The Karosseriewerke Weinsberg, abbreviated KW, is a German Tooling Company based in Bretzfeld. Originally, it was founded as a Weinsberg-based car coachbuilder, that was known for their recreational vehicles. The city name Weinsberg was used as brand name from 1969 to 1992.
In 1912, the company was founded in Weinsberg by plaster master Gustav Alt, and master bricklayer Wilhelm Schuhmacher with funds of 80,000 German gold mark. In the south of the Weinsberg old town, nowadays known as Stadtseebach, a factory building was erected. First products of the new company were horse-drawn carriages manufactured by 35 hired saddlers, carpenters, and wheelwrighters using traditional design methods. Within the same year, the production of automotive coachwork started. Each body was manufactured as a custom product made of wood and leather in a way that was similar to the way the horse carriages were made. In 1913, the company generated a total revenue of 119,300 Mark. In 1914, the former copartner Franz Eisenlohr from a Reutlingen hotel operator family acquired the company. [1]
The same year, World War I interrupted normal production. By order of the Ministry of War of Württemberg, KW produced horse-carts for military purposes. After the war, the production of these field wagons was continued; a few hundred were taken by the French Armed Forces as war reparations. Until the beginning of the World War II, military carts were delivered to the Wehrmacht.
In 1920, production of automobile bodies was resumed, still being made of wood and leather. In 1922, a first office building was erected. In 1924, KW generated a profit of 340,300 Goldmark. Starting in 1925, car manufacturers urged to replace the outer wood planking on the wooden frame gradually, and change to sheet metal. Tinsmiths, carpenters, and wheelwrighters joined the saddlers. KW was one of the first coachbuilding companies that introduced this new technology. In 1925, KW got the first coachbuilding serial order from NSU Motorenwerke near Neckarsulm. In the following years, KW manufactured bodies for all leading, and many smaller car manufacturers, including Auto Union, BMW, Citroën, Daimler-Benz, Ford, Magirus, Opel, and Wanderer.
From 1930, Fiat issued large orders. In 1931, bodies for 1500 Berlin taxicab were the only products made by KW. Further major contracts enabled KW to expand; in 1937, sales increased to 3,545,600 Reichsmark.
In 1938, owner Eisenlohr, who disagreed with the Nazi regime, sold the company to Fiat. Fiat had already acquired the Heilbronn NSU facility in 1929. KW remained as an independent company owned by Fiat. In the following years, Fiat cars like the Fiat 500 "Topolino" were manufactured in Heilbronn and Weinsberg.
In World War II, KW was forced to produce military goods. In addition to a small series of Kübelwagen, aluminium airplane parts for the Messerschmitt Me 410 and Me 262 aircraft were made.
The number of employees, declined from 729 in 1944 to 114 in 1945, correspondingly, sales decreased from 4,233,500 to 1,093,200 Reichsmark. In the years after the end of the war, goods like spoons, furniture fittings, and signs were made from the remaining aluminum; the carpenters at KW made furniture and radio casings, and farm vehicles. KW also repaired vehicles for Fiat, and the United States Army, KW also built special bodies for US Army vehicles. In 1946, the mass production of sheet metal cabins for Büssing trucks commenced. From 1950, the body for the Gutbrod Superior station wagon has been built. In the same year, the last wooden frame body of KW for a Fiat 500 C was produced. In the late 1950s and 1960s, KW built the Fiat 500 variants Fiat Neckar, Fiat Jagst, and Fiat Weinsberg (Fiat Coupe Weinsberg 500). Also, the cooperation with Porsche was continued in the 1950s; for example, thousands of sports cars were painted in Weinsberg. In 1955, the production of sunroofs, automotive accessories, fenders, interior slots, and taxi cab dividers, was started.
In 1958, KW invested in tool and fixture construction; tools had already been made for personal use at KW. In 1969, KW introduced its first self-produced well-selling vehicle, based on the Fiat 238. The brand name Weinsberg was used for KW models based on Fiat, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen cars. In 1974, construction of special vehicles such as ambulances, as well as rescue and emergency vehicles followed; single samples had already been built before.
In 1970, Fiat decided to cease production in Germany and limit KW to a sales and service organization. The KW was sold to Deutsche Treuhandgesellschaft, which later joined KPMG.
By the late 1980s, business went well. From 1961 to 1965, the press shop, tool and fixture construction were moved into two newly built workshops on a site next the Crailsheim–Heilbronn railway. [2] In 1983, the remaining workshops were moved into three newly erected buildings at this site. As a result, the Weinsberg urban areal of 2.1 hectares (5.1 acres) was freed up for new use, and until 1994, residential, and commercial buildings were built after the old KW buildings had been subsequently relocated and demolished. [3]
In October 1987, the company had a sales total of DM 85 million and 550 employees (two smaller subsidiaries in Heilbronn included). [4] In 1988, due to a bad economic situation of the customers in the automotive industry, KW filed short-time working for several employees. [5] In March 1988, German-American entrepreneur Heinz Prechter (American Sunroof Corporation) [5] acquired 50% of KW; in 1989, he acquired 100% of it. [6] However, this could not stop the company's decline.
In August 1992, the recreation vehicles and rescue vehicles brand Weinsberg was sold to Tabbert Industrie AG (later named Knaus Tabbert). [7] The company specialized in manufacturing parts, as well as fixture and toolmaking. Due to a bad economic situation, after steady staff reduction, in April 2002, insolvency was filed. After more than three years, a new investor Surikate GmbH from Bad Rothenfelde had acquired the company by 1 August 2005. [6] The number of employees declined from 454 in 1988 [5] to 75 in 2005. [6] The number of KW's employees rose to 85 after the entry of Surikate GmbH in 2009. On 11 March 2009, after huge losses in 2007 and 2008, and sales decline of over 60% in January 2009, KW filed insolvency again. [8] [9] The Bretzfeld located Wolpert Group Karosseriewerke Weinsberg acquired KW in December 2009. [10] In 2011, KW was moved to Schwabbach, a suburb of Bretzfeld. [11]
Chrysler is one of the "Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. In addition to the Chrysler brand, Stellantis North America sells vehicles worldwide under the Dodge, Jeep, and Ram nameplates. It also includes Mopar, its automotive parts and accessories division, and SRT, its performance automobile division. The original Chrysler Corporation was founded in 1925 by Walter Chrysler from the remains of the Maxwell Motor Company. It was acquired by Daimler-Benz, which renamed itself DaimlerChrysler, in 1998. After Daimler divested Chrysler in 2007, the company existed as Chrysler LLC (2007–2009) and Chrysler Group LLC (2009–2014) before being acquired by Fiat S.p.A. and becoming a subsidiary of the newly-formed Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014. Chrysler is a subsidiary of Stellantis, the company formed from the merger between FCA and Groupe PSA, since 2021.
Fiat S.p.A., or Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, was an Italian holding company whose original and core activities were in the automotive industry, and that was succeeded by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA). The Fiat Group contained many brands such as Ferrari, Maserati, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, the Chrysler Group, and many more. On 29 January 2014, it was announced that Fiat S.p.A. was to be merged into a new Netherlands-based holding company Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA), taking place before the end of 2014. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles became the new owner of Fiat Group. On 1 August 2014, Fiat S.p.A. received necessary shareholder approval to proceed with the merger. The merger became effective 12 October 2014.
Heilbronn is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is surrounded by Heilbronn District and, with approximately 123,000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state.
Tata Motors Limited is an Indian multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is a part of Tata Group, an Indian conglomerate. Its products include passenger cars, trucks, vans, coaches, buses, sports cars, construction equipment and military vehicles.
Weinsberg is a town in the north of the German state Baden-Württemberg. It was founded around 1200 and is situated in the Heilbronn district. The town has about 11,800 inhabitants. It is noted for its wine.
NSU-Fiat was a German automobile manufacturer which produced Fiat vehicles under license at a plant acquired from NSU in Heilbronn from 1929 to 1957.
Tofaş is a Turkish automaker which was established in 1968 by Vehbi Koç, who was the founder of Koç Holding, based in Bursa, where the manufacturing plant of the company is located. It is jointly owned by Stellantis and Koç Holding.
The Sulm is a river in the Heilbronn district of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is an unnavigable right tributary of the Neckar. It rises in the Löwenstein Mountains and after 26.3 kilometres (16.3 mi) distance and 315 metres (1,033 ft) elevation drop flows into the Neckar at Bad Friedrichshall, near Untereisesheim and Neckarsulm. Its valley together with its tributary valleys is also known as the Weinsberg Valley, after Weinsberg, which is located there. The medieval region of Sulmgau, as well as the city of Neckarsulm, were named for it. The upper valley of the Sulm is a protected area.
Abstatt (help·info) is a municipality in the district of Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany.
Cleebronn (help·info) is a municipality in the district of Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany.
Flein (help·info) is a municipality in the district of Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany.
Pfaffenhofen (help·info) is a municipality in the district of Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian automobile manufacturer, a subsidiary of Stellantis. Fiat Automobiles was formed in January 2007 when Fiat S.p.A. reorganized its automobile business, and traces its history back to 1899 when the first Fiat automobile, the Fiat 4 HP, was produced.
The automotive industry crisis of 2008–2010 was a part of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the resulting Great Recession. The crisis affected European and Asian automobile manufacturers, but it was primarily felt in the American automobile manufacturing industry. The downturn also affected Canada by virtue of the Automotive Products Trade Agreement.
The Crailsheim–Heilbronn railway is a double-tracked, main line railway in southwest Germany that runs from Heilbronn, crossing the Hohenlohe region.
Transporter Industry International is a worldwide operating conglomerate of companies providing heavy-duty transport vehicles and related services. Its history goes back to Otto Rettenmaier's acquisition of Scheuerle Fahrzeugfabrik in 1988. In 1995, Nicolas Industrie joined the group, followed by Kamag Transporttechnik in 2004 and TII India, which is represented by the brand Tiiger, in 2015. Transporter Industry International is the global market leader and known for transports on behalf of NASA, for example.
Richard Drauz (help·info) was a Nazi German politician and Kreisleiter of Heilbronn, Germany. He was also Member of the Reichstag from 1933 until the collapse of the Third Reich after World War II. One of the most fanatical and violent NSDAP leaders in the last days of the war, Drauz was put on trial and executed by American occupation forces for war crimes in 1946.
The NSU/Fiat Weinsberg 500 is a Fiat automobile. It was produced in two versions based on the Fiat 500 (1957–1977). Like the Neckar Pully, the Weinsberg was the creation of NSU/FIAT Karosseriewerke Weinsberg, made possible because NSU/FIAT in Heilbronn also had its own development department, in which designers such as Antonio Fessia worked. Introduced in March 1959 as the NSU/Fiat, 6,228 vehicles were manufactured from 1959 to 1963. The price was 3,840 DM in 1959, 3620DM in 1962.
The automotive industry in Ireland has had a varied history and despite the small size of the island, the punitive tax on imported cars encouraged a wide range of companies to assemble their cars locally including Fiat, Ford and Renault. From Ireland's entry to the European Union in 1973, the need for locally produced cars to avoid import taxes reduced and since the 1980s, production ended and all cars are now imported.
The Heilbronn Stadtbahn is a three line tram-train system in city of Heilbronn in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is based on the Karlsruhe model and operated jointly by the Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (AVG), the Stadtwerke Heilbronn (SWH) and Deutsche Bahn (DB). It operates on normal railways under the Eisenbahn-Bau- und Betriebsordnung and within Heilbronn under the Verordnung über den Bau und Betrieb der Straßenbahnen.
|url= value (help), Heilbronner Stimme (in German), retrieved 2012-07-30