borgward history
The history of the car manufacturers Goliath, Hansa, Lloyd and Borgward, have a close connection to the mechanic Carl F.W. Borgward.
Borgward, one of the symbols of the german economic miracle called "Wirtschaftswunder", the old man with his cigar, was born on November 10th, 1890.
He was child no.13 of a coal merchant in Altona near Hamburg, Germany.

After his apprenticeship as a mechanic, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Borgward studied mechanical engineering for four semesters in Hamburg. In the year 1919 he bought the participation at a small company manufacturing machines for cutting beans.

1924 he developed the "Borgward Blitzkarren", a small transportatio vehicle with three wheels, Motorradsattel und a 2-stroke motor with 2,2 hp.
The german post department, the Reichspost, ordered this Blitzkarren to empty the letterboxes in the large cities. This invigorates the company of Borgward und Cie (together with the merchant Wilhelm Tecklenburg), so soon a new model with a stronger motor and higher payload could be developed, the new Goliath.

1928 the company moved to Bremen-Hastedt, where Borgward gained the holding of the Hansa-Lloyd-Group.
There he built about 4000 Goliath-Pionier.

1934 Borgward manufacturedthe passenger cars Hansa 1100 and Hansa 1700 and fron now on he competed with the renowned car manufacturers such as Opel, Adler, Hanomag etc.

1939, at break-out of world war II, Borgward is nominated for economic leadership of the german government, so in 1945 he was interned by the victor powers.
In 1946 he would be released but his works in Bremen Hastedt and Sebaldsbrück he found destroyed.

In 1948 he was set free and was allowed to carry on the business of his works in Bremen. He produced a new designed Threewheeler, the GD750, and a brandnew, very modern car, the Hansa 1500.
Very soon the two-stroke vehicles Lloyd LP300 und Goliath GP700 came out.

In the following yerrs, lots of new cars were designed, light trucks as the B2500, more passenger cars like the Hansa 1800 (also with Diesel engine) and the 6-cylinder prestige model Hansa 2400 Pullmann.

The most known and at the same time most beautiful passenger car surely is the Borgward Isabella, from 1956 on also built as a coupé.

Even the construction of a helicopter called "Kolibri"seemed to be possible, but this helicopter never reached a licence.

With the P100, a mighty, 6-cylinder car with 100 hp and a suspension called "airswing", the Borgward era endet.
The Senat of Bremen in 1961 called out the insolvency of the Borgward dynasty.

1961 all workers were dismissed.
The works are sold, the life-work of Carl F.W. Borgward is destroyed.
Yet all creditors will be satisfied.
This could be a hint, that it had been possible to prevent the company from the bankruptcy.

At Juli 28th 1963 Borgward died in his villa in Bremen.

borgward logos pictures