founded: 1933

The former Borgward car manufacturing company, based in Bremen, Germany, was founded by Carl F. W. Borgward (1890–1963). It produced cars of four brands, which were sold to a diversified international customer base: Borgward, Hansa, Goliath and Lloyd.

Borgward's Isabella was one of the most popular German premium models in the 1950s, while Lloyd's Alexander / Lloyd 600 model offered affordable mobility to many working-class motorists. The group ceased operations in 1961, following controversial insolvency proceedings.

The brand was revived in the 21st century, with the Stuttgart-based Borgward Group AG designing and marketing cars manufactured in China. After struggling to remain solvent, it also filed for bankruptcy in 2022.

The origins of the company go back to 1905 with the establishment in Varel (near Bremen) of Hansa Automobilgesellschaft and the foundation in Bremen itself of NAMAG, maker of the Lloyd car. These two businesses merged in 1914 to form the "Hansa-Lloyd-Werke A.G." After the war, in the troubled economic situation then confronting Germany, the business failed to prosper and by the late 1920s faced bankruptcy. For Carl Borgward, already the successful creator of the Goliath-Blitzkarren business, the misfortunes of Hansa-Lloyd presented an opportunity to greatly expand the scope of his auto business, and he took control of it.

blitzkarren

1924-1927

The first vehicle Carl Borgward designed was the 1924 Blitzkarren (lightning cart), a tiny three-wheeled van with 2 hp, which was successful in the market gap it filled. Traders with a small budget bought it for delivery. The Reichspost ordered many of them for postal service.

Blitzkarren had neither clutch nor starter. The two-stroke motorcycle engine, under the flatbed, was coupled over a V-belt on the left rear wheel and was pushed to start, and choked to stop, which was not difficult from the driver seat in the rear of a 250 kg payload vehicle on a flat road. 

In April 1933 the tax rules which had been favoring small cars such as the Hansa 400 were abolished; the slow selling smaller Hansas were discontinued soon thereafter. Borgward decided to instead produce the new Hansa 1100 four-cylinder two-door and four door all-steel Sedan, and then the six-cylinder 1700 and 2000. From 1939, the 2000 carried the Borgward brand. The name Hansa started to be phased out, becoming Hansa Borgward, then Borgward Hansa and finally Borgward.

Until 1937, the Hansa-Lloyd brand was used on a number of commercial vehicles (trucks and buses), from the one-ton "Express" to the five-ton "Merkur". These models were largely replaced by Borgward-branded vehicles, with a few models sold with just "Hansa" badging in 1938.

In the Second World War, the Bremen factory was completely destroyed.

hansa 1500

The Borgward Hansa 1500 is a medium-sized automobile manufactured by the Bremen based auto-manufacturer Carl F. W. Borgward GmbH from 1949 until 1954. It was first presented at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1949  and production commenced on 13 October 1949. The similar Hansa 1800 was introduced in 1952. The Hansa was replaced by the Borgward Isabella in 1954.

It is often seen as the first all new model launched by the German auto industry after the war. Introduced nearly four years before the better remembered ’Ponton Mercedes’ the Hansa featured the then revolutionary ponton, three-box design that subsequently became mainstream in Germany and across much of Europe.

The car was launched as a two- or four-door saloon with an all-steel body built around a central steel frame, which bears a resemblance to a 1949 Ford.

The Hansa was introduced with a 1498 cc four-cylinder OHV engine providing a claimed power output of 48 bhp. For 1952 the engine was modified to produce 52 bhp. A 66 bhp output version of this engine was installed in the sports cabriolet. The Borgward engine had an unusual design where the intake manifold was on top the engine and came through the valve cover, along with the carburettor. Bill Blydenstein tuned several of these engines for racing with some success.

The column-mounted gear lever controlled a three-speed gear box or a 2-speed automatic gear box. 1952 saw the introduction of the faster Borgward Hansa 1800, with a 1758 cc 4-cylinder engine producing 60 bhp.

hansa 2400

The Borgward Hansa 2400 was an executive six-cylinder saloon (E-segment) presented in 1951, and manufactured by the Bremen based auto-manufacturer Carl F. W. Borgward GmbH from 1952 until 1959. The car was launched as a four-door fastback saloon; a longer-wheelbase notchback version appeared a year later. The Hansa 2400 suffered from teething troubles including inadequate brakes and problems with the automatic transmission Borgward developed for it. In a small closely contested market, the large Borgwards lost out to less flamboyant models from the German south.

The Hansa 2400 commenced production in 1952 as a large fastback saloon, its profile reminiscent of the recently introduced Hudson Super Wasp. It had presence. Unusually at this time, all four doors were forward opening to presumably facilitate access and egress. The body was an all-steel integral structure, similar to on the car's four-cylinder sibling.

The car was launched with a six-cylinder engine of 2337 cc with a claimed power output of 82 bhp  and a top speed of 150 km/h. The 1955 package of improvements included engine modifications increasing the advertised output to 100 bhp.

Power was delivered to the rear wheels via a four-speed manual gearbox with synchromesh on all ratios. An automatic gear change option was also advertised, making the car, according to some sources, the first German car to be offered with automatic transmission.

isabella

The Borgward Isabella is an automobile which was manufactured by the Bremen based auto-manufacturer Carl F. W. Borgward GmbH from 1954 to 1962.

The Isabella was to have been marketed as the Borgward Hansa 1500 but the Isabella name was used on test vehicles and proved popular with engineering staff and media. The production car was subsequently renamed and only the first few hundred examples were built without Isabella badging. Hansa badging was also used through to 1957.

11.150 Isabellas were produced in 1954, an early indicator that commercially this would be the most successful Borgward ever. The early cars enjoyed an enthusiastic reception in the market place, but were afflicted by teething troubles that reflected a rushed development schedule.

A road test at launch reported a maximum speed of 130 km/h and fuel consumption of 8.4 L/100 km. The testers described the modern structure of the car in some detail: they particularly liked the wide cabin with its large windows, and they commended the effectiveness of the brakes.

A year after presenting the sedan, Borgward presented the Isabella estate version.

Also introduced in 1955 was a two-door cabriolet, known as the Isabella TS and featuring a more powerful 75 bhp  motor. Production of the cabriolet was contracted to the firm Karl Deutsch in Cologne.

Borgward had many unsold Isabellas when it went bankrupt in 1961. Nevertheless, the model's production at the Bremen plant continued until 1962, suggesting that overstocking had not been restricted to finished vehicles. By the end, 202.862 Isabellas had rolled off the Borgward production line; overall, and despite being hit by falling demand in the economic slump that briefly hit Germany in the early 1960s, the car is believed to have been the firm's most lucrative model by a very considerable margin.

P100

The Borgward P100 is a large four-door sedan first presented in September 1959 at the Frankfurt Motor Show, and produced by the Bremen based auto-manufacturer Carl F. W. Borgward GmbH between January 1960 and July 1961.

The design featured the ponton, three-box design pioneered by Borgward in 1949, but now filled out to the relatively angular corners, reminiscent of the style being popularised by Pininfarina with designs such as that of the Fiat 1800, the Peugeot 404 or the Austin Westminster. Like the Farina designs, the P100 featured small angular tailfins.

The straight-6 2240 cc engine derived from that fitted in earlier Borgward six-cylinder sedans, of which the most recent had been the Borgward Hansa 2400 Pullman. Advertised performance figures included a power output of 100 bhp and a maximum speed of around 161 km/h.

Contemporary publicity material highlighted the car’s revolutionary self-levelling air suspension.

During its nineteen months in production, the P100 notched up over 2500 cars produced, putting it on course usefully to outperform earlier six-cylinder Borgwards in the market place. The bankruptcy of the business in August 1961 brought P100 production to an end, although the plant did complete another 47 cars in the days following the bankruptcy.

The model enjoyed a brief afterlife: the production line was sold and shipped to Mexico by Grupo Industrial Ramirez in Monterrey NL, where between 1967 and 1970 more than 2000 additional P100s were produced.

arabella

The Lloyd Arabella was a passenger car produced by the Borgward Group in West Germany between 1959 and 1961. After the company's controversial bankruptcy the Arabella continued to be produced, albeit in greatly reduced quantities and branded as the Borgward Arabella until 1963. By the standards of the time and place it would have been defined as a small family car.

The Arabella was the first (and as matters turned out the last) car from Borgward's Lloyd division to be fitted with a four cylinder engine.

The Arabella was a completely new design, owing nothing to the Lloyd Alexander which it initially complemented and then replaced in the manufacturer's range. It was developed in just 23 months. The all-steel body followed modern styling trends, and featured a "panoramic wrap-around" rear window and tail fins. There was space for four people, although the two in the back would have found their head room rather restricted.

On its introduction in August 1959 the Arabella featured a 4-cylinder 897 cc with a stated output of 38 PS at 4800 rpm. During 1960 it was necessary to impose a major price increase, and in order to soften the blow a reduced specification cut-price Arabella was launched in July 1960, still with the 897 cc engine, but now in a detuned form offering a maximum power output of only 34 PS at 4700 rpm.

In 2008, the Borgward Group AG was formed in Lucerne by Christian Borgward (grandson of Carl F. W. Borgward) and Karlheinz L. Knöss. The new company later moved to Stuttgart. With both investment and manufacture by Beiqi Foton Motor (a subsidiary of BAIC, a major Chinese automotive group), the Borgward group had started to sell SUVs by January 2017.

The company carried the name and logo of the former German brand Borgward. Design and engineering was located in Germany, but the cars were produced in China by Foton Motor.

Borgward started its business with a range of conventional SUVs, with sales reaching approx. 75,000 units by January 2018. The firm had branches in China, Russia, India, Brazil and Mexico. Borgward presented the Isabella concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show 2017, its vision of a full-electric 4-door coupé. Full electric models, the BXi7 and GT SUV BX6, were launched on May 9, 2018 in Beijing.

It filed for bankruptcy in Beijing on April 8, 2022.

1500 rs

The Borgward 1500 Rennsport was a small, advanced coupe designed to compete with the likes of Porsche, Jaguar, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo. It was powered by an advanced 1500cc 4-cylinder Hansa engine designed by Karl-Ludwig Brandt, with a high-performnce cylinder head developed by the Borgward factory’s experimental department – this new head gave the engine between 90 and 110bhp developing on the state of tune and it would later be used to power Stirling Moss to multiple victories in Formula 2.

The aluminium-bodied 1500 Rennsport was a direct challenge to the Porsche 550 Spyder, the cars shared more than a passing resemblance with their unpainted bodies and extremely low profiles. Despite its excellent engine, the Borgward was somewhat hampered by its heavier chassis – but despite this it did manage a solid win in its maiden season, at the Grenzlandring with Hans-Hugo Hartmann at the wheel.

Borgward Argentina was founded in 1954 as a joint venture of Carl F. Borgward HMBH and IAME (Aeronautics and Mechanical Industries) intended to equip the Rastrojero, a small pickup truck. The engine was manufactured at the plant that Borgward had in the town of Isidro Casanova, Buenos Aires province, at a production rate of 20 units per day with almost 800 employees. The production of Borgward Isabella was carried out in Cordoba city, by using Argentine engines, local components (glass, batteries, tires) and other pieces from Germany. This model production started in 1960 at the booming of Argentina automotive industry development, with a production plan of 500 units for that year.

When the German parent company closed its doors in 1961, the operation happened to have local control, and continued for a short time to complete the total manufacture of 1050 cars during its short life in Argentine territory.

rastrojero

BFK-1 Kolibri

The Borgward BFK-1 Kolibri, or Borgward-Focke BFK-1 Kolibri, (Kolibri meaning "hummingbird" in German) was a German three-seated utility helicopter built by Borgward, designed by Heinrich Focke and was the first German helicopter after World War II. The helicopter first flew on 8 July 1958 in Bremen, piloted by Ewald Rohlfs.

Two prototypes were built; they had steel tubing fuselages, covered with metal and fabric and v-tails with tail rotors at their tips. The plywood covered main rotors had three blades with steel tubing spars. The helicopter had a six-cylinder air-cooled Lycoming VO-435-A1B engine, producing 260 hp. The fuel tank was capable of holding 180L. The helicopter could be used for spraying in agriculture, and could carry up to 300 lbs. Development ended after the two prototypes, as Borgward went bankrupt shortly after in 1961.