| Hebmüller Sons | |
| Type: | Private company |
| Fate: | Bankruptcy in 1952 |
| Foundation: | 1889, Wuppertal, Germany |
| Founder: | Joseph Hebmüller |
| Defunct: | 1952 |
| Locations: | One |
| Industry: | Automotive |
| Products: | Volkswagen Type 14A, Opel Kapitan & Admiral, and many other manufacturers like Ford and Mercedes |
Hebmüller Sons (German: Karosseriewerke Joseph Hebmüller Söhne) was a coachbuilder founded in 1889 by Joseph Hebmüller in the town of Wuppertal in Germany.[1]
Hebmüller initially constructed horsedrawn carriages, but after the death of its founder in 1919 his sons started building bodies for automobiles.[1]
After World War II, the company received an order from the British Army to build 15 Humber based cabriolets.[2]
The company's best known model is perhaps a 2+2 convertible based on the Volkswagen Type 1 platform - known as Volkswagen Type 14A or "Hebmüller Cabriolet". It also built a number of four-door cabriolets on the Type 1 platform (Type 18A), with canvas doors.[3]
By the end of the 1940s, Hebmüller's economic situation was deteriorating. However, it was widely reported that Volkswagen ordered 2,000 vehicles, with production starting in June 1949. A massive fire struck its Wülfrath factory on 23 July 1949, which, due to a water shortage, could not be extinguished before almost the entire facility was destroyed.[4] Although the factory was rapidly rebuilt, and over 350 more cars were produced in 1949 alone, the company never recovered from the destruction.[4] Only 696 cabriolets were completed before the company went bankrupt in May 1952,[4] with Karmann of Osnabrück[5] (which was already producing a four-seater Type 1 cabriolet to its own design) producing a final batch.
The Ford Motor Company subsequently purchased the former Hebmüller factory.[1]