Gustav Hornig & Co

The roots of car body construction in Meerane lie with the Gustav Hornig & Co. Wagenfabrik, which was founded on 13 August 1869 by Gustav Reinhold Hornig. In 1906, the company switched from coachbuilding to car body construction and from then on called itself Gustav Hornig & Co. One of the first orders was a saloon on a chassis from Presto-Werke Günther & Co. in Chemnitz. The Hornig company subsequently succeeded in establishing business relationships with well-known automobile companies: Adler, Audi, Brennabor, BMW, Chevrolet, DKW, Dux, Elite, Ford, Horch, Maybach, Mercedes-Benz, NAG, Opel, Presto, Rex, Simplex, Steyr, Stoewer and Wanderer. Hornig also built commercial vehicles ranging from ambulances to buses. Special Hornig cars were the 1936 DKW F 5 Roadster, the 1934 Horch streamlined coupés for the 2000 km Deutschlandfahrt, and the 1935 DKW F5 suspension class after Jaray. On 30 June 1946, Hornig in Meerane and its competitor Ernst Dietzsch sen in Glauchau were expropriated. The state-owned companies were renamed VEB Karosseriewerk Meerane and VEB Karosseriewerk Glauchau in 1947. The so-called state-owned body factory in Meerane produced bodies for the IFA F 8, the F 9 convertible saloon, the sensational Wartburg Coupé and, from 1958, the Trabant 500, but also buses for Framo, Barkas and bodies for lorries from Zwickau, Werdau and Ludwigsfelde, to name just the most important. The VEB Karosseriewerk Meerane was closed on 27 October 1998.