Stoewer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stoewer was a German automobile manufacturer before the World War II whose headquarters were in Stettin (Szczecin).
The first company was founded by the Stoewer brothers, Emil (lived 1873 - 1942) and Bernhard (1875 - 1937) in 1896 for manufacturing sewing machines in Stettin. In 1899, the Stoewer brothers founded the firm Gebrüder Stoewer, Fabrik für Motorfahrzeugen and started to produce automobiles. Their first automobile was the Grosser Motorwagen (Large Motor Car), with 6.5 hp (4.8 kW) and 17 km/h (11 mph) maximum speed.
In 1908 Stoewers constructed Stoewer G4. This model was immensely successful - 1070 cars were built. In 1910, Stoewer cars were built under licence by Mathis of Strassburg. In 1916, the family-owned company was transformed into a limited company under the name of Stoewer-Werke AG, vormals Gebrüder Stoewer.
In the mid-20's a new class of cars was introduced: the D-Types included D3, D9 and D10 with four-cylinder engines, as well as D5, D6 and D12 with six cylinders. Something special was in 1921 class D7 with a proprietary six cylinder aero engine with 120 hp (89 kW). It was the strongest car in those days.
In 1928 the company started to build S8 and G14 models with eight cylinder engines. At the beginning of the 1930s Stoewers delivered their highlights: G15 Gigant, M12 Marschall and P20 Repräsentant, each with eight cylinder engines, with 60 to 120 hp (45 to 90 kW) and 130 km/h (81 mph) maximum speed. The production of these cars had to be cancelled after 2,500 vehicles being produced due to worldwide economic troubles. In 1931 Stoewer constructed one of the first cars with front-wheel drive at all, class V5 25 hp (19 kW), 80 km/h (50 mph) maximum speed. The model named Greif Junior was built under the licence of Tatra. Its afterdecessor V8 Greif was the last car being constructed by Mr Stoewer itself, class Arkona and Sedina were the last civilian cars produced by the company.
With the beginning of World War II, Stoewer factory started to produce cars for the Wehrmacht as LEPKW class (Leichter Einheits-Personenkraftwagen, or Small Unit-Personnel Carrier). After World War II, the Red Army seized the remaining production facilities, dismantled them and sent to the Soviet Union. The days of car manufacturing in this famous factory were over.
