Apollo works

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Apollo-Werke AG
legal form Corporation
founding 1904
resolution 1932
Reason for dissolution bankruptcy
Seat Apolda , Germany
management
  • A. Ruppe
Number of employees 400 (1927)
Branch Motor vehicle manufacturer

Piccolo from 1907
Illustration of the Apollo 30 PS racing car from 1921

The Apollo-Werke AG was a German company based in Apolda . It was founded under the company A. Ruppe & Sohn in 1904, converted into a stock corporation in 1907 and renamed in 1912 after the Ruppe family left.

From 1904 to 1927, the company manufactured automobiles under the Piccolo and Apollo brands in various designs. These vehicles were successful because of their relatively low selling price and their high quality, which was also proven in international racing at the time. During and until shortly after the First World War , the plants also briefly built trucks .

history

At the beginning A. Ruppe & Sohn built a motorcycle, the Apoldiana . A voiturette followed in 1904 , which was the company's first vehicle to be named Piccolo . Passenger cars with air-cooled engines were manufactured under this brand until 1920. Hugo Ruppe (1879–1949) was in charge of the development of these vehicles .

After leaving the company and converting it to a stock corporation, the distinguished racing driver and designer Karl Slevogt (1876–1951) was won over to develop new models in 1908 . The vehicles he developed were given the name Apollo, which was taken over for the new company in 1912. In addition to Slevogt, the works driver Franz Seidenbusch was also very successful with Apollos, e.g. B. 1923 at the Solitude Bergpreis .

With water-cooled engines and the abandonment of the carriage shape in the Apollo carriages, a new era of car production began in Apolda. Vehicles with single-cylinder engines with 624 cm³ up to four-cylinder engines with 3440 cm³ were built. A 12/50 hp V8 engine developed in the mid-1920s was not ready for series production. Almost all parts, except tires, lamps and horns, were produced in the factory. Trucks built the Apollo factory with 30 horsepower during World War I and it was maintained until the end of the business in 1928.

The engine blocks for the Piccolos and Apollos were made in the company's own foundry. As a result, the company was relatively independent, so that new models could be developed and customer requests met within a short time. During these years the Apollo-Werke developed into the largest metalworking company in Apolda. In 1921 the Markranstädter Automobilfabrik (MAF) in Markranstädt (founded by Hugo Ruppes) was bought up, initially continued as Plant II , but closed in 1923.

The last model, the type 6/24 PS from 1926, had one made by the engine manufacturer Steudel instead of an engine made in-house . In 1927 the company, which at that time had 400 employees, stopped producing automobiles, acted as an agent for NSU automobiles for another five years and filed for bankruptcy in 1932 .

At least one vehicle took part in the small car race at the Berlin AVUS in 1923.

Museum and classic car meeting

Of the many vehicle models that were once built in Apolda, very few still exist today. In 1995 the Museum Apolda acquired a Piccolo 5 HP "Mobbel", built in 1910, with funding from the State of Thuringia , which can be viewed in the Hotel am Schloss in Apolda until the city museum is completed.

Vintage car meetings and rallies have been held in Apolda for decades. Based on the automobile manufacturing tradition, the first Apolda vintage car castle meeting took place in 1994, which every year on the first weekend in June attracts many classic car friends from all over Germany to Apolda.

On June 7th, 2015, the square opposite the former works was named "Hugo-Ruppe-Platz" as part of the classic car meeting . This was only created between 2013 and 2014 through the redesign of the former site of the freight station and was previously nameless. In the decision-making city council meeting, there were considerable discussions about the naming, as there are no actual residents at the square and thus naming was viewed as "useless spending money".

Car models

Type Construction period cylinder Displacement power V max
Piccolo 5 hp 1904-1907 2 V 704 cc 5 HP (3.7 kW) 50 km / h
Piccolo 12 hp 1907-1909 4 row 1608 cc 12 HP (8.8 kW) 55 km / h
Piccolo 7 hp 1907-1910 2 V 794 cc 7 HP (5.1 kW) 50 km / h
Piccolo 6/12 hp 1907-1910 4 V 1575 cc 12 HP (8.8 kW) 50 km / h
Piccolo 5 PS "Mobbel" 1910-1912 1 standing 624 cc 5 HP (3.7 kW) 40 km / h
Piccolo type A 1910-1912 2 row 846 cc 8 HP (5.9 kW) 50 km / h
Piccolo type E 6/16 PS 1910-1912 4 row 1770 cc 16 hp (11.8 kW) 60 km / h
Piccolo type B 4/12 PS 1911-1920 4 row 960 cc 12 HP (8.8 kW) 70 km / h
Type N 8/24 PS 1912-1914 4 row 2040 cc 24 hp (17.6 kW) 75 km / h
Record type F 8/28 PS 1912-1914 4 row 2040 cc 28 hp (20.6 kW) 95 km / h
Type K 10/30 PS 1912-1914 4 row 2612 cc 32 HP (23.5 kW) 80 km / h
Type L 13/40 PS 1912-1914 4 row 3440 cc 44 PS (32.4 kW) 90 km / h
4/14 hp 1921-1925 4 row 960 cc 14 hp (10.3 kW) 80 km / h
10/40 hp 1921-1925 4 row 2597 cc 40 hp (29.4 kW) 85 km / h
5/25 hp 1925-1926 4 row 1221 cc 25 hp (18.4 kW) 80 km / h
6/24 hp 1926-1927 4 row 1551 cc 24 hp (17.6 kW) 80 km / h

literature

Web links

Commons : Apollo  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.gtue-oldtimerservice.de/automobil/marke/PICCOLO%2C+MOBBEL/58/
  2. ^ Result lists of the Solitude racing events 1922-1937
  3. ↑ The history of German truck construction; Volume I; Page 25. Weltbild Verlag 1994. ISBN 3-89350-811-2
  4. ^ Hans Christoph von Seherr-Thoss : The German automobile industry. Documentation from 1886 until today . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 3-421-02284-4 , p. 235 .