Unimog U 406: green veteran truck from the North Sea coast

For Olaf Horn, his Unimog U 406 is more than a classic vehicle. Raised in Cuxhaven on the North Sea, it was there that Horn first set eyes on the vehicle he now owns. “From then on, the Unimog was for decades a prominent sight on the streets of my home town.” recalls the now 51-year-old.

In those days, however, the U 406 was not resplendent in stylish dark green paintwork, as it is today. Typically for a fish transporter, it was painted blue, with a yellow boom, and pulled a 22-tonne refrigerated trailer. Employed in the service of the wholesaler Deutsche See, it was used to transport fresh fish to Bremerhaven for a refrigerated shipping company. After it stopped plying the route between the two north German ports, the Unimog moved on to Berlin, where it supplied shops with fish brought to the city from the North Sea by the shipping company. Later, the U 406 was used to transport clinker bricks to building sites in the region around Cuxhaven. In its final years of service, it served as a shunting vehicle in the grounds of the shipping company.