Karl Heinrich Kässbohrer

Karl Heinrich Kässbohrer (born September 6, 1864 - † December 26, 1922 ) was an entrepreneur and vehicle manufacturer from Ulm . He is the company founder of Kässbohrer Fahrzeugwerke and the father of Karl Kässbohrer and Otto Kässbohrer .

Live and act

Karl Kässbohrer no longer learned the shipbuilding trade - like two of his brothers ( Ulm Ordinari ships for trips down the Danube to Vienna and also to Budapest, Belgrade and into the Black Sea), but was apprenticed to a master wagoner .

After completing it, he moved abroad, to Stuttgart, Munich and Vienna, in order to train himself in the construction of carriages and to learn the technical drawing of wagons. In 1893 he became self-employed and founded a car factory as a wheelwright and wagon master in the middle of Ulm's old town on Lautenberg, which was named Wagenfabrik Kässbohrer in 1907 and, from 1911, the name Erste Ulmer Karosseriefabrik Karl Kässbohrer . At first the company lived mainly from repair work. In 1897 the first complete bridge wagon was delivered. The purchase price was 480 marks. In 1904 the company moved to what was then Ulm's “Neustadt” below the Michelsberg in Hartmannstrasse (until 1928).

In 1907, bus production at Kässbohrer was born, when a vehicle for combined passenger and freight transport was manufactured and a patent was applied for. The prototype was delivered to a restaurant near Ulm in 1910. In 1910 the company delivered a bus for 25 passengers (body on a Swiss Saurer chassis) for traffic from Ulm to Wiblingen. In addition, Kässbohrer manufactures bodies for noble cars, such as B. for Studebaker or for the Lancia Lambda . With the latter vehicle, Kässbohrer gained initial experience with self-supporting bodies. Construction of car bodies also for all common passenger car chassis such as Opel, Ford, NSU etc. The truck became more and more important in the decade. In 1922, Kässbohrer developed the truck trailer, which initially had solid rubber tires. The sudden death of Karl Kässbohrer and the general economic difficulties caused by inflation almost meant the end of the young company. But with exemplary daring, the two sons Karl jun. and Otto Kässbohrer at the age of 22 and 19, respectively, were responsible for the company.

literature

• Frank Raberg : Biographical Lexicon for Ulm and Neu-Ulm 1802-2009 . Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft im Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2010, ISBN 978-3-7995-8040-3 , p. 189 .