When automobility was still in its infancy, there were hardly any traffic rules. Except for one: “Larger vehicles have the right of way.” That’s what the driver’s textbook says. “Maybe that’s why my great-grandfather chose this Opel model,” speculates Olaf Dobberkau, looking at the imposing double Phaeton from the Opel Classic collection. Lots of sheet metal, lavish brass, plenty of space on two rows of seats – the sweeping 6/16 PS model is not called the “big brother of the doctor’s car” for nothing, which the mostly smaller models had to give way to according to the rules.
Because it all started 113 years ago with a very similar Opel model: Olaf Dobberkau’s great-grandfather Fritz Mann founded a driving school in Suhl in 1910, the first driving school car was an Opel 12/14 hp – very similar to the one from the Classic Collection. Olaf Dobberkau himself represents the fourth generation that helps men and women to get their driving licences: the Fahrschule Gebr. Dobberkau e.K. the oldest still existing in Germany. The company has also remained true to the brand from Rüsselsheim: Olaf Dobberkau and his wife Alexandra have come to the headquarters with the latest model in the driving school fleet, an Opel Mokka Electric.
Photo from 1910 from the family archive: It shows Fritz Mann with one of his first learner drivers in an Opel 12/14 hp – he himself sits in the second row, the learner driver at the wheel. The first students who learned to drive the stately vehicle were locksmiths and mechanics. The exam prepared the prospective drivers for their job.
Before the First World War, there were a number of types in the Opel range that were very similar. The 6/16 from the Rüsselsheim Classic Collection comes very close to Fritz Mann’s first driving school car. Like his great-grandfather, Olaf Dobberkau sat in the back seat, while Classic employee Werner Bachmann acted as a learner driver.
Whoever wanted to pass the driving test in 1910 had to be able to do one thing above all: screw.
“My great-grandfather obviously had a keen sense that driver training could be a permanent business model,” says Olaf Dobberkau during his visit to Rüsselsheim. Fritz Mann was already running a haulage business – with Opel models, of course – and a workshop when he founded the driving school in 1910, immediately after a driving test became compulsory in Germany for the first time. And if you wanted to pass the exam 113 years ago, you had to be able to do one thing above all: screwing.
When breakdowns were part of everyday life
“The roads were bad, pneumatic tires and spoked wheels were sensitive. Breakdowns are part of driving. The question of how to get the car moving again was therefore given far more importance than any right-of-way rules,” explains Olaf Dobberkau. The requirements for driving skills were also low: “The test subjects only had to do a few accident-free laps in the yard.”
“E-cars are also booming in driver training”
Mr. Dobberkau, learner drivers can not only complete driving lessons with you in the Mokka, but also purely battery-electrically with the Opel Mokka-e – why? Electric cars are also booming in driver training: around half of our learner drivers would already like to take the driving test in an electric car complete – and the trend is rising. The legislature has also reacted to this or contributed to it.
To what extent? Since April 1, 2021, it has been possible to take the practical part of the driver’s license test in a vehicle with an automatic transmission, i.e. also an electric car – and without there being a restriction for driving a car with a manual transmission . The only requirement: the learner driver must take at least ten driving lessons with a gearshift vehicle, and he must also prove in a test drive that he can shift gears. For the actual practical test, he can then climb into an electric car with automatic transmission.
So the future of driving school education will soon be largely electric? Definitely, and in the near future. That’s why we rely on the battery-electric Mokka Electric for training. Thinking about the future is already firmly anchored in our company: “If you don’t improve, you’ve stopped being good!” is our motto. It is the recipe for success that has led the company through what have been 113 years, some of which have been very turbulent. So not only e-cars belong to our fleet. We are also future-proof when it comes to energy supply: We heat via heat pumps, combined with photovoltaics and energy storage. The system also supplies the electricity for charging our electric cars.
Olaf Dobberkau is the owner of Germany’s oldest driving school still in existence.
The road traffic regulations have repeatedly adapted to technical and social progress over the decades: the maximum speed of 15 km/h for motor vehicles was abolished, as was the regulation that was valid until 1958 that women needed their husbands’ permission to obtain a driver’s license. “Today it is electromobility that has a major influence on the content of the training,” says Olaf Dobberkau (see also interview), who has been helping learner drivers to get their driver’s license for almost 40 years. In the Mokka Electric, for example, they learn how energy can be recovered when braking through recuperation in order to increase the range. The individual steps of the loading process are also practiced.
“Electric mobility has a major impact on the content of driver training.”
Last but not least, you have to prove in the driving test that you can operate assistance systems such as adaptive cruise control. The company owner is in his element as he delves into the intricacies of the driving test, the details that are both company and family history. “It’s sometimes a bit of a mystery to me how we managed to keep the driving school in family ownership for 113 years,” he says. The company that slowly picked up speed in 1910 with an Opel 12/14 hp. The first students who learned to drive with Fritz Mann were locksmiths and mechanics, and the exam was intended to prepare the prospective drivers for their profession.
Trying out the double phaeton: Olaf Dobberkau follows in the footsteps of his great-grandfather Fritz Mann.
Happy reunion: This Opel Kapitän from the Opel Classic collection was Alexandra and Olaf Dobberkau’s wedding car.
In the 1920s, more and more people were able to afford their own car and learned to drive, but the global economic crisis at the end of the decade caused problems for the young company. Fritz Mann overcame the crisis and handed over his life’s work to daughter Irma and her husband Friedrich Dobberkau. The next generation sat behind the wheel – an Opel Olympia – and ended up in Schleusingen with a driving school, gas station, workshop, car and motorcycle dealership.
And always Opel
After the Second World War, Friedrich’s sons Karlheinz, Arno and Günter took over. The learner drivers took a seat behind the wheel of an Opel Olympia or an Opel Kadett, while the candidates for the truck driver’s license learned how to maneuver with an Opel Blitz. The family business survived even in the GDR era: “My father Arno somehow smuggled the company through with two driving school cars and two taxis with great skill,” says Olaf Dobberkau, not without admiration.
Olaf Dobberkau (right) joined the family business in the 1980s. After reunification, the family business invested in new driving school cars: the Opel Frontera was part of the fleet.
Starting in 1992, learner drivers also learned to drive the Opel Astra in southern Thuringia.
In 1997, Olaf Dobberkau drove an Astra at the World Rally Championship in England.
Since it was founded, the company has accompanied around 13,000 test takers to their driver’s license.
In the 1980s he joined the family business himself as a driving instructor and taxi driver. And soon the turning point marked another new beginning for the family business. The signs pointed to investment: When the first new driving school cars were delivered in 1992, they had the lightning bolt in their emblem. The learner drivers in the new federal states learned to drive in southern Thuringia with the Astra compact class model and the Frontera off-road vehicle. At the end of the decade, the seven-seater Zafira followed, and the mid-range Omega model was available for customers to rent.
From Astra to Zafira
It didn’t take long for the Dobberkausche driving school, taxi and forwarding company to find calmer waters again. Today the company has 33 employees – “a healthy size”, says Olaf Dobberkau. The 58-year-old has been continuing the family history for over 30 years and has also survived the dry spell of the pandemic, no employee had to leave. Instead, he invested in the company, including new driving school cars, the Mokka and Mokka Electric. “The Mokka convinced us straight away,” says Olaf Dobberkau, “the modern drives ensure agility on the road.” And his wife Alexandra adds: “The design is great, it stands out from the crowd.”
Located in southern Thuringia
In 2011, the family business moved into a new building in Schleusingen in the south of the Thuringian Forest. Today, the company Gebr. Dobberkau includes not only the driving school, but also a taxi company and a forwarding agency. In addition to Mokka and Mokka-e, the fleet also includes motorcycles, mopeds, trucks and a quad. Olaf Dobberkau has calculated that the family business has accompanied around 13,000 candidates for their driving licenses since it was founded.
The fact that the driver training in the Dobberkau family business is pointing towards electromobility is closely linked to the future thinking that has always been firmly anchored in the company. “That’s the only way you can survive for such a long time,” says Olaf Dobberkau. He and his wife have a lot of fuel in their veins: together they won the championship title in the German Rally Series in 2010. Overall, Olaf Dobberkau was involved in rallying for 35 years. With the Astra, for example, he achieved several class victories at the German Rally Championship in 1999/2000, and in 1997 he finished second in class at the world championship race in England.
Set up for the future
This enthusiasm for motorsport is also a family legacy. “Even my grandfather Friedrich stood on the podium of the Schleizer-Dreieck motorcycle race in 1928,” says Olaf Dobberkau. In the Dobberkau house, engines were always worked on, even if it was model aircraft: “My father Arno, together with his brother Karlheinz, was a multiple GDR model aircraft master,” says the company owner. It remains to be seen whether the six-year-old daughter also has petrol in her blood – in any case, the company is future-proof to continue the family legacy in the fifth generation.
April 2023
Photos: Opel/Rudolf Mehlhaff, private