Walter Vetter body and vehicle construction
The Walter Vetter GmbH bodywork and vehicle was sen in 1922 by Walter Vetter. founded in Stuttgart-Cannstatt . The company was one of the largest bus manufacturers in Germany in the 1960s . When this business became more difficult for the medium-sized company, it concentrated in the 1980s on the repair and interior fittings of buses and the construction of special buses.
history
The beginnings
From 1922 Walter Vetter sen. after founding his company Walter Vetter body and vehicle in the Stuttgart suburb of Cannstatt first with the production of car - bodies , among others, on the basis of Daimler - and Benz - chassis . After the two companies merged to form Daimler-Benz in July 1926 , he built cars accordingly on a Mercedes-Benz basis.
1930s
In the 1930s, the company moved to the neighboring Fellbach , whereby bus bodies were increasingly being manufactured in line with demand . By Paul Jaray one has license for the construction of buses in streamlining acquired. In 1932, Vetter also built the body of a racing car based on the Mercedes-Benz SSK (jokingly called the “cucumber” because of its shape), which won the international AVUS race that year.
In 1938/39 Vetter built the aerodynamically almost optimal test car BMW K1 designed by him on behalf of the Research Institute for Automotive Engineering and Vehicle Engines ( FKFS ) in Stuttgart under the direction of Professor Wunibald Kamm ; Based on this four-door sedan was a pre-series - chassis of the BMW 335 .
Second World War
During the Second World War from autumn 1939 to May 1945, Vetter practically did not manufacture any vehicles of its own, but mainly repaired damaged omnibuses of the Wehrmacht and Reichspost ( Kraftpost ), and in the case of Wehrmacht vehicles, various looted vehicles from manufacturers in different countries.
post war period
After the end of the war, the company finally gave up car body construction and in the second half of the 1940s mainly repaired damaged buses for transport companies . From the 1950s onwards, Vetter concentrated on the repair and construction of buses, using chassis from Mercedes-Benz , Büssing , MAN , Magirus-Deutz and other manufacturers, some of which were foreign.
Vetter also made in the 1960s special intercity buses (special superstructures on Mercedes-Benz standard intercity bus ), a half-decker buses (as a continuation of a Ludewig -construction with underfloor engine - most recently on the basis of the standard bus), double-decker buses , Club buses , special buses for sightseeing tours with Partly open passenger space and in particular articulated buses for regular and tourist traffic .
In order to also be able to offer a medium-floor articulated pusher bus with a rear engine without the articulation angle control developed by FFG in Hamburg , Vetter designed a three-axle articulated bus with a single-axle front carriage and a two-axle "push carriage" with a first drive axle and leading second steering axle (on components of the Mercedes-Benz O 305 ). However, this development, which is interesting in itself, did not meet the expected interest in the market.
In addition, trolleybuses have also been manufactured since the 1960s , for example three Büssing / Vetter / Kiepe Senator articulated cars for the Offenbach am Main trolleybus based on the Büssing Senator 13 in 1963/1964 R , two articulated wagons SG 192 based on MAN 890 SG for the Kaiserslautern trolleybus , four VE 16 SO based on Mercedes-Benz O 305 G for the Esslingen am Neckar trolleybus and six articulated vehicles (SHO 18) and three solo cars (SHO 11) for the Lugano trolleybus in Switzerland . The electrical equipment was supplied by Kiepe Electric or, in the case of the Lugano cars, by BBC.
Because Daimler-Benz and later other manufacturers of bus chassis became increasingly active in the articulated bus business themselves at the end of the 1970s, without the need for body manufacturers, a collaboration with Scania came about in 1980 , which was not very successful. The coach market was also increasingly competitive in the 1970s and 1980s, resulting in falling prices and falling profits .
1980s until today
After considerable losses, a settlement had to be filed in 1983 . Shortly after Magirus-Deutz left the bus market in 1982 due to years of unprofitability, the series production of another traditional German bus manufacturer ended.
The repair shop at that time was removed from the bankruptcy estate in the 1980s and survived. Today, with 40 employees, it manufactures special vehicles (including book buses and battery buses ) and also deals with the repair and interior fittings of buses.
literature
- Wolfgang H. Gebhardt: German omnibuses since 1895 . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-613-01555-2 , pp. 548-556
- Wolfgang H. Gebhardt: German travel buses . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-613-03037-4 , pp. 196-199
See also
Web links