Roland Feix and his action-packed life for the Unimog.

A new home for the Unimog – and a star.

With the growing success of the Unimog, demand outstripped supply at Boehringer. One of the reasons for the bottleneck: the stationary assembly line. Unlike the moving assembly line, it only allowed the production of three Unimog units simultaneously. "So at the end of 1950, production was relocated from Göppingen to Gaggenau," Roland Feix reports first-hand. In his opinion, Daimler-Benz was the right decision to enable large-scale series production. "The engine was already from Mercedes anyway, and part of the team that worked on the first Unimog came from Daimler."

However, from a personal perspective this wasn’t quite so clear initially for the young man: "Relocation was a decision that was not easy for me to make because I felt very much at home at Boehringer – it was a family-run business", says Roland Feix. "However, my passion for the Unimog was stronger. So it was soon clear that I was moving to Gaggenau, where the success of the Unimog really took off".

Open for something new.

Today Roland Feix is sure that the decision he took then was the right one. And he is also sure about what it was that laid the foundation stone for the fascination of the Unimog: "The whole Unimog concept thrilled me. Before it there were trucks and tractors, or tractor-trailer combinations for working in the fields. As a multi-purpose vehicle, the universally applicable motorised device replaced the tractor one hundred percent," he enthuses with shining eyes. "In addition, with its speed of 50 km/h it had the advantage of completing transport tasks faster – and, thanks to its load area, it could even do it without a trailer. It could power implements at front and at the rear. In my opinion this was pioneering for agriculture and that made vehicle demonstrations with the Unimog such a wonderful task for me."

As adaptable as the Unimog iteself.

After his first demonstrations in Germany, Roland Feix moved onto the international stage: The first visits to Spain, Austria and Finland were extraordinary for the young man. But one assignment surprised him more than anything else: "My boss at the time approached me and asked ‘Mr Feix, can you go to Argentina for two months?’ This was an offer I definitely couldn’t refuse!"

However, the talented salesman soon realised that in the vast South American country, agriculture would not be the primary are of operation of the Unimog. "Argentina’s immense pastures were not systematically and intensively cultivated in those days. And that was what the Unimog was actually predestined to do," remembers Roland Feix. "That’s why I constantly reflected upon areas in which the vehicle could be better used instead."

He was put to the test again and again for his ideas – for example during a demonstration near Mendoza in 1952. A ski group had gone missing in the Andes at the time. At the request of his Argentine hosts, the German was to help in the search for the missing skiers at over 4000 metres altitude – and in the process prove the superiority of the Unimog in the mountains.

Roland Feix accepted the challenge and set out for the high Andes with a team of two Unimog units equipped with snow chains, a winch and twin tyres. The greatest danger was from deep crevasses in the ice. "I told the crew of the second Unimog to ‘always stay at least 50 metres behind me’. Because if I fell in, I would have a fixed anchor point that could pull me out with the winch – and vice-versa," Roland Feix reports of this adventure-laden journey. Finally, near the Chilean border at the Laguna del Diamante the rescue group found the equipment of the lost ski group – but the skiers themselves remained unaccounted for.

High-terrain Unimog sets new world altitude record in Chile.

All the same, Roland Feix had proven that the Unimog can operate reliably even under extreme conditions. From the very outset that was his formula for success with the Unimog: Detect problems and present solutions. In this way he was able to win over many businesses and industries almost everywhere in Latin America: "Whether fire brigades, in forestry and agriculture, the oil industry, railway companies or for airports: I’ve had dealings with so many people. That was an incredibly interesting activity and one that suited me very well."

A life for and with the Unimog – in the private sphere, too.

On the other side of the world, however, Roland Feix not only found a task, but a home as well. He founded a family and so, what was originally to be a mere two-month stay in South America actually became a total of 15 years.

With his wife and their three children he eventually returned to Germany in 1967. The use of jetliners had reduced travel times to such an extent that he was able to fulfil his sales duties in South America from Gaggenau and also look after business in Spain and Portugal. At the same time he was now closer to the development team, and serving as an important interface, he could directly contribute his practical knowledge from the places of operation.

Having moved to Gaggenau, Roland Feix’s enthusiasm for the Unimog didn’t stop at the factory gates. As an active member of a carnival association he incorporated his favourite vehicle in his hobby: "When I joined a carnival association, we naturally used a Unimog with a trailer for the parades," he smiles. "Ever since then it is a firm feature of the carnival celebration itself."

After 44 years, Roland Feix finally went into well-deserved retirement in 1993. However, he couldn’t completely let go of the Unimog, because as a founding member of the Gaggenau Unimog Club and an active contact person for the Unimog museum he maintains an active interest in the history of the multitalent from Mercedes-Benz, despite his advanced age. No wonder then, that the Enthusiast intends to take part in the rally to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Unimog.