Presto works

Presto-Werke Günther & Co.
legal form	Limited partnership
founding	1897 (as Presto-Fahrradwerke Günther & Co. limited partnership )
resolution	1927
Reason for dissolution	Takeover by the Nationale Automobil-Gesellschaft (NAG) (completed on January 1, 1928)
Seat	Tharandt , Chemnitz , Germany
Branch	Motor vehicle manufacturer

Presto 1.5 HP, 143 cm³, built in 1925

Presto Type E (9/40 hp) from 1926

Presto model from NAG Presto-Werke Chemnitz

The former Presto works in Chemnitz, later the headquarters of Auto Union

The Presto-Werke Günther & Co. were a German automobile manufacturer with headquarters in Chemnitz .

Company history

Foundation and first phase

The Presto Fahrradwerke Günther & Co. Limited Partnership were 1897 in Tharandt from the later of Commerce Georg Günther founded as a bicycle factory. Already in the same year originated in Chemnitz in Zwickau street new plants. From 1901 motorcycles were also produced, with engines from Minerva ( Belgium ) and Buchet ( France ).

From 1901 automobiles from the French manufacturer Delahaye were sold and from 1907 also manufactured under license. There were three versions of the cars that were sold under the Presto-Delahaye name :

• a 10/12 hp with a two-cylinder engine
• an 18/25 hp four-cylinder engine
• a 45 hp four-cylinder engine

From 1908, Georg Günther had racing vehicles manufactured with a capacity of up to eleven liters, with which he participated in the Prince Heinrich drives with moderate success from 1908 to 1910 . It was not until 1910 that the company's own four-cylinder vehicles were produced in series. In the summer of 1914 production was stopped due to the war and only started again in 1921 with the four-cylinder type D. At that time Presto belonged together with Dux , Magirus and Vomag to the DAK ( German automobile group ), which existed from 1918 to 1926. Together with the successor type E, around 8,000 cars were built by 1927. Presto took over the Dux works in Leipzig as early as 1926 . Then the series production of six-cylinder models (type G) with 50 HP and 55 HP engine power began, but they came onto the market with many teething problems (aluminum connecting rods and a new type of engine suspension). This destroyed the reputation of the hitherto regarded as a solid brand: The recall 1927/28, the global economic crisis , combined with a long strike of metalworkers and related problems in the return to the customer created great dissatisfaction, so the company economical in no time Trouble ran into. In 1927 the Nationale Automobil-Gesellschaft (NAG) in Berlin bought the works (completed on January 1, 1928) and continued to build the two luxury cars, types F and G, for another year. Nevertheless, only 1,000 vehicles of these two types were built in two years. At the end of 1928, production was stopped, the production facilities were dismantled and initially moved to Berlin (company headquarters). NAG later handed these systems over to the Büssing works in Braunschweig .

Bicycle and motorcycle production

From now on only bicycles were produced. At the beginning of the 1930s, small engines from Fichtel & Sachs with a displacement of 74 cc were available. Presto had already gained some experience with the DKW Reichsfahrtmotor in the 1920s and became one of the first manufacturers of motorized bicycles from 1930. Numerous other models followed. With the use of larger engines with a displacement of 98 cm³, Presto briefly used ILO engines with kick starters for their own vehicles from 1938 to 1939 .

In 1934–1935, NAG sold the plant to the newly founded Auto Union AG . Presto rented buildings from Sachsenwerk Licht- und Kraft-AG in Altchemnitz . The property of the former Pöge Elektricitäts-AG was acquired later.

At the end of the 1930s, Presto also had to switch to arms production in two departments. In addition to bicycles, tracks and gears for armored vehicles of the Wehrmacht were now also being manufactured. From 1943 on, bicycle production was completely discontinued in favor of chain production, which remained almost the only field of activity of the Presto works until the end of the war in 1945. Ultimately, the remaining materials had to be handed over to the elite diamond works in Siegmar-Schönau , which for a long time was one of the biggest competitors of the Presto works.

After the Second World War

The Presto works were also destroyed in the air raids on Chemnitz during World War II. After the Red Army marched in , it was dismantled as a reparation payment, and on October 3, 1945, the factory was confirmed that it was “abandoned”. The Presto works ceased to exist. As a result of the referendum in Saxony in 1946 , the Prestowerke in Chemnitz was expropriated as an armaments factory two years later in favor of the state of Saxony. The former director Ernst-August Klemm in Olpe (Westphalia) tried unsuccessfully to challenge the expropriation until 1950.

The Leipzig spring fair in 1949 was the last appearance of the company now called IFA Werk Presto. Bicycles were presented together with Wanderer and Möve-Mühlhausen. The Prestowerke logo was officially seen in the trade fair brochure for the last time. Until 1950 the name Presto was used since 1895. One of the last products is an ignition distributor that was manufactured for Framo engines, as the remaining systems were assigned to VEB Fahrzeugelektrik. A small component of the traditional Chemnitz bicycle and automobile construction continued to live here at Presto until the end of the GDR .

Car models 1910–1928

Type	Construction period	cylinder	Displacement	power	V max
8/22 hp	1910-1912	4 row	2340 cc	28 hp (20.5 kW)	70 km / h
Type P10 (10/35 HP)	1912-1914	4 row	2612 cc	35 hp (25.7 kW)	85 km / h
Type P6 (6/18 HP)	1913-1914	4 row	1544 cc	18 hp (13.2 kW)	65 km / h
Type P8 (8/25 HP)	1913-1914 (1919)	4 row	2078 cc	25 hp (18.4 kW)	75 km / h
Type D (9/30 hp)	1921-1925	4 row	2350 cc	30 HP (22 kW)	70 km / h
Type E (9/40 hp)	1925-1927	4 row	2350 cc	40 hp (29 kW)	80 km / h
Type F (10/50 hp)	1927-1928	6 row	2613 cc	50 HP (37 kW)	80 km / h
Type G (12/55 HP)	1927-1928	6 row	3119 cc	55 HP (40 kW)	80 km / h

The Chemnitz brand Presto should not be confused with the bicycle brand of the same name from the Netherlands, which has existed since 1924.

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 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The auto department of AEG in Berlin was behind the NAG . The company in Chemnitz was now called Nationale Automobil-Gesellschaft AG, Prestowerke department, Chemnitz . The vehicles were sold as NAG-Presto.
2. ^ Wolfgang H. Gebhardt: The history of the German truck construction. Volume 2: 1918-1945. Volume b: He – Z. Weltbild-Verlag, Augsburg 1994, ISBN 3-89350-811-2 , p. 151.
3. ↑ Presto Cycle: Past and Future on rbaction.net  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Dutch)  

Web links

Commons : Vehicles from Presto  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The Presto Works in Historisches Chemnitz
• PRESTO - www.presto-chemnitz.de