DKW Auto-Union Project: DKW F89P Production at the Dusseldorf Factory

Wednesday 12 July 2017

DKW F89P Production at the Dusseldorf Factory

After the Second World War Auto-Union was forced to relocate from Saxony in East Germany to Bavaria in West Germany. After taking stock of their few remaining assets, they managed to register a new cmpany, Auto Union Gmbh and set up in a former army commissariat building in Ingolstadt, on the Danube River. The facilities at Ingolstadt however, were unsuitable as a vehicle factory, becoming instead the company's head office, design office and parts store. A new production facility was required if the company was going to return to vehicle manufacturing. In 1950 the company acquired the bombed out ruins of a Borsig-Rheinmetall aircraft factory on the outskirts of Dusseldorf. The ruins were cleared in record time and in a little over a year a brand new, modern manufacturing plant had been constructed. Production of the new F89P New Meisterklasse commenced at Dusseldorf in late 1950 while the reconstruction was still underway. The following article appeared in the new DKW Nachrichten magazine to celebrate the opening of the new plant.

"On the northern edge of the Rhenish industrial metropolis of Dusseldorf, along the wide southern line that leads to the Ruhr, the new DKW plant rises. Here, in what not long ago was the ruins of the former Rheinmetall-Borsig-Werk II, the new DKW master class has been in series production since August 1950, with numbers increasing month to month. While traces of rubble remain, reconstruction has proceeded with great speed the contract was signed on March 13, 1950. From a purely material point of view, the construction of virtually and entirely new plan has been an enormous achievement! In spite of all the difficulties, an energetic start was made, and today, after almost 15 months, the major halls and workshops have been handed over to their planned purpose. The largest, construction phase is thus fulfilled.

The centre-piece of the plant is the 27,000 square meter Hall 22, which was named “Dr. Richard Bruhn." It is - in technical terms - built as a shed structure and is an approximately 160 m long and 135 m wide ground floor building with a saw-shaped roof, which, being mostly made of glass, emits light in abundance. This hall contains the main assembly, the actual birthplace of the new DKW car. Here we see the elegant exterior, the body, transported on belts through the workshop, being shaped, primed, dried, filled, before being sprayed in the modern paint shop."

"In the meantime, the frames are being wheeled onto the finished vehicle belt, from which the complete chassis can now be created in a matter of minutes. Then the bodies are put on and a new DKW rolls off the assembly line every eight minutes. Each car leaves the hall, one by one, under its own power and is taken over by the drive-in department, where it is carefully checked down to the last detail in order to deliver what its good name promises."

"The remaining halls are more or less used for pre-assembly and toolmaking. The 17,000 sqm Hall 52 is intended for the production and mechanical processing of the individual parts. The DKW Universal bodies are made from special wood in a special hall, using the experience that the Spandau plant had gained over many years. The repair factory can be found in Hall 14, which, with its impressive furnishings, is intended to be exemplar for the entire DKW dealer organization."

"The wide rail track network that leads into almost every hall shows the enormous amounts of raw material that have to be fed into production. Already 70 to 100 tons of material are required for the uninterrupted flow of production every day. In addition, the special bodies have to be transported from the feeder plants directly to the assembly lines. But even finished vehicles use these rail tracks, on their way to the various ports from which they are shipped overseas."

"The responsible actions on the part of creative people stands above all the usefulness of technology. Everything depends on him! In order to promote his well-being, green spaces that brighten the environment, uplift the spirit and increase creativity in the workplace itself."

"As difficult as it was to have to start from scratch with the construction of an entirely new plant, it also presented the advantage that - completely unencumbered by anything that existed in the past – an entirely modern plant could be designed that could realize the high demands in terms of production demanded of the modern motor industry."