General Motors G.M.B.H. Berlin - Borsigwalde

[Roland Harington]

I have a 1930 Buick model 44 which I bought from an old lady who was in an old age home.The car belonged to her father who found it stuck in a river in 1952 in South West Africa, now Namibia. It was in the north of the country,does not rain very often, so it was stuck in the sand, it had been used to tow a drilling rig {for water}

I presume it was brought to SWA during the German occupation.

The General Motors in Borsigwalde produced mainly Chevrolets and moved to a larger plant in 1930

Can the "wise men" give me more info on this car,it is left hand drive which is a major problem in our contry,as we canot licence LHD vechiles that were not licenced before 2004

I have posted two photos ,1 ID plate and 2 a photo of it in 1952, looks the same now.

Thanks

Roland Cape Town

[pepcak]

Roland, what kind of information are you looking for?

Technical specifications would be the same as any other US built 30-44. I have seen German built Buick some 14 yrs ago in here in Czech republic, as far as my memory serves it was 1929 model. Do not remember if it was left or right hand drive though...

My friend here has another 30-44 that was left in former Czechoslovakia by US army officer.

[Roland Harington]

More on history and rarity,specks are same as US models,have a freind outside Muinich who has a 31-57 with a Glasser Cabrolet body built onto it,he had a 31-90 which he found in Czechoslovakia,he restored it and sold it to a Swiss car collector,there was an article about him in the Buick Bugle about 10 years ago,I spent a very interesting week with him.

Thanks Roland Cape Town

Have not worked out how to use spell-check jet!

[jscheib]

Roland,

Great find. This looks like a conventional US built Buick for 1930, with the exception that the ligts were provided locally to conform to local standards. More then likely, these were US made for export with LHD for mainland Europe, rather then Canadian made cars for England and other commonwealth with RHD (and also to avoid import taxes).

Too bad about the regulation that will not allow registration. Maybe you can find a chassis made for RHD countries, with a bad body that would allow an easy (correction, easier) change.

I am trying to track many of coach bulilt bodies of Buicks, so I would appreciate if you could get a bit more info on that one in Switzerland, but I will be trying to track it down, as well.

I am not sure anyone has records of the cars that were assembled in Germany or Antwerp.

Chassis and cowls that wenr to coachbuilders may be found.

John

[Roland Harington]

John,

I am under the impresion that the lights are the same,the glass lens was made by Hella,see attached photo.

I plan to restore it as a LHD car and fight them,it was register in SWA and at that time South Africa administered that country,have RHD gearbox housing and steering works. You do not find spare chassis and parts here,ebay and others make us drool with envy !

The person I was talking about is Kurt Vogler,he was a BCA member,if not now go back a few years and you will find him.I will attach a few photos of his curent Glasser bodied Buick ,he does a lot of touring in his car, is a tipical German perfectionist

Cheers

Roland Cape Town

[pepcak]

Sorry for yet another request - any pictures available of that 31-90 from Czechoslovakia?

[Guest DaveCorbin]

Dear Roland:

The numbers on the body plate match as to the frame number and engine number being assembled at Buick for a 1930 Model 44, which is a LHD car. It was approximately the 3300th of the 3476 Model 44's for 1930. This data is directly from the Buick factory records. I hope it helps.

Regards, Dave Corbin

[Roland Harington]

Josef,

I do not have any photos of the 31-90.Kurt showed me his album during my stay with him ,he bought it from a fisherman who fished at some lake in your country ,he used to throw the oars into the back of the car,it had many round dents which he had to hit out.

The last email I used was corola-vogler@t-online.de,his English is as good as my German but after a glass of red wine we really talk Buick contact him !

Cheers

Roland Cape Town

[Roland Harington]

Dave thanks for info,I wonder how it got to SWA ,was it a better car ?

Cheers

Roland Cape Town

[Guest DaveCorbin]

Dear Roland:

Trying to follow how some Buicks got where they are today will drive you a little bit off the wall!! I've learned about Buicks in places that you wouldn't dream of. (Tashkent, Uzbekistan for instance)

I was able to find and turn the production records for 1907 Buicks built at Jackson into a excell file so I could "data-mine" it. Buick is 2 1/2 years old at that point and built 543 cars there that year. They went to 36 US states and 9 foreign countries on 4 continents! Bill Durant was a promoter extraordinaire, and it seem to have continued.

My personal experience includes several years working at the International Harvester heavy truck plant in Indiana. In 1964, we sent trucks to 163 different countries!

Regards, Dave Corbin

[Roland Harington]

Dave I sent you a number of a 1923 Buick engine,you replied and told me that an engine with the following number was in England. I am sturring the pot and seeing what the final brew might be, like we all do !

Cheers Roland

[Guest Oracle]

Some history for you:

GENERAL MOTORS G.m.b.H. was incorporated, probably on 1 April, in 1925 as an “anticipatory measure”, initially to be the German “front office” with orders being passed on to either of that G.M. Export Company Home Office in New York, G.M. International A/S in Københaven, Denmark, or G.M. Continental S.A., Antwerpen/Anvers, Belgium. The original capital of the company was 10,000 Reichsmark. The company was however just a small one-room office in Berlin that carried no stock of cars. George P. Harrington was the first Managing Director. This was against the background of rigid import restrictions that gripped the German market. That said a brochure of a 1925 Chevrolet Model M truck chassis clearly indicates a Berlin address, which proves that trucks were also imported to order as well as passenger cars.

In August 1925 the Reichstag passed a law that abolished import restrictions on motor cars and the small G.M. group moved immediately to the Freeport of Hamburg: “Hamburg-Freihafen”. A building was leased, the staff increased, and by 1 October when the new legislation became effective, G.M. G.m.b.H. was “ready for business as a warehousing operation”. Because of the continuing acute economic conditions prevailing, a dealer network was slowly built up though prospects for the passenger cars were not hopeful because of national prejudice in favour of domestic manufacturers and the prohibitive horsepower tax on the Chevrolet engine. The Chevrolet trucks were however thought to be ideally suited to the German market and on 8 April 1926 assembly started of C.K.D. commercial chassis kits from Chevrolet’s Bloomfield, New Jersey, Boxing Plant. The initial production was apparently 50 Chevrolet trucks per day, for dealers in Germany,

Czechoslovakia, Austria and Hungry. The code allocated by New York was “XF”, that followed on from “XE”, allocated to GENERAL MOTORS DO BRASIL, S.A.,Sâo Paulo, that had opened in September 1925. “XG” was allocated in turn to GENERAL MOTORS SOUTH AFRICAN PTY. LIMITED, Elizabethtown, in August 1926.

In November 1926 G.m.b.H. moved to larger premises in Berlin, with a far more extensive assembly project. This was Berlin-Charlottenhütte and Berlin-Borsigwalde (today part of Berlin-Reinickendorf). This was otherwise known as the “Borsigwalde” Plant: it ios believed that the street address was Charlottenburger Strasse 63/85, Berlin-Borgiswalde. For this larger plant Homer George Zimmermann was drafted in by New York, previously being the Regional Director for Europe. He was appointed Managing Director for a short time with George Harrington as Sales Manager. Then in August 1927, Keith Wood was transferred from G.M. International to take over the management of the operation. Business was so good that a larger building was required, and it is believed in co-operation with Berlin-Karlsruher Industriewerke and Schweitzer & Oppler Eisenfabrikate, G.m.b.H. leased and remodelled a building in Karlsruher, the “Karlsruher” Plant. The building was partly occupied in October 1927 and by the end of December, all assembly operations were being carried on in the new building that seems to have been a short distance away from the Borsigwalde Plant. Berlin-Karlsruher Industriewerke (BKI), was formally Deutsche Waffen-und Munitionsfabriken. The 1937 City Map of Berlin shows that on the left side of the Charlottenburger Strasse (Charlottenburg is a district of Berlin), there was a large industrial building listed as “General Motors G.m.b.H.” and “Berlin-Karlsruher Industriewerke” which also proves that the company was still there!

L.C. Fitzgerald was appointed works manager in Berlin in 1927, and was transferred to Brazil in 1932. He entered the automobile trade in 1915. After spending 2 ½ years with the American Forces in France, he rejoined General Motors in 1919 for a three years’ manufacturing course. This was followed by two years on the road, after which he joined General Motors Export in 1926. He was subsequently made Production Manager of General Motors International [Copenhagen] and then joined G.m.b.H. After Brazil he went to the Detroit office of export plant engineering and maintenance, prior to proceeding to New Zealand for eight months on plant building and plant re-arrangement, and then to General Motors Limited by 1938.

The Berlin company enjoyed two years of prosperity, though the small passenger car business remained a closed field. In order to secure a slice of the market G.M. acquired a controlling interest in Adam Opel A.G. in Rüsselsheim, though it is believed that they had an office in Berlin, perhaps in Wiesbaden. Keith Wood was appointed Liaison Officer between Opel and the Regional Staff, and Arthur J. Wieland was appointed Managing Director of G.m.b.H. Wieland had been at one stage Managing Director of G.M. Near east in Alexandria that had opened a warehouse in August 1926. Wieland was appointed Sales Director for Opel in September q930 and succeeded by George Wolf, until Wolf left to head G.M. Peninsular in March 1932. Also in 1930, General Motors G.m.b.H. built a prototype of the first Overseas bus bodies designed by the Berlin Body Centre.

The depression hit Germany and with the competition from the Opel Blitz truck it was decided to end assembly in Berlin. Early in 1932 it was decided to place General Motors G.m.b.H. as a Zone Office of G.M. Continental S.A., Antwerp. With William Lind in charge. Lind was moved in early 1934 to be Sales Manager at G.M. Nørdiska in Stockholm, and was replaced by F.A. von Schon, although he was transferred by July 1934 to Antwerp as Parts Manager and Hermann E. Hansen succeeded as Managing Director, and indeed may have been the last M/D.

In 1933, car assembly had finished in favour of imports through G.M. Continental. However in 1935, on 8 February 239 Chevrolet cars were ordered from G.M. Export Company, NY. In April 1937 a last order of 12 Chevrolet cars was received. However it is believed that in 1936 and 1937 G.m.b.H. negotiated the right to build AC oil filters under licence.