Iconic German actress Brigitte Helm in her 1931 Mercedes-Benz 19/100 PS Type Nürburg 500 Convertible.

 

Iconic German actress Brigitte Helm in her 1931 Mercedes-Benz 19/100 PS Type Nürburg 500 Convertible.

Brigitte Helm (born Brigitte Eva Gisela Schittenhelm, 17 March 1908 – 11 June 1996) was a German actress, best remembered for her dual role as Maria and her double the Maschinenmensch in Fritz Lang's 1927 silent film Metropolis.

Born Brigitte Eva Gisela Schittenhelm in Berlin, Helm's first role was that of Maria in Metropoliswhich she began work on while only 18 years old. After Metropolis, Helm made over 30 other films, including talking pictures, before retiring in 1935. Her other appearances include The Love of Jeanne Ney (1927), Alraune (1928), L'Argent (1928), Gloria (1931), The Blue Danube(1932), L'Atlantide (1932), and Gold (1934). Helm was considered for the title role in Bride of Frankenstein before Elsa Lanchester was given the role.

Though having a 10-year contract with UFAexpiring in 1935, Helm incurred the wrath of Nazi Germany for "race defilement" in marrying her second husband Dr. Hugo Kunheim, an industrialist of Jewish background. Helm was also involved in several traffic accidents, and was briefly imprisoned. According to Otto Dietrich's book The Hitler I Knew, Adolf Hitler saw that manslaughter charges against her from an automobile accident were dropped.

Helm retired from films because she was "disgusted with the Nazi takeover of the film industry". In 1935, she moved to Switzerland where she later had four children with von Kunheim. In her later years, she refused to grant any interviews concerning her film career.

The 19/100 hp Nürburg 500 is a rear wheel drive convertible/cabriolet car with a front mounted engine, produced by Mercedes-Benz. The 19/100 hp Nürburg 500 is part of Mercedes-Benz's W 08 model range. The 8 cylinder, side valve naturally aspirated engine has 2 valves per cylinder and a volume of 4.9 litres. For this model it develops power and torque figures of 99 bhp (100 PS/74 kW) at 3100 rpm and 253 Nm (187 lbft/25.8 kgm) at 1250 rpm respectively. The engine delivers its power through to the wheels via a 4 speed manual transmission. The quoted kerb weight is 2170 kg. The Mercedes-Benz 19/100 hp Nürburg 500 is said to be able to manage a top speed of 110 km/h or 68 mph.