Hermann Spohn
Hermann Spohn (born October 13, 1876 , † December 17, 1923 ) was a German car body manufacturer . The body construction company founded by Hermann Spohn is primarily associated with its vehicle bodies for Maybach luxury automobiles.
Company history
As the seventh child of Julius Spohn, Hermann Spohn came from a long-established Ravensburg industrialist family. After his participation in the First World War, he decided on the car body construction branch, which was young at the beginning of the 20th century and which had just developed out of wheelwright (carriage construction).
1920-1923
1920 took place the commercial register entry Hermann Spohn marked "Carosseriebau".
Almost at the same time, in Friedrichshafen, about 20 kilometers from Ravensburg, after the First World War, the Versailles Treaty prevented Karl Maybach from continuing the construction of aircraft engines for his company Maybach-Motorenbau . After he had to give up his original plan of supplying prime movers to other manufacturers, Maybach began specializing in the construction of engines and transmissions for passenger cars from 1921 onwards, which achieved world-class levels, particularly with the legendary 12-cylinder engine. Maybach was one of the manufacturers who did not have their own body shop with a relatively small overall production; many bodies for Maybach vehicles were built by Hermann Spohn on the chassis supplied by Maybach.
In 1922, at the beginning of these business relationships, there were contacts with the Zeppelin works in Friedrichshafen when the Rud was commissioned. Ley Maschinenfabrik : The world's first scientifically based streamlined body was made - developed by Paul Jaray . Even after the death of the company founder, work in this area continued in the 1930s.
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1924-1957
Since 1924 Spohn's company was run in the legal form of a general partnership. The managing directors were Josef Eiwanger senior, Spohn's companion from the start, and Theodor Spohn.
Maybach's first large touring car since 1921, the W 3 type, had a body. Both partners stuck to the handcrafted frame construction that was still customary in the industry at the time. This made it easier to meet the personal wishes of wealthy customers with regard to the design and combination of individual body shapes ( sedan , Pullman , Landaulet , convertible, etc.) in multiple combinations. The body specialists called “Spohnler” (carpenters, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, Wagner, tinsmiths, saddlers and painters) were given the freedom of personal ideas and play with the imagination when dealing with the high-quality materials. Maybach should not have had any direct "influence on the individual development stages of the body design". Paul Albert was in charge in the 1930s.
Maybach and Spohn oHG did not work exclusively together in other ways either. Maybach chassis were also equipped with bodies by Erdmann & Rossi (Berlin) and Jacques Saoutchik (Paris), on the other hand, Spohn manufactured bodies for other manufacturers such as Hispano-Suiza .
When Josef Eiwanger junior was part of the company's management in the 1950s, the focus was also on design studies such as the Gaylord project, the famous Cadillac one-off “Die Valkyrie” from 1955, sports car construction ( Veritas-Nürburgring ) or the later Ponton -Maybach . The business relationship with Veritas GmbH starting in 1950 resulted in around 70 cars with Spohn bodies and the sporty, 100 hp two-liter Veritas-Heinkel engines: These included the Saturn coupé, the Scorpion convertible, the Comet sports car and the Comet S racing car. In a later phase of the Veritas company, around 20 more Veritas Nürburgring sports cars based on Spohn bodies were built at the Nürburgring between autumn 1951 and August 1953 in collaboration with Ernst Loof .
Early 1954, Eiwanger the first in Germany from Leguval manufactured plastic body before who weighed only 98 kilograms and a VW Beetle - chassis has been set. However, there was never any series production. Due to the change in automotive engineering (production of self-supporting bodies ), the company had to switch to other business areas. The workforce decreased rapidly, from 130 in September 1949 to 66 in September 1951 to 55 in August 1956.
In the summer of 1957 the company was closed.
Models
The best-known models from the production of Spohn are the bodies for the legendary Type Maybach "Zeppelin" ( Maybach Zeppelin DS 7 and Maybach Zeppelin DS 8 with twelve-cylinder - V engine ). Vehicles of these types are u. a. in Sinsheim Auto & Technik Museum (DS 7) and in the Zeppelin Museum exhibited in Friedrichshafen (DS 8).
literature
- Gerhard Mirsching: Maybach bodies from Ravensburg. Hermann Spohn and his work. Gessler, Friedrichshafen 2001, ISBN 3-86136-064-0 .
- Peter Faul, Josef Nagel: Maybach Way. In the footsteps of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Eh Karl Maybach (1879-1960). A historical guide. Karl-Maybach-Gymnasium Friedrichshafen, Friedrichshafen 2005, p. 10, p. 24.
- Halwart Schrader: Special automobile bodies. Special versions of German passenger cars 1906–1986. BLV, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-405-13173-1 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mirsching, p. 61
- ↑ See also: Christian Steiger: The crazy Ami from Friedrichshafen | The rediscovery of the forgotten Gaylord Gladiator = Discovered | The Gaylord in a secret hiding place, in: Autobild classic | The magazine for oldtimers and youngtimers , No. 6/2018, pp. 140–149, p. 145, Fig. Valkyrie (Spohn 1954), p. 147f.
- ^ Günther Zink: Oldtimer Catalog XXIV | Europe's largest market leader . Heel Verlag GmbH, Königswinter 2010, pp. 353f. ISBN 978-3-86852-185-6
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Spohn, Hermann |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German body manufacturer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 13, 1876 |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 17, 1923 |