Reutter

Karosseriewerk Reutter & Co. GmbH was founded in 1906 by master saddler Wilhelm Reutter (1874-1939) in Stuttgart. Reutter applied for numerous patents, including patent no. 225555 on 24 July 1909 for a "folding top with canopy. This "reform body" was thus a constructive forerunner of the cabriolet. Reutter was also a licensee of the Weymann system: leatherette-covered wooden frameworks. Until the Second World War, Reutter built elegant and luxurious bodies for customers on the chassis of almost all renowned German car manufacturers: Adler, Benz, BMW, Daimler/Daimler-Benz, Dixi, Horch, Ley, Maybach, NSU, Opel, Presto and Wanderer. Foreign car manufacturers also had bodies for their vehicles made by Reutter: Ansaldo, Austro-Daimler, Bugatti, Buick, Cadillac, Chrysler, Fiat, and La Salle. The best-known prototypes produced by Reutter were: the Volkswagen for 1932 Zündapp Type 12 and Type 32 based on the NSU, and the 1932 Porsche Wanderer Type 8 Urach, all cars that Ferdinand Porsche played a major role in designing. Erwin Komenda was responsible for the body design of the Type 8 at Porsche. The Type 8 was thus the first order for Porsche after the founding of its own design office on 25 April 1931 and the first and at the same time the last eight-cylinder engine from Wanderer. The Berlin-Rome car (Porsche Type 64) was also fitted with an aluminium body by Reutter in 1939. In 1940, the streamlined K-4 car was built on the basis of the BMW335 designed by Prof. Wunibald Kamm. After the Second World War, a very close partnership developed with Porsche for the production of Type 356 sports car bodies. Reutter built coupé and convertible bodies for over 60,000 vehicles of the legendary sports car from 1950 to 1963. Other individual orders in the post-war years included the development of the BMW 501 prototypes and the conversion of the Citroën DS 19 with a special convertible top. On 1 December 1963, the body plant in Zuffenhausen was sold to Porsche.  After 58 years, the company history of the Stuttgart bodywork factory Reutter und Co. GmbH came to an end - and the first chapter of the new company RECARO (derived from REutter CAROsserie) was opened. Today, Recaro is a global company for car and aeroplane seats and much more. Porsche is still a RECARO customer today.