Otto Beckmann & Co.

Otto Beckmann & Co, automobile factory, Wroclaw
legal form
founding	1882 (as the first Silesian velocipede factory )
resolution	1927
Reason for dissolution	Takeover by Adam Opel AG
Seat	Wroclaw , Silesia
management	Otto Beckmann (Managing Director) Paul Beckmann (Managing Director from 1897) Otto Beckmann (jun.) (Managing Director)
Number of employees	150 (1927)
Branch	Bicycle manufacturer , automobile manufacturer

Otto Beckmann & Co, Automobil-Fabrik, Breslau was a company based in Breslau ( Silesia ) from 1882 to 1926 , which initially produced bicycles and later automobiles .

Company history

The beginnings

The factory owner Otto Beckmann (1841-1897) started in 1882 in Breslau (Silesia) with the production of bicycles, then called Velocipede , which is why he named his company the First Silesian Velociped Factory . Fifteen years later, in 1897, he died and his eldest son Paul Beckmann (1866–1914) took over management of the company.

"1898" above the portal

Paul Beckmann Herkomer vehicle 40 hp (1906)

Like several other manufacturers of bicycles, Paul Beckmann began experimenting with the construction of motorized vehicles very early, in the 1890s. He soon abandoned the development of two- and three-wheeled vehicles and restricted himself to four-wheeled motor vehicles. After 1898 - as one of the pioneers of motor vehicles - the first Voiturette in Vis-à-vis had produced construction method with a French single-cylinder engine, it changed its name to Otto Beckmann & Co, First Silesian Velociped- and automobile factory. For the start of motor vehicle production, he had to significantly expand the company building in Tauentzienstrasse in Breslau. Above the portal, which, like some of the buildings, survived the severe destruction of Wroclaw in World War II , the year of construction "1898" is still emblazoned today.

When the manufacture of bicycles was given up in 1904 in favor of expanding motor vehicle production, the company was given the new, shorter name Otto Beckmann & Co, Motorwagen-Fabrik. The company name only changed once again (1913) when the part “motor vehicle” was replaced by the more modern term “automobile”.

In the period from the turn of the century to the beginning of the First World War , Beckmann launched a large number of models - voiturettes, tonneaus , Phaetons , limousines , coupés , cabs , delivery and sports cars - which, thanks to their high quality and reliability, are a very good one Had reputation. The first engines were obtained from Société Buchet , Ateliers de Construction Mécanique l'Aster and De Dion-Bouton , before moving to license production and finally to developing and building their own engines. For a short period of time (1907) Mutel engines were installed.

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  Sport Phaeton 10-30 hp (1912)

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  Beckmann sedan 22-50 hp (1912)

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  Beckmann delivery van 8–20 hp (1912)

Beckmann cars were considered particularly good mountaineers and the self-made 3-speed gearbox (also called speed change at the time) was praised by the specialist press as exemplary.

Paul Beckmann can be regarded as the inventor of the car seat belt , because at the turn of the century he was already equipping his own voiturettes with leather straps with which he strapped his three children on every trip.

From 1902 onwards Beckmann motor vehicles were exhibited at the automobile exhibitions in Leipzig , Berlin and Frankfurt am Main .

The company owner Paul Beckmann can be counted among the pioneers of automobilism not only as a manufacturer but also as an active driver. He successfully took part in various competitions with his products, such as the “Quality Drive Breslau – Vienna” in 1902, in which Beckmann cars took first three places, and the “Reliability Drive Breslau – Frankfurt” in 1904, where he participated was awarded an honorary award. He also took part in the Herkomer competitions in 1906 and 1907 with a specially developed type with a 40 hp 6.9 liter four-cylinder engine. He won a silver plaque in 1906 and a gold plaque in 1907 without penalty points.

Paul Beckmann also worked as an assessor, then as treasurer of the Silesian Automobile Club, was an "expert on automobilism" and was one of the members of the Association of German Motor Vehicle Industrialists (later: Reichsverband der Automobilindustrie).

Development during and after the First World War

Otto (jun.), Erna and Ilse Beckmann (1903)

Paul Beckmann died at the early age of 48 in September 1914, immediately after the start of the First World War. None of his three children Otto, Erna and Ilse were of legal age and legally competent at this time. After a very disadvantageous transition phase with fiduciary management, which also coincided with the First World War, Paul Beckmann's son Otto (1894–1963) continued the company.

After the end of the First World War, the breadth of the product range was significantly reduced. The company gave up manufacturing its own engines in 1922 and purchased units from Basse & Selve , Altena / Westphalia.

Ilse Beckmann in a Beckmann SL 40 (1925)

Ilse Beckmann (1898–1988) drove successfully in Beckmann vehicles in various automobile races in the 1920s - as a pioneer in this field. As was customary at the time, she did this with a co-driver ("lubricant"). Her co-driver temporarily was Rudolf Caracciola , who - three years younger than her - was volunteering as an engineering student at the Fafnir works (Aachen). Shortly afterwards his own great racing career began. Ilse Beckmann also drove a few races with and against Hans Stuck , who was also facing a great career at the time. However, she had to end her own racing activities soon after the company was sold.

takeover

Due to the extremely difficult economic situation, in which many other manufacturers also had to give up, the production of own vehicles was stopped in 1926. The company and its 150 employees were taken over by Adam Opel AG in 1927 .

The Rüsselsheim-based Adam Opel AG set up their Silesian sales and customer service branch in the previous production facilities of the Otto Beckmann company. Otto Beckmann was its managing director until the end of the war due to the war. Silesia (and with it Wroclaw) came under Polish administration in 1945 and is now part of Poland. Today there is a large magazine distribution in the old Beckmann production facility.

Products and their distribution

Vehicle models (selection)

Type / body	Construction period	cylinder	Motor manufacturer	power	v max
Beckmann light wagon (vis-à-vis)	1898-1905	1	De Dion-Bouton (License)	6.5 hp	-
Voiturette	1902-1905	2	aster	10/12 hp	-
Tonneau type XVII	1902-1904	4th	aster	12/16 hp	-
Droschke 12/14 HP	1904-1907	2	aster	12/14 hp	-
Coupé sedan 22/30 HP (upper part removable)	1904-1907	4th	Beckmann	22/30 hp	75 km / h
Delivery truck	1904-1906	2	Beckmann	6 hp	-
Phaeton 20/22 hp	1905-1907	4th	Beckmann	20/22 hp	-
Phaeton 40/50 hp	1905-1907	4th	Beckmann	40/50 hp	90 km / h
Double Phaeton "Herkomer type"	1906-1907	4th	Beckmann	40 hp	95 km / h
Double Phaeton 29/50 hp	1907-1909	6th	Beckmann	29/50 hp	90 km / h
Phaeton	1907– (?)	4th	Courage	28 hp	-
Cab 10/14 hp	1907-1908	4th	Beckmann	14 hp	60 km / h
Double Phaeton 31/50 hp	1909– (?)	4th	Beckmann	50 hp	100 km / h
Sedan 21/40 hp (upper part removable)	1908-1912	4th	Beckmann	42 hp	90 km / h
Landaulet 8/20 hp	1912-1914	4th	Beckmann	20 hp	65 km / h
Sport Phaeton 10/30 PS	1912-1914	4th	Beckmann	30 hp	80 km / h
Sports sedan 22/50 hp	1912-1914	4th	Beckmann	50 hp	95 km / h
Delivery van 8/20 HP	1911-1914	4th	Beckmann	20 hp	-
SL 40 sports car	1924-1926	4th	Selve	42 hp	115 km / h
Phaeton type 8/32	1925-1926	4th	Selve	40 hp	-

Beckmann never achieved particularly high production numbers. The cars were mainly sold in the east of the German Empire , particularly in Silesia, Pomerania and East Prussia . A large number of cabs (taxis) were delivered to some cities; in 1908, for example, a total of 50 went to Berlin. But Beckmann cars were also sold far beyond, albeit in small numbers. Beckmann had sales bases in Berlin, at times also in Munich , Leipzig, Karlsruhe , Posen (Poznań) and Moscow . Even the Russian Tsar's court has moved into a few Beckmann cars. Scandinavia was also supplied, especially Sweden .

Production and export figures are no longer available due to the total loss of the documents due to the consequences of the war. Exact figures are only known from Norway : a total of five vehicles have been delivered there. In Oslo Also car Beckmann, a Phaeton is (according to information currently available), the only surviving 21/45 hp from the year 1911, which had originally been delivered to Sweden. It's privately owned.

literature

• Halwart Schrader : German cars . Volume 1: 1885-1920. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-613-02211-7 .
• Werner Oswald : German cars . Volume 2: 1920-1945. 2nd edition. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-613-02170-6 .
• Hans-Heinrich von Fersen: Cars in Germany 1885–1920. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1965.
• Hans-Heinrich von Fersen: Cars in Germany 1920–1939. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1963.
• Hans-Heinrich von Fersen: Sports cars in Germany. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1968.
• Wolfgang H. Gebhardt: German delivery truck. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-613-01878-0 .
• Hans-Christoph von Seherr-Thoss: The German automobile industry , German publishing house, Stuttgart 1974.
• Aleksander Marian Rostocki: Historia Starych Samochodów, Wydawnictwa Komunikacji i Łączności. Warszawa 1987, ISBN 83-206-0696-9 ,
• Gustav Braunbeck (Hrsg.): Braunbeck's sports encyclopedia automobilism, motor boating, aviation. Berlin 1910, reissued: dbm Media-Verlag, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-930541-04-1 .
• Handbook of the Reich Association of the Automobile Industry, Part I: Type tables for passenger cars. Dr. Ernst Valentin Verlag, Berlin 1926.
• Otto Beckmann & Co, Automobil-Fabrik Breslau: Beckmann Automobile. Catalog, Breslau 1912, In: Deutsches Museum Archiv. Munich.
• Allgemeine Automobil-Zeitung (AAZ). Years 1902–1921.

Web links

Commons : Otto Beckmann & Co  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ gtue-oldtimerservice.de
2. ^ Extract of the death register of the registry office in Breslau I, Archiwum Państwowe we Wrocławiu, Urząd Stanu Cywilnego.