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The Croatian town of Imotski launched a model representing a āW115āMercedes in actual size, in honor of the thousands of workers who left the country in search of a better life and returned behind the wheel of this luxury vehicle.
Project owner Ivan Topik said, "A Mercedes is a sign of success. Whoever owns one can easily find a lover and sit in the front row inside the church."
The 59-year-old man added in front of the model that these cars āremain the best.ā
Sculptor Mislav Ribic chose a legendary model, the āW115ā car dating back to the sixties and seventies of the last century.
āThis car was very ahead of its time and still has a modern feel to this day,ā says Topik.
Loyalty to Mercedes is evident at the first glance at Imotski, which has a population of nine thousand people. Half of its 16,000 registered vehicles are Mercedes, which represents the highest number of Mercedes cars per capita in the world, according to what residents of the region boast.
There are two hundred and thirty people registered in the Imotski Mercedes Club, which is headed by Topik, owner of a 1929 Mercedes.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, this rural and poor area close to the Bosnian border has witnessed the migration of thousands. Since the 1960s, people described as "guest workers" have been migrating from it in West German factories before returning to their homes behind the wheel of a Mercedes.
In the 1970s, about 20 percent of Imotski's population worked abroad, including 9,000 in Germany.
āThey left hoping they could buy a cow and a bike, but in the 1970s, the road got here,ā Tobek said. He himself spent 18 years in Frankfurt, before returning in 1997. He adds: āWe wanted to build the statue to thank them.ā
He continues, "Anyone who drives a Mercedes gains a status in society... A Mercedes is an item that we bought and left to our children."
During the launch of construction work on the model last year, Topik noticed that interest in his project increased over time.
Then the initiative crossed the border, to the point that young sculptors from #Croatia, Denmark, and Slovenia came to provide assistance.
Nedeliko Dioka, a former expatriate in Australia, said: āMercedes is a symbol of security.ā
Stjepan Pusic, who worked on the model, agreed, saying, āA Mercedes means everything here. When you buy one, you can finally say to yourself: I made it.ā He himself owns three of them.
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