Auto bodywork Willy Bernath
Auto Carrosserie Willy Bernath was a Swiss manufacturer of automobile bodies which , before, during and shortly after the Second World War , produced a number of superstructures for European luxury vehicles, often described as avant-garde .
Company history
Willy Bernath
The company was based in the Swiss municipality of La Chaux-de-Fonds in the canton of Neuchâtel . The owner was Willy Bernath (born March 1, 1914 in La Chaux-de-Fonds; † June 13, 1991 ). In the early 1930s, Bernath had completed training as a body scraper in Hamburg and Zurich . After graduation, he did not initially work in the profession he had learned, but was active as a ski athlete . In 1936 he became Swiss champion of the four combination in Davos . Afterwards, Bernarth stayed in the USA for a few months . After returning to Switzerland, he took over the body repair business that his father had founded in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1924. From 1938 onwards, Bernath started to build complete automobile bodies at the customer's request.
Bernath's bodies
The Auto Carrosserie Willy Bernath company existed as a body manufacturer from 1938 to 1946. During this time, 24 convertible bodies were built in La Chaux-de-Fonds, which were characterized by an “avant-garde design”, especially on the front of the car. They represented a “mixture of luxury, elegance and streamline with a touch of Art Deco ”.
A special feature of all Bernath's designs was a horizontally arranged radiator grille, which was arranged above the bumper and extended over the entire width of the car. Bernath was one of the first designers to deviate from the previous vertical alignment of the radiator grille. The grill mostly consisted of vertical chrome struts; in at least one case, however, they made an upward movement towards the center of the carriage. The front lights were mostly positioned behind the chrome struts as "hidden headlights", but on some vehicles they were placed on the grill struts.
Apart from this special design feature, Bernarth's designs were based on the contemporary works of Battista Farina or Hermann Graber : the front and rear fenders merged smoothly into the body of the car. In all of the designs, the bonnet tapered to a point and was set off from the substructure by a chrome strip that mostly continued to the rear. On some vehicles the rear wheels were covered, in some cases the front wheels as well.
The superstructures each consisted of aluminum sheets supported by a steel frame. Structurally, the construction was similar to the Superleggera method of Carrozzeria Touring .
production
Bernarth created the superstructures exclusively on customer request. In most cases, Bernarth did not clad a brand-new chassis, but delivered so-called second bodies, i.e. That is, the customers each ordered a new body for an older chassis that had previously carried a different body. With the exception of one Auburn , all of them were European chassis ( Alfa Romeo , Citroën , Fiat , Jaguar , Lancia , Mercedes-Benz and Talbot-Lago ).
Bernath continued the production on superstructures also during the Second World War; For example, in 1944 a convertible body was created for a Citroën chassis manufactured in 1938 . After the end of the war, Bernath only built a few superstructures; we're talking about "a handful". The last vehicle built in La Chaux-de-Fonds was a convertible on a 1936 Auburn 851 chassis commissioned by a Swiss doctor. It was created in 1946 and cost 10,000 Swiss francs.
In 1946 the Auto Carrosserie Willy Bernath went bankrupt. The company had to close. A total of 24 bodies were built at Bernath, of which three - an Alfa Romeo, a Citroën and a Jaguar - are known to exist. The fate of most Bernarth vehicles is unknown; the literature assumes that most of them have been scrapped over time.
After closing his company, Willy Bernarth worked as a car dealer in the canton of Jura .
The individual structures
From 1938 to 1938, Bernath dressed the following chassis, among others:
| Chassis of the Bernath Cabriolets | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chassis manufacturer | Type | Year of production of the chassis |
Copies | Location 2012 |
| Auburn | 851 | 1936 | 1 | lost |
| Alfa Romeo | 6C 1750 | 1933 | 1 | Switzerland |
| Citroën | 11B traction | 1938 | 1 | Germany Musée Garage du Pont Potsdam |
| Fiat | 1500 | 1935/1941 | 2 | lost |
| jaguar | SS100 | 1938 | 1 | Switzerland |
| Lancia | Astura | 1931/39 | at least 2 | lost |
| Lancia | Aprilia | 1933 | at least 2 | lost |
| Mercedes Benz | unknown | unknown | 1 | lost |
| Talbot-Lago | unknown | unknown | 1 | lost |
literature
- Ferdinand Hediger: Avant-garde from the Jura . History of the company Auto Carrosserie Willy Bernath in: Swiss Classics No. 37-1 (January / March 2013), p. 58 ff.
- Max Stoop: Willy Bernath's convertibles. Automobil Revue from February 25, 1993.
Web links
- Image of the Citroën 11CV with Bernath body
- Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 shown with Bernath body
- The last Citroën of its kind on luxus.welt.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Schweizer Illustrierte Zeitung of March 4, 1936 (with illustrations).
- ↑ a b c d e f Hediger: Swiss Classics 37-1, p. 58 ff.
- ↑ a b The last Citroën of its kind on luxus.welt.de (accessed on June 1, 2016).
- ↑ This applies to the construction of a Talbot Lago.
- ↑ In the literature it is assumed that it was a chassis from the W18 (Type 290) or W 142 (Type 320) series.