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

In 1957 Rometsch introduced a new model, the Rometsch Lawrence, heavily influenced by contemporary American styling trends. Designed by Bert Lawrence and again based on a Beetle floorpan, many feel that this later redesign spoiled the original Beeskow offering with its American style cues, but the design still won the Golden Rose Award of Geneva in 1957.

Like the preceeding Beeskow model, the Rometsch Lawrence was available as a coupe & convertible and again the body was handcrafted aluminum over a steel and wooden framework. The hand - made aluminum body affected the vehicle price; in 1959 a Rometsch Lawrence cost approx. 8000 DM, at least twice the price of its main rival the Karmann Ghia. As a result, sales stagnated and only approx. 250 cars were built.
Production of the Lawrence continued until 1961, when the Berlin wall went up, separating the East German workforce from the workshop in West Berlin. The Rometsch firm still technically existed after that, but in a much-diminished capacity.

Rometsch was active until the year 2000 in the restoration of classic cars. In 1984 a stretched Range Rover was built for one Mr. Honnecker, which was used for hunting trips. In the final years, Rometsch focused on manufacturing ambulances.
Rometsch didn't just build cars based on the Beetle floorpan.

Rometsch built 2 prototypes of the Borgward Hansa 1500 Sport Coupe:




In 1951/52 there were between 24 to 26 Goliath GP 700 Sport build by Rometsch.Goliath was a subsidiary of Borgward.

 

 
FIAT 1400 convertible. Can only find one pic of the Rometsch version - anyone know if more exist?

Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 cabriolet - 1951:

  NSU-Fiat 1100 TV Coupe of 1954:

  
Rometsch Porsche Spyder - 1954:

Rometsch appantly also built special-bodied examples of the Fiat 1200 Sportcoupe in 1959, the Opel Kapitänoupin 1956 and the DK Kleinlieferwagen (a van, yes?)  in 1960, although info is hard to come by, if ever they existed.

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.