Stock company for automobile manufacture

Stock corporation for automobile manufacture (AGA)
legal form	Corporation
founding	1909 (as autogenous gas accumulator AG )
resolution	1924
Reason for dissolution	bankruptcy
Seat	Berlin , Germany
management	Edmund Stinnes
Branch	Automobile manufacturer

The Aktiengesellschaft für Automobilbau ( AGA or AGA for short ) was a German automobile manufacturer .

Company history

AGA building at Herzbergstrasse 82–84, Berlin-Lichtenberg

AGA type A 6/16 PS (1921)

The company was founded in Berlin in 1909 as Autogen-Gas-Akkumulator-AG as a German subsidiary of the Swedish company Aktiebolaget Gas-Accumulator (AGA), which existed well into the 21st century .

From 1917 it was located in the factory building on Herzbergstrasse in Berlin-Lichtenberg, which was only finally completed after the end of the First World War . During the First World War, the company u. a. Machine gun parts. In 1920 the gas company was renamed a stock corporation for automobile construction , but Gas-AGA was re-established at the same time, so that the Berlin gas company AGA continued to exist alongside the automobile manufacturer and was also active in West Berlin after 1945. The Berlin automobile company AGA has belonged to the Stinnes Group since 1922 . These data result from the commercial register available in the Berlin State Archives . According to another source, Stinnes had acquired 50% of the shares from the Swedish owners.

In autumn 1919 the first passenger car, the AGA Type A 6/16 PS , was presented to the public in Berlin; possibly there had already been a pre-assembled pilot series. The first AGA car, which was mainly an open four-seater body, which was mainly common in the 1920s, was initially bodyworked with pronounced angular fenders and a pointed radiator and was based on the Belgian FN 6 PS, but was not considered a license by the manufacturer. Its side-controlled four-cylinder in-line engine had a displacement of 1.4 liters and developed 11.8 kW (16 hp ). The power was passed on to the wheels of the rigid, leaf-sprung rear axle via a leather cone clutch and a three-speed gearbox with a gearshift lever on the far right of the vehicle. A special feature of one of the bodywork of this vehicle was the built-in hood, which disappeared in a box behind the rear seats. Leaking and folding the wet top, allegedly due to insufficient ventilation, repeatedly resulted in unsightly mold stains . It must be taken into account that this defect can also occur in the case of incorrect handling, i.e. when a damp convertible top is folded up, that cannot be accommodated in such a box.

In 1921 the type A, recognizable by its pointed cooler, got a structurally unchanged engine with a more powerful output of 20 hp. A year later, the AGA Type C 6/20 PS, recognizable by its flat cooler, came onto the market. As was customary in the 1920s, the AGA's body was also a supplier part, so there were AGA cars with a large number of different bodies as four- and two-seater, open-top Phaeton, limousine, landaulet or delivery van. AGA cars were common in big cities like Berlin, Hamburg and Wroclaw as a taxi used. Towards the end of the production period, a slightly longer Type C with 24 HP was produced. A four-wheel brake was also available at that time.

AGA was particularly involved in racing in the first half of the 1920s. Three cars took part in the first race on the Berlin Avus in September 1921. For the participation in the Targa Florio, the famous rally in Sicily , AGA built a racing car of the type TF (= Targa Florio).

Already in September 1924 there were signs of financial problems under the direction of Stinnes' son Edmund Stinnes . Apparently as a result of Goldmarkumsellung bought Stinnes the Dinos-car plants and in May 1925, the Rheinische automotive-Aktiengesellschaft (Rabag), the Bugatti - Voiturettes of types 22 and 23 built under license. In November 1925, Stinnes went bankrupt . Despite these difficulties, 2,800 AGA automobiles were built in 1925.

Successor company

A rescue company , the Aga-Kraftwagen-Verwertungs-GmbH, assembled some Type C vehicles from leftover parts until 1927. In 1927 the successor Aga Fahrzeugwerke GmbH was established , which also built the Type C as 6/24 hp for two years. In 1929 this company also had to file for bankruptcy. In total, more than 10,000 vehicles with the name AGA had been built in ten years. Rabag had already been given up at the end of 1925; a few vehicles were assembled in 1926.

AGA car models

Type	Construction period	cylinder	Displacement	power	${\displaystyle v_{max}}$
Type A 6/16 PS	1919-1921	4 row	1418 cc	11.8 kW (16 hp)	65 km / h
Type C 6/20 PS	1921-1927	4 row	1418 cc	14.7 kW (20 hp)	75 km / h
Type C 6/24 PS	1927-1928	4 row	1418 cc	17.6 kW (24 hp)	80 km / h

literature

• Kai-Uwe Merz: The AGA car . An automobile story from Berlin, Verlag Berlin Story, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86368-006-0
• Kai-Uwe Merz: The Nobel Laureate's Automobile. Archival studies on the Berliner Autogen-Gasaccumulator Aktiengesellschaft (AGA), the Berliner Aktiengesellschaft für Automobilbau (AGA) and the Stockholm Aktiebolaget Gas-Accumulator (AGA), in: Berlin in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Yearbook of the Landesarchiv Berlin 2011 , edited by Werner Breunig and Uwe Schaper, Gebr. Mann Verlag Berlin (2011), pages 83-99, ISBN 978-3-7861-2652-2
• Oswald, Werner: Deutsche Autos 1920–1945 , 10th edition, Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart (1996), ISBN 3-87943-519-7

Web links

Commons : Aktiengesellschaft für Automobilbau  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• AGA car page - photos, literature, links ( memento from August 26, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
• Largest, but mostly with imprecise and often incorrect captions, collection of AGA photos and illustrations on the website of the AGA Museum Emmen

Individual evidence

1. ↑ GTÜ ( Memento from February 4, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Wolfgang Schmarbeck, Gabriele Wolbold: Bugatti passenger and racing cars since 1909. Motorbuchverlag Stuttgart, Typenkompass series, 2009, ISBN 978-3-613-03021-3 , pp. 30–33.