Decorated with swastikas, for many it was the ultimate symbol of terror. But now it seems Adolf Hitler's midnight blue Mercedes is a must-have item. It has been bought for a little under $8.3 million by a unnamed Russian billionaire.
The car was once part of a fleet used by the Nazi leader in his travels across Europe during the Second World War.
The 770 K model car was locked away in a collector's garage in Bielefeld along with seven other vehicles used by Nazi leaders.
Included among the collection was an identical Mercedes once owned by Joachim von Ribbentrop, the Nazi foreign minister who was hanged at Nuremberg for war crimes.
Car dealer Michael Froehlich, from Duesseldorf, said he made the deal with the unnamed billionaire, who also bought the other vehicles in the collection.
After the war the car got moved around quite a bit, first going to Austria, then to a car museum in Las Vegas.
After a spell in the States it was shipped back across the ocean to a brewery tycoon in Munich and finally to the anonymous collector in the British army garrison town of Bielefeld.
Mr Froelich turned up the car's original papers and repair logs and matched the licence plate number - 1A 148461 - to photos of Hitler in the car.
Poster Comment:
No outraged jews chimping out so you can guess who the Russian billionaire was.