100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CROATIAN AUTOMOBILE CLUB – HAK

Motif: The Elmore model automobile from the year 1905 There are but few organisations in Croatia that can mark 100 years of continuance and above all successful activity. One of such is the Croatian Automobile Club. In the afore mentioned period of one hundred years Croatia has experienced and survived three great state systems and two world wars, events that had badly struck the Croatian Automobile Club and its members. After each of the wars, however, the Club’s membership had, in defiance of the adversities and difficulties, repeatedly raised its club and started developing it anew, and continued developing it from the beginning numbers of fourteen members in the year 1906 to the enviable number of 140,000 members in the year 2006, organized in 95 automobile clubs all over Croatia. The first Croatian Automobile Club was established in Zagreb in 1906, only ten years after such clubs were established in France, Austria, Belgium and three years after such a club was established in Germany. The members of the club had accepted its first regulations on the 25th of April 1906, and they were verified by government of the Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia on the 14th of May of the same year. In accord with the issued regulations the inaugural conference of the Association was held in the Royal Hotel in Zagreb on the 1st of June 1906. This date has been accepted by the Croatian Automobile Club as its day that has been traditionally celebrated since the year 1991. The first regulations of the Club had 19 articles. These articles defined the following: the name and purpose of the club, its headquarters, finances, membership, the obtaining of membership, the termination of membership, the rights and duties of the members, the club management, the presiding committee, the scope of the board’s scope of work, bursar, administrative clerk, inspector of the club’s inventory, secretary, auditing officer, regular annual conference, emergency conference, court of honour and conditions for the cessation of the club’s activity. In accordance with Article 8 of the Regulations, the Managing Board had been chosen at the Inaugural Conference, and all the 14 members of the Club were members of the Board. Rudolf Erdödy was chosen to be president, deputy president was the honorable Franjo Aurel Turek, the secretary was Ferdinand Budicki, and Julije Rudovits was made bursar. Other members of the Board were Count Dioniz Drašković, Baron Dioniz Hellenbach, Count Milan Kulmer, Count Miroslav Kulmer, the honorable Stjepan Leitner, Dr Fran Gutschy, the honorable Ljudevit Reiner, Ev. Feller, Count Marrko Bombelles from Vinica near Varaždin and Hinko Goldberger from Vinkovci. In 1907 the Club already numbered 18 members, and in the same year, at the annual conference on the 28th of February, Count Marko Bombelles was chosen to be the new president. Count Marko Bombelles brought the first automobile to Croatia in 1898, and took it to his country manor Opeka in Vinica near Varaždin. The automobile was a Benz model. So it was Varaždin and Vinica and not Zagreb where the first automobile appeared in the street. Soon after the Count Bombelles, Zagreb could greet its first second-hand automobile that arrived from Vienna in 1901. The car was brought to Zagreb by the merchant prince Ferdinand Budicki, a celebrated sportsman, the cyclist who travelled all over Europe on his cycle, who flew with the balloon and was the first to drive up to the top of Medvednica with his automobile. This was the first automobile in Zagreb and it is no wonder that it caused great attention among the population. The arrival of the first automobile in Zagreb caused a veritable agitation. Yet, all this did not last long. Other automobiles arrived: Count Marko Bombelles used to come to Zagreb from Vinica in his automobile, a Nesseldorf model, the French steam saw-mill from the Zagreb suburb Črnomerec imported a Dietrich automobile which had a transmission-belt powered motor. Other automobiles followed, particularly after Ferdinand Budicki opened his agency and the first shop for automobile sale in Zagreb, 2 Gundulićeva Street. He soon imported several automobiles of the Ultramobille model. Following soon after Ferdinand Budicki, automobiles were acquired by some of the distinguished persons of that time. Tadija Bartulović, a coach-driver from Zagreb, acquired a Nesseldorf automobile and he took Adolf Mošinski, the mayor of Zagreb, on a drive along Jelačić Square and the Mesnička Street. At that time that was the only auto-coach (taxi) in Zagreb. Other persons who bought automobiles were Dr Fran Gutschy, architect Vjekoslav Heinzel who was later to become the mayor of Zagreb, the honourable Ljudevit Reiner, the Messrs. Lakembacker, Brihta and some others. These were simple small automobiles with a lying rear motor and a great driving-wheel. Thus, though rather slowly, automobiles appeared more frequently on the roads, and the first motor cycles also started to appear. In 1902 Ferdinand Budicki drove to Zagreb across Semmering from Vienna on his first motor cycle, and it took him a record time of only 11 hours and 24 minutes to cover the route. It was a Laurin Klement motor cycle with a small motor for that time, powered 13/4 HP. This is how the motoring entered unimpeded the life of the people of that time.