Forgotten German Classics

Here we look at some German car-makers with less-familiar names, like Adler, Brennabor, Dürkopp and Stoewer. They mostly entered the field cautiously, via motorised bicycles, motorcycles, and three-wheelers. These firms were all successful in their automotive efforts. Brennabor became the biggest car producer in Germany in the 1920s, and Adler was the third largest manufacturer a decade later. Three firms found themselves in Soviet-controlled regions after the Second World War. Phänomen evolved to make Robur trucks in East Germany, and Brennabor returned to pram-making, but Stoewer, ending up in Poland, disappeared entirely. The other companies mostly returned to their core product lines; typewriters, sewing machines, bicycles or motorcycles, and a number of them had a stab at motor scooters in the 1950s. Some of these great names had to combine in order to survive, such as Dürkopp-Adler, while others faded into obscurity as the big car marques came to dominate the motor industry.