868-kilometer drive without a break, the car crossed the Arctic Circle – the longest single leg of the entire trip.
The northernmost point of the expedition was the port of Liinakhamari on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, the end of the then-new Arctic Ocean Highway. There, the crew posed for photos in proper formal attire. At the time, the port belonged to Finland, but just three years later the country was invaded by the Soviet Union and forced to surrender 10% of its territory to its enemy, including Liinakhamari – a conflict that went down in history as the Winter War.
Turning the page, we follow the Rapid as it headed back south. Passing through Ivalo and reaching the Gulf of Bothnia, the crew arrived in the Finnish town of Tornio. On 16 July, they set off from there on the Olympic star rally to Berlin.
A starting list preserved in the album shows the Škoda Rapid carried start number 43 out of 154 cars in total. The number is even pasted onto the album’s cover as a sticker. It’s not the only one – the album covers are decorated with stickers from hotels where our adventurers stayed, carefully collected as souvenirs forming a map of all the places and proudly displayed after their return.
The rally route led through Latvia and Lithuania to the then German border. In Königsberg (today’s Kaliningrad), the crew faced their first checkpoint – one of 60 placed across Germany. To collect points, each crew could only register at one checkpoint per day, and it had to be at least 250 kilometres from the previous one. It should be added that East Prussia, part of Germany at the time, extended as far as Gdańsk. The current border between Germany and Poland on the Oder River was established by the Zhořelec Treaty in 1950. From Königsberg, the Czechoslovak travellers drove on through Swinemünde, Lübeck, Wilhelmshafen, Harzburg, Wittenberg, and Lübbenau, finally reaching the finish line at Berlin’s Avus racetrack, where the Olympic marathon was also held.
There, the crew completed the formalities and posed for photos before returning home to Prague, where they were welcomed the next day at the Czechoslovak Automobile Club. With 4,368 points, Štůla’s team initially placed second, behind a German crew that had set off from Athens. But at the official closing ceremony of the Berlin Olympics, Štůla learned that his team had in fact been declared the winners – and received gold medals.
It was an unforgettable holiday adventure, full of memories to last a lifetime. The photos make it clear the friends had a wonderful time. Back home, they were rewarded with a trophy, personal thank-you letters signed by Škoda’s general manager Ing. Karel Hrdlička, and even postage stamps bearing their likenesses to commemorate this achievement.
Long-distance expeditions in Škoda vehicles are among the great stories of the brand’s history. Load up a car with whatever you can, grab a map, and set off. That sense of freedom inspired many daring journeys. Sadly, just three years after Štůla’s trip, the world was plunged into war, and such carefree adventures became impossible.
But Škoda’s spirit of adventure was always there. Count Alexander Kolowrat-Krakowský competed in the Monte Carlo Rally as early as 1912 with a Laurin & Klement car. In 1936, the duo Hausman and Pohl drove a Škoda Popular Sport to second place in their category at Monte Carlo, starting all the way from Athens.
Other epic journeys included František Elstner, who raced Škoda cars across the Balkans and even the American continent, while the Škulin couple undertook a 52,000-kilometer trip across Africa. Just two years before Štůla’s expedition, four Škoda Popular cars had set off on a drive to India. And perhaps the most symbolic of all was the “Around the World in 97 Days” trip – a defining adventure of the interwar years.
