Hebmüller

Hebmüller Sons
Private company
Industry Automotive
Fate Bankruptcy in 1952
Founded 1889, Wuppertal, Germany
Founder Joseph Hebmüller
Defunct 1952
Number of locations
 One
Products Volkswagen Type 14A, Opel Kapitan & Admiral, and many other manufacturers like Ford and Mercedes
Opel Kapitan Hebmüller from 1940, just 2 examples survived

The coachbuilding company Hebmüller Sons (Karosseriewerke Joseph Hebmüller Söhne) was founded in 1889 by Joseph Hebmüller, it was established in the town of Wuppertal in Germany.[1]

At start it constructed horsedrawn carriages but after the death of the founder Joseph in 1919, his sons started building bodies for automobiles.[1] After World War II, the company received an order from the British Army to build 15 Humber based cabriolets.[2]

The company's best known model is perhaps the two seater convertible based on Volkswagen Type 1 platform - known as Volkswagen Type 14A. It was widely reported that Volkswagen ordered 2,000 vehicles, and the production started in June 1949.[3] Hebmüller completed only 696 of these two seater cabriolets, however, before the Hebmüller business was wound up: the last batch of Hebmüller "Beetle" conversions was produced by Karmann of Osnabrück,[4] (who by this time were already producing a four seater Type 1 cabriolet to their own design).

Hebmüller also built a number of four-door cabriolets on the Type 1 platform (Type 18A), with doors that were canvas.[5]

By the end of the 1940s, Hebmüller's economic situation was deteriorating. The company also suffered from a massive fire at its Wülfrath factory on 23 July 1949, which could not be extinguished because of water shortage.[4] Almost the entire factory was destroyed.[3]The company never recovered from the destruction, although the factory itself was rapidly rebuilt, and in 1949 alone more than 350 more cars were produced.[3] By 1952 the company had run out of cash and credit: Hebmüller met its end in bankruptcy in May 1952.[3]

Ford Motor Company subsequently purchased the former Hebmüller factory.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The VW Hebmüller story". Jan-Anders Lindqvist. web.telia.com. Retrieved 16 December 2009.
  2. ↑ "Hebmuller". geocities.com. Archived from the original on 2009-10-26. Retrieved 2008-02-28.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Hebmüller: Vom Beginn an war das Cabriolet Teil der Volkswagengeschichte.Selbst in den frühesten Testserien gab es schon Cabriolets. Hier einige Beispiele.". Carsten's Classic Volkswagen pages, Plettenberg. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  4. 1 2 Reinhard Lintelmann (2010). VW Käfer und New Beetle. Komet Verlag GmbH, Cologne. p. 68. ISBN 978-3-89836-831-5.
  5. ↑ Hot VWs, 7/84, p.38.

External links

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