Framo

Framo-Werke GmbH
legal form	Company with limited liability
founding	1923 (as Metallwerke Frankenberg / Saxony )
resolution	1957
Reason for dissolution	Renaming to VEB Barkas-Werke Hainichen
Seat	Frankenberg / Saxony , Germany
management	Hans Werner Skafte Rasmussen , managing director
Number of employees	700 (1933) 50 (1946)
Branch	Motor vehicle manufacturers , defense industry

Barkas logo

Framo was a Saxon automobile brand that manufactured small vans from 1927 and later also small cars . The name Framo is derived from the original Frankenberg production facility (until 1933). After the Second World War , IFA continued the production of small vans under this brand. In 1957, the company was renamed VEB Barkas-Werke Hainichen , shortly afterwards the company was relocated from Hainichen to Karl-Marx-Stadt and merged with the VEB Barkas-Werke Karl-Marx-Stadt .

The Framo brand - with a stylized "F" as the logo - was reactivated by Framo GmbH, which was founded in 2014 and develops and manufactures electric trucks.

history

Period 1923-1945

Framo LT 200, built in 1932 in the Museum for Saxon Vehicles in Chemnitz

In 1923 Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen founded Metallwerke Frankenberg GmbH . The company produced in the former Train barracks in Frankenberg and manufactured motorcycle accessories such as saddles, clutches and carburettors for the nearby DKW . In 1927, the robust and inexpensive DKW express delivery van (type designation TV 300) was made as a motorized three-wheeled vehicle from the combination of a motorcycle with a loading area and was quickly successful. This was followed by a number of further developments such as the types ZW 200, LT 200, LTH 200 and LTH 300. From 1933, the plants with 700 employees were gradually relocated to Hainichen , where Rasmussen had acquired the former factory halls of a combing and spinning mill, since the Reichswehr had the former Wanted to reactivate Frankenberger barracks. Although the factory was no longer resident at origin, they were in on January 1, 1934 Framo-Werke GmbH renamed ; the name was an acronym from the former place of manufacture FRAnkenberg and MOtorenwerke. From this year onwards, small passenger cars with air-cooled DKW built-in engines and front-wheel drive were also included in the range: Initially there was the three- wheeler Stromer FP 200 with two wheels at the front and one at the rear and a streamlined body . The successors Piccolo VH 200 and Piccolo VH 300 had four wheels and initially a closed engine hood similar to that of the Tatra 11 . Later a dummy radiator was installed. In three years, however, only around 1070 copies of the three series were sold.

In 1938, the V 500 was the first new four-wheeled commercial vehicle to hit the market with an engine of 500 cm³ displacement and an output of 15 hp. The maximum speed was 60 km / h. Numerous other transporters followed by 1943. So the unit type 650/2 (V 501) was created on the basis of the Schell plan . Arne Skafte Rasmussen worked on engine development . From October 1, 1943, Framo had to start arms production. For example, components for anti-tank guns and smoke launchers were produced. That is why the company was almost completely dismantled from 1945 as an armaments factory . Hans Werner Skafte Rasmussen , the manager at the time, was arrested by the Soviets and died on September 21, 1945 in the Toszek internment camp .  

New registrations of Framo cars in the German Reich from 1933 to 1938

year	Registration numbers
1933	3
1934	368
1935	337
1936	21st
1937	6th
1938	2

New beginning from 1946

After the Second World War , the plant was completely dismantled by the Soviets. In April 1946, it was released with a workforce of 50 for the production of the simplest consumer goods such as potato baskets, handcarts and ovens. From 1947 the repair of engines and Framo vehicles was started. The confiscated company was converted into a state-owned company on April 17, 1948 and shortly afterwards integrated into the Vehicle Construction Industry Association . From 1949 onwards the pre-war model V 501 (now as V 501/2) was created from existing spare parts and existing machines. As early as 1950, 700 vans could be delivered because Framo already had its most important suppliers in East Germany before the war and the necessary reorientation as a result of the division of Germany was limited. Export began in 1951. In 1951, the first new development came onto the market with the V 901 . From 1954, systematic work was carried out on a completely newly developed successor under the designation "L1", as a study by the Chemnitz research and development plant in 1951 showed the basic concept of both types to be completely outdated.

As a visible sign of a completely new beginning, the former Framo brand was renamed Barkas in 1957 . The management moved from Hainichen to Karl-Marx-Stadt and the Barkas works in Hainichen were combined with the engine works and the vehicle works to form VEB Barkas works .

The new body shop was set up in Karl-Marx-Stadt, as the spatial requirements in Hainichen for a self-supporting all-metal body for the B 1000 were not given.

The first B 1000 with a two-stroke engine with a displacement of 900 cm³ and 42 hp (30.9 kW) went into series production in 1961.

The final assembly of all Framo and Barkas vehicles therefore took place in Hainichen from 1933 to 1991.

Vans

→ Main article : Framo V 501

→ Main article : Framo V 901

→ Main article : Barkas V 901/2

Technical data for Framo cars

Type	Stromer FP 200	Piccolo VH 300	Piccolo VH 200
Construction period	1933	1934-1935	1935
Superstructures	L2, Cb2		L2
engine	1 cyl. 2-stroke
Valves	without
Bore × stroke	60 mm × 68.5 mm	74 mm × 68.5 mm	60 mm × 68.5 mm
Displacement	192 cc	297 cc	192 cc
Horsepower)	6th	8th	6th
Power kW)	4.4	5.9	4.4
at speed (1 / min)	3500
compression	5.8: 1
consumption	6 l / 100 km
transmission	4-speed with crutch shift	3-speed with center shift
Top speed	60 km / h	62 km / h	57 km / h
Empty weight	320 kg	375 kg	350 kg
Electrics	6 volts
length	3100 mm	3000 mm
width	1400 mm
height	1270 mm	1400 mm
wheelbase	2168 mm	2260 mm
Front / rear track	1250 mm / 0	1100 mm / 1100 mm
wheel size	26 "× 3.50"	25 "× 3.00" or 3.00-19 "

• L2 = 2-door sedan
• Cb2 = 2-door convertible

photos

• 

  Framo TV 300 in the vehicle museum in Frankenberg

• 

  The "Piccolo" car in the Frankenberg Vehicle Museum

• 

  Framo V 901/2

• 

  Framo V 901/2 (1958)

Framo GmbH - from 2014

FRAMO e 180/280 "powered by CuroCon" (2018)

In 2014 Framo GmbH was newly founded by the founder and partner Andy Illgen at the Langenbernsdorf location in Saxony. The new Framo specializes in the electrification of the logistics industry. Framo GmbH produces purely electrically powered vehicles. The CuroControlSRx control unit simulates a combustion engine and offers integrated safety functions and the integration of operating strategies. Framo is currently electrifying trucks with a gross vehicle weight of 7.5 to 44 tons. All the usual bodies from the flatbed to the tractor-trailer are possible. These vehicles are charged via the existing energy infrastructure. Framo also manufactures CCS charging stations and uses charging controllers from CuroCon for this purpose. Using recuperation , energy can be recovered during the braking process and fed back into the existing storage system.

See also

• Vehicle museum Frankenberg - Framo models and company history

literature

• Werner Oswald : German Cars 1920–1945. 10th edition, Motorbuch, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-87943-519-7
• The Framo commercial vehicle of the type V901 / 2 Z. In: Motor vehicle technology 1/1956, pp. 19–22
• Jürgen Lisse: Vehicle Lexicon Framo / Barkas. Bildverlag Böttger GbR, Witzschdorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-937496-23-8
• Günther Wappler Framo & Barkas , The history of the 2-stroke vans from Saxony, WMS advertising, ISBN 3-931770-63-X

Web links

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

• framo.de - detailed company history, type tables, restoration, pictures, Framo forum
• http://www.framo-eway.com/de/

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Soviet Military Administration (ed.): Order 124 . 1945.
2. ↑ Michael Geiger: Flashback 1923–1957 on barkas.de (accessed March 17, 2010)
3. ↑ Barbara Supp: The time of the ghosts . In: Der Spiegel . No. 32 , 1996 ( online - about the forgotten dead of the Soviet prison camp Tost in Silesia).
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. 328 .
5. ↑ 10 years of motor vehicle exports in the German Democratic Republic. In: Motor Vehicle Technology 2/1958, pp. 41–43.
6. ↑ CuroControl®SRx - mobile system for electric vehicles - CuroCon GmbH . In: CuroCon GmbH . ( curocon.de [accessed on January 16, 2017]).