Lightweight construction Maier

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Lightweight construction Maier
legal form
Seat Berlin - Charlottenburg , Germany
management Friedrich Eugen Maier
Branch Automobile manufacturer

“Leichtbau Maier” (1934–1935), model 0501/35, in the Bernkastel-Kues cylinder house
Front view

Leichtbau Maier is a largely unknown German automobile designer from the beginning of the 20th century. The engineer Friedrich Eugen Maier from Berlin designed and built at least one car prototype in the 1930s and put it on the market.

Technical description of a discovered prototype

It was a small car with a 20 hp - DKW -Heckmotor, who later against the engine of a VW Beetle has been replaced. The developer had built in revolutionary details for the time: a height-adjustable driver's seat (patented in May 1938), steering headlights, a height-adjustable chassis, a self-supporting, closed car body (patented in July 1932). Maier registered a total of 12 patents for car development in Germany and others in the USA and Great Britain. The following information can be found on the nameplate: “Lightweight Maier. Car number LM 050 1/35; Engine number 386418; 20 hp; Bore 76; Hub 76; Weight 684 kg; Total weight 1034 kg ".

history

The model, which has now been presented to the press, came to private man Jörg Jansen in 2007 through several collectors and a paint shop in Krefeld . Jansen began to restore the car and came across the corresponding nameplate. As a motor vehicle expert, he was interested in the history and what was behind the name. With the support of the Prototype Museum in Hamburg , the Swiss car enthusiast and historian Hanspeter Bröhl and the Dutchman Herman van Oldeneel, who found out the exact name and place of work of the developer, the first facts were collected. It is now also known that the car made an appearance as a wreck in the 1975 film Tadellöser und Wolff .

From the early 1930s until 1944, Friedrich Eugen Maier ran a workshop at Sömmeringstraße 31/32 (today: Sömmeringstraße 29) in Berlin-Charlottenburg on a site that belonged to the Berlin magistrate . The Bernard & Graefe printing company was located on the premises until 1933 . In the neighborhood, however (Sömmeringstraße 25-28) a car were in this time paint shop , a car, saddlery an auto repair shop, car, plumbing and automotive workshop Sömmeringstraße GmbH A connection with Maiers site selection can not be excluded.

A residential address of Friedrich Maier, an engineer, or Eugen Maier is not entered in the Berlin address books from 1930 to 1935. But from a facsimile printed in the newspaper for the patent for the self-supporting closed car body, it can be concluded that he lived in Berlin-Karlshorst .

Only in 1936 is the entry “Maier, Friedrich, E.”, Leichtbauer, Sömmeringstraße 30, indicated with a telephone connection (T). When searching for streets (Sömmeringstraße), on the other hand, the previous numbers 31 and 32 say “does not exist”. So it seems as if a plot of land has been separated, renumbered, and built and used by Maier. The "lightweight builder" is listed here as E. Maier, probably with his second name Eugen. In that year the car designer was forced to repair vehicles of the German Wehrmacht . In 1937 Maier, Fr., Dipl. Ing. Is registered at Sömmeringstrasse 30, but the company was no longer named. Finally, the address books from 1939 to 1943 were evaluated. They show that Friedrich Eugen Maier, graduate engineer, was constantly present at Sömmeringstrasse 30. The company name "Leichtbau Maier" does not appear again, however. In 1943 Maier bought the property and had it converted into a sports field . Apart from the small car test type, no other vehicles were built here.

literature

Web links

Commons : Leichtbau Maier  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Grateful: The lonely inventor
  2. ↑ Maier patents in the DPA . Possibly. restart in the search window with Friedrich Eugen Maier
  3. ↑ District Office Charlottenburg - Decision on the numbering of the property dated September 21, 1982
  4. ↑ Sömmeringstrasse 31/32 . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1935, part 4, Charlottenburg, p. 1118. "Maier, F., Dipl.-Ing., Lightweight construction".
  5. ↑ Sömmeringstrasse 31/32 . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1930, part 4, p. 1311 (book printing).
  6. ↑ Sömmeringstrasse . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1933, part 4, p. 1162.
  7. ^ Maier, Friedrich E. In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1936, part 1, p. 1663.
  8. ↑ Sömmeringstrasse 30 . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1937, part 4, p. 1144. “Maier, Fr.”.
  9. ↑ Maier . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1939, part 1, p. 1806. Maier . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1940, part 1, p. 1883. Sömmeringstrasse . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1943, part 4, p. 1145.