Magirus-Deutz

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Magirus-Deutz

logo
legal form Subsidiary of Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz AG
founding 1949
resolution 1983
Reason for dissolution Incorporation into Iveco AG
Seat Ulm
Branch Commercial vehicle manufacturer

Two Magirus-Deutz trucks in action

Magirus-Deutz was a manufacturer of trucks , buses , fire protection technology , fire engines , military vehicles and aerial work platforms , which belonged to Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz AG (KHD) and whose origins lie in the Ulm fire fighting equipment factory Magirus . The trademark of Magirus-Deutz shows the stylized silhouette of the Ulm Minster in combination with an M for Magirus. Air- cooled diesel engines from KHD were typical of the brand. After great market successes in the 1950s and 1960s, Magirus-Deutz fell into a crisis in the 1970s that led to the manufacturer being incorporated into the Iveco group. This discontinued the Magirus-Deutz brand in the 1980s. For a time Magirus-Deutz was the second largest German commercial vehicle manufacturer , gained great importance in the field of all-wheel drive construction vehicles and was the market leader for fire fighting vehicles in Germany and Europe. Today, Magirus-Deutz vehicles - especially the characteristic round and corner hoods from the 1950s to 1960s - are popular collector's items .

chronology

The merger of Magirus and Humboldt-Deutz

In 1936 the engine manufacturer Humboldt-Deutz from Cologne took over the vehicle and fire fighting equipment factory CD Magirus AG in Ulm. The two companies complemented each other well: Magirus had been producing fire extinguishers since 1864, trucks since 1916, and buses since 1919, but it needed diesel engines for its commercial vehicles, which were traditionally equipped with gasoline engines, which were urgently required by customers at the time. Humboldt-Deutz manufactured such engines , but did not manufacture complete commercial vehicles itself. The merger made it possible to build complete trucks, buses and fire engines. The two Magirus plants at the headquarters in Ulm and the Magirus branch in Berlin founded in 1913 became part of the Humboldt-Deutz Group.

The time of the Second World War and the creation of the Magirus-Deutz brand

Turntable ladder of the fire police (painted in fir green ) from 1941

As a result of the merger, Magirus' independent engine development in Ulm was discontinued. As early as 1934 (shortly after Adolf Hitler came to power ) to 1937, the Ulm Magirus-Werke built a light three-axle truck for military purposes, the so-called M 206. In 1938, Humboldt-Deutz concluded an organ contract with the Klöckner-Werke , whereby Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz AG (KHD) was created. Until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and partly in the first years of the war up to 1942, the company continued to manufacture the Magirus types that were already on the market, but from 1937 almost all of them received new engines from Deutz. In addition, from 1937 to 1940, the Ulm works together with MAN , Büssing-NAG and Henschel produced the so-called light standard truck for the Wehrmacht ; it was a cross-company newly developed and all-terrain three-axle vehicle. In the same period, under license from Henschel, the all-terrain type G 33 was created, which differed from the Henschel original only in terms of the Deutz engine. On the basis of the Schell Plan , standardized truck types with a payload of 3 tons for the Wehrmacht were added to the production program in 1939, initially with the model designations S 330 (with rear-wheel drive ) and A 330 (with all-wheel drive ). In 1940 the name Magirus, which had been used as a brand name on the vehicles, temporarily disappeared; the vehicles from Ulm were instead sold under the name Klöckner-Deutz. Up until this point in time, the Magirus logo introduced in 1925 - the stylized silhouette of the Ulm Minster in combination with an M for Magirus - was still attached to the front of the vehicle , and from 1940 a circular logo with the word Klöckner-Deutz. Also from 1940, the vehicles produced in Ulm were optionally delivered with wood gas generators from Deutz in order to counter the shortage of motor gasoline during the war . The Schell 3-ton trucks were given the new designations S 3000 and A 3000 in 1941; as a bus there was the O 3000 on the same technical basis. The heavier types GS 145 (with rear-axle drive, renamed S 4500 in the same year) and GA 145 (with all-wheel drive, renamed A 4500 in the same year) were also introduced in 1941 4.5 tons of payload added.

Fire engine with the round Klöckner-Deutz logo

From 1941, production was distributed to many different locations around Ulm (e.g. in empty spinning mills) in order to make them less susceptible to the increasing Allied air raids. Similar measures were taken at that time in all branches of the war. In 1942, the technicians developed a half-track vehicle for the Wehrmacht on the basis of the S 3000 , in which a track drive was used instead of the rear axle . The “ Maultier ” was also manufactured by the Ford works in Cologne and the Opel works in Brandenburg on their own truck chassis. Conversely, in 1943, the Magirus works under license from Steyr-Daimler-Puch put the crawler tractor east into production. The Raupenschlepper Ost was the first vehicle to be equipped with the then newly developed air-cooled Deutz diesel engine from 1944 . In 1943, regular truck and bus production came to a standstill due to the war; instead, only half and full track vehicles were built until the end of the war. During the Second World War, were in Ulm on your instructions Armaments Ministry also cartridges , weapons containers and components for aircraft and submarines manufactured. Foreign and forced laborers (" Eastern workers ") were only used to a very limited extent in the Ulm commercial vehicle works - in contrast to the engine factories of the Cologne parent company KHD, where the workforce consisted at times of around 25% foreign and forced laborers.

At the end of the war in 1945, 60% of the factory buildings in Ulm were destroyed. An impending dismantling of the remaining systems and machines that had been collected from the outsourcing operations could be averted through clever negotiations between the management and the Allies. In May 1945, the reconstruction of the plant and the resumption of work, which initially consisted of repairing commercial vehicles damaged by the war and equipping vehicles of the Allied occupation forces with new bodies. The first post-war production of new vehicles was started at the turn of the year 1945/46 with the remaining parts of the models from the war period and remnants after a corresponding approval by the Allies. In particular, the East caterpillar tractor was slightly modified and offered as the RS 1500 forest tractor as long as truck, bus and fire engine production had not started up again as a result of the war damage and the initially slow supply of material and parts to production. Initially, simple truck and bus bodies on chassis from American manufacturers such as GMC , Dodge and Chevrolet were manufactured for the Allied occupation forces , which were no longer needed by the occupation forces after the end of the war. Furthermore, the wartime type O 3000 with a 70 hp diesel engine, which was technically based on the truck type S 3000, was manufactured again from 1946. From 1947 to 1954 came Deutz - tractors for the parent company KHD from the Ulmer works as a kind of replacement for the not yet sufficient truck and bus production. Post-war commercial vehicles were given back the old Magirus logo quite early on, which had been abolished in 1940 in favor of the circular Klöckner-Deutz logo. In 1949 the KHD management decided to use the name Magirus, which had been abolished in 1940 but was still very well known and well-established with customers, but with the addition of “Deutz”. The brand name of the vehicles produced by KHD in the Magirus plant in Ulm was henceforth "Magirus-Deutz".

The air-cooled diesel engine

Air-cooled engine of a round hood type S 6500

In 1944, the engineers at KHD designed series-ready diesel engines with air cooling , which were only used in the East crawler tractor during the war. The first commercial vehicles after the Second World War were still equipped with conventional water-cooled diesel engines, but from 1948 these were increasingly replaced by the new air-cooled machines. The new air-cooled diesel engines became a kind of trademark of KHD and subsequently of Magirus-Deutz, because no other West German manufacturer produced such engines (for the data of the air-cooled KHD engines, see the list of Deutz engines ). Instead of a water cooler, there was a large fan wheel in front of the motor, which on the one hand provided cooling for the motor and on the other hand created a characteristic noise pattern. Back then, air cooling had clear advantages over water cooling: so that the cooling water did not freeze on cold winter nights, it often had to be drained from water-cooled engines when there was a risk of frost and then refilled before the vehicles were started up. The first antifreeze were also relatively aggressive, which was detrimental to the durability of the water-cooled engines. Air-cooled engines were also more durable than water-cooled ones because they had fewer components at risk of failure (one of the most common reasons for engine damage in water-cooled engines was, for example, a defective cylinder head gasket between the coolant circuit and the combustion chamber). When it was cold, air-cooled motors reached their optimal operating temperature faster than water-cooled ones, and air-cooled motors were a few kilograms lighter than water-cooled ones because there was no need for the water circuit. Even when driving slowly, e.g. B. when collecting garbage , or on rough terrain such as on construction sites as well as when stationary - i.e. in situations with no airflow - sufficient cooling of the motor was ensured by the fan blower. Thus Magirus-Deutz with its air-cooled engines had a clear competitive advantage over the water-cooled competing products, especially when exporting to hot countries, because where there is no cooling water, none can boil. However, the Magirus-Deutz vehicles equipped with air-cooled engines were louder than comparable vehicles with water cooling. Trucks with air-cooled engines were later also manufactured by the Robur works in the GDR. Tatra still produces trucks with air-cooled engines.

Start of reconstruction and the economic miracle

2nd generation corner hood

In 1948, the first really new vehicle after the war was presented in Ulm: Modifying the war designs and using the new air-cooled diesel engine, the new type S 3000 appeared on the market, which in 1949 was improved to a payload of 3.5 tons and consequently as the S 3500 was designated. The first post-war series of trucks developed from this model, known today as the 1st generation corner hoods . In 1950 the O 3000 omnibus was fundamentally revised and developed into the O 3500 . With the O 3500, Magirus-Deutz covered the medium size class of buses. In 1951 the range was expanded upwards: the type O 6500 appeared on the market. In contrast to all previous Magirus-Deutz buses, it was for the first time a front control arm with a rear engine and (also new) a semi-self-supporting construction of the chassis and body. In 1951 Magirus-Deutz presented completely redesigned trucks, for which the name Rundhauber has become common. The construction of the spherical "snout" stood out clearly from the truck models of the competition and was only possible because there was no large box-shaped water cooler in front of the engine block. In off-road use, the round hoods suffered intolerable twisting. Therefore, the vehicles with all-wheel drive received a different design with a square bonnet, which differed significantly from the elegant appearance of the round hood. These 2nd generation corner hoods were an angular, massive construction with free-standing, angular fenders . In 1953, Magirus-Deutz transferred the construction principle of the O 6500 (semi-self-supporting construction, front control, rear engine) to the middle class and presented the O 3500 H as the successor to the O 3500 round-hood bus .

D front handlebars

Since most Magirus-Deutz vehicles had planetary gears in the rear axles , the idea of ​​naming the vehicles after planets came up until 1955. As a result, the trucks and buses from Ulm were called, for example, Saturn, Pluto and Mercur. In 1955, long before the German competition, Magirus-Deutz presented a front-wheel drive prototype with a tilting driver's cab at the Frankfurt IAA . Despite the better accessibility of the engine for maintenance and repair work, this encountered great skepticism among the public compared to the permanently installed cabin that was customary up to that time and did not go into series production. It was decided to instead bring forward control vehicles with a rounded but permanently installed cab onto the market. These models were available from 1957.

With the takeover of the Vereinigte Westdeutsche Waggonfabriken (Westwaggon) in Cologne and Mainz between 1953 and 1959, KHD tried to enter the market for tram cars . As part of this, Magirus-Deutz bus production was gradually relocated from Ulm to the Westwaggon factory in Mainz-Mombach between 1955 and 1960 , which had previously made numerous bodies on Magirus-Deutz bus chassis. The first complete bus built in Mainz was an O 3500 H. In 1957 the O 6500 was replaced on the domestic market: the newly designed Saturn II forward control engine came onto the market.

From 1962 the round hoods of the non-all-wheel drive hooded trucks were gradually replaced by the "corner hood", which (apart from a special series for the German Federal Post Office , which was continued until 1971 ) led to the end of round hood production by 1967. The cabs of the round and corner hoods had always been identical. In 1963, the range of cabs was further expanded by offering newly designed cubic cabs made of pressed steel, in keeping with the style of the time, which were designed by the well-known industrial designer Louis Lucien Lepoix . From 1964, a new way of naming the models was introduced, which represented engine power in HP , permissible total weight in tons, cab design, drive type and body type using a combination of numbers and letters (e.g .: 232 D 15 FAK = 232 HP, 15 tons, Forward control, four-wheel drive , tipper). The new designation was introduced for all models in the Magirus-Deutz product range. The D stood for the built-in Deutz engines. Since the new designation was introduced almost at the same time as the new generation of cubic cabs, the name D cabs has become commonplace for them.

Consolidation and further development

3rd generation corner hood

The most difficult time for the German commercial vehicle industry after the Second World War came from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s: the reconstruction of Germany, which had been destroyed by the Second World War, and the economic miracle came to an end, and the first economic dips lowered the demand for commercial vehicles, which led to overcapacity led the market. At the same time, the Daimler-Benz group offered its Mercedes-Benz trucks at low prices in order to undercut and ultimately displace its competitors in the German commercial vehicle market. This was possible because Daimler-Benz made good money with its passenger car division and was thus able to cross-subsidize the truck division . In this situation, numerous competitors from Magirus-Deutz such as B. Krupp , Faun , Hanomag-Henschel and Büssing gave up their commercial vehicle production or lost their economic independence (see also the history of the West German commercial vehicle industry from 1945 to 1990 ) . However, the Magirus-Deutz brand was initially strong enough to survive this crisis and benefited primarily from its good market position in all-wheel drive vehicles for the construction industry, but also from the disappearance of domestic competitors. In the mid-1960s, there was a major innovation on the engine side in the form of the switch from the swirl chamber process, which had been common up until then, to direct injection , which led to higher performance and better acceleration behavior. In 1967 Magirus-Deutz expanded its commercial vehicle program downwards by adding the construction of a light front-wheel drive truck from the Eicher company , which actually produced agricultural machinery , to its own delivery program. Eicher wanted to try his hand at building trucks and therefore manufactured the TransExpress truck model from 1962. However, Eicher was unable to sell the vehicle through its own agricultural machinery sales network. Therefore, the design was handed over to Magirus-Deutz in 1967 (after some visual and technical changes, especially in the area of ​​the front of the driver's cab and in the area of ​​the chassis), where the Eicher types were sold under the name Magirus-Deutz via the existing truck sales network were. The engines came from KHD.

Standard
bus as a train bus

Also from 1968 onwards Magirus-Deutz manufactured standard line buses according to the requirements of the Association of Public Transport Companies (VÖV) , as offered by other bus manufacturers in a similar design. In 1971, the aging construction of the medium to heavy hooded vehicles was renewed. And although most of the other truck manufacturers in Europe had long since switched to short-hooded and front- wheeled trucks , Magirus-Deutz stuck to the long-hooded concept in the form of the 3rd generation corner hood . From 1972 Magirus-Deutz offered the R 80 bus model especially for small travel groups , from which the R 81 was later developed. At the beginning of the 1970s, the first turbo engines in Magirus-Deutz vehicles brought more power and more spontaneous power delivery. Because the Eicher types were weakening in sales before the end of their production in 1976, Magirus-Deutz lacked competitive light to medium-weight trucks. That is why Magirus-Deutz worked together with DAF , Saviem and Volvo in the four-man club from 1971 to jointly develop a new design with a front-link cab. In 1975 the four-man club vehicles from Magirus-Deutz came onto the market after the trucks jointly developed by the four partners had been presented to the public at the Brussels Motor Show.

Crisis and integration in Iveco

From Magirus-Deutz's point of view, the situation had deteriorated by the mid-1970s: high investments in the development of the four-man club vehicles and the third generation corner hoods as well as in the construction of a new plant in Ulm between 1971 and 1973 (plant Donautal, at that time the most modern truck factory in Europe) had financially weakened the parent company KHD. Further investments in research and development would have been necessary, since the design of the D-type cabriolet was getting on in years and was becoming less and less competitive, especially for long-distance transport - Magirus-Deutz's market share for heavy road vehicles was below 10% in the early 1970s decreased. The corner hoods of the 3rd generation, on the other hand, were a relatively new, but not a modern design, because the trend in the commercial vehicle sector was clearly towards the front-wheel drive. Furthermore, it became apparent that the air-cooled diesel engine was no longer up-to-date, as the competition had largely eliminated the disadvantages of water cooling through technical improvements over time, so that the advantages of the water-cooled engine for customers now generally outweighed those of the air-cooled engine . The main drawback of the air-cooled engines was their noise level, which, due to appropriate further developments, had become lower than in the 1950s, but was still higher than that of a water-cooled engine. In addition, the exhaust gas values ​​of air-cooled engines were worse than those of water-cooled designs, which was a disadvantage given the environmental movement that was growing in importance in the 1970s . In the course of the beginning of European integration the international competitive pressure on Magirus-Deutz also increased noticeably; Manufacturers such as DAF , FIAT , Scania and Volvo , previously barely represented on the German market , increasingly pushed into the gaps created by the disappearance of German manufacturers. In its main business area of ​​all-wheel drive construction vehicles, Magirus-Deutz was increasingly challenged by the new Mercedes-Benz NG from 1973 . With the 1971 takeover of the manufacturer Hanomag-Henschel , which was rather small in terms of numbers in the heavy truck sector, but strong in all-wheel drive technology, Daimler-Benz was able to launch large quantities of competitive all-wheel construction vehicles on the market by modified Henschel technology was incorporated into its own large-scale production. After all, the first oil crisis from 1973 onwards brought about a clear and permanent economic downturn in Germany and a corresponding drop in demand for commercial vehicles, which also affected Magirus-Deutz. In addition, the Magirus-Deutz omnibus division had been making losses since the late 1960s. Until 1973, bus sales continued to decline despite numerous countermeasures. In the case of coaches, this was not least due to the fact that the heyday of bus travel in Germany was coming to an end: Due to the mass prosperity that had now been achieved and the associated mass motorization, people were increasingly taking their own cars on vacation or using the plane . In the case of city and public service buses - a traditional domain of the air-cooled brand - the German standard public service bus built since 1967 set off a price war that was disadvantageous for Magirus-Deutz: Da Büssing , Magirus-Deutz, MAN and Daimler-Benz by producing standardized types offered largely identical vehicles, competition was increasingly based on price. This in turn benefited primarily Daimler-Benz and MAN, while the sales figures for Magirus-Deutz and Büssing dwindled.

The parent company KHD was able to get a "respite" in 1974 with an order for the delivery of around 9,500 Magirus-Deutz hooded trucks to the Soviet Union , which were used in Siberia for the development of oil fields and the construction of the Baikal-Amur highway (the Delta project ). The air-cooled diesel engines from KHD still had a decisive competitive advantage here: where there is no cooling water, none can freeze. Due to the problems described, KHD was nevertheless looking for a partner for the commercial vehicle business. After failed negotiations with Daimler-Benz KHD created its commercial vehicle division as of January 1 of 1975 into a new company with the name Magirus-Deutz AG, and brought this same in November year by FIAT newly established mid-1974 company Iveco (Industrial Vehicles Corporation). Iveco was a merger of several European commercial vehicle manufacturers, in which KHD had a 20% stake from 1975. The remaining shares were owned by FIAT.

Light truck of the X series from the Iveco Group as Magirus-Deutz; Pickup truck
Heavy truck of the T series from the Iveco group as Magirus-Deutz; Construction site dump truck
3rd generation corner hood as a French Iveco UNIC

Vehicles from other Iveco Group plants were also sold under the name Magirus-Deutz. This concerned, for example, a light truck of the X series , which was introduced in 1976 and was located below the four-club vehicles , which was a development by the Italian manufacturer OM , which was also merged into Iveco . These vehicles replaced the light Eicher types, had an air-cooled four-cylinder engine as Magirus-Deutz and otherwise did not differ from their "group colleagues" sold with water-cooled engines as FIAT, OM or UNIC. 1977 followed as the successor to the D-front control heavy trucks of the T and P series, which were a further development of FIAT models. Conversely, the vehicles from Ulm were sometimes offered abroad under other brand names than Magirus-Deutz, for example the third generation corner hoods in Italy under the name FIAT and in France under the name UNIC . After Iveco had also taken over the truck production of the British Ford works in 1985 and 1986 , the Ulmer Eckhauber was even available in Great Britain with Ford plum as Iveco-Ford. As a result of the integration into the Iveco network, the model nomenclature changed for individual series from Magirus-Deutz: The D in the middle gave way to an M for Magirus on certain models, e.g. B. on the models 90 M 7 FL and 256 M 26 AK.

Meanwhile, KHD concentrated again on the construction of engines. So one sensed big business in the USA and tried to sell air-cooled diesel engines to the American military. In order to obtain financial means for this feat of strength, KHD sold the remaining Iveco shares to FIAT in 1980. Iveco and thus Magirus-Deutz AG, which had slipped under the Iveco umbrella, were 100% in the hands of the FIAT Group from this point in time. In the case of the vehicles, which until then had been provided with the usual Magirus-Deutz lettering and the Magirus logo, next to which a modest Iveco logo was attached, the name "Deutz" as well as the Magirus logo and the Iveco logo were initially omitted. Lettering got bigger. In 1982 bus production was discontinued and the plant in Mainz, where Magirus-Deutz buses were produced, was closed due to chronic unprofitability. From 1983, after Magirus-Deutz AG, which was incorporated into Iveco, was renamed “Iveco Magirus AG”, the name Iveco moved to the center of the front of the vehicle and only a small Magirus label next to it reminded the manufacturer from Ulm for a while. Eventually this also disappeared. The formerly illustrious name Magirus-Deutz disappeared from the market for new vehicles once and for all. Trucks and fire engines are still developed and produced in the Ulm plant today; however, it is only one of the many factories of the Iveco group.

The last trucks, which initially came onto the market under the name Magirus-Deutz, were medium to heavy vehicles from the M , P and T series , each of which was based on a Fiat -Development of declining Iveco standard cabs. The air-cooled engines typical of Magirus-Deutz were gradually supplemented by water-cooled engine types as part of the transformation process from Magirus-Deutz to Iveco in the 1970s and 1980s and later completely replaced in the 1990s. The design of the planetary gears on the rear axles, which is typical for Magirus-Deutz, also gave way to single-stepped rear axles that Iveco had developed together with Rockwell in normal road and long-distance vehicles at the beginning of the 1980s . This was related to the endeavor to save fuel after the second oil crisis in 1979: if trucks were previously designed so that their technically possible maximum speed was close to the legally permissible maximum speed of 80 km / h, an attempt was now made to achieve the maximum permissible speed to drive with the most economical engine speed, which is usually in the middle speed range of the engine. The technically possible maximum speed has been increased accordingly to around 130 km / h in order to be able to drive in the most economical speed range at the maximum permissible 80 km / h . A positive side effect of this development was that the trucks built in this way also reached their top speed faster than before, which accelerated the general flow of traffic. However, this also required the redesign of the rear axles (and thus also the drive train), because the planetary axles that had been used almost exclusively by Magirus-Deutz until then were no longer suitable. For heavy construction and all-wheel drive vehicles, however, these are still state of the art today.

The transition from Magirus-Deutz to Iveco in pictures
LF 16 Magirus-Deutz, year of construction 1981 01.jpg
Magirus-deutz truck 6 sst.jpg
Iveco 90-16 turbo THW.jpg
IVECO-160-23-Kipper.jpg
To the right of the usual Magirus logo and the usual “MAGIRUS DEUTZ” lettering on the front of the vehicle, the Iveco logo (capital i, embedded IVECO) was added. Large MAGIRUS lettering on the front of the vehicle, including smaller IVECO lettering; Elimination of the Magirus logo and the name DEUTZ Large IVECO lettering on the front of the vehicle, including smaller MAGIRUS lettering Only IVECO lettering on the front of the vehicle; Elimination of the name MAGIRUS

truck

1st generation corner hood

The first generation corner hoods were among the most popular models from Ulm after the war . These were the types S 3000, A 3000, S. 3500 and A 3500, which were modifications of the types S 3000 and A 3000 from the time of the Second World War. A stood for the all-wheel drive version, S for the road version. The vehicles had between 70 and 80 hp and payloads of 3.15 to 3.5 tons. The cab still had a wooden frame (as was common at the time) that was planked with sheet metal, the headlights were free. As a modern innovation at the time, the vehicles (and, incidentally, also in contrast to their successor models) already had a continuous windscreen that was not divided by a central bar. All types were two-axle; Versions were available as a chassis for a wide range of bodies, tippers , tractor units and fire engines . The 1st generation corner hoods were manufactured between 1946 and 1954 and equipped with the new air-cooled engines from 1948. In the case of the air-cooled variants, the originally still installed filler neck for the cooling water at the top of the radiator grille was omitted. Large contingents were sent to the Netherlands for the civil defense forces there and as reparations to the British Royal Air Force .

The planets"

Round hood

Interior view of a round hood

In 1951 Magirus-Deutz presented completely redesigned trucks, for which the name Rundhauber has become common. The construction of the spherical "snout" stood out clearly from the truck models of the competition and was only possible because there was no large box-shaped water cooler in front of the engine block. The model names were initially S 3500, S 3500/56, S 4500, S 4500/6, S 4500/112, S 5500, S 6500 and S 7500. The round hoods were sold under these names from 1952. Since most of the Magirus-Deutz trucks had planetary gears in the rear axles , the idea of ​​naming the vehicles after planets came up until 1955. The round hoods initially retained their type designation, but planet names were added: S 4500 Mercur, S 4500/6 Mercury, S 4500/112 Mercur, S 5500 Saturn and S 7500 Jupiter. From 1958 the names were changed again to Sirius (Sirius, Sirius K, Sirius 90 L), Mercur (Mercur L, Mercur K, Mercur 112 L, Mercur 112 K, Mercur 120 L, Mercur 120 S, Mercur 120 K, Mercur 126 L, Mercur 126 K) and Saturn (Saturn L, Saturn S, Saturn K, Saturn 145 L, Saturn 145 S, Saturn 145 K, Saturn 150 K), whereby it must be mentioned that Sirius is not a planet, but the brightest star of the Heaven is. The combination of digits indicated the power of a truck in hp ; For models without a combination of digits in the type designation, it was the respective basic version with the smallest motor. An L stood for a normal truck chassis that was suitable for a variety of bodies . A K denoted tippers and an S semitrailer tractors . The round hooded driver's cab from Magirus-Deutz was the first from a German manufacturer to have significant noise protection measures in the interior. Perforated and foam sheets were also used on the roof lining, on the bulkhead between the engine compartment and driver's cab, and in the doors.

Starting in 1964, a new way of naming the models was introduced, using a combination of numbers and letters to reproduce engine power, engine type, permissible total weight in tons, drive type and body type. The new designation was introduced for all models in the Magirus-Deutz product range, including the round hoods. So it was z. For example, the 90 D 7 L model is a Magirus-Deutz with 90 HP and 7 tons of gross vehicle weight. The D stood for the built-in Deutz engines. As before, the L denoted normal (hood) trucks without all-wheel drive. The production of the round hoods ended in 1967. At the special request of the German Federal Post Office , the 110 D 7 L model (a parcel post van) was built in a total of around 1000 units until 1971. The round hoods were widespread in post-war Germany, especially in fire fighting vehicles, in medium-duty distribution transport, on construction sites and, before the round front control vehicles came onto the market in 1957 , also in heavy long-distance transport. Their payloads were between 3.5 and 9 tons and air-cooled diesel engines with four, six and eight cylinders between 85 HP and 170 HP (in the S 7500) were used for the drive.

2nd generation corner hood

Radiator grille of a corner hood of the 2nd generation
Crane truck as a Matchbox model

In off-road use, the twisting of the round hoods was too strong. Therefore, the vehicles with all-wheel drive received a different design with a square bonnet, which differed significantly from the elegant appearance of the round hood. It was an angular, massive construction with free-standing, angular fenders . The design with its free-standing headlights and the split windshield already looked a bit outdated at the time, but it still radiated bulky, power and stability. Production of the corner hoods began in 1953. The vehicles were initially given the model designations A 4500, A 4500/112, A 6500 and A 7500. From 1955, like the round hoods, the planetary accessories were added: A 4500 Mercur, A 4500/6 Mercur, A 7500 Jupiter and A 12000 Uranus. From 1958 onwards, analogous to the round hoods, the name Mercur (Mercur AK, Mercur 112 AK, Mercur 120 AK, Mercur 126 AK), Saturn (Saturn AK, Saturn 120 HDL, Saturn 145 HDK, Saturn 145 HDAK, Saturn 145 AK, Saturn 145 AK 6x6, Saturn 150 AK, Saturn 150 L 6x4, Saturn 150 AK 6x6), Jupiter (Jupiter 150 K, Jupiter 170 HDK, Jupiter 170 HDAK, Jupiter 170 6x6, Jupiter 195 K, Jupiter 195 AK, Jupiter 200 K, Jupiter 6x6 Z), Uranus (Uranus 170 A) and Pluto (Pluto 200 S, Pluto 200 K, Pluto 200 AK); Pluto was still one of the planets back then. Here, too, the combination of digits stood for the engine power in HP, A stood for all-wheel drive, and AK for all-wheel-drive tipper. At the end of the production period, the new number and letter code for the model designation also established itself in the corner hoods from 1964. The model 230 D 26 AK was z. B. a four-wheel tipper with a gross vehicle weight of 26 tons, Deutz engine and 230 hp. The regular production of the corner hoods of the 2nd generation ended in 1971. However, some vehicles “on stockpile” were still delivered until the mid-1970s, e.g. B. as chassis for fire brigade turntable ladders ; the basic chassis for the KW 20 recovery crane car remained in the production program in small series until 1975. The smallest engines had 85 hp. The largest available machine was an air-cooled V12 with an output of 184 kW (250 PS) and a displacement of almost 16 liters in the A 12000 Uranus model - at that time the most powerful truck produced in Germany. The A 12000 Uranus or its successor, the 250 D 25 however, were only built for special customers such as the military and fire brigade and for export . In Germany their total weight of up to 25 tons was not permitted in civil road traffic. For export military vehicles, there was also a model with 270 hp from an air-cooled V10 engine in the early 1970s. The smallest corner hoods had a payload of only 4.1 tons.

Until 1958 the corner hoods with four-cylinder engines were also available with a narrower version of the hood. This was possible because the small four-cylinder engines did not need as much space as the larger six- to twelve-cylinder engines. There were two- and three-axle vehicles. From 1962, the round hoods of the non-all-wheel drive hood models were gradually replaced by the corner hood, which (apart from the vehicles built for the post office until 1971) led to the round hood production being discontinued by 1967. The cabs of the round and corner hoods had always been identical. The corner hoods were particularly widespread among fire brigades and in the construction industry, where they were characterized by their robustness. Many of the corner hoods are used today by private individuals and associations as mobile homes or expedition vehicles (see picture ). In some cases they have lasted for decades at fire brigades (mostly of the Mercur, Saturn, 125 D 10 and 150 D 10 types), THW (mostly of the Mercur or 120 D 9 types) and the Bundeswehr (mostly of the Jupiter or 178 D 15 types ) , see Magirus-Deutz Jupiter 6x6 ), but are now rare even there.

In Yugoslavia , the corner hoods, such as the type A 4500, were produced under license by the TAM company , which derived its own types from 1962.

Round front handlebars

Magirus-Deutz front control vehicle with special body as a sales car from Switzerland
Magirus-Deutz front control vehicle of the Pluto type as a Brekina model

1955, well before the German competition presented Magirus-Deutz at the Frankfurt IAA a forward-control - prototype with tilting cab before. However, this met with great skepticism from the audience and did not go into series. The main concern was that in the event of an accident, the cab could come loose from its anchoring and hit forward. So it was decided to bring forward control arms with a fixed cab onto the market instead. These models were available from 1957 and were referred to with the usual planet names. The front control arms were revised as early as 1959 and were given a. a smaller grille. Until the new designation of numbers and letters was used from 1964, the models were called Mercur (Mercur FL, Mercur 112 FL, Mercur 112 FS, Mercur 120 FL, Mercur 120 FS, Mercur 126 FL, Mercur 126 FS), Saturn (Saturn 145 FL, Saturn 145 FS, Saturn 150 FL, Saturn 150 FS, Saturn 195 FS 6x4, Saturn 200 FL 6x4, Saturn 200 FS 6x4), Jupiter (Jupiter 195 FL, Jupiter 200 FL, Jupiter 200 FS) and Pluto (Pluto 200 FL , Pluto 200 FS, Pluto 200 FK, Pluto TE). The F in the type designation stood for forward control - the Saturn 150 FS was z. B. a forward control tractor with 150 hp. Even after the introduction of the new number and letter code, the front control vehicles were identified by an F in the type designation (e.g. 200 D 19 FL). Variants were available with a short and long overhang in front of the front axle as well as with local and long-distance cabs (the latter with berths behind the seats). In 1963, the round cab of individual types for long-distance transport was replaced by a newly developed, cubic forward control cab made of pressed steel ; Most of the forward control models, however, rolled off the production line with the old cab until 1965 and were only then converted to the new "hut". The various models were available with engine outputs between 85 and 200 hp and with payloads between 4.85 and 11.45 tons. There were two- and three-axle vehicles. The forward control vehicles were mainly used for medium to heavy distribution transport (e.g. because they were more manoeuvrable than the comparable hood models in narrow city centers) and for medium to heavy long-distance transport (where they were more suitable for a total truck length limited by law the load offered usable length than the comparable hood models).

New front handlebars

D front handlebars

Prototype of an agrobile from Rhein-Bayern with a Magirus-Deutz D-cabin

In 1963, the range of forward control vehicles was further expanded by offering newly designed, cubic forward control cabs made of pressed steel, in keeping with the style of the time. Louis Lucien Lepoix from France was responsible for the design - the same designer who had designed cubic cab control cabs for Henschel in 1961 and who later also created a similar style at Büssing . At the beginning of the production time it was still a question of fixed cabs, the tiltability was only "submitted" in 1967. The vehicles had the well-known planet names until 1964 (Saturn TE 6x4 FL, Saturn TE 6x4 FS), but the new designation with numbers and letters was quickly adopted (e.g. 180 D 13 FS = front-wheel tractor with 13 Tonnes gross vehicle weight, Deutz engine and 180 hp). Since the new nomenclature with D in the middle of the model designation was introduced almost at the same time as the new front control vehicles, the designation D front control was established for this series. In addition to tractor units , there were also normal truck chassis for all kinds of bodies , tippers , all-wheel drive chassis for tippers and other bodies, and chassis for special and municipal bodies (such as concrete mixers , sweepers and garbage trucks ). A large cab with an extended cab and raised roof was offered for long-distance transport (the so-called TE cab, TE for TransEurope), and squadron and group cabins with up to 10 seats for fire departments. Production of these trucks continued without any significant design changes until 1970, when a minor facelift followed : the interior and dashboard were redesigned and a third windshield wiper was installed. A major revision came in 1973, recognizable by the new, coarser ribbed and only one-piece radiator grille, the brand name moved from the front wall under the windshield to the radiator grille (also with the branding), protruding round indicators and a slightly different instrument panel. Before the revision, the radiator grille was usually white or in the body color, then usually black or in the body color.

From 1977, the pressed steel front control vehicles were gradually replaced by medium and heavy vehicles of the M , P and T series , which - since Magirus-Deutz now belonged to the Iveco group - initially under the brand name Magirus-Deutz Market came, but already had an Iveco standard cab. First, the vehicles with the short local transport cab were converted to the new models, the TE cab for long-distance transport was built until 1983. For special customers such as fire brigades, other emergency services and municipalities , the old cabin remained on offer until 1987. The smallest engine of the pressed steel front control arms had 90 HP; the top engine with 340 hp was again a naturally aspirated V12 type F12L413 and again the most powerful truck made in Germany at the time. The V10 engine "BF10L413F" with turbo charger and 360 hp was available for export. Payloads from 3.55 to 26 tons were offered; after the introduction of the light Eicher types , however, there were only medium to heavy models with the cubic D-cab. The models with a gross vehicle weight of up to 19 tons were 2-axles, those above 3-axles. For foreign markets (especially Great Britain and Switzerland ) there were also four-axle vehicles with a total weight of up to 30 tons (which were not yet permitted in Germany at the time). It was a development of the Magirus-Deutz branch opened in 1967 in Winsford , UK , where the first four-axle model 232D30 was built. Later the Ulm plant took over the design in its own production.

Eicher types

In 1967 Magirus-Deutz expanded its commercial vehicle program downwards by adding the construction of a light front-wheel drive truck from the Eicher company , which actually produced agricultural machinery , to its own delivery program. Eicher wanted to try his hand at building trucks and therefore manufactured the TransExpress truck model from 1962. However, Eicher was unable to sell the vehicle through its own agricultural machinery sales network. Therefore, the design was handed over to Magirus-Deutz in 1967 (after some visual and technical changes, especially in the area of ​​the front of the cab and in the area of ​​the chassis), where the trucks were sold under the name Magirus-Deutz via the existing truck sales network. Until 1972, the so-called Eicher types were manufactured by Eicher for Magirus-Deutz, the engines came from KHD. From 1972 Magirus-Deutz produced the Eicher types itself in Ulm. In 1973 there was a slight facelift, in which the brand name and the trademark were put on the grill. In 1976 the model built for the light to medium weight class was phased out. At the end of the day, customers only asked for small quantities, as the model was now technically and visually outdated. The Eicher types were available as a normal truck chassis, tipper, tractor unit and special vehicle with a low frame for transporting drinks. The latter was ordered in large numbers from the German Coca-Cola branch and was accordingly widespread in road traffic. While most of the engines only had 4 cylinders, the more powerful models were also available with 6-cylinder engines. The performance ranged between 70 and 120 hp, the payloads ranged from 3.05 to 5.87 tons. All models were two-axle road vehicles. The medium-weight models of the Eicher types were replaced in 1975 by the Vierer Club vehicles , the light ones in 1976 by the X-series models from OM, which were available for Magirus-Deutz as part of the connection to Iveco .

The last in-house developments

3rd generation corner hood

Driver's seat of a 3rd generation corner hood
View into the engine compartment of a 3rd generation corner hood

From 1970, the aging construction of the medium to heavy hooded vehicles was renewed. And although most of the other truck manufacturers in Europe had long since switched to short-hooded and front-wheeled vehicles, Magirus-Deutz stuck to the long -hooded concept . The new corner hoods of the 3rd generation, which, like their predecessors, were primarily used as construction and military vehicles and as a basic chassis for self-propelled machines , but in contrast to these, hardly for fire service purposes (because long hoods are no longer in the DIN standards for fire engines in Germany occurred), retained the angular design of the "snout" and fenders, but now looked much more modern. The headlights were now in the bumper. The corner hoods of the 3rd generation came on the market in 1971 with the models 120 D 12 K / 2 and 120 D 12 AK / 2. The latter had all-wheel drive; / 2 stood for the new version. In addition to chassis for tippers and all-wheel-drive tippers, there were also tractor units. In 1973 the design of the trademark and lettering was slightly changed in a facelift. From 1978 onwards, only all-wheel drive vehicles with the angular hood cab were available, as the production of normal road vehicles with this cab ended that year. The all-wheel-drive trucks, on the other hand, continued to be built under the direction of Iveco for years after the end of Magirus-Deutz , until 1993 for the German market. For foreign markets, the hood models remained in the range until 2003, but were recently only assembled in the Iveco plant in Brescia , Italy . The power spectrum ranged from 120 to 400 hp and payloads from 6.38 to 23.62 tons were available. The models with a gross vehicle weight of up to 19 tons were 2-axles, those above 3-axles. The Soviet Union ordered around 9,500 pieces for a major construction project (see Delta project ) . Large numbers were also sent to municipal road construction offices and motorway maintenance offices all over Germany, where the vehicles (usually equipped with a front mounting plate for a snow plow ) were mainly used for winter service (and in some cases are still used today).

Club four vehicles

Dashboard of a four-man club vehicle

Because the Eicher types were weakening in sales before the end of their production in 1976, Magirus-Deutz lacked competitive light to medium-weight trucks. That is why Magirus-Deutz worked together with DAF , Saviem and Volvo in the so-called four-man club from 1971 to jointly develop a new design with a forward control cab. At the beginning of 1975 the Magirus-Deutz vehicles came onto the market after the trucks jointly developed by the four partners had been presented to the public at the Brussels Motor Show (see also main article: Magirus-Deutz MK series ) . In addition to those for their own use, the driver's cabs for Volvo and DAF were also manufactured by Magirus-Deutz. Magirus-Deutz was the only manufacturer involved to install air-cooled engines in its vehicles. Chassis for various bodies, tippers, semitrailer tractors and - as with the Eicher types - beverage transporters with central tubular frames were available. The four-man club vehicles were the first trucks in the light weight class in Germany with a tipping cab. MAN brought out a tilting driver's cab in this weight class in cooperation with VW in 1979, Daimler-Benz only in 1983. In 1980, the four-person club vehicles from Magirus-Deutz were given a facelift in which the radiator grille was given finer ribs. The trucks with the four-person club cab were very popular on the market and also attracted regular customers from other manufacturers to Magirus-Deutz (especially from Daimler-Benz, where there was no tipping cab in the light weight class until 1983).

An all-wheel-drive variant of the four-man club vehicle was also supposed to enter the Daimler-Benz Unimog market , but this only succeeded with moderate success. However, a large contingent of around 6,800 units went to the Bundeswehr as "5 t mil trucks" from 1980 onwards . Together with the Federal Environment Agency , Magirus-Deutz was also the first German manufacturer to develop a "low-noise truck" based on the four-man club 130M8FL by 1980. The vehicle had a fully encapsulated engine, which reduced the noise level by around 90% to just 77 dB (A) compared to the series vehicles customary at the time. A larger number of this "whisper diesel", which was recognizable by a center section slightly shifted to the front in the radiator grille, was sent to the Deutsche Bundespost as parcel post vans .

However, for the first time, the four-man club vehicles from Magirus-Deutz lacked the robustness and stability that this manufacturer is accustomed to: many components that were still made of metal in the previous model (the Eicher types) were now made of plastic and the sheet metal was special very susceptible to rust in the area of ​​the fenders and the door entry. Even after the end of Magirus-Deutz, Iveco continued to build and further develop the four-club series for a long time. For example, in the course of the 1980s, the indicators migrated to the bumper, which was then made of plastic; at the same time a new interior design was implemented. Production at Iveco ended in 1992. The four-man club vehicles were sold with engine outputs between 87 and 169 hp and the payloads were between 3.21 and 9.07 tons. All types had two axes.

Omnibuses

The time of the Second World War

After the merger of Magirus and Humboldt-Deutz in 1935/36, the bus production started by Magirus in 1919 was continued. During the Second World War, buses based on the S 330 and S 3000 truck chassis were built and given the designations O 330, OL 330 and O 3000. These types of buses had a 70 hp engine. From 1943 onwards (due to the general lack of raw materials during the war, it was very spartan) an economy body was placed on the chassis . In the same year bus production was stopped due to the war.

Post-war buses from Ulm

After the Second World War, truck production in Ulm started up again in 1946, and bus production followed at the end of the same year. First of all, simple bus bodies were manufactured for the Allied occupation forces on chassis from the American manufacturer GMC, which were no longer needed by the occupation forces after the end of the war.

O 3000, O 3500

The wartime type O 3000 with the water-cooled Deutz diesel engine F4M513 with four cylinders and a displacement of 4942 cm³ for an output of up to 70 hp, which was technically based on the truck type S 3000, was manufactured again from 1946, the first from still parts found at the factory. Until 1948, however, these were only produced as chassis with an engine, the body then came from the Ulm-based company Kässbohrer Fahrzeugwerke or other body manufacturers. Both buses and coaches were created from the O 3000. It was not until 1948 that the plant was able to manufacture larger numbers of the bodies itself. In the same year, the O 3000 was equipped with the air-cooled Deutz diesel engine type F4L514 with a displacement of 5322 cm³ in the four cylinders for initially 85, from 1949 90 hp, analogous to the truck. The dimensions of the car were 7.98 m with a wheelbase of 4.9 m. The O 3000 was built in this way until 1950, supplemented by the O 3500 from 1949.

In 1949 the O 3000 was fundamentally revised and further developed into the O 3500, which now also had a wheelbase of 5.2 m. The performance of the air-cooled Deutz engine F5L514 was increased to 90 hp. The bonnet was slightly redesigned and was now more conical. The vehicle length grew to 9.12 meters, which primarily benefited from a larger number of seats in the interior. At the same time, a revised chassis has improved driving comfort. The rest of the technology was based on the truck model S 3500. The load capacity of the chassis was 3.5 tons, accordingly the new model designation was O 3500. In 1951 the O 3500 was given a new, elegant round hood that was adapted to the “alligator hood” of the trucks . The engine output rose in parallel to 90 hp. From 1952 the air-cooled V6 engine Deutz F6L614 with 7983 cm³ displacement for 125 hp was also available. The O 3500 was delivered as a chassis in order to be completed by body builders with a body (as was still common in bus construction at that time), but there were also many versions ex works, e.g. B. a line version, a coach and a luxury version with panoramic roof edge glazing and folding roof. Also combi buses for city buses and coaches were built.

Because of their lower frame, the bus chassis of the O 3500 was also often used for truck bodies, e.g. B. for moving vehicles . Production for the German market ran until 1954, and the chassis of the O 3500 was also available for export markets for some time after that. The O 3500 was particularly popular in hot countries due to the robustness of its chassis and the heat resistance of the air-cooled engine.

O 6500

With the O 3500, Magirus-Deutz covered the medium size class of buses. In 1951 the range was expanded upwards: the type O 6500 appeared on the market. In contrast to all previous Magirus-Deutz buses, it was for the first time a front control arm with a rear engine and (also new) a semi-self-supporting construction of the chassis and body. The built-in air-cooled Deutz diesel engine F8L614 had eight cylinders in V-shape with a displacement of 10.644 l and developed 170 hp. The chassis had a load capacity of 6.5 tons, the wheelbase was 5.7 m and the car length was 11.23 m. An additional heater was installed to heat the passenger compartment when it was cold. The installation of the engine in the rear accounted against the hood wagon of the transmission tunnel . This made it possible for the first time to accommodate the tank and air tank in the middle of the chassis and to provide large side-accessible storage compartments for luggage under the floor of the car and to dispense with a luggage rack on the roof, which was common up until then. The cooling air for the engine was first sucked in through an air scoop on the rear part of the vehicle roof and fed to the engine through a duct in the rear. From 1957 the hood and duct were omitted, so that the rear could be glazed like other buses. Since then, the cooling air has come from openings on the side and back. The O 6500 was available as a bus , coach and luxury version with complete roof glazing. Most of the buses were delivered from the factory complete with bodywork, bodies by third parties were the exception. In 1957 the successor model came onto the market, the Saturn II. However, the O 6500 still rolled off the production line until 1959, mainly for export. From 1958 it was delivered under the name "Jupiter" within the framework of the planetary names.

O 3500 H, Saturn I.

O 3500 H coach

In 1953, Magirus-Deutz transferred the construction principle of the O 6500 (semi-self-supporting construction, front control, rear engine) to the middle class and presented the O 3500 H as the successor to the O 3500 round-hood bus. The H in the type designation stood for rear engine and served to distinguish it from the hood model, which was initially still built. The O 3500 H had the air-cooled V6 Deutz diesel engine F6L614 with a displacement of 7,983 cm³ for 125 hp. The load capacity of the chassis was 3.5 tons, the wheelbase 4.5 m and the car length 9.5 m. Like the larger O 6500, the O 3500 H was also available as a touring, regular, luxury and station wagon bus and as a chassis for third-party bodies. In 1957 - as with the larger model - the air scoop on the roof was omitted. In 1958, the O 3500 H was given the name Saturn as part of the general changeover of the model nomenclature to planet names. This version was then called Saturn I to distinguish it from the successor model Saturn II, which was released in 1957. Production of the Saturn I did not end until 1962, at the end the model was only in demand for export, u. a. to Egypt and Mexico .

Omnibuses from Mainz

Saturn II

In 1957, the O was replaced on the domestic market 6500: The newly designed cab- type Saturn II came on the market. For the first time at Magirus-Deutz, the Saturn II had a completely self-supporting structure and thus corresponded to the then current state of the art. Light metal sheets were attached to the frame made of square steel profiles. The front design was adapted to the then current round front control truck , in particular the Saturn II had a dummy oval radiator grille reminiscent of the design of these Magirus-Deutz trucks. The suspension and driving comfort of the Saturn II set new standards compared to the competition thanks to air suspension and individually suspended front wheels and established the reputation of the Magirus-Deutz buses as being particularly soft and comfortable. An electro-pneumatically operated preselector for the transmission was also offered. The Saturn II was initially powered by the air-cooled Deutz V6 engine F 6 L 614 with a displacement of 7983 cm³ for 125 hp. First a 10.0 meter long city bus with a wheelbase of 4.5 m came on the market; In 1958 the travel variant followed with a length of only 9.77 m and a slightly differently designed, sloping front section. It was not until 1961 that these coaches got the vertical front design of the other versions and the length of 10.0 meters.

At the instigation of the Hamburger Hochbahn (HHA), which was about to become a major customer of KHD, the "Type Hamburg" was further developed from 1959 on from the original Saturn II; it had flush doors, from 1960 a higher roof with two skylights, larger destination displays (also at the rear) and exhaust pipes that were led upwards on the two bars of the rear window. The first two changes were adopted for all Saturn II vehicles. In 1959, Magirus-Deutz added two extended and more powerful versions to its range: The Saturn II L had a wheelbase of 5.73 m and was 11.5 m long, L stood for the long version. The Saturn II L was available as an intercity bus and coach. The Saturn II LS had the same length, S stood for the heavy version with increased payload and reinforced front axle. Both long buses had the Deutz F 6 L 714 engine with 9.5 l displacement and initially 145 HP, from 1962 150 HP. The top model of the short versions was the Saturn II Luxus, also presented in 1959. In 1961 a Saturn II L Luxus followed. In 1963 the Saturn II MS was added to the range with 11.0 m (M for medium length) for regular city traffic. In addition to the variants described, floor assemblies for body shops were also on offer. In addition to several series of normal city buses, Hamburger Hochbahn also received specially equipped express buses with roof edge glazing, particularly comfortable seating with plush covers, including three 150 R / L 12 buses from 1967 with luggage racks and curtains for excursions. One of them will be preserved as a museum at the "Hamburger Omnibus Verein" (HOV). In addition, the HOV also received a copy from 1959 from the first series of the "Type Hamburg" with electropneumatic preselector and one from the fifth series from 1964 with manual transmission.

Gradual evolution up to the TR transit coach

230 TR 120 coach; Rear view

In 1963 the front of the luxury buses and coaches was redesigned and now reminded of the design of the D-handlebars with a characteristic edge below the windshield . Instead of the dummy grill, two chrome strips adorned the space between the headlights. At the same time, the rear section was also slightly modified, u. a. the rear window got bigger. Otherwise everything stayed the same: There were two lengths (10 m and 11.5 m) and a 150 hp motor. In 1964 the intercity buses and station wagons were given the new front, only the city buses kept the old Saturn II design. Also from 1964, the number and letter scheme familiar from trucks was also applied to the model designation of the buses. In contrast to the truck, the letter in the middle indicated the type of bus (R for coach, L for public service bus, S for city bus), the sequence of digits afterwards indicated the length of the car rounded off in meters. The short Saturn II was now called 150 L 10, 150 S 10 and 150 R 10; the Saturn II L became the 150 L 12, 150 S 12, 150 LS 12 and 150 R 12. The 150 S 10 and 150 S 12 retained the old front section of the Saturn II bus. The medium-length Saturn II MS was also technically modified: With the new designation 150 S 11, it was given a lowered car floor, the new front design and double-wide doors at the front for “two-lane entry”. The major customer Hamburger Hochbahn received 725 Saturn II and 150 S 10 buses from 1958 to 1967 alone. Several series were also operated in the “KHD cities” of Cologne and Mainz. These buses also gained importance in Germany as post buses (with built-in mailboxes).

From 1966 Magirus-Deutz revised its coaches and intercity buses again in several steps. First, in 1966, the window line and the roof behind the front door were raised so that the buses got a characteristic roof step. The technical data (especially length and engine) and the type designations initially remained the same. In 1967 the program was expanded to include buses with a length of 11.6 meters and a V8 engine with 200 hp. Their type designations were 200 L 12, 200 LS 12, 200 R 12 and 200 RS 12. The variants for heavy passenger traffic were added, which had the abbreviation RS in the middle of the type designation. A special series of the 180 LS 12 with an engine throttled to 180 hp went to the Deutsche Bundesbahn . In 1969 the roof step disappeared again because the roof of the front end was raised to the higher level, and new engines came again with 170 hp as a six-cylinder and with 230 hp as an eight-cylinder. The type designations changed accordingly, but the length was now given with hundreds numbers: The type designation for the 11.6 meter long car now ended with 120, for the now 10.14 meter long car with 100. a. the types 170 L 100 and 230 L 120 are offered as a regular service bus and the types 200 TR 100 and 230 R 120 as a touring bus. The so-called transit variants, which had a T in the type designation, were new. B. the 230 TR 120. The city buses kept the old original Saturn II design until 1969 and were then replaced by the newly developed standard line buses . 1974 came new V8 engines with 232 hp and from the IAA 1975 the fronts of the non-standardized models (especially the coaches) were adorned with a black fake radiator grille, which was based on the design of the Magirus-Deutz trucks of those years. By 1976, the model range was supplemented by the types T 100 and T 120 available with different engine outputs. The transit variants were coaches that could be supplied with a galley , toilet and air conditioning on request . One of the main customers of Magirus Deutz bus chassis in the 1970s was the French bodywork company Heuliez , which was boycotted by the French bus manufacturers and therefore relied on foreign chassis for its products.

Standard buses

SH 110 standard bus; Rear view
SH 110 standard bus; inner space

Magirus-Deutz was also involved in the standard bus project. The very first VÖV standard line bus was developed in the Hamburger Fahrzeugwerkstätten Falkenried (FFG) together with Magirus-Deutz and presented to the public in 1967 as HHA-Wagen 7750. Based on the results of the trial operation in Hamburg's passenger traffic, the VÖV specifications were modified and all manufacturers involved in the VÖV project (including Büssing, Daimler-Benz, Magirus-Deutz and MAN) asked to build a prototype. From 1968, Magirus-Deutz manufactured its standard line buses in accordance with the requirements of the Association of Public Transport Companies (VÖV) and was the only bus manufacturer involved to equip them with air-cooled engines (see Magirus-Deutz standard bus ) . The city ​​bus with a length of 11.0 meters was initially called S 11 H and was renamed SH 110 in 1972. Over time, the diesel engines made 150, 170, 200, 232 and 256 hp. The Hamburger Hochbahn received a 100-vehicle special series of a standard express bus shortened to 9.7 meters with the type designation 170 S 10 H. It was delivered in 1969 (76 units) and 1971 (24 units). The last of these buses came directly to the Hamburger Fahrzeugwerkstätten Falkenried (FFG), where it was converted into the first low-floor city bus prototype (“urbanbus”) and presented to the public in 1972. It had small wheels and was therefore the forerunner of the FFG development of the second generation VÖV bus (HHA car number 1980 from 1976). By 1975 this bus had been processed by the FFG as the front part of the low-floor articulated pusher bus prototype ("Tatzelwurm") (HHA car number 1981). Both prototypes had to be scrapped in 1983 at the instigation of the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology in Hamburg after the end of the test program in passenger traffic.

In 1972 a standard intercity bus (StÜLB) of the type L 117 with a length of 11.7 meters and the two larger engines added to the program. The intercity bus was later also delivered as the L 117 P with platforms, which enabled the trunk in the undercarriage under the platforms with the seats and thus a better use as a combination bus . Magirus-Deutz was the only manufacturer of standard intercity buses to offer such a construction that was suitable as a combination bus. The body builder Voll from Würzburg built an extended version of the intercity bus, which had the type designation 260 L 118. Parallel to the Magirus-Deutz coaches built in Mainz , the high-decker 230 T 117 buses with a third-party body from Gangloff in Colmar were presented for the first time at the IAA 1975 . These were luxury coaches based on the L 117 chassis. A 260 T 117 was added later. The manufacturers Tüscher and Padane also had their own body variants of the L 117. After the L 117 was released, the SH 110 city bus was also optionally available with the more pleasing front design of the overland model, the so-called StÜLB front, which in particular had a less curved windscreen. A 17 m long articulated bus of the type 260 SH 170 was "submitted" by Magirus-Deutz in 1980.

The standard line buses were built by Magirus-Deutz until 1982. Several hundred of the SH 110 city buses and their predecessors were sold between 1968 and 1982, while the L 117 intercity bus sold around 1,400 units. As with the non-standardized predecessor models, major customers were the Federal Railways and the Federal Post Office as well as public transport companies in Germany and abroad, but also private companies. Compared to the competition from MAN and Daimler-Benz, the articulated bus SH 170 came onto the market too late and was therefore not very successful with only 39 units built. The company only participated in the second generation of standard buses with prototypes of the type 240 L 118, which were built at the vehicle workshops in Falkenried (FFG) in Hamburg; series production did not take place any more.

L 80 short bus and R 80 and R 81 club buses

From 1969 onwards, Magirus-Deutz offered the 120 R 80 model with a transverse six-cylinder in-line engine with 120 hp, especially for small travel groups. The club bus with seven to eight rows of seats and correspondingly 28 to 33 seats was intended to expand the Magirus-Deutz bus program downwards and was intended for journeys where a large touring bus cannot be fully utilized. In contrast to similar vehicles from other bus manufacturers, this was not just a shortened "big one", but an independent model. The R 80 was simply designed in order to be able to win customers in less developed countries for the vehicle, and in fact numerous short buses went abroad, especially in the form of chassis for third-party bodies. As a counterpart, the 120 L 80 for regular service was later launched on the market; however, this vehicle was only offered with external bodies. From mid-1977 the touring model was renamed the R 81, received a revised front section with a black dummy grille, a shorter wheelbase and a longer rear overhang and a new engine with 130 hp (again in-line six-cylinder). In 1979 a turbo-charged version with 145 hp was added. In 1981 the R 81 received a major facelift (double plastic bumper, one-piece windshield), in which its appearance was adapted to the M 2000 , the 1978 “flagship” of the Magirus-Deutz bus range. The Swiss Post was a major buyer of the R 80 and R 81 buses , as their short length made them ideal for travel on the narrow and winding Swiss Alpine passes . Today, some R 81 converted to mobile homes are still on the road.

Transition to Iveco, M 2000 and discontinuation of bus production

This photo shows an Italian-made Fiat bus derived from the Magirus-Deutz R81.

Analogous to the light X-truck from the Iveco Group introduced in 1976 as Magirus-Deutz , which were also available as a closed panel van , there was also a Magirus-Deutz minibus on this basis, which was type designation 90M65, an in-line four-cylinder with 87 hp and was located below the R81. In 1978 the type M 2000, based on a joint development with Fiat, came onto the market and replaced the large touring coaches R 100, TR 100, R 120 and TR 120, whose basic concept originated from the late 1960s and which is therefore known as technically and visually outdated. Technically, the new M 2000 was based on the FIAT type 370, which was further developed in Mainz for the German market. The M 2000 was available in two lengths (11.9 m and 10.6 m); it was powered by an air-cooled Deutz engine with 256 hp. For the first M 2000 vehicles, the bodyshell was also built in FIAT's Italian bus plant and the bus for the German market was completed in the Mainz plant. The later vehicles were then completely manufactured in Mainz. In 1981, the last expansion stage was a version with a high roof (M 2000 H), which had an engine with 280 hp. The production of the standard bus continued without any noteworthy changes. As with the trucks, the name Magirus-Deutz was gradually replaced by the Iveco logo on the buses from 1980 onwards. After the plant was closed in 1982, vehicles that were already in the dump were "sold off"; so it came about that some Magirus-Deutz buses were still registered for the first time in 1983 and 1984. The last Magirus-Deutz buses built were two articulated buses of the type 260 SH 170, the chassis of which were completed with a body and delivered to the large commercial vehicle dealer Alga in 1984 . Alga took over the chassis and parts that were still in existence after the Magirus-Deutz bus plant was closed. After the end of bus production by Magirus-Deutz in Italy, the type M 2000 was continued to be built by Iveco. After production in Germany ended, the R81 was also available from Italian manufacture as a Fiat or Iveco model for a while. In Germany, Iveco left the bus market with the discontinuation of bus production at Magirus-Deutz. However, the construction and design departments of Magirus-Deutz continue to work for Iveco and played a significant role in the EuroClass coach, which Iveco brought onto the market in 1992. Iveco has only recently returned to the German market with its new bus subsidiary Irisbus .

Fire protection technology and fire engines

Overview of developments in the area of ​​fire protection

Since the company Magirus fell to a factory for fire fighting technology, was this division after the acquisition of Magirus by Humboldt-Deutz of great importance, especially the production of fire pumps , portable pumps and ladders ( turntable ladders and attachments ladders ), equipping trucks with fire fighting vehicle bodies and Fire-fighting equipment and the construction of driver's cabs in the form of group and relay cabins with up to ten seats. The fire brigade superstructures, which continued to be manufactured in Ulm, were preferably mounted on in-house truck chassis. However, since light trucks from our own production were not available until the introduction of the light Eicher types and since Magirus-Deutz never produced small vans , chassis from third-party companies had to be used for small fire fighting vehicles (e.g. TSF or LF 8 Leicht ) , e.g. B. on the Ford Transit , the Opel Blitz and the Faun F 24 . Command vehicles for fire brigades and rescue services were also built, usually based on regular buses .

New beginning after the war

The fire engines of the immediate post-war period were based on the 1st generation corner hoods. Exclusively for fire-fighting vehicles, the Ulm-based company launched a small series of the S 6000 chassis from 1951, even before the standard construction of fire-fighting superstructures on the round hood models, which was nicknamed the " coati " because of its characteristic shape . Of the S 6000, which had a six-cylinder engine with 125 hp, only 14 were made. In 1950 Magirus-Deutz presented a completely new design of fire fighting vehicles, which was given the name "Omnibus" because of the round shape of the superstructure, because it was reminiscent of the shape of the omnibuses of that time . However, this design could not prevail, although a little later it was also offered by competitor Metz Aerials on chassis from Daimler-Benz .

The round hoods of the 1950s and the corner hoods of the 1960s

THW vehicle on corner hood

The round hoods from Magirus-Deutz were used from 1951 for fire-fighting equipment, e.g. B. for turntable ladders with an extension length between 18 and 50 meters, equipment crane trucks with a load capacity of up to 10 tons, equipment trucks , fire fighting vehicles ( from LF 15 to LF 32), tank fire engines (especially TLF 15 and TLF 16), dry fire trucks , airfield fire engines , hose trucks and Special superstructures especially for plant fire brigades . The round hoods were the most widely built fire fighting vehicles of the post-war period. That is why they remained in the streets for a long time after their production was discontinued and became almost emblematic of the fire fighting vehicle. In 1951 Magirus-Deutz presented at the IAA the world's highest turntable ladder, which had a height of 52 + 2 meters, and the world's first rescue vehicle with a crane that could be rotated all around. In 1953 Magirus-Deutz brought the first completely hydraulically operated turntable ladder onto the market. The standard vehicles of the 1950s included the TLF 15 and DL 25 with a round hood. The chassis were usually of the type A 3500, Sirius and Mercur. For fire brigades there were also four-wheel drive vehicles with a round hood (in contrast to the civilian models) .

When, from 1962, the round hood was gradually replaced by the corner hood in civil vehicles, the fire brigade superstructures were also preferably installed on corner hoods of the 2nd generation from now on. From 1956, KW 15, a heavy three-axle crane truck with a 15-tonne load capacity on a corner-hood chassis, came onto the market. This model was unrivaled in the market at the time and was later upgraded to a load capacity of 20 tons (first week 16, then week 20). In 1957, Magirus-Deutz delivered the largest fire truck of the time to Uruguay : the round-hooded semitrailer truck held 8,000 liters of extinguishing water, 800 liters of foam concentrate and around 900 kilograms of carbonic acid to suffocate fires. Comparable vehicles based on the corner hood with up to 12,000 liters of extinguishing water then went to numerous other countries (including Algeria , Romania and Tunisia ) and inland (e.g. to Münster / Osnabrück airport and the Hoechst fire brigade ). In 1965, Magirus-Deutz was the first manufacturer of fire fighting technology to equip a turntable ladder with a rescue cage that can be attached to the top of the ladder . The most common types on corner hood chassis in the 1960s were the TLF 16, the DL 30 and the disaster control vehicle LF 16-TS, each of which usually had all-wheel drive. The chassis usually had the type designation Mercur, 125 D 10 and 150 D 10, for large tank fire engines also 200 D 16. The rounded front control arms were hardly used for fire engines and if so, then only for export, for example. B. in the Netherlands .

Conversion to forward control

Medical equipment trolley on D-handlebars
TLF 8/18 on Eicher chassis

With the cubic D-cab, Magirus-Deutz pioneered the conversion to forward control at the end of the 1960s. As early as 1967, the Ulm-based manufacturer's entire fire service range was available in series production as forward control, while the competitors - in Germany mainly Daimler-Benz and MAN , the other truck manufacturers such as Henschel and Büssing played almost no role in the fire service sector - up to the late 1970s stuck with short-nosed vehicles. In particular, the following were available as D-front control: rescue vehicle (RW 1 to RW 3) and hose trolley (SW 2000) with troop cab; the widespread LF 8 heavy, LF 16 and LF 16-TS each with a group cabin and the TLF 16 with a relay cabin. The main chassis used were types 100 D 7 to 130 D 7 to 130 D 9 and 170 D 11 to 192 D 12; most of them were delivered with all-wheel drive . The large tank fire-fighting vehicle TLF 24/50 with troop cabin, roof monitor and 5000 liters of extinguishing water was created on the basis of the 232 D 17, there were also turntable ladders (mostly DL 23-12 with road drive but also LB 30 ladder platforms) with squad or troop cabin . For smaller vehicles such as DL 18, TLF 8/18 and light special vehicles, Magirus-Deutz resorted to the Eicher types of types 80 D 6 and 120 D 7, which were also designed in forward control. Also in 1967, roller shutters made of extruded aluminum profiles replaced the folding doors that had been used until then for locking the equipment compartments in the superstructure, and the world's first fully radio-controlled turntable ladder was at the Frankfurt IAA . Around 500 of the LF 16 TS were procured by Magirus-Deutz throughout the Federal Republic of Germany and are still frequently in use today. This also applies to the numerous equipment trolleys for the THW with group cabin and front cable winch built on the same chassis with the cubic D-cabin . Today, retired fire brigade and THW vehicles with the D-cab (similar to the previous models with corner hoods) are often converted into mobile homes, expeditions and desert vehicles, for which they are suitable because of their air-cooled engine, their robust technology and the fact that they are usually available Four-wheel drive very well suited.

Innovations of the 1970s and conversion to Iveco Magirus

In 1972 Magirus-Deutz released the so-called rescue vehicle rail, the world's first fire-fighting vehicle that was suitable for both rail and road use . It was z. B. from the Frankfurt fire department for use in underground - tunnels procured. From 1976 onwards, Magirus-Deutz was able to deliver a light LF 8 on an in-house chassis and to expand the fire protection program accordingly by accessing models from the X series from the Iveco range. In 1979 Magirus-Deutz was a pioneer in the construction of turntable ladders with low cabs for narrow city centers and low passages with two prototypes of the DLK 23–12 nB (nB = low construction), which had been developed in cooperation with the Munich fire brigade . The driver's cab of the 3rd generation corner hood without the angular corner hood and a chassis with the designation 192 M 12 were used for this. With a height when retracted of just 2.85 meters, the vehicle was nicknamed " Duck Beak " because of its specific appearance “Received, significantly lower than conventional turntable ladders with heights between 3.2 and 3.3 meters. A vehicle width of only 2.4 m also resulted in good maneuverability. Customers of the novelty, which was built in series from 1980 (then on the 256 M 12 chassis), included u. a. the Munich fire brigade, which ordered twelve of them. The low design was subsequently copied by other fire engine manufacturers, e.g. B. from Metz . In 1985, the highest articulated fire brigade mast in Europe (GM 50) was built on a four-axle Magirus-Deutz chassis of the type 310D28, which was delivered to a works fire brigade in Cologne.

The Magirus-Deutz department, which was responsible for fire engines and fire protection technology, was also incorporated into the new Iveco Group between 1975 and 1983. She lives on in Magirus GmbH to this day . Fire extinguishing and rescue technology continues to be produced there under the brand name Magirus. In addition, fire engines built in the Magirus-Deutz era are still being overhauled and repaired today.

More products from Magirus-Deutz

The core business areas of Magirus-Deutz were trucks, buses and fire engines. In addition, other products were also manufactured in the Magirus-Deutz factories or under the name Magirus-Deutz, but they never achieved the importance of trucks, buses and fire engines. From 1951, for example, under the name Mokema, a three-wheel motorized sweeper with an air-cooled single-cylinder engine from KHD and 15 HP was in the production program of the Berlin Magirus-Deutz plant. The Mokema was the first self-picking road sweeper built in series in Germany. Orion aircraft tractors with 70 to 250 hp were also built in Berlin in the 1960s and sold under the name Magirus-Deutz. The production of tower cars , aerial work platforms and mobile radio masts was also part of the production program in the 1950s to 1970s, as was its own trailer production .

In addition, Magirus-Deutz supplied other companies with truck components such as engines and cabs : Rhein-Bayern, for example, bought four-man club cabs from Magirus-Deutz (and later from Iveco) for its Agrobil , and FAUN and DAF bought cabs for the corner hood 3rd generation for own commercial vehicles; each in order not to have to develop and build their own cabs. Bus and body manufacturers such as Auwärter Neoplan and Heuliez used chassis and components from Magirus-Deutz for their own designs.

Importance of the brand

Economic and technical importance

Scale and market shares

Long-haul semitrailer
The historic fleet of the Holsten brewery , consisting of Magirus-Deutz round hoods and D-type front control arms

Magirus-Deutz was one of the largest German commercial vehicle manufacturers . In the 1950s, Magirus-Deutz was the second largest German manufacturer of trucks over 6 tons in gross weight after Mercedes-Benz . For the year 1967, for example, the statistics of the Federal Motor Transport Authority show a total of around 271,900 trucks with a gross vehicle weight of over 6 tons, of which around 55,600 came from KHD. This corresponds to Magirus-Deutz's market share of around 20.5% in the medium to heavy weight class. For comparison: At the same time, the stock of MAN trucks over 6 tons was around 44,700 units, which corresponds to around 16.4%. In the market for (small) trucks under 6 tons, Magirus-Deutz was not represented until the introduction of the X series from the Iveco Group in 1976, this market traditionally served by manufacturers such as Volkswagen , Ford , Opel , Hanomag and Borgward , later also Daimler-Benz. Magirus-Deutz's main business area was clearly medium to heavy trucks. At the beginning of the 1970s, Magirus-Deutz's commercial vehicles accounted for around 40% of KHD's group sales and were by far the group’s most important business area. In 1974 Magirus-Deutz achieved sales of around 1.8 billion  DM . And in 1975 more than 10,000 people worked in several plants for Magirus-Deutz, which together produced around 16,500 trucks that year. This made Magirus-Deutz the second largest commercial vehicle manufacturer in Germany based on total production figures (shortly before its own disappearance). Second place was also achieved early on for individual truck models, buses and truck exports : As early as the 1950s, the round-hooded trucks from Magirus-Deutz in Germany took second place in terms of quantities behind the comparable trucks from Mercedes -Benz one. In 1966 Magirus-Deutz was the second largest German bus manufacturer; 1250 vehicles were produced that year. One of the largest bus customers was Hamburger Hochbahn AG , which purchased a total of over 700 buses over the years. The Vestische Tram , the Deutsche Bundesbahn and the Deutsche Bundespost were also very large regular customers of Magirus-Deutz buses.

Worldwide export and international licensed products

TAM 4500 built in Yugoslavia ( Maribor ) by Tovarna Automobilov in Motorjev
30 Migros sales cars with special bodies from Switzerland

In truck exports, Magirus-Deutz had a market share of over 20% in the 1961/1962 financial year and was only behind Mercedes-Benz with around 40%, but ahead of MAN and Henschel with around 15% each. Magirus-Deutz vehicles were sold worldwide: by 1963, exports had already taken place in over a hundred countries around the world. Magirus-Deutz diesel engines were partly built abroad under license . There were also plants abroad in which so-called CKD sets were finally assembled into complete vehicles, e.g. B. in Greece and Turkey . As early as 1958, the Maribor ( Yugoslavia ) based company TAM Magirus-Deutz was producing truck and bus prototypes under license , which were also used by the Yugoslav army . In Egypt , from 1959, licensed Magirus-Deutz products were also manufactured and sold by NASCO , ditto in Iran by Tsarina Khodro . In Kuwait , Magirus-Deutz trucks were produced by the licensed company NAMTCO from 1983 to 1986 . The Turkish manufacturer Otokar started building buses under license from Magirus-Deutz from 1963. In South Africa , truck and bus models were manufactured by Magirus-Deutz under the names SAMIL (South African Military) and SAMAG (South African Magirus), the corner hoods of the 3rd generation until 1998. In Argentina , the Deca-Deutz company built between 1969 and 1980 various truck models under license under license, including the forward control models 200D16F, 200D19F and 200D24F, each with an air-cooled V8 engine. Another Argentine product was the Magirus Deutz bus chassis, which was supplemented with a body by body builders on site. After the end of the Magirus-Deutz brand, the Decaroli brand continued this business area. There was also a factory in the Congo for replicas of Magirus-Deutz commercial vehicles.

Market dominance in construction and fire fighting vehicles

Fire department turntable ladder

Magirus-Deutz achieved first place in the field of fire engines. There the brand was the undisputed market leader in Germany from the 1950s to the 1970s . Magirus-Deutz also provided other aid organizations such as THW and the Red Cross with special vehicles on a large scale. Magirus-Deutz was therefore of great importance for the comprehensive motorization of German fire and rescue services after the Second World War: The first motor vehicle used by numerous fire departments was a Magirus-Deutz and for decades the vehicles from Ulm formed the backbone of motorized fire protection in Germany. The Ulm-based manufacturer also took the lead in fire fighting vehicles at European level with a market share of around 40%. Magirus-Deutz was the largest manufacturer of fire engines in Europe, and according to its own information in historical brochures, it was even the largest in the world. At the same time, Magirus-Deutz was the only manufacturer in Europe that could offer fire fighting vehicles from a single source, from engine and chassis to driver's cab and body to equipment.

Three-axle concrete mixer for the construction industry

Magirus-Deutz vehicles also achieved similar importance in the construction industry . The medium to heavy and usually all-wheel drive construction vehicles from Magirus-Deutz, which at times made up around 60% of the company's total production, achieved market shares of around 30% in Germany. For the reconstruction of the destroyed Germany after the Second World War, construction vehicles on chassis from Magirus-Deutz were used, primarily all-wheel-drive tippers. B. also concrete mixers and crane trucks, a key factor. They were characterized by robustness, resilience and excellent off-road mobility. In a vehicle test by the magazine Verkehrs-Rundschau from 1965, it says, for example. E.g. about the three-axle corner hood 200 D 26 AK: “In our test, we had to certify that the three-axle Magirus 200 D 26 AK dump truck is easy to operate, offers contemporary driving comfort and is highly efficient. We tried to find the limits in terms of the ability to drive through extremely bad driving surfaces, which we did not succeed. We have witnessed extreme stresses that one would never expect even a vehicle of this type to be subjected to in practice ... It is difficult for us to admit that there is little to complain about in the overall design of the Magirus 200 D 26. "

Magirus-Deutz was also firmly established on German roads in the market for medium and heavy road vehicles for local and distribution transport. In a comparative test by the magazine lastauto-omnibus (issues 2 and 3 from the 1968 year) it says about the D-front handlebar Magirus-Deutz 110D7FL: The 7.5-liter, tested in comparison with a competing product from MAN, Mercedes-Benz and Fiat Ton truck "again emphasized that the air-cooled Deutz diesel engines with direct fuel injection are to be counted among the top products of the German diesel engine construction: economical in fuel consumption, traction stable over a wide speed range and pleasant running and noise behavior ." The Magirus-Deutz 110D7FL won all individual ratings in the test (“engine”, “operation and handiness”, “suspension and driving comfort”, “road holding and driving safety” as well as “cab and equipment”) and in the end achieved a clear test victory.

Club of four military trucks on the Magirus-Deutz test track in Markbronn near Ulm

The Ulm-based brand was also doing well with basic chassis for special bodies such as B. mobile work machines and municipal vehicles as well as military vehicles . In the market segment of heavy long-distance vehicles, however, Magirus-Deutz was only able to achieve notable successes in the 1950s, but subsequently lost its importance in this area. The top dogs on the German autobahn were Büssing (on the market until 1974), Mercedes-Benz and MAN ; By contrast, Magirus-Deutz's market share had fallen to less than 10% by the early 1970s. In the case of buses and coaches, Magirus-Deutz's strong market share in city and regular buses contrasted with a rather weak position in touring and luxury buses.

Technology leadership and lagging behind

Medium-weight Magirus-Deutz car transporter with an Iveco driver's cab

In 1960, the luxury version of the Saturn II bus won first prize in the bodywork competition and in the technical tests at the International Bus Week in Nice with 69 participants. In 1953, Magirus-Deutz was a pioneer in the design and construction of the extremely robust planetary axles for trucks. These were subsequently adopted by numerous other manufacturers and are still the state of the art for heavy construction and all-wheel-drive trucks. In 1962, the long-haul cab of the round forward control truck was awarded a first prize at the Paris Salon. At times the most powerful trucks from German production came from Magirus-Deutz. According to corresponding comparison tests in the 1960s, the Magirus-Deutz trucks each had the most economical fuel consumption of all common German makes in their payload class. In 1968 Magirus-Deutz presented a test vehicle that was powered by a gas turbine with up to 280 hp instead of a conventional engine . The Magirus-Deutz prototype from 1968 was the first German long-haul truck with turbine drive, test vehicles from other manufacturers with this technology followed later. By participating in the four-man club , Magirus-Deutz played a significant role in the development and production of the first “European truck” at a time when European integration was still in its infancy. After being the technology leader in the air-cooled diesel engine and pioneering innovations in the 1950s and 1960s, such as the tilting cab with cab controls , Magirus-Deutz increasingly fell behind in terms of technology in the 1970s, which in terms of sales could not be compensated for by the traditional robustness and reliability of the vehicles. In addition to the economic slowdown in the construction industry in Germany, which was one of the main buyers of Magirus-Deutz vehicles, and the growing international competition in the commercial vehicle sector, this is likely to be one of the main reasons for the ultimate demise of the brand. In addition, Magirus-Deutz, as a traditional supplier of medium to heavy vehicles, missed the trend towards a "full-range supplier" that was initiated in 1969 by the founding of Hanomag-Henschel and then continued by Daimler-Benz, i.e. an offer in all weight classes from 1.5 to 26 tons Total weight. The lower end of the Magirus-Deutz range marked the Eicher types with 6 tons. Between 1949 (the year the Magirus-Deutz brand was created) and 1983 (the year in which the Magirus-Deutz name finally disappeared from the market) over half a million trucks, tractors , articulated trucks and buses were built in Germany and abroad . The peak of the production figures was reached in 1976 with over 30,000 vehicles in that year.

Importance to the public

In contrast to most other commercial vehicle manufacturers, whose marketing was restricted to the specialist public, Magirus-Deutz was not only present in the public awareness through the trucks and buses that were widespread on the streets, but also through mass advertising: in 1954, Magirus-Deutz demonstrated the reliability of its trucks and its air-cooled engines by driving around 20,000 kilometers from Ulm to Marseille and then across half of Africa to the Congo . The two vehicles of type A 3500 and S 6500 were fully loaded and arrived safely at their destination. This promotional campaign to demonstrate the resilience, performance and robustness of the trucks and engines was followed by others in the later years, e.g. B. across the Sahara and over the old silk road to Afghanistan . At the Football World Cup in 1954 , Magirus-Deutz sponsored the team bus that the German national football team took to the Miracle of Bern . The team from Germany was the only one of the participating teams that already had its own team bus. The type O 6500 vehicle was then also used in advertising, e.g. B. in the form of a photo in which two players and the national coach smile from the bus window, and the slogan “From victory to victory with Magirus-Deutz”. For the transport of the competitors to the sports facilities, the IX. During the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck , Magirus-Deutz buses were used exclusively. The Olympic Committee awarded vehicles and equipment for the Olympic Games. a. because of the reliability of the air-cooled engines in cold weather at Magirus-Deutz. From 1968 Magirus-Deutz advertised in a well-noticed campaign in which advertisements were placed in general-interest magazines and TV commercials with the slogans that the trucks had the “golden bull heart” and “They always hum and never puff”. In this context, the 3rd generation corner hoods were referred to as "construction bulls" and the Eicher types were fashionably referred to as "city bulls". At the end of the 1970s, the Magirus-Deutz brand (although at that time it was already under Iveco control) was the main sponsor of the soccer club FC Bayern Munich and also provided the club's team bus. The advertising slogan was "The cops are coming!"

Change in brand name over time

Example for the construction period from 1949 to 1964 with branding on the side of the bonnet

The manufacturer's information (e.g. in the vehicle documents) was from the takeover of Magirus by Humboldt-Deutz until 1938 Humboldt-Deutz. In 1938, Humboldt-Deutz became Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz AG (KHD) after the conclusion of a corresponding contract with Klöckner-Werke . Until Magirus-Deutz AG was founded in 1975, the official manufacturer of Magirus-Deutz vehicles was then KHD. From 1975 to 1983 Magirus-Deutz AG was the official manufacturer, then (and ultimately until today) Iveco Magirus AG followed.

After Magirus was taken over by Humboldt-Deutz, the brand name on the vehicles was initially still MAGIRUS, until 1940. From 1940 to 1949 KHD sold its vehicles as KLÖCKNER-DEUTZ, the name Magirus no longer appeared on the vehicles. From 1949 (the time the Magirus-Deutz brand was established) to 1964 (the time the new model nomenclature made up of numbers and letters was introduced), the brand name was on the vehicles (on hoods usually attached to the side of the bonnet, on front-wheel drive vehicles on the front wall above the radiator grille) MAGIRUS-DEUTZ. At the front of the vehicle was the model name (e.g. Mercur). From 1964 to 1968 there was only DEUTZ on the front of the vehicle, the name MAGIRUS moved to the side together with the new model designation consisting of numbers and letters (e.g. MAGIRUS 200 D 26, attached to the side of the bonnet on hoods, on front control vehicles the cab doors below the side windows). From 1969 to 1972 the full name MAGIRUS-DEUTZ was again on the front of the vehicle, the model designation on the side consisted only of numbers and letters (e.g. 120 D 9). From 1972 until the start of the conversion of the brand name on the vehicles to IVECO in 1980, the hyphen was dropped and the lettering on the front of the vehicles read MAGIRUS DEUTZ.

Effect to this day

Until the mid-1990s, Magirus-Deutz vehicles were part of everyday street life in Germany. Today, however, you can hardly find them there, apart from fire service and THW vehicles, where the brand with the stylized silhouette of the Ulm Minster can still be found in the logo. Abroad, and especially in developing countries , Magirus-Deutz vehicles can be found even more frequently and are still exported there after their service life in Germany. The air-cooled trucks of the Magirus-Deutz brand are enjoying increasing popularity with collectors and at relevant classic car meetings, especially the characteristic round and corner hoods from the 1950s and 1960s. The 3rd generation corner hoods from the 1970s are also establishing themselves in the enthusiast scene. Tipper trucks and fire engines are collected particularly frequently, while other body variants are rather rare. The cab models and buses are also only collected to a lesser extent, which is why the rounded cab trucks and all omnibus models are now almost "extinct" and (if at all) only preserved in individual copies.

Since 1999, an association named “Magirus IVECO Museum Ulm” has been taking care of the preservation of historic commercial vehicles from Magirus, Magirus-Deutz and Iveco as well as documenting the company's history. In order to make around 60 trucks, buses and fire-fighting vehicles of the association accessible to the public, a museum is to be set up on the site of today's Iveco “Donautal” plant in Ulm. Since 2009 there has been a regular Magirus-Deutz classic car meeting in Neustadt an der Aisch .

In Ulm, there is a Magirus-Deutz-Strasse on the former inner-city factory site (today's “Stadtregal”). In Brazilian Portuguese , “Magirus” has become the standard term for fire brigade carts , regardless of the brand of the manufacturer. The actor, director and comedian Michael Herbig got his nickname and stage name "Bully" because he wore a Bayern Munich jersey sponsored by Magirus-Deutz with the slogan "The cops are coming" at school. A teacher called him "Bully" at the time because several boys in the class were called Michael. The artist Helge Schneider traveled and lived temporarily during tours in a former fire engine from Magirus-Deutz that had been converted into a mobile home.

See also

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The explanations in this article are essentially based on the following sources:

Books about Magirus-Deutz

  • Rolf J. Ambrosius: Magirus-Deutz - The history of the Ulm company from 1936 to 1974 . Biberach 2002, ISBN 3-00-010570-0 . (informs about the company's history)
  • Dieter Augustin: IVECO Magirus - All trucks from the Ulm plant since 1917 . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-613-02600-7 . (informs about the company history and the truck models)
  • Conny Hoffmann, Hans-Joachim Profeld: CD Magirus - The pioneer in fire fighting equipment . Podszun-Verlag, Brilon 2001, ISBN 3-86133-241-8 . (informs about the fire engines)
  • Pat Kennett: World Trucks. Volume 13: Magirus . Patrick Stephens Publisher, Wellingborough 1983, ISBN 0-85059-487-1 . (informs about the company's history)
  • Klaus Rabe: One step ahead of the future - 125 years of Magirus . ECON-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1989, ISBN 3-430-17656-5 . (informs about the company's history)
  • Bernd Regenberg: The truck album MAGIRUS . Podszun-Verlag, Brilon 2005, ISBN 3-86133-388-0 . (informs about the company history, the truck models and the fire engines)
  • Alexander Weber: Magirus Omnibuses . Podszun-Motorbücher Verlag, Brilon 2013, ISBN 978-3-86133-685-3 . (informs about the buses)

Parts of a book about Magirus-Deutz

  • Wolfgang H. Gebhardt: German omnibuses since 1898. 1st edition. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-613-02140-4 . (informs about the buses)
  • Wolfgang H. Gebhardt: German travel buses. 1st edition. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-613-03037-4 , pp. 141-152. (informs about the coaches)
  • Wolfgang H. Gebhardt: History of German truck construction, Volume 3b, He-W, 1945–1989. 1st edition. Weltbild-Verlag, Augsburg 1994. (provides information about the truck models and the company's history)
  • Werner Oswald : German trucks and delivery vehicles, Volume 2, 1945-1969. 3. Edition. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-613-01197-2 and German trucks and delivery vehicles, Volume 3, 1970-1989 . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-613-02446-2 . (informs about the company history and the truck models)
  • Udo Paulitz: Old Fire Brigades, Volume 2, Magirus-Deutz, Borgward, Hanomag u. a. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-440-06171-X . (informs about the fire engines)
  • Bernd Regenberg: The most famous German trucks from 1896 until today. 4th edition. Verlag Podszun Motorbücher, Brilon 1997, ISBN 3-923448-89-9 . (informs about the company's history)

Magazine article about Magirus-Deutz

  • Peter Burkhart: Road giants from Ulm - The development of the Magirus "D" series. In: air-cooled. Issue 2, March 2013. (informs about the D-front handlebars)
  • Holger Gräf: The corner hoods from Magirus. 1st and 2nd part, In: Historischer Kraftverkehr. Issues 5/1995 and 6/1995. (informs about the corner hoods of the 2nd generation)
  • Holger Gräf: The Magirus front control vehicles of the 60s and 70s. 1st and 2nd part, In: Historischer Kraftverkehr. Issues 3/2001 and 4/2001. (informs about the D-handlebars)
  • Holger Gräf: The Myth of Pluto. In: Historical motor traffic. Issue 2/2007. (informs about the round front handlebars)
  • Holger Gräf: The last Magirus hoods. 1st to 3rd part, In: Historical motor traffic. Issues 2/2011 to 4/2011. (informs about the 3rd generation corner hoods)
  • Karlheinz Hesse: Under the sign of Ulm Minster - Omnibus construction at Magirus. 9th to 17th part, In: Omnibus-Spiegel. Issues March 2008 to March / April 2009 and July 2011. (informs about the buses)
  • Alexander Weber: The great Magirus bus history. 1st and 2nd part, In: Last & Kraft. Issues 4/2012 and 5/2012, ISSN  1613-1606 . (informs about the buses)
  • Werner Stock: MAGIRUS city buses from Mainz. In: City traffic. Issue 5 / 6-1967, pp. 158/159.
  • New commercial vehicles from Margirus-Deutz. In: Automotive Technology . 5/1958, pp. 181/182.

Websites

Web links

Commons : Magirus-Deutz-Lastwagen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Magirus-Deutz-Busse  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence