Borgward is usually an automobile manufacturer originally founded by Carl F. W. Borgward. The original company, based in Bremen inside Germany, ceased operations in this 1960s. The Borgward group generated four brands of cars: Borgward, Hansa, Goliath and Lloyd.The marque has since been revived by Carl Borgward's grandson, Christian Borgward, together with his lover Karlheinz L. Knöss, with assistance from Chinese investment, and unveiled the businesses first new car throughout over 40 years, the BX7 at the 2015 International Motor Present.The origins of Bremen's most significant auto-business return to 1905 with the business in nearby Varel from the "Hansa Automobilgesellschaft" and the foundation in Bremen itself involving "Namag", maker of the Lloyd vehicle. These two businesses merged in 1914 in order to create the "Hansa-Lloyd-Werke A. G. ". After the war, in the troubled financial situation then confronting Germany, the business failed to prosper and with the late 1920s faced bankruptcy. For Carl Borgward, already the successful creator with the Goliath-Blitzkarren business, the misfortunes of Hansa-Lloyd presented a chance greatly to expand the scope of his automotive business, and he took control of it.
The very first "automobile" Carl Borgward developed was the 1924 Blitzkarren (lightning cart), a sort of small three-wheeled van with two hp (1. 5 kW), which was an enormous success already in the market gap it filled. Traders with a small budget got it for delivery. The Reichspost ordered quite a few for postal service.In 1929, Borgward became the representative of Hansa Lloyd AG having gotten to merge his "Goliath-Werke Borgward & Company. " with "Hansa-Lloyd. The small Goliath-Blitzkarren had chances are evolved into the nevertheless three wheeler timber framed synthetic leather bodied 5 or perhaps 7 hp Goliath Leader. Borgward turned his focus on the other businesses along with led the development with the Hansa Konsul. In February 1937, there came the completely new Hansa Borgward 2000 as well as in 1939 the name was shortened to Borgward 2000. The 2000 model was as well as the Borgward 2300that continued in production until 1942.After World War II, in 1946 Carl Borgward used many of the brand names from companies he had acquired in the past to found three individual companies: Borgward, Goliath and Lloyd. This was intended to increase the amount of steel allocated to his business during a period of austerity and rationing. For many purposes the firms would be run as a single entity, but in a business operated with a man to whom delegation would not come naturally the spreading of legal entities even so added unhelpful layers of complexity through the 1950s and encouraged a broadening on the range which eventually proved financially unsustainable with the sales volumes achievable. In 1949 company introduced the Borgward Hansa 1500.One of many top engineers at Borgward via 1938-1952 was Dipl. Ing. Hubert M. Meingast.Production of the Borgward Isabella begun in 1954. The Isabella would become Borgward's most popular model and remained in production to the life of the firm. In 1960 the Borgward P100 ended up being introduced, equipped with pneumatic suspension.Borgward introduced a distinct 1500 cc sports racers in the late 1950s, with the 16-valve engine from these becoming a successful Formula Two power unit (that is also used by a number of F1 privateers in 1961).Although Borgward pioneered technical novelties inside the German market such since air suspension and automatic transmission, the company had trouble competing available. While larger companies including Opel and VW took benefit of economies of scale along with kept their prices low to achieve market share, Borgward's cost structure was even beyond necessary for its dimensions, as it basically run as four tiny independent companies and don't implemented such basic price tag reduction strategies as shared development and parts sharing involving the company's makes. Borgward suffered quality problems at the same time. The Lloyd Arabella was technically advanced like a water-cooled boxer with the front wheel drive, but plagued with problems like water leakage and gearbox glitches. Lloyd lost money on the car just about the most was more expensive as compared to its direct competitors.In 1961, the company was compelled into liquidation by creditors. Carl Borgward died in July 1963, still insisting the company was technically solvent. This proved to be true in the sense that after the creditors were paid 100 %, there was still 4. 5 million Marks left from the business.
Borgward Pullman swing axle showing differential side bearings.
Accounts of difficulties at Borgward surfaced within an article that appeared within Germany's leading news mag, “Der Spiegel” on 15 December 1960”. The very long, detailed, and in places similar Spiegel article was highlighted by using a picture of Borgward, cigar in mouth, on the magazine’s entry cover. It was strongly vital of Carl Borgward's company approach, and included many of the arguments later advanced to explain or justify the firm's demise. The widest range connected with cars from any manufacturer in Germany, produced by three until eventually recently operationally autonomous businesses (Borgward, Goliath and Lloyd) ended up being supporting a turnover connected with only 650 million Signifies, placing the overall sales value in the combined Borgward auto businesses only in fifth location among Germany's auto-makers. The 70-year-old Carl Borgward's "hands-on" insistence with an increasingly manic proliferation associated with new and modified products featuring adventurous, but under-developed technological inventions ("fast manisch[e] Konstruierwut") offered rise to components which many times did not work, broke down or fell into apart, resulting in massive payments for pre-delivery remediation and/or post delivery warranty work that found their in the past to the company.The December 1960 Spiegel article has not been the only serious general public criticism targeting Borgward at the moment: suddenly stridently negative (if more succinct) comments also turned up in the influential mass-market Bild paper and in television reports. Critical media commentaries additionally appeared concerning large loans towards the Borgward Group provided by the local Landesbank.It is apparent the business was confronting cash-flow difficulties by the end of 1960. Capital intensive businesses such as auto manufacturing use their expensive machines and tools most efficiently whenever they use them constantly in full capacity, but the car market in Europe within the 1950s/60s was more seasons than today, with sales diminishing within Winter, then peaking in the first summer months: Borgward’s inventory of unsold cars at the conclusion of 1960 was greater than usual, reflecting ambitious growth options, most obviously in respect of the us market[11] The December 1960 Spiegel article speculated that with the 15, 000 Borgward cars ordered from the North American dealers with 1960 (and in the 12, 000 delivered to these) 6, 000 might have for being taken back following a slump in North american demand. (Borgward was not the one European auto maker hit with a North American slump sought after for imported cars during 1960. In the same yr two ships carrying Renault Dauphines were turned in mid-Atlantic because the docks in Big apple were overcrowded with unsold Dauphines.
At the end of December 1960 Borgward approached the lending company for a further 1 million Marks of credit rating, the loan to be backed by a guarantee from the Bremen local government which initially the Bremen senators decided provide. However, following the flood of critical press comment the actual senators withdrew their ensure. They now required Carl Borgward to pledge the corporation itself to the state in return for the guarantee. After a tense 13-hour meeting widely reported inside a still hostile media, Borgward agreed to this senate’s terms on 5 February 1961, thereby averting the bankruptcy with the business.The Bremen Senate in addition insisted on appointing a nominee as chairman in the company’s supervisory board. The man they chose was Johannes Semler who reports generally describe being a “Wirtschaftsprüfer” (public auditor), though this designation, especially once translated directly into English, does less than full justice for the breadth of Semler’s vocation. He had studied rules at university and worked initially to be a lawyer. The scion of a top Hamburg political family, in 1945 he got himself been a founding person in the centre-right CSU bash, and was a person in the Bundestag between 1950 along with 1953. Despite his Hamburg sources, Semler was by these times based in Munich, with a network of contacts inside the Bavarian establishment that almost certainly included fellow CSU politician as well as the future German chancellor, Ludwig Erhard, who in 1948 had succeeded Semler in a very top administrative position inside the Bizone. The appointment of Johannes Semler because representative of the Bremen senators to be able to chair the Borgward supervisory board would, in retrospect, contribute to the conflict that followed the Borgward bankruptcy.
German Brand Borgward Is Coming Back, But Will It Honor Its Forward
With 28 July 1961 Semler, as Chairman of the particular supervisory board joined the directors in the three companies Borgward, Goliath and Lloyd to instigate proceedings for that establishment of a “Vergleichsverfahren”, which would have provided to get a court sanctioned scheme of arrangement enabling the organization to continue to trade while as well protecting the interests associated with creditors. [16] Two months after, however, in September 1961, the Borgward and Goliath businesses were declared bankrupt, followed in November from the Lloyd business. Subsequent “conspiracy theorists” include suggested that Semler, for reasons of his own, never had any objective of allowing the Borgward auto-businesses in order to survive.
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