Glasses body

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Glasses body GmbH

logo
legal form Company with limited liability
founding 1864
Seat Dresden , Germany
Branch Body manufacturer

The glasses body GmbH was a major German body manufacturer , which made a name for itself in particular with its convertible bodies .

The company was founded in Dresden in 1864 by Carl Heinrich Gläser . After Glaser's death, his business partner, Friedrich August Emil Heuer , who was originally based in Radeberg , ran the company (later together with his sons) until 1945. In the GDR , the company finally became part of the state-owned company IFA Karosseriewerk Dresden, now known as KWD Automotive AG & Co. KG operates. A son of Heuer tried to continue the business from the Upper Palatinate , but failed in 1952.

History before 1945

1937 Opel glasses Super Six, 2-door convertible in August 2009 in Utstein, Norway
Steyr 220 glasses Sport Cabriolet 1937
Horch 951 A Pullman Cabriolet from Glasses 1937,
former company car of the German embassy in Argentina
Röhr 8 Type F Cabriolet in the Dresden Transport Museum

In 1864 Carl Heinrich Gläser founded a workshop for the construction of carriage and horse-drawn sleighs at Rampische Strasse  6 in Dresden. Because of the good quality of the chaises (carriages) and sleighs built by him, glasses also received orders from the royal stables and the royal stables office in Dresden from 1865 onwards .

In Gläser's workshop, the shell structures delivered by other craftsmen were upholstered and painted. Friedrich August Emil Heuer, Glaser's son-in-law since 1885, became co-owner of the Glas company in 1898. He ran an independent blacksmith and carriage workshop in Radeberg near Dresden and had previously supplied glasses with shell structures. Glasses died in December 1903, Emil Heuer took over the management in 1902.

This year the company expanded further and in 1913 he combined all of his Dresden operations on the factory site Arnoldstrasse 16/24 ( formerly Dresden curtain and lace manufacture ) in Dresden- Johannstadt . World icon

The amalgamation of the factory operations was made necessary by the boom and expansion that the company had achieved since 1898 under Heuer's management. At that time, the company, including its shell factory in Radeberg, employed over 200 workers and was equipped with the most modern equipment and auxiliary machines. The old business premises at Rampische Strasse 6 were converted into an exhibition room in 1913, where a wide range of luxury cars could be viewed at all times.

The simultaneous construction of automobile bodies and carriages was possible without any problems, since both initially largely corresponded. In the body shop, too, a wooden frame was built on the chassis and this was clad with hand-made sheet metal, or covered with fabric according to the “ Weymann patent ”. It was not until the mid- 1930s years have been particularly coachbuilder from Ambi-Budd in Berlin made self-supporting all-steel bodies. Anyone who could afford a car with the body of a well-known body builder at the time ordered the chassis (i.e. chassis and engine) directly from the manufacturer and then had the body made separately according to their wishes.

During this time, glasses manufactured various classic body types such as Phaeton , Coupé , Landaulet , Limousine , Pullman and Cabriolet .

Heuer's two sons, Georg and Erich Heuer, continued the business of the father after his death. Georg Heuer in particular was responsible for the development of the automobile bodies. The cabriolet bodies he created in the 1930s were characterized by their harmonious lines and their balanced symmetry. The six-window Pullman convertible is one of the milestones in body construction not only in terms of design, but also in terms of technology and construction. Glasses was also known for its very easy-to-use mechanism for the folding top, for which the company held several patents.

Due to his age, Emil Heuer handed over the management largely to his son Georg Heuer from the mid-1920s.

The consequences of the global economic crisis after the New York stock market crash in 1929 led to a dramatic slump in sales for automobile manufacturers and thus also for bodywork companies. After a major order from General Motors was canceled , after which the Gläser company ran into financial difficulties, Georg Heuer voluntarily retired in the summer of 1932. Emil Heuer took over the management again for a short time. On July 3, 1933, the company had to file for bankruptcy, Emil Heuer died in March 1934.

As early as June 12, 1933, Gläserkarosserie GmbH was founded as a rescue company for the insolvent companies. Shareholders were Erich Heuer, Wilhelm Stahl and Willy Bochmann, Erich Heuer's brother-in-law. This year his stake ceded to Bochmann because he had to expect seizures. Willy Bochmann was a trained plumber and the son of the owner of the small Dresden metal and toy factory owned by Carl Bochmann, which produced under the Cabo brand. As early as 1935, Willy Bochmann secured arms orders from the Wehrmacht, which soon made up 20% of total production.

In addition to the (small) series production of car bodies, glasses also always used the construction of "model bodies". These were very elaborate and shapely custom-made products.

In addition to his work at Gläserkarosserie GmbH , Willy Bochmann owned the metal and toy factory Carl Bochmann at Dammstrasse 16, Dresden (Äußere Neustadt, near Bischofsweg) by 1941 at the latest . His father Carl Bochmann was registered as a manufacturer at the same address.

During the Second World War , Gläserkarosserie GmbH , which also employed around 1,000 forced laborers and 150 to 180 Soviet prisoners of war, manufactured armaments. These included superstructures for the standard Kübelwagen Kfz 15 and the radio car Kfz 17, mounts for the on-board cannon of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and gondolas for the engines of the Messerschmitt Me 262 . During the air raids on Dresden on February 13 and 14, 1945, the glass production site in Litzmannstrasse (Arnoldstrasse) and Blumenstrasse was largely destroyed.

After the invasion of the Red Army , the rubble clearing began. Willy Bochmann was denied access to the company from June 1945 by a decision of the works council and the trade union group and his employment as a manager ended. He was later arrested by the Russians and died in a camp in 1950. The managing director Erich Heuer and the authorized signatory Edmund Heuer, who were already in Bavaria, were dismissed without notice because they had been members of the NSDAP since 1933 .

In the company overviews of the city of Dresden (pass for industrial companies (German-Russian)) from August / September 1945, Willy Bochmann is still listed as managing director of Carl Bochmann Metallwarenfabrik , Dammweg 16.

History in the East from 1945 - Karosseriewerk Dresden

VEB Karosseriewerk Dresden (KWD) was the successor to the Glass Body GmbH . He initially manufactured bodies for the IFA F8 , the pre-war DKW F8 and the IFA F9 , which were built almost unchanged by IFA , based on the DKW F9 prototype from 1940. Later bodies were made for the IFA type P 240 "Sachsenring" and the Wartburg 311 / 312 and its roadster version Wartburg 313 made. They also participated in the development of the plastic body of the AWZ P 70 . In 1963, the plant received a new production line, from which a camping, station wagon or coupé body for the Wartburg rolled off the assembly line every 36.9 minutes .

From 1968 to 1991 series bodies of the station wagon ("Tourist") were produced for the Wartburg 353 and the subsequent Wartburg 1.3 . The Bastei caravan was also manufactured in Dresden and branches of the body shop in Rosenthal and Wilsdruff . In 1994 VEB Karosseriewerk Dresden (KWD) was privatized and has been working as a supplier for the automotive industry under the name Karosseriewerke Dresden GmbH (KWD) . A production site is located in Radeberg. KWD is part of the Schnellecke Group .

History in the West 1945–1952

Erich Heuer relocated the machines that were still in existence to Ullersricht near Weiden in the Upper Palatinate and manufactured between 100 and 250 convertible bodies for the Porsche 356 . 16 aluminum bodies were also made for the Porsche Type 540 "America Roadster", which was a 356 variant in small series for the US market. However, Heuer had to stop production in November 1952 due to miscalculations.

Supplied vehicle manufacturers

Glasses produced car bodies for the following vehicle manufacturers, among others:

gallery

  • 2nd International Glasses Meeting in Dresden June 2010
  • Glasses Meeting Dresden June 2010 Picture 01.jpg
  • Glasses Meeting Dresden June 2010 Picture 03.jpg
  • Glasses Meeting Dresden June 2010 Picture 04.jpg
  • Glasses Meeting Dresden June 2010 Picture 05.jpg
  • Glasses Meeting Dresden June 2010 Picture 06.jpg
  • Glasses Meeting Dresden June 2010 Picture 07.jpg
  • Glasses Meeting Dresden June 2010 Picture 08.jpg
  • Glasses Meeting Dresden June 2010 Picture 09.jpg

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c KWD company history. KWD Automotive AG & Co. KG, accessed on July 21, 2019 .
  2. ↑ From carriages to automobiles - 150 years of body construction in Dresden and Radeberg. KWD Automotive AG & Co. KG, p. 5 , accessed on July 23, 2019 .
  3. ↑ From carriages to automobiles. P. 9 , accessed on July 23, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Dresdner Anzeiger from December 25, 1913
  5. ↑ From carriages to automobiles. P. 13 , accessed on July 23, 2019 .
  6. ↑ From carriages to automobiles. P. 14 , accessed on July 23, 2019 .
  7. ↑ From carriages to automobiles. P. 15 , accessed on July 23, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Address book of the state capital Dresden 1941. Retrieved on July 24, 2019 .
  9. ↑ From carriages to automobiles. P. 17 , accessed on July 23, 2019 .
  10. ↑ From carriages to automobiles. P. 18 , accessed on July 24, 2019 .
  11. ^ Pass for industrial companies (German-Russian) of the city of Dresden from August / September 1945. Accessed on July 24, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Automotive technology in the picture . In: Motor vehicle technology 6/1963, p. 221.
  13. ↑ Circular hiking trail in the Bielatal district - Rosenthal community - Bielatal. In: rosenthal-bielatal.de. Retrieved November 7, 2018 .
  14. ^ Wallace Wyss: The Porsche Type 540 America Roadster: The OddBall Porsche. (No longer available online.) In: Car Build Index. October 1, 2015, archived from the original on February 4, 2016 ; accessed on February 3, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.carbuildindex.com

literature

  • Gerhard Mirsching: Glasses convertibles. A piece of German automotive history . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-613-01193-X
  • Gerhard Mirsching: Automobile bodies from Dresden. From glasses to KWD. Reintzsch, Leipzig 1996, ISBN 3-930846-08-X
  • Bernd Rieprich: Emil Heuer - his path to becoming a coachbuilder . In: Radeberger Blätter zur Stadtgeschichte, Heft 12, 2014, Ed .: Große Kreisstadt Radeberg in cooperation with the working group Stadtgeschichte, p. 25ff

Web links

Commons : Glasses  - Collection of images, videos and audio files