Mercedes-Benz-Blog TRIVIA: 95 years ago: The Benz factory in Gaggenau

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

Stuttgart, Germany, Dec 05, 2005

95 years ago: The Benz factory in Gaggenau – later to become the Group’s sole commercial vehicle manufacturing facility – came into being

- Benz expands its activities by merging with SAG
- Concentration of commercial vehicle production
- The cradle of diesel-engined trucks from Daimler-Benz

One was looking for capital, the other had an expansion of capacity in mind. And since they were both located in Baden, they came together relatively quickly. We are talking about the pioneering motor vehicle producers Benz & Cie. in Mannheim and Süddeutsche Automobilfabrik (SAG – South German Automobile Factory) in Gaggenau, which had agreed on a pooling of interest as early as 1907. Under this agreement, Gaggenau was to discontinue passenger car production and instead fully concentrate on commercial vehicles.


This plan was designed to benefit both parties. Benz was able to free up capacity urgently needed for passenger car production in Mannheim, while SAG managing director Georg Wiß helped himself out of the sort of tight spot which continues to drive cooperative ventures, mergers and takeovers to this day – a shortage of capital had prevented him from reaching financial results which would have been in keeping with his company’s business success. Like other medium-sized companies, SAG lacked the sufficiently large volumes that would have enabled the company to keep pace with the large factories of Daimler and Benz in terms of quality and innovation.

Benz takes control

The pooling of interest with Benz & Cie had come about through the good offices of Rheinische Kreditbank in Mannheim, and resulted only a little later in the merger with the large competitor.

For the time being, SAG founder Georg Wiß remained the managing director of Süddeutsche Automobilfabrik. But now, business policy was determined by the executives in Mannheim, who had taken over SAG’s share capital, amounting to 350,000 Marks, in exchange for new Benz shares at par value. And before very long, Benz managers were seen moving into offices in Gaggenau.

Benz logo on the radiator

Following on from decisions taken by the partners on December 31, 1910, the factory was renamed Benz-Werke Gaggenau GmbH, new people were appointed to the executive management panel, and SAG’s traditional trademark was replaced by the Benz logo on the radiator mask. Hence, by January 1, 1911, the SAG brand had become history. Georg Wiß, who had taken over the plant ten years earlier and dedi-cated it to commercial vehicles, withdrew from the company. Another two years later, parent company and subsidiary merged. From then on, Gaggenau had the status of a branch of Benz & Cie.

In the 1920s, the Gaggenau plant was highly successful first and foremost with extensive deliveries to German and foreign military fleets. It also continued to engage in pioneering work – under SAG management, it had already produced the world’s first motorized fire-fighting vehicle as well as a full-line commercial vehicle range from light-duty delivery vehicles via heavy-duty trucks with a payload capacity of six tons through to all kinds of purpose-built vehicle and highly appreciated buses. The valley of the River Murg set the scene on September 10, 1923 for the first testing of the first diesel-engined truck which instantly “showed 23 percent less consumption than a gasoline engine,” as the engineers noted contentedly.

Concentration of truck production in Gaggenau

After the merger of Benz & Cie and Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1926, Gaggenau even assumed the role of central commercial vehicle production plant of the newly founded Daimler-Benz AG: Gaggenau was to supply all trucks and all bus chassis from this point onwards. Hardly had the world economic crisis from the end of 1929 onwards and the associated serious slump been overcome, however, Daimler-Benz saw itself forced to distribute commercial vehicle production to several plants again in the boom years that followed from 1933. Production of smaller trucks with a payload capacity of up to three tons was relocated to Mannheim, bus bodies became the responsibility of Mannheim and Sindelfingen, and production of special military vehicles was resumed in Berlin-Marienfelde.

By the end of World War II, production in Gaggenau had virtually come to a standstill but was resumed again relatively soon after the capitulation – the most important model until 1949 being the standardized L 4500 war-time truck with a wooden cab. At a time when materials were in short supply, production figures remained modest. Things did not brighten up until 1949 when the L 4500 was replaced by the L 5000 with much better equipment including a steel cab. This classic vehicle was joined by the first new post-war design, the heavy-duty L 6600, which became highly popular especially in the newly revived long-distance transport.

Start of Unimog production in 1951

The first cab-over-engine truck – the LP 315 – appeared on the market in 1954, and impressive export successes were recorded with the 8.5-tonner L 326 which was exclusively built for foreign markets from 1956. Completely new ground was broken in Gaggenau with the cab-over-engine LP 333, known as the “millipede”, which was built from 1958 and, with two steered front axles, was the tailor-made response to new restrictive regulations imposed on dimensions and weights by the German Ministry of Transport. However, the plant was far from saying farewell to the classic “hooded” truck, quite on the contrary. In 1959 Daimler-Benz launched new trucks with rounded engine hoods – the medium-duty versions were produced in Mannheim, the heavy-weights (which remained extraordinarily successful in exports until the late 1980s) in Gaggenau. Another milestone was the year 1951 when Gaggenau started production of the Unimog, an all-rounder of which as many as 1,005 units were produced in the very first year.

Components given priority

Increasingly Gaggenau and Mannheim were reaching the limits of production capacity, and so in 1964 the decision was taken to concentrate future production of all medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks at the new plant in Wörth on the river Rhine. This facility was opened in 1965 and allowed Gaggenau to specialize in Unimog production, as well as axles and transmissions for trucks. After some 50 years of Unimog production, the Gaggenau plant finally handed over this branch of its work to Wörth in mid-2002 and successfully developed into the center of competence for manual and automated transmissions. In addition, the plant produces other major assemblies, notably all planetary axles and passenger-car torque converters.

In addition, the Gaggenau plant also accommodates a department with expertise of a very particular kind. Here, at the point where the flat Rhine valley plains disappear into the steep hills of the Black Forest, this department finds the ideal environment for its work – even though much of this is shrouded in secrecy. But that is in the nature of things. For this department’s business is testing heavy-duty trucks with a view to optimally matching individual assemblies and components within the complete vehicle.










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