Why is one side/drop out of my fork like this?

[foz]

I was thinking along the same lines - some sort of gizmo to lock the QR lever in place? We need a Univega catalogue...

 

[W7Ford]

Is it a Univega Alpina? This one seems to have something screwed to it.

 

[foz]

that looks like some sort of catch that will stop the spindle coming out of the dropout if the QR lever is undone. My guess is you need to hold the black tab up/down in order to let the wheel out

 

[foz]

as usual it looks like Sheldon has the answer, almost - scroll down to "dropout clips" under "secondary retention devices", and there is something very similar

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/skewers.html

 

[averagebiker]

as usual it looks like Sheldon has the answer, almost - scroll down to "dropout clips" under "secondary retention devices", and there is something very similar

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/skewers.html

One if my favourite internet resources.

 

[joglo]

that looks like some sort of catch that will stop the spindle coming out of the dropout if the QR lever is undone. My guess is you need to hold the black tab up/down in order to let the wheel out

agree, there was a issue with a accidentally lost front wheel and a law suit in US with the result of a large compensation payment. Therefore some bike manufactures introduced quickly some proprietary solutions to prevent loosing accidentally a wheel.
Later all forks got those "lawyer lips" as some kind of standard solution also shown at the Sheldon Brown webpage.

 

[baron von greenback]

This might be a stupid question but wouldn't they put one on the back wheel as well for the same reason