1952 CIA Intelligence Report - Economic - Heavy industry; motor vehicles

Central Intelligence Agency
Information from Foreign Documents or Radio Broadcasts
Country: German Democratic Republic
Date of Information: 1951
How Published: Monthly periodical
Date Distributed: 16 Jan 1952
Where Published: Berlin
No of Pages: 2
Date Published: Jan 1951
Language: German
Source: Der Verkehr

Production of motor trucks under the GDR’s 1951 economic plan


The Five-Year Plan initiated on 1 January 1951 calls for a 1,000-percent increase in motor truck production as compared with 1950. The editors of Der Verkehr interviewed Kurt Land, managing director of VVB IFA (Federation of People-Owned Motor-Vehicle Plants), and Karl Seidel, its technical director, to learn what preparations had been made by VVB IFA to guarantee this planned increase. They were informed that a standardization program for 1951-1955, including retooling, was in full swing. This year’s models are ready for series production, and manufacture of motor trucks during the year will be increased 250 percent, as compared with the previous year. Development of the 1952 models will also be started in 1951.

A central experimental plant is to be built to promote development and testing of all vehicles and to centralize all work relating to design and experimentation. Work on this plant was started last year.

Training is receiving particular attention. Since the beginning of 1950, the number of apprentices has risen from approximately 2,400 to almost 4,000. The number of apprentices at the new training institute in Zschopau is to be increased to 400.

Exempting the truck plants from other manufacturing obligations is an important step in the realization of the Five-Year-Plan production program. For instance, the FRAMO plant is completely relieved of the production of horse-drawn vehicles, and 40-horsepower tractor production is being transferred from the Horch plant to another plant. Repair activities will be considerably curtailed, and eventually all repair work will be transferred to the KWU (communal economic enterprises). Investments made by the VVB IFA under the Two-Year-Plan were an important step toward increasing capacity, and this capacity will now show its effects under the Five-Year-Plan.

Lang said that an experimental one-ton model of the well-known 3/4 -ton FRAMO truck will be serially produced in 1951. The new truck, which is already in the blueprint stage, features a considerable increase in per-horsepower engine performance and an improved chassis. the 1.5-ton Phaenomen will be equipped with an air-cooled diesel engine, and its load capacity will be increased to 2 tons. Necessary tests and experiments have already been carried out under the Two-Year Plan so that production may be started.

Experience gained with the Horch H3, the first truck manufactured after the war, helped speed development of the 3-ton Horch H3A. Experience gained with vehicles furnished by the Soviet motor truck industry was also utilized. Besides the standard chassis of the H3A type, a low chassis will be developed for buses, tank trucks, cranes, and other special vehicles. A standard series of diesel engines will be produced on the so-called construction-box principle. In addition, experimental work is being done on an even heavier type of motor truck. In this new model also, the engine is one of the types produced on the construction-box principle, offering the same advantages of the H3A type.