The name Karmann and our E9s go hand-in-hand, for better or worse. Despite BMW designing, assembling, and selling the car, the actual production and painting of the car body was outsourced to Karmann in Rheine, West Germany. What is a significant part of our car’s history was merely a small chapter in the history of Karmann, who ended up building cars for nearly 110 years at facilities around the world. Yet, being one of the main players in the automotive industry, how much do we actually know about the Karmann family and their car-making business?

THE KARMANN FAMILY
Wilhelm Karmann Senior
Wilhelm Karmann Sr. was born on 14 February 1871 in Krefeld, Germany. From a young age, he was surrounded by horse carriages as his father, August Karmann, owned a coachbuilding business. As was common in those days, he was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps, and once he was of age, he completed his training as a wheelwright. Little did he know that this training would become of fundamental importance for the rest of both his life and career. Fascinated by the ever-expanding possibilities that the late 19th century presented, he began attending a technical drawing course after church on Sundays, bringing his dream of building his own motor vehicles closer to realisation.

His father, however, wasn’t as progressive. After deciding that Wilhelm would be unable to implement his ideas in the family business, he decided to separate ways and go down his own path. Working at various coachbuilding companies as a technician during the following years, he eventually became an operations manager at Heinrich Scheele in Cologne in 1899. Yet his desire to own his own coachbuilding company never left his mind. In 1901, he saw an opportunity to realise his dream and bought the coachbuilding business of Christian Klages in Osnabrück, where he was to reside for the rest of his life.

On 24 November 1908, he married Mathilde Elsinghorst, and it wasn’t long before the first children made their appearance. His only son, Wilhelm Jr, was born in 1914, and the long-term plans for the family business would finally be secured once he joined the company in 1933. Interestingly, his daughters would marry into the Battenfeld and Boll families, who later became partners and major shareholders (30% each) in the Karmann GmbH family business until the company’s insolvency in 2010.

Wilhelm Karmann Sr. continued to develop and expand the family business with his son Wilhelm Jr. and the automotive industry in general. After nearly 50 years since the start of Karmann GmbH, they managed to secure a contract with Volkswagen in 1949, the beginning of a successful collaboration and the foundation of Karmann’s global success.

In 1950, he was accepted into the “Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulchre” in Jerusalem by Cardinal Grand Master Nicola Canali. He became an officer of the Knightly Order that same year. Sadly, Wilhelm Karmann Sr. died on 28 September 1952 at the age of 81 due to pneumonia, leaving the family business in the capable hands of his son, who would continue his father’s legacy in the automotive world.

KARMANN GMBH
Coachbuilding
Three years after the birth of Wilhelm Karmann Sr, Christian Klages founded the “Wagenfabrik Christian Klages”, producing horse-drawn carriages and bicycles. According to an advertisement in the local newspaper in 1892, he had soon grown to become the oldest and largest coachbuilder in the area. After he died in 1899, his widow Minna Klages continued to run the business until she sold it to Wilhelm Karmann Sr. on 1 August 1901.

Early Days
Karmann took over the facilities and its ten employees and continued to produce carriages for the first year, keeping the Klages name. However, within months of acquiring the company, he saw a major market opportunity and shifted production to create car bodies instead. With the company now named Karmann GmbH, he delivered his first car bodies to the Dürkopp Werke in Bielefeld in 1902. Orders from private customers soon followed, and Karmann began creating a name for himself. It didn’t take long before large car manufacturers, including Adler, DKW, and Opel, started knocking on his door. As work continued to increase, Karmann moved the factory to the Martinistraβe in Osnabrück in 1911.

Having had a fascinating interest in the idea of convertible cars since his early days, Wilhelm Karmann registered his first patent in 1913: a mechanism for folding tops. Yet his innovative thinking didn’t stop there. In 1924, he travelled to the USA, where he visited the largest coachbuilding factory in the world at the time, Fisher Body Company, to study their modern production methods. Upon his return, he completely abandoned the wooden construction of car bodies. Instead, he switched to the newly learned knowledge of mixed construction, a process where metal bodies are attached to wooden frames.

These new body panels required a lot of work, and it quickly became clear to Wilhelm that to produce them in larger series, he would need to develop and create his own pressing tools. Working together with the Adlerwerke in Frankfurt, they quickly became a pioneer in the series production of specialist cars, focusing on convertibles and coupés. Business was booming, requiring Karmann to expand his facilities once again. In 1930, a new production facility was opened in Fledder. However, as the Second World War was looming over Europe, he was soon forced to stop the production of car bodies and instead produce army vehicles and parts for the aircraft industry.

Post War
The war had destroyed most of the industrial facilities in Germany, including Karmann’s. As soon as Wilhelm Jr returned, he and his father began rebuilding the family business. Although the construction of cars wasn’t an option at first, they managed to put the remaining production resources to good use. For example, they made over 100,000 forks and spoons for the British Army and over 10,000 tin tubs for wheelbarrows to aid the reconstruction of Germany. While these relatively small jobs went a long way, it was the continued cooperation with the Ford Company that put Karmann back on their feet. Shipping in the remaining stocks of tools that were still available in East Berlin, they restored and modernised them in Osnabrück and delivered them to Ford in Cologne. Ford’s satisfaction quickly resulted in additional commission work to supply 2,000 sets of pressed parts, soon followed by their first large post-war order: the supply of 800 platform bodies for Ford trucks. Within a year, others followed, including the production of 1,000 cabs for the Hanomag road tractor.

These orders once again confirmed to the Karmann duo that their future and expertise lay in the making of car bodies. The post-war boom was now in full swing, and new corporations were formed, including Auto Union GmbH, which commissioned Karmann to build the first prototypes of the all-steel sedan and the 4-seater convertibles and begin full production for 1,000 cars from August 1949 onwards.

1948 saw the most significant change for Karmann, as a single decision taken that year would form a close bond with Germany’s biggest car manufacturer, who would eventually come to take over the company 60 years later. At the start of that year, Karmann Jr. succeeded in purchasing a Volkswagen saloon, the VW Type 1. With the help of his father, they designed and built a prototype convertible, which they presented to Heinrich Nordhoff, the General Director of Volkswagen, later that year. The gamble paid off, and VW was impressed. A small test batch of 50 cars was produced and delivered in May 1949 to VW’s test department, and in August of that year, the first big order arrived: the production of 1,000 Type 15 Cabriolets. As such, the foundation stone for the lasting partnership with VW was laid; what began with 642 people in 1949 soon grew to nearly 1,500 by the time Wilhelm Sr. died in 1952.

Alongside the production of vehicles, Karmann continued using their press shop and test centre to further develop tool-making. Their results were immediately applied in the main factory to shape and produce complicated body parts such as roofs and doors. Despite the initial disagreement between father and son, mainly due to the enormous costs involved, the strategy worked. At the beginning of the 60s, Karmann supplied pressed tools or parts for almost every European car model.

VW Karmann-Ghia
Shortly after taking over complete control of the family business, Wilhelm Jr began working on the design that would later become his most famous creation of all time and solidify the company’s place in automotive history. Still obsessed with convertible cars, he wanted to create a sporty and open two-seater car based on the VW Beetle. At the same time, Volkswagen themselves were also interested in such a car to appeal to the American soldiers stationed in Europe at the time.

At the Geneva Motor Show of 1953, Karmann met Luigi Segre, the owner of Carrozzeria Ghia in Turin, Italy. Once the introductions and formalities were out of the way, a Beetle chassis was shipped from Osnabrück to Turin, where Segre added the self-designed body. To Karmann’s amazement, Luigi presented him the result at the Paris Motor Show that same year. But not with a roadster as agreed upon. Instead, in front of him was a coupé that could also be turned into a roadster. A short-notice meeting with VW took place on 16 November, and thankfully, Heinrich Nordhoff fell in love with the design so much that he commissioned the car’s construction that same day. There was one issue, though, and despite many suggestions, neither of the involved parties had a clear idea of what the car should be named. To everyone’s amazement, Karmann then suggested the name “VW Karmann-Ghia”, simply combining the names of all involved parties. It was a win-win for everyone, and VW could now link itself with the world-famous name Ghia. The first production version of the car was presented to the public on 14 July 1955, and the factory went into full swing. The car was so successful that the planned 3,000 units were quickly increased to 10,000 coupés instead in the first year alone!

As development continued, the first convertible Ghia became available in 1957, and a larger “family” version was introduced in 1961. During the 20 years of production, continued development and improvements led to the sales successes of the VW Karmann-Ghia, with more than 362,000 units sold by the time the last vehicle came off the production line. Some might think this is odd, especially for a sports car that only produced 30 bhp and managed a top speed of 115 km/h. Despite the large numbers of VW Golf Cabriolets and Scirocco’s Karmann would build at their facilities for VW, the Ghia was their most successful vehicle.

Mobile Homes
Always looking to expand and diversify, Wilhelm Karmann Jr. came up with the idea to start producing mobile homes during his trip to South Africa. The first vehicles were designed and built on the base of a Volkswagen T2 and were offered under the name Karmann-Mobil from 1977 onwards. This new venture once again proved innovative, being constructed with a sandwich structure body and featuring two beds, a kitchen, shower and toilet, a large waste water tank, leisure batteries, heated water, and gas heating. Approximately 1,000 units were produced before the new VW T3 and LT models followed. At the same time, a collaboration with Mercedes-Benz allowed him to build campervans based on their frames. Meanwhile, Karmann developed his campervan model called the “Postillion”, the first of many Karmann-Mobil models, such as the Gipsy, Davis, and Distance. With the main facilities in Osnabrück focusing on the production of cars, which still formed the core of the business, Karmann continued the construction of all mobile homes in Rheine.

Despite the motorhome division being sold to Eura Mobil in 2000, Karmann-Mobil continued to operate as an independent company within their group, although production was moved to a new facility near Frankfurt. After years of mediocre sales, a large-scale marketing offensive was launched in 2011, portraying their newly developed Dexter and Davis series designed to cover the entire market segment of vans and campers. Nowadays, Eura Mobil is part of the international motorhome group Trigano. However, Karmann-Mobil remains independent and continues to build campervans at the Sprendlingen factory, introducing their most recent model, “Duncan”, in 2021 based on the Fiat chassis.

BMW Comes Knocking
For the previous decade, BMW had been struggling to stay afloat. All focus was now on the “Neue Klasse” range of cars, and with newer models being added to this range, the production factory was soon at max capacity. If BMW were to continue its growth, it would either have to expand its facilities, which would cost money and time, or look for a partner who could assemble the cars on its behalf. BMW opted for the latter and began looking for a suitable partner.

While the BMW production line was running at full capacity building the 1800 and 2002 series, Karmann had just finished building their new facility in Rheine the year before and was looking for customers to use their new factory. By now, Karmann had made enough of a name in the automotive industry to appeal to BMW, and they soon signed a contract in the early months of 1965. That same summer, production of the 2000CS (E120) series began in Rheine, where, even though the factory was designed to build complete vehicles, Karmann would primarily construct and paint the bodies for BMW before being transported to Munich for final assembly. Although the reasons are not clear cut, the general agreement is that the build quality was not to BMW’s standard, which is why they elected to perform the final assembly of the cars at their facilities in Dolfingen, including the “marriage” of the shell and engine. To put this into perspective, Karmann produced 13,700 bodies of the 2000CS series, yet only 549 of these were complete cars.

The E9 At Rheine
After four years of producing the 2000 coupé series, BMW was ready to introduce its next model, the E9 range, in 1969. The first model was the 2800CS and was based on the 2000 CS series, although it had been enlarged to fit the M30 six-cylinder engine, and the overall design was more based on its bigger sedan brother, the E3. With the Munich production lines still at max capacity, BMW extended their contract with Karmann to build the complete cars and not just the bodywork of the new coupé series.

Although the four-cylinder 2000CS models remained in production at Karmann as a smaller alternative to the new coupé range until mid-1970, the facilities had enough capacity remaining to start building the 2800CS alongside the 2000CS.
Over the next seven years, Karmann would produce and paint a total of 30,565 cars, covering the full CS, CSi, and CSL range. At first, Karmann only built LHD models, as the phase 1 CS and CSi RHD models (pre-October 1973) were converted upon arrival in the UK. From November 1973 onwards, both LHD and RHD models, including the conversion of the CSL City Pack, were all built at the Rheine factory.

Cars were painted in batches of 6, which would speed up the painting process, but more importantly, this avoided the painters having to clean their guns after every car, which was a costly and time-consuming endeavour.

Upon completion of the assembly, cars were transported to Munich for pre-sales checks. The problem, however, was that these cars were loaded onto open trailers, which left them exposed to the weather during the long journey. And since Karmann didn’t treat the steel with any rust preventatives, it resulted in many cars suffering from early rust effects, causing them to disappear from the market by the mid-80s. Sadly, it wasn’t uncommon to find E9s at scrapyards in those days, as their value didn’t justify the extensive repairs needed.

Something that isn’t spoken about often and is an interesting feature of that period was the common use of “Gastarbeiter” (guest workers). Germany had not yet recovered from the massive loss of workers killed during WW2, so a procedure was put in place for hiring workers from small villages in Turkey. These groups of, for example, 100 workers would then split into two groups of 50. BMW/Karmann would then fly these groups to Germany and train them as production line workers. Every six months, the group would switch with the other half of the group still in Turkey to avoid being liable for German tax. This procedure ensured a steady stream of trained workers and that work on the production line could continue uninterrupted. The guest workers lived in barracks with a village representative in charge, who was responsible for ensuring the arrangement worked smoothly. The chartered Boeing 707 airliners were a common sight at German airports.

This arrangement presented Karmann and BMW with an issue, as many of the guest workers did not speak German due to the living arrangements and limited time spent in Germany. Labelling parts wasn’t an option, so they colour-coded the parts they needed to fit as part of their task. The E9 body shells were built on relatively simple jigs with panels hand-selected – better known as “selective assembly”. In other words, if a panel constantly failed selection, it was quickly put aside to become an “original” spare. This explains why body shops worldwide soon came to expect that BMW repair panels frequently needed “hand fitting”!

Other BMW models
After the E9 range was replaced by the E24 6-series in 1975, Karmann continued to build bodies for BMW in the form of the 630CS, 633CSi, and 635CSi. However, it appears that Karmann did not replicate BMW’s constant push for higher quality. After just two years of complete assembly, they were once again limited to only producing and painting the bodyshells, as was the case with all BMW models before. Despite the setback, the Rheine factory continued to build a total number of 86,314 shells by the time production stopped in 1989.

It would be another 20 years before Karmann would produce another BMW model at their factories, which was limited to only the convertible roof modules for the 1-series and 6-series cabriolets.

KARMANN’S NOTABLE CUSTOMERS
Cars
It wasn’t just BMW who used Karmann’s facilities and expertise. Many big names signed short- and long-term contracts with them to produce some impressive cars, including Porsche, Opel, Audi, Ford, Land Rover, and Mercedes. In fact, since the start of the company in 1901, Karmann has built more than 3 million vehicles, including almost 500,000 Ghias. Some of these cars are pretty notable, such as the Porsche 356B (’61-‘65), Porsche 911 (‘67-‘71), Triumph TR6 (’69-’76), Ford Escort RS (’92-’96), and the Audi A4/S4/RS4 convertible (’02-’08). The latter was also the last car to come off the production line in Rheine, whereas the Mercedes-Benz CLK was the last to be produced in Osnabrück before being acquired by the VW group.

Roof assemblies
I wasn’t just car bodies or complete cars Karmann made. As their speciality lay in convertible roof assemblies, many customers used their services for just these elements, which were then shipped to the manufacturers before finding their way onto their cars. Even high-end brands such as Bentley and Spyker used Karmann for their convertible roof models.

KARMANN’S DECLINE
Bankruptcy
For more than 100 years since Karmann started, the company has been one of the main players in the automotive industry. However, not long after the death of Wilhelm Jr, the company began facing significant challenges. The increase in competition, especially from the Far East, changing markets, and internal financial struggles all added to the struggles. Once the major car brands began to develop in-house manufacturing as part of cost-savings, Karmann found it challenging to secure new contracts, and the end of the company that was once a beacon of innovation in the automotive world was now inevitably drawing closer.

In 2009, the financial situation reached the point where the company was forced to file for bankruptcy, listing the lack of new orders and subsequent financial challenges as the primary cause. By the end of the proceedings, Karmann’s facilities were sold off one by one. Finland’s Valmet Automotive bought the roof-component sections in both Osnabrück and Poland, the American part of the business was sold off to the Webasto Group, and the Japanese facilities went to Magna International. The mobile home department had already been sold off previously and continued operating under its own name.

Volkswagen AG Steps In
Thankfully, their long-time partner, Volkswagen AG, stepped in to acquire most of the company, including the Osnabrück factory. This move was seen as both strategic and symbolic, as it aimed to make Karmann’s expertise in convertibles and speciality vehicle production their own.

Although it no longer operates under the Karmann name, the transition marked a new chapter for the facilities and its core workers. Soon after the exchange, Volkswagen revived the production facility and turned it into an integral part of its production network. Nowadays, the plant produces various models, including the Golf Cabriolet, the Tiguan, the T-Roc, and the Arteon Shooting Brake. Alongside VW’s models, they also work on Skoda and many Porsche models, like the Cayman, Boxster, and Cayenne.

What about Rheine
Despite Volkswagen acquiring the production facilities in Osnabrück, it decided not to include the Rheine factory. After 44 years of operation, the doors closed for a final time, and the Karmann sign was removed from the gates. Once the home to more than 1,000 employees and housing the production of Audi’s cabriolets, now no longer existed. Part of the production and 65 workforce members were moved to Osnabrück. However, for the remaining 40 employees who still worked there the week before, the fall of Karmann meant an early retirement.

Nowadays, the factory grounds are part of an industrial park that houses various offices, a manufacturer of wind turbines, a wholesale electronics company, and an international transport group. Thankfully, the “E9” building still exists and has changed little since those days

CONCLUSION
The story of Karmann GmbH underscores the importance of heritage, adaptability, and forward-thinking in the ever-evolving landscape of the automotive world. To this day, their legacy is a testament to their innovative approach to the industry. When Wilhelm Sr. started his small coachbuilding company in 1901, little did he know that together with his son, they would evolve into becoming one of the key players. Over the next 110 years, the visionary leadership of the father-and-son duo would result in long-lasting partnerships with major automotive brands, including Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche.

Unfortunately, once manufacturers began moving outsourced work in-house, Karmann faced numerous challenges and ultimately declared bankruptcy in 2009. Despite their struggles, the core values and expertise survived through the Volkswagen Group’s acquisition of the Osnabrück facilities, continuing to push the boundaries of convertible car technology.

While it is perhaps best known for the iconic VW Karmann-Ghia model, to us, Karmann will always be remembered as the birthplace of our E9s.