Auto Review Hanomag Album

Hanomag was a long-established steam locomotive manufacturer which in 1905 took out a licence to make steam road vehicles and railcars. In 1912 the firm further diversified into building motor tractors, which became a profitable product line for five decades. In the 1920s Hanomag made their first motor cars, the famous Kommisbrot, a spartan light car, followed by well-engineered cars aimed at the German middle market. Hanomag’s last production cars in the late 1930s were streamlined saloons, but in the meantime the company introduced a range of heavy motor lorries, then turned its resources over to the German war effort. Over 16,000 Sd.Kfz 251 half-track military vehicles were produced in wartime. 1949 saw the new L28 lorry range, and Hanomag joined the Rheinstahl consortium in 1952. The Kurier, Garant and Markant truck range was made from 1957. In 1964-65, Rheinstahl acquired Henschel and Tempo, and merged both firms with Hanomag. Henschel was another steam locomotive maker which diversified; in their case into steam rollers and heavy lorries, with a brief return to Doble-engined steam road vehicles in the 1930s, alongside the motor lorries. In wartime Henschel produced tanks and aircraft, before returning to commercial vehicles in the postwar period and then merging with Hanomag in the 1960s. In 1968 Rheinstahl disposed of the Hanomag tractor business, and the Hanomag-Henschel truck-making operation was sold to Daimler-Benz. The construction equipment side eventually went to Komatsu, but Hanomag and Henschel continued to make military vehicles under the control of Rheinmetall.