Is this really surprising? I think there are some quite obvious explanations like that what had brought Silver Arrows domination could not be totally wrong. Also nostalgic feelings, the desire to go back into the time when the world had been still "in order" may have been a factor. And last not least "streamlining" had quite a tradition in Germany, the Silver Arrows "Avus specials" had been extremely spectacular and in particular in the post-war years a lot of races were run on more or less improvised circuits with high speed character. Besides special high speed tracks like Avus, Hockenheim and the Grenzlandring a lot of races were held on Autobahn circuits, like Karlsruhe, Cologne, Dessau, Dresden, Bernau... There was almost no private traffic anyway in the early post war years so it was no problem to reserve such circuits for a weekend and they offered a comparatively good infrastructure with comparatively little preparations and costs.
What we really need is uechtel to write one though...
Haha, unfotunately as I have to earn my living I am afraid you will have to wait until my retirement. Anyway I can give you remarks about some of the cars. Of course I have already visited the museum, but that has been some time ago before that very interesting exhibition. So thank you very much for all the nice photos!
^ Kurt Baum's special
Reportedly the very first "proper" Formula 2 car from East Germany. A very remarkable effort under the circumstances of 1948, when racing was not yet allowed by the Soviet government. When you stand besides the car in "real" you notice the rough hand work and the quite huge dimensions. When more "modern" cars appeared on the scene the Baum Special got soon a little bit outdated, nevertheless a very important piece from one of the pioneers of East German motorsport.
^ Rudi Krause's Reif
Krause was one of the most active drivers in Formula 2 from 1949 to 1955, but in 1953 he put the Reif to the side and took over the drive in the orphaned Greifzu Special. Reif had been BMW representative before the war and in the post war years he used some left-over spare parts to build a small series of Formula 2 cars, of course built around the legendary BMW 328 engine.
^ Holbein HH49
A product from the brothers/opponents from the West. Not really more successful and of course also made with BMW machinery. The HH49 is a sister car to the HH48, the very first German purpose-made Formula 2 car built by former BMW employee Hermann Holbein and when it appeared in public, because of its elegant shape the press celebrated it as "German Alfetta".
^ Veritas
Veritas came close to success as a race car manufacturer with the hopes of the nation resting on them for quite some years. In the end the whole enterprise failed for a combination of underfinance, notorious dissipation of energies and discord and overestimation of the own capabilities by the management. The Veritas Meteor Formula 2 car is the incorporation of all these characteristics, as generally of quite modern basic design it lacked a lot of reliability and development and did never fulfill the promises. Nevertheless Veritas cars had achieved the first national and international successes to Germany and today the marque has become a legend to the "insiders".
^ Ernst Klodwig's special, with lovely patina
The Klodwig is an example for the combination of Auto Union "tradition" with pragmatism of available Volkswagen platform froM East Germany. A lot of "Kübelwagen" wrecks had been left over by the war so a lot of drivers used such parts to build their specials. Usually they retained also the VW engine to start in the 1100 cc category, but some exceptions like Klodwig also chose the BMW 328 option to enter the Formula 2 class. Klodiwg was a regular contender of consistency rather than outstanding performance.
^ Lorenz-VW. Apparently East German sportscars had a very low survival rate.
I really do not know anything about this particular car, but it looks like a good example for the lots of VW based 1100 cc sports cars that were to be seen on the circuits and hillclimbs in West and East Germany. The low survival rate may also have something to do with the potential to convert cars like this into normal "street cars" after their active career without too much effort. In particular in East Germany, where people sometimes had to wait decades for the delivery of a new Trabant from the factory they tried to make use of anything that was available.
^ EMW
According to GDR ideology the state was to be behind anything. Also sporting success was always a central mean of their propaganda, so for 1951 they formed a "national" racing team, called "Rennkollektiv" in the idiom of the system. Of course it used mainly parts from the former BMW factory at Eisenach which had to be renamed EMW after a legal dispute with BMW Munich. After some years of struggle EMW seemed at the point of a breakthrough with their new 1500 cc sports car design of 1955/56, but then by a typical political decision the whole enterprise came to a full stop in 1957 as the resources had to be shifted elsewhere.