is this the origin of some of the Rometsch Beeskow's lines?

[overrestored]

Check out this 1949 Lincoln. Look at the hood... look at the body line running down the top of the side... look at the rear fender skirts... look at the windshield... look at the front fender...

now look at the Beeskows......Hmmmm... kinda similar...

[SplitPersonality]

Another productive and intersting thought Eric... Indeed a lot of similarities. Some comments:
- The hood on the Lincoln seems to be "un-shut", so that the joint between fender and hood should be smooth, and not "stepped" like on the Rometsch.
- The 1950-design from Beeskow had a split windshield, not Lincoln-style.
- The distinctive Beeskow sloping front hood line, and falling engine lid line...that lead to the "banana"-nickname... is more a horisontal line on the Lincoln

I have never seen such a Lincoln in real life, very interesting regarding the fender eyebrows.

[johnshenry]

I think those were just common automotive design queues from that era, although I agree the resemblance is striking.
_________________
John Henry

'57 Deluxe
'56 Single Cab

[overrestored]

agree on all these comments about the hood etc... I suppose they were common styling cues...

The one thing that stands out though... is the fender eyebrow. this was a unique feature to the lincoln... and it was a new idea... as far as I know this was the first use of a fender eyebrow.

Beeskow was second to use this feature... then Mercedes.

There is an earlier 1948 Ferrari that features a fender flare... but a bit different

[Brezelwerks]

Design cues of any era actually start somewhere, and then they just get copied, its not like there are/were a bunch of generic design cues floating around from which all the automakers share.

Typically a high end marque goes through a costly and extensive design and refinement exercise, and if the lines/feature really pop and become a sales driver for the car, then sooner than later other lower market entry cars will steal a few key design features to leverage their appeal and help grow sales (ie: you get the look of the "X" without the price of the "X").

I wouldn't hesitate to call out Rometsch on blatantly copying that front fender brow idea from the Lincoln in 49', the feature is just too unique and the timing is just too perfect, and that unique design feature is frankly killer. I'm not convinced 100% on the other features being direct copies, more like slight adjustments to help balance out the lines so they worked for what was more of a sports car than the Lincoln was.

[Shadd]

I've been reading a book about the Mercedes 300SL. It calls them "splashgards" but dosn't mention where the styling was derived.
The early race cars (W-194) introduced in 1952 did not have them

The early prototype for the road car (W-198) shown here is from 1953. It dosn't yet have the splash gaurds.

I'm assuming they were introduced in 1954 on the production car. Maybe they needed Johannes Beeskow's permission because they were both producing cars in Germany?