Hebmüller

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]

Hebmüller Sons
TypePrivate company
IndustryAutomotive
FateBankruptcy in 1952
Founded1889, Wuppertal, Germany
FounderJoseph Hebmüller
Defunct1952
Number of locations
One
ProductsVolkswagen Type 14A, Opel Kapitan & Admiral, and many other manufacturers like Ford and Mercedes
Opel Kapitan Hebmüller from 1940, just 2 examples survived

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 2+2 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]

  • The cover of Volume 13 of the Dragon Ball Z manga (Volume 29 of the original Japanese[6]) features Gohan and Piccolo driving a Volkswagen Type 14A.[7]

References
  1. "The VW Hebmüller story". Jan-Anders Lindqvist. web.telia.com. Archived from the original on 9 March 2009. Retrieved 16 December 2009.
  2. "Hebmuller". geocities.com. Archived from the original on 2009-10-26. Retrieved 2008-02-28.
  3. "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. 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.
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-06-14. Retrieved 2016-06-03.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. http://www.vizmanga.com/reader/371-dragon-ball-z-13


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