1955 CIA Information Report - Production of VEB Automobilfabrik EMW, Eisenach

Central Intelligence Agency
Country: East Germany
Date: 6 January 1955
Subject: Production of VEB Automobilfabrik EMW, Eisenach
No of Pages: 2
Place Acquired:[redacted]
Date of Info: [redacted]

[Introduction redacted]


1. It was learned that the manufacture of EMW-340/2-type cars was resumed by VEB Automobilfabrik (motor car works) EMW Eisenach in May 1954. About 4,000 340/2-type vehicles were to be produced by the end of 1954. Difficulties in the supply of gears, however, arose as early as July 1954, and production had to be entirely stopped in August 1954 because a large number of vehicles could not be delivered. The name of the firm manufacturing the gears for EMW-340/2 was not ascertained.1

2. On 24 August 1954, the plant demonstrated to the Ministry for Machine Construction an experimental IFA F-9 type car fitted with a pontoon-shaped body. The exterior shape of this type was very similar to the M-12 type Ford-Taunus or the Opel-Rekord. Since it was an experimental car, the Ministry for Machine Construction was to decide whether this car was to go into mass production or not. It was not planned to exhibit the car at the Leipzig Fair in September 1954.2

3. [Redacted] Comment. Other information confirmed the resumption of production of EMW 340/2—type sedan. The original 1953 quota was a total of 1,000 WMW-type sedans which, however, was later reduced to 932 cars and actually fulfilled, as the October 1953 production report indicated. The months from January to March or April 1953 were the most productive period. Only a few cars were produced during the subsequent months as a result of the gradual completion of the production. No quota was fixed for the manufacture of EMW sedan in the third and fourth quarters of 1953. The reports available do not indicate whether the temporary stoppage of production had anything to do with the transfer to Eisenach of the manufacture of IFA F-9-type car or with the previously mentioned plans to produce an improved 340-type model. In another information, however, the same observer stated that the vehicles, whose manufacture has been resumed, show no novel features which distinguish them from the 340-type sedans allegedly planned to be reached by the end of 1954 would mean a daily production of about 18 cars, if production had been resumed in May. This output would not exceed the capacity of the plant. It is believed that the sub-contractor for the gears of EMW-340/2 is either VEB Lenkgetriebewerk (gear plant) Tritis or VEB Lenkgetrebeewerk “Joliot Curie” in Liebertwolkwitz.

Commet. No new information is available concerning preparations for…. [entire page redacted - but this may be an error]

The manufacture of an IFA F-9-type sedan with pontoon-shaped body. It does not seem improbable that such ideas actually exist, because a good deal of IFA F-9-production is exported, and the shape of vehicle must be more adapted to the taste of foreign buyers.