The First ‘People’s Car: Hanomag

It was so narrow that it could turn corners without a differential. It had a slab-sided body reminiscent of the 1950s, it was propelled by a chain-driven one-cylinder motor that had never grown up and it sold in large numbers. The time was 1924, the place of manufacture Hanover, and most of the buyers, German. It was its ugly squared-off look that earned it the name of Kommissbrot, meaning Army Loaf, which had been more or less the same shape. Its body was the last word in non-aerodynamics and its two side-by-side seats were made only for the slimmer German. A single headlamp gave a fitful light and its overall weight was a Flyway 816 lbs. But it gave 16,000 working families a longed-for freedom of travel a ‘People’s Car’ well before the VW Beetle and era of mass personal transportation.

Hanomag was not new to the transport business. The company had made locomotives since the last century and trucks since 1905. Known for the durability of its products the firm was unusually successful with its first car, and built the 2/10 hp Army loaf until 1928 when competition from Dixie, a version of Britain’s baby Austin Seven made under license at Eisenach, and the continued high sales record of Opel’s larger Laubfrosch (Treeforg), forced Hanomag to produce a larger car.

By the early thirties Hanomag were turning out the Teutonic norm for the period-front-front-wheel drive cars of a liter and up and called such Wagnerian names as Sturm, Kurier and Grant the six-pot 2.250 cc Sturn being the flagship a range little different from the rest of the market although at RM 2700 (about $675) for the kurier in 1937 the prices were high.

Hanomags scored wins in rallies and hill climbs during the late thirties and by 1939 were offering several models that were aerodynamically well ahead of their time (although front ends tended to look slightly like Chrysler Airflow from the USA) with unitary construction and a drag coefficient half a generation in advance of the rest. Hanomag pioneered the-the use of the diesel engine in private cars, the 1910 cc Record making its debut at the 1936 Berlin Motor Show, and a futuristic aerodynamics Diesel Rekord built for record-breaking doing just that in 1939 when it captured a number of world records for diesel cars.

A Spin-off was their popularity in Sweden during World War II where their low compression motors accepted a charcoal adoption, and Hanomag tried to make a comeback with its ‘Partner’ in 1951 but the vehicle didn’t attract customers. So the company returned to making trucks.