Drauz works

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Drauz KG
legal form Limited partnership
founding 1900
resolution 1965
Reason for dissolution Takeover by NSU Motorenwerke
Seat Heilbronn , Germany
Number of employees
  • 200 (approx. 1914)
  • 700
Branch Carriage manufacturer , body manufacturer , automobile manufacturer

The Drauz-Werke were a German wheelwright and manufacturer of car bodies founded in 1900 and based in Heilbronn . The company was bought by NSU Motorenwerke in 1965 and, after several business changes, continues to exist today as ThyssenKrupp System Engineering within the ThyssenKrupp Group. Gustav Drauz and the Drauz works are the subject of the exhibition in the House of City History in Heilbronn.

Company history

Origins

The company founded by Gustav Drauz (* October 7, 1872, † April 28, 1951 in Heilbronn ) in 1900 initially produced carriages . The first orders for car bodies came from NSU , other automobile manufacturers followed. Shortly before the First World War , the company already had 200 employees.

Ambulances and field kitchens were built during the First World War . After the war, the company specialized in convertibles and continued to grow. In 1925 Walter Drauz (1902–1972) joined the company. In addition to NSU, Adler and FIAT were other customers. In addition to the serial convertibles, one-offs were also produced. From 1929 Ford was the main buyer of the bodywork. In 1930 the body Alexis Kellner GmbH was founded as a sales company in Heilbronn, in 1932 branches in Cologne and Berlin were established.

From 1933 all-steel convertibles and truck cabs were manufactured on the assembly line . The one-offs were made in the Schebera body shop, which was purchased in 1930 . In 1937 the production of buses and trailers was started, and bodies were built on chassis from other manufacturers, e.g. B. from Magirus-Deutz . At the end of 1944, the factory facilities were completely destroyed in an air raid.

Development after the Second World War

Immediately after the end of the Second World War , the Drauz-Werke built handcarts out of wood. From 1947, bodies were again made on bus chassis from other manufacturers, e.g. B. von Büssing and Henschel , u. a. also trolleybuses for Argentina on Henschel chassis with electrical equipment from Kiepe . Based on the ideas of the aircraft engineer Henrich Focke , Drauz KG built the first self-supporting bus in Germany with Ford technology in 1951 , even before Kässbohrer with the Setra bus. In the 1950s, other self-supporting coaches (e.g. DR 43) with Ford two-stroke diesel engines followed . a. the new type of touring coach club bus was founded with the DR 25. Instead of the problematic Ford two-stroke engines, new buses later got four-stroke diesel engines from Henschel.

The old (NSU, Ford) and new customers ( Porsche and DKW ) ordered even more bodies than before the war. Bodies for vehicles such as the Ford FK 1000 and the Porsche 356 Convertible D (3514 pieces from 1958 to 1961) were created. 700 employees built 250,000 units in twelve years.

Successor company

In 1965, NSU Motorenwerke bought the body production of the Drauz works. Drauz then concentrated on toolmaking and plant construction; the main customers were primarily automobile manufacturers such as Audi , Porsche and Daimler-Benz based in the Heilbronn location . The company was renamed Krupp Drauz and then ThyssenKrupp  Drauz through sale, merger and various internal restructuring measures. The company is currently called ThyssenKrupp System Engineering .

literature

  • Werner Oswald : German Cars 1920–1945 . 10th edition. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-87943-519-7 .
  • Wolfgang Gebhardt: German omnibuses since 1895 . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-613-01555-2 . Pp. 200-203
  • Wolfgang H. Gebhardt: German travel buses. Historical documents from the history of German bus construction . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-613-03037-4 . Pp. 88-93

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Biographical data from the Heilbronn City Archives, contemporary history collection, signature ZS-13097, biography of Gustav Drauz in the HEUSS database