Peter Bauer vehicle factory

The Peter Bauer Fahrzeugfabrik was a manufacturer of vehicle bodies and trailers based in Cologne-Ehrenfeld , which existed until 1996. The company was founded in 1872 by Peter Bauer as a blacksmith and cart smithy.

At first carriages, handcarts and wagon wheels were made. The first vehicle body was delivered in 1900 to the automobile manufacturer Horch , which was then also based in Cologne-Ehrenfeld . Vehicles for street cleaning and garbage collection soon followed. The city of Cologne was always a good customer. The main focus in the program soon became truck bodies and trailers. Busses were also made. With the chassis, a close cooperation developed with Ford , which has its German headquarters in the neighboring Cologne-Niehl .

After the Second World War, the Bauer company flourished again. Numerous special structures according to customer requirements were proof of the company's capabilities, such as moving vehicles, special tankers, mobile bank branches or semi-trailers for serial X-ray examinations. Various special military vehicles were produced for the German Armed Forces, the US Army and the Belgian Army. The 17M was also temporarily built as a convertible for Ford . In the 1960s, Bauer opened another plant in Kerpen-Sindorf to mass- produce special bodies for the Ford Transit .

From the 70s and increasingly in the 1980s, business declined. The plant in Sindorf was leased to Ackermann-Fruehauf in 1984 . In 1986 bankruptcy had to be declared. In 1990 the company Zeppelin GmbH , Friedrichshafen, took over the troubled company in order to achieve success again, especially in the military sector. In 1993 the Cologne company was relocated to Sindorf. But the end could not be stopped; In 1996 the company was closed.

A street in Cologne-Ehrenfeld is named after Peter Bauer. It is a side street of Subbelrather Straße.