Karmann tradition with Volkswagen future

Steel roof or "fabric hat"? Wilhelm Karmann did not ask himself this question at the beginning of the 20th Century when he, in 1913, registered his first patent which was to turn his young company in Osnabrück into a global operation decades later. The "mechanics for the folding top" went on to revolutionise automobile construction for vehicles "without a roof". Karmann already had twelve years of experience in body construction of carriages and the early automobiles.

From a carriage to a Beetle Cabriolet
With a large order from the Adler Plant in Frankfurt am Main, the Osnabrück company became, as of 1926, one of the leading pioneers of German cabriolets. A rolling legend which is still being built today was created when Wilhelm Karmann – now two generations, Senior and Junior – set up a business connection with the Volkswagen Plant in Wolfsburg shortly after the second world war:

The Beetle Cabriolet, which was developed by Karmann in Osnabrück and was then built under commission from Volkswagen from 1949 to 1980, is – as with the fixed roof version – a synonym of the German economic miracle and also represents the upturn of the company. Up to 10 January 1980, a total of 331,847 Beetles with a fabric roof rolled off the production line. It was with this model that the Karmann's reputation as a specialist for the cabriolet roof and small series grew.

But despite all the Italian elegance of the designer, it remained a "Beetle in sports clothing" – always driven by the most powerful, air-cooled boxer engine currently available out of Wolfsburg, performance developed from a very moderate 30 PS in 1955 to an 50 PS from 1600 ccm in 1974. That was a lot of horsepower, way back then.

Karmann small series competence grows over and above Wolfsburg
At the end of the 1960s other manufacturers started to place orders at Osnabrück, in particular to develop cabriolets or small series models. Karmann was knocking on the door of the automobile aristocracy, making the four-seater Audi 100 for the Ingolstadt company. Karmann developed the "Volksporsche" 914/4 alongside Porsche and Volkswagen. Only recently has the allure of his designs been rediscovered: bauhausesque frugality, characteristic folding headlights and the clear, horizontal contours at the rear.

Strawberry basket with handles
Volkswagen finally introduced the long-awaited successor to the Beetle when it presented the Golf I in 1974. The end now loomed for the open-top Beetle. Karmann therefore took the initiative and developed a cabriolet on the basis of the Golf – still without the famous "handles" on the "strawberry basket". At the 1976 presentation in Wolfsburg, the then Head of Volkswagen Development immediately gave the green light to commence production – "but not without a bar". In order to be successful on the world market, cabrios of this period – such as the Porsche 911 Targa – required an appropriate "handle".

The safety bar Karmann designed was subject to heated debate right from its presentation in 1979 – but it proved to be no obstacle to success. In just 12 years the Golf, with its "fabric hat", overtook its predecessor as the most-produced cabriolet in the world. It received some visual upgrades and survived two Golf generations, and by 1993 a total of 388,525 had been produced. The direct successor also skipped a model change of the closed version and kept on until 2001, with over 200,000 rolling off the production line in Osnabrück.

Porsche also relocated the production of the Cayman in 2012 to the site in Lower Saxony, and in doing so secured more than jobs. The agile and fleet-footed sports car is still a best seller in the Stuttgart company's catalogue today. The raucous noise of the mid-mounted engine in particular is a blast from the past and reminiscent of the 914, the Volkswagen Porsche which was also manufactured at Karmann.

On 17 April 2014 Volkswagen went on to begin with the production of what was at the time a technical flagship project for the Group, the "one-litre-car" XL1. In contrast to the current production of the Porsche Cayman in Osnabrück or the Tiguan I, which is due to expire, the small series of the XL1 did not start in a hall the size of a football pitch. The space resembled much more the Bugatti studio in Molsheim.

Wilhelm Karmann would have given even this technology pioneer a fabric hat, some comment winkingly in Osnabrueck. Who knows. However he would have been proud that the "open-top" T-Roc, shortly to become the only cabriolet from the Volkswagen brand, will be built at his Osnabrück location.