Framo (car)
Encyclopedia
Framo was a minivan, motor tricycle and car manufacturer in Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It was established by Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen
Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen
Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen was an engineer and industrialist of Danish origin. He moved to Germany and established several automobile and motorcycle manufacturing companies, including DKW and Framo. Rasmussen acquired a majority interest in Audi in 1928, which four years later became Auto Union...

, the founder of DKW
DKW
DKW is a historic German car and motorcycle marque. The name derives from Dampf-Kraft-Wagen .In 1916, the Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen founded a factory in Zschopau, Saxony, Germany, to produce steam fittings. In the same year, he attempted to produce a steam-driven car, called the DKW...

, in 1923. Framo became the core of the Barkas
Barkas
Barkas was the East German manufacturer of small delivery vans and minibuses named the B1000.The van was built in a new factory on the site of the former plant of the Framo company in Karl-Marx-Stadt, the old factory having been crated up and shipped to the Soviet Union as part of a larger war...

 minivan manufacturer in 1957.

Formation

Framo was founded by the Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen
Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen
Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen was an engineer and industrialist of Danish origin. He moved to Germany and established several automobile and motorcycle manufacturing companies, including DKW and Framo. Rasmussen acquired a majority interest in Audi in 1928, which four years later became Auto Union...

 and two colleagues (Paul Figura, and Richard Blau) as a components supplier in 1923. At this time, the company was called Metall-Werke Frankenberg GmbH and located in Frankenberg, Saxony
Frankenberg, Saxony
Frankenberg is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Zschopau, northeast of Chemnitz.It was the site of the Nazi concentration camp Sachsenburg....

. Rasmussen had earlier founded DKW
DKW
DKW is a historic German car and motorcycle marque. The name derives from Dampf-Kraft-Wagen .In 1916, the Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen founded a factory in Zschopau, Saxony, Germany, to produce steam fittings. In the same year, he attempted to produce a steam-driven car, called the DKW...

, and the Framo factory was created to produce components for DKW motorcycles. Rasmussen played an important role in the establishment of the Auto Union
Auto Union
Auto Union was an amalgamation of four German automobile manufacturers, founded in 1932 and established in 1936 in Chemnitz, Saxony, during the Great Depression. The company has evolved into present day Audi, as a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group....

 group, and DKW is represented by one ring of the four rings of the Audi
Audi
Audi AG is a German automobile manufacturer, from supermini to crossover SUVs in various body styles and price ranges that are marketed under the Audi brand , positioned as the premium brand within the Volkswagen Group....

 brand today.

The production of a motorized freight trike
Trike
Trike can refer to:* Trichloroethylene* Tricycle* Three wheeled car* Three wheeled motorcycle* Ultralight trike, an ultralight aircraft with a hang glider style flexible wing* Trikke* Triceratops* Trike, an album of Bob Log III...

 (TV 300) started in Frankenberg in 1927. The idea was to combine a motorcycle with a cargo area. The tricycles were equipped with a one-cylinder-two-stroke engine made by DKW
DKW
DKW is a historic German car and motorcycle marque. The name derives from Dampf-Kraft-Wagen .In 1916, the Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen founded a factory in Zschopau, Saxony, Germany, to produce steam fittings. In the same year, he attempted to produce a steam-driven car, called the DKW...

. Framo's lightweight and affordable motorized freight trikes were popular with craftsmen and tradesmen. Based on this success, the models ZW 200, LT 200, LTH 200 and LTH 300 were developed.

Relocation to Hainichen

In 1934, the company moved to Hainichen and was subsequently rebranded as FRAMO-Werke GmbH, Hainichen. Framo is a made-up word based on FRankenberg and MOtorenwerk (engine plant). At this point, the company was already employing 700 workers. 1934 also saw the development of compact cars. First, the tricycle Stromer FP 200 was released. Its successors Piccolo VH 200 and Piccolo VH 300 had four wheels. Overall, the cars were not a huge success.
Following up on the earlier success of the motorized freight trikes, a new line of minivan
Minivan
Minivan is a type of van designed for personal use. Minivans are typically either two-box or one box designs for maximum interior volume – and are taller than a sedan, hatchback, or a station wagon....

s with four wheels was introduced in 1938. The first model was called V 500.

World War II

The production of military products and weapons began in 1943. From September 1944 until April 1945, 500 female prisoners of a subcamp of the Flossenburg concentration camp
Flossenbürg concentration camp
Konzentrationslager Flossenbürg was a Nazi concentration camp built in May 1938 by the Schutzstaffel Economic-Administrative Main Office at Flossenbürg, in the Oberpfalz region of Bavaria, Germany, near the border with Czechoslovakia. Until its liberation in April 1945, more than 96,000 prisoners...

 were forced to work for the Framo enterprise.

East Germany

In 1945, on the orders of the occupying Soviet military administration, the factories were dismantled as part of war reparations
War reparations
War reparations are payments intended to cover damage or injury during a war. Generally, the term war reparations refers to money or goods changing hands, rather than such property transfers as the annexation of land.- History :...

 and shipped to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

.

The factory restarted the assembly of the pre-war-model (V 501/2) in 1949. The newly developed postwar models V 901 and V 902 entered the market in 1951. The development of varying superstructures began in 1953.

Framo museum

A museum dedicated to the brands Framo and Barkas was opened in Frankenberg, Saxony
Frankenberg, Saxony
Frankenberg is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Zschopau, northeast of Chemnitz.It was the site of the Nazi concentration camp Sachsenburg....

 in 1993. As of 2007, eighteen cars, motorized tricycles and minivans are on display.

External links

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