Or a made up name for the Volkswagen and Porsche/Mercedes Benz dealership which orginated in Fairfax City and later moved to Tysons

how long ago did the Tysons dealership drop the Lantzch name? change of ownership?

When we ran their commercials on WEEL back in the 70s, it was a German guy saying that was his name.

Yeah, he was a real guy.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/info/dealers/hblantzsch_fairfax_va.php

I think I read his (or his wife's) obituary a while back.

He shortened up the name of his dealerships to HBL,Inc a long time ago.

HB was real, not sure if he's still among the living, but he was a Clifton resident.

The operations moved to Tysons in the early 80's. It was operated by his son-in-law until it was sold the Roger Penske's group 5 or 6 years ago.

He owned the Fairfax City Volvo dealership and maybe the VW store, too...

This was up until the mid 90s, maybe?

He lived in the white townhouses that are right near chain bridge that goes into DC. You can see them from DC going into VA. He was a cool guy

Spacy Wrote:
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> When we ran their commercials on WEEL back in the
> 70s, it was a German guy saying that was his name.

The funniest thing was a memo chastising one of the jocks for playing the commercial for the movie "Ilsa, She Wolf of the S.S." right after the H.B. Lantzch commercial. It was tacked up in the studio, but someone had written "Fuck him if he can't take a joke!" on it...

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Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2013 09:41PM by chuckhoffmann.

chuckhoffmann Wrote:
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> Horst Bruno Lantzsch (December 6, 1909 - September
> 28, 1986) was trained at the Volkswagen factory
> and emigrated to this country in 1952. He was the
> general manager for Capitol Car Distributors from
> 1955 before striking out on his own in 1959. His
> first location was at 107 East Main Street in
> Fairfax City. He next moved his dealership to a
> location on Lee Highway, and some time after that
> to the current location in Vienna. He retired in
> 1979.
>
> Lanztsch lived in Alexandria, and died on
> September 28, 1986 at the age of 76. He was buried
> in the Columbia Gardens graveyard in Washington,
> D.C.
>
> In 2010 Lanztsch was posthumously awarded the
> Courage to Care Award by the Jewish
> Anti-Defamation League for saving the life of his
> Jewish friend, Alfred "Freddi" Ascher, during
> World War II.
>
> Lantzsch gave an interview to The Washington Star
> which appeared in the July 7, 1978, edition. Does
> anyone has a copy of this interview?


Columbia Gardens cemetary is in Arlington (Rt 50). The great guitarist, Roy Buchanan, is also buried there.

Some rich guy still owns the building HBL is in. He lives out in middleburg and is one of the richest greeks in america. Penskey spent 20 million remodeling the place and he does not even own it.

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Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2013 09:44PM by chuckhoffmann.

Yes he was real. He actually put on a shop work coat and diagnosed a fuel line that had an inner core that had collapsed on friend's '62 Microbus in 1964. He also did his own commercials (with band music for a bed) that aired on WEAM around 8:00am.

He was a cool guy. Big into painting and treated his employees great.

ain't the used Volvo dealer on Old Pickett road in fairfax City an old employee of HBL

although I'd think the son runs that place now cause that was decades ago

Use to work for HBL VW in fairfax years ago.. When Mr L passed away his wife came in every week on Friday mornings to sign payroll... Little old lady made a point to walk around and say hello to everyone in the building..... CLASSY....

Eldest Brother purchased his first new car from Lantzch (sp?) FFX in the 70's. Came with a crookedly-placed H.B. Lantzch medalion on the rear side of the Bug. Tried to remove it but it was glued-on with an adhesive and couldn't get it off,
completely. Miss that car and some good times.

Mrs. Ursula Andreas, geborene Lantzsch - Tochter von H.B. Lantzsch
Ich suche meine Cousine Ursula. Letzter Kontakt nach dem Tode Ihrer Mutter Grete
Ich würde mich freuen, eine Nachricht von Ursula zu erhalten.
Danke und mit freundlichen Gruessen.

We bought a orange Super Beetle from the Fairfax HBL back in 1974 when it was located next to Glynns Gulf Station.

xu9FX

Hallo Gabi,

Hier ist Christopher Andreas, ich habe deine post gerade gesehn, und ich habe Meine Mutter, Ursula, gesagt. Die wohnt ganz in der Nehe von mich. Bitte schreib mich ein email zu der Addesse einhalt, danke. Hoffenlich grigst du diese Antwort. Enschuldige das mein Deutsch nicht ganz gut ist

email addresse: cmajandreas@gmail.com

I met Mr Lantzsch around 1956 when I bought my first Porsche from I think Jack Pry and Lantzsch was then involved with VWs. He told me he had raced cars, had a dealership in Berlin, came to this country and told me how VW parts could be used in place of expensive Porsche parts. I bought probably several Porsches from him. He took me to lunch one day at a restaurant near Dulles Airport. He drove a VERY big Mercedes limousine, put on driving gloves, and drove fast, exhibiting how to quickly pass a car on a 2-lane road.

Sometime later I read that he had something to do with encouraging Fredinand Porsche to introduce the Porsche Speedster to America and/or advising what Porsches would sell well.

You mean the Porsche Super Speedster, Jimmy called the Little Bastard for good reasons !

We used to put Porsche rims on VWs to make them handle the curves better with a wider stance , it worked and we could power slide the turns better too with the Empi kits , tuned exhaust and Holly carbs running the worlds best bootleg corn liquor to Nova back in the day at the highest prices we could demand from redneck Democrats in Manassas Park and Mantua

I have never understood the concept of taking years of one's life and earnings to slowly build up a car like a Honda which is not a performance automobile to begin with when for the same amount of money you could be driving one of my cars.

The best bet is to buy a decent used car online.

The Fairfax Volvo and VW is own by the Rosenthal Auto Group now.

Does anyone know the details about Horst Lantzsch's donation of a Volkswagen bus to the German School (Washington, DC)in 1962?

Yes. Some details above are incorrect. He is buried at Columbia Gardens in Arlington, VA, not DC.
Attachments:

Definitely a real person . Worked at his VW store in 1976 and the Mercedes/Volvo store in 1977. Typically drove a VW Beetle as a company car. He pulled up next to the MB/Volvo showroom one rainy day and sat in the car several minutes. I walked out, he rolled the window down and I asked if I could help. He asked if I could tell him how to turn on the windshield wipers on. I said, “Mr. Lantzcsh they are already on.” He said “Thank you very much.”