13 April 2011

The Karosserie Friedrich Rometsch Story (pt. 1 of 2)



Karosserie Friedrich Rometsch was a German coachbuilding company, located in Berlin-Halensee and founded in 1924. They produced car bodies on various rolling chassis on customer request; they soon concentrated on producing quality taxi conversions built on Opel models. Because of the war, the firm switched to producing mobile field kitchens. When the war was over, Rometsch began to look to build civilian cars again, and the Volkswagen Beetle was the inevitable basis for their post war work. The company became known for constructing a lengthened four door Beetle Taxi,10 inches longer than a standard Beetle.



Friedrich Rometsch wanted to build an affordable alternative to the flashy sports cars of the day and again the Volkswagen Beetle chassis proved to be an ideal starting point. Production began in 1950, with Rometsch first offering two models: a coupe and a convertible designed by Johannes Beeskow, who, before he became chief engineer/designer at Rometsch, worked as the general manager for Joseph Neuss in Berlin-Halensee, before WWII. In 1933 Erdmann & Rossi took over Neuss and Beeskow continued to work there. After the war he moved to Rometsch and in the mid-'50s he became Karmann's technical manager.
The Beeskow was constructed entirely by hand, using a steel frame with wood pillars and support beams covered by a lightweight aluminum skin.

















The later Beeskows had different  roof styling :


Pt. 2 tomorrow.

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