The 1938 Belgrade Car Show was the first car show organized in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Held from 5 to 15 March 1938, it was one of the nine officially registered car shows in Europe at the time. The show evolved into an annual event, today internationally labeled "BG Car Show" (, ).
Introduction
At the time, Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia, which was generally considered the "non-motorized" state. The first car appeared in Belgrade in 1903 and, statistically, in the second half of the 1930s, Yugoslavia had only 1 car on 1,000 inhabitants, while Germany had 15, United Kingdom 40 and France 53. The state decided to assemble the plan to motorize the country and popularize the automobiles, to the point that "motorization" became one of the most discussed economic, but also political, topics. In that period, Vlada Ilić - one of the wealthiest industrialist in the state and mayor of Belgrade 1936-39 - negotiated with the Ford Motor Company in order to obtain the licence to assemble cars in Yugoslavia.
The royals were also included in the process of the automobiles popularization. Queen mother Maria was an enthusiastic driver. A Romanian princess, she was driving before she married King Alexander of Yugoslavia and, as the future bride, she personally drove her mother from Bucharest to Belgrade, driving her luxurious Delage. She also drove from Belgrade to Paris, almost . As a queen, she was often seen driving her Rolls-Royce through Belgrade, which was a major rarity at the time, both because she was a royal and a woman. She quit driving on her own, though, after her husband was assassinated in the car in 1934, in Marseilles, France. The Queen was a patron of the Automobile Club of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia which organized the Belgrade Grand Prix in 1939. The still minor King Peter II was named a patron of the car show in 1938.
The idea of organizing the show in Belgrade was suggested by Daimler-Benz. Despite strong protest against the motion which came from some other European fairs, the Belgrade car show was held and accepted as one of the 9 officially registered car shows in Europe. In February 1938, the Belgrade press was announcing the event. A common place in the articles was that the show will push for the popularity and development of the cars. Velizar Janković, former transportation minister, wrote about the importance of such shows, saying that President of France and Führer of Germany open the shows in Paris and Berlin, respectively, which shows how significant these events are. Yugoslav prime minister Milan Stojadinović said that "Yugoslavia, at this moment, has only 12,000 automobiles, mostly defective", estimating that the state needs at least 150,000 vehicles. The press was vocal about the high taxes which owners of the vehicles had to pay, especially for the trucks, claiming that Bucharest, the capital of Romania, had more cars than the entire Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Venue
The car show was held at the newly constructed Belgrade Fair venue on the left side of the Sava river, across the Belgrade at that time. The foundation stone was ceremonially placed on 6 June 1937. Works were finished in three months and the facility was open on 11 September 1937. It had modern and artistic buildings, including the high metal spike construction, which became known as the Central Tower. It was designed by the architects Milivoje Tričković, Rajko Tatić and Đorđe Lukić who envisioned it as the monumental modern complex, with the Central Tower as the domineering motif. Around the tower, the exhibition pavilions were built, including five Yugoslav, one for the “Nikola Spasić Foundation”, the national pavilions of Italy, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary and the Dutch company Philips. The complex included: of roofed exhibition space, of open exhibition space, of lawns and flower beds and of roads and paths.
During World War II, the occupational German and Croatian forces turned the complex into the Sajmište concentration camp. It was never rebuilt and the new Belgrade Fair venue was open in 1957, across the river, so the old locality is today known as the Staro Sajmište ("old fairground").
Show
The show was held 5-15 March 1938 and was open by the minister of trade, Milan Vrbanić. King Peter and his mother Queen Maria later toured the show, visiting all the exhibited vehicles.
There were 107 exhibitors, from United States, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Belgium and Yugoslavia. Due to the space constrictions, application from further 117 exhibitors were denied. Exhibitors and dealers included: