Salzgitter car factory

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Autowerke Salzgitter (AWS)
legal form
founding 1948
resolution 1951
Seat Salzgitter - Bad , Germany
management
  • Heinrich Janssen
  • Josef Mikolajczyk
Number of employees over 530 (late 1950)
Branch Automobile manufacturer

The car works Salzgitter (AWS) were a German car manufacturer , the 1948 to 1950 in Salzgitter-Bad was a resident. As early as August 1945, Janssen & Mikolajczyk OHG, a repair shop for US jeeps, was set up, from which the company emerged through the interim step of the Lower Saxony Auto and Engine Plant Janssen & Mikolajczyk (NAM) .

Company history

Salzgitter jeeps

The vehicles with various superstructures sold by AWS (and previously NAM) as Salzgitter Jeeps or Jeeps from Salzgitter (advertising text) represent conversions of Jeeps that were left behind by the US Army after the Second World War . This was done in a similar way in the Philippines - there, however, for longer, much more successfully and with more extensive technical development - from which the jeepneys , minibuses with up to 14 seats, emerged. At the end of 1950, AWS had to close after approx. 3000 vehicles were delivered because there were no longer any US Army jeeps available.

In 2017, the Museum of the City of Salzgitter acquired a Salzgitter Jeep station wagon manufactured in 1950 .

The Elsbett car

For the purpose of resuscitation, a car construction by Ludwig Elsbett , who had previously worked for AWS, was to be taken up. Under the most primitive conditions, Elsbett developed an unusual passenger car from spring 1949, a mixture of sedan and station wagon with 4 doors and a large tailgate. The car did not have a radiator grille because the wind was supposed to be sucked in from below. Of the twelve test specimens that had been built, there were also some that had a radiator grille.

In September 1951 the car was presented at the Berlin Motor Show. He had 3.00 m wheelbase , a patented X-tube frame, three rows of seats, and a built-in front two-stroke - diesel - radial engine with four cylinders, which consists of a cubic capacity of 2.0, a power of 50 PS l (37 kW) at 2000 rpm. Another source mentions 88 mm cylinder bore and 83 mm piston stroke , which gives 2019 cc displacement , and 50 hp engine power. After moving the seats, the loading area could be enlarged to 2.5 m². The car did not go into series production due to financial difficulties.

On the other hand, a small number of pick-ups and vans with the four-cylinder radial engine with a displacement of two liters were built in the course of 1951 .

Auto-Werke Salzgitter was financially at an end in 1951.

literature

  • Oswald, Werner: Deutsche Autos, Volume 4: 1945–1990 - Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and others , 2nd edition, Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-613-02131-5 , page 468
  • Oswald, Werner: Delivery vans, vans, minibuses. 1945–1980. 1st edition, Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-87943-699-1 , pages 313-314
  • GN Georgano (Editor), G. Marshall Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles ; MBI Motor Books International, Osceola WI (1979); ISBN 0-87341-024-6 , page 67 (English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Barn find: Museum in Salder buys car from 1950. Regional news from Salzgitter from November 24, 2017, accessed on October 6, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b Hans-Peter Baron von Thyssen-Bornemissza's lexicon of forgotten car types, search for “AWS Elsbett”, accessed online at autolexikon-thyssen.de on May 12, 2013
  3. ↑ A photo in the following source shows a radial engine with more than four cylinders: Hans-Peter Baron von Thyssen-Bornemissza's Lexicon of Forgotten Car Types, search for "AWS Elsbett", accessed online at autolexikon-thyssen.de on May 12, 2013
  4. ↑ 80 PS according to: Hans-Peter Baron von Thyssen-Bornemissza's Lexicon of Forgotten Car Types, search for “AWS Elsbett”, accessed online at autolexikon-thyssen.de on May 12, 2013
  5. ^ 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. 372 .
  6. ^ A b Hans-Peter Baron von Thyssen-Bornemissza's lexicon of forgotten car types, search for "AWS Elsbett", accessed online at autolexikon-thyssen.de on June 22, 2013
  7. ↑ Georgiano / Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles : Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles (1979) 67


Coordinates: 52 ° 2 '55.2 "  N , 10 ° 21' 54.2"  E