The Volkswagen from Wuppertal
On New Year’s Day, January, 1945, the trained coachbuilder Gerhard Drews founded a workshop under his own name ‘Drews Karosseriebau’ in Wuppertal-Oberarmen, Rauental 36.
He bridged the short post-war period with repairs of various kind and in 1947 he realized his idea of a modern 2+2-seater convertible based on the Volkswagen Beetle chassis for the first time. However, it took another two years from is prototype to its public debut before he presented his sports car convertible to the public for the first time a the ‘1st West Germany Motor Show’ in Reydt. Many visitors were certainly fascinated by it, but at the same time most of them also knew that such a vehicle would remain a dream, especially because of the very high price of just under DM 10,000 at the time. In comparison, a Beetle series model cost exactly DM 5,300 in September, 1949. At the end of the 1940s, Gerhard Drews cleverly positioned his body store on the market and reached and agreement with the Volkswagen plant to order his convertible via the Volkswagen specialist dealer and at the same time marketed it himself. As far as the number of units produced is concerned, there are two different vague statements circulating – “… les tan 100 units …” or “… at least 150 vehicles…”.
This was, of course, far too few to maintain long-term production. The Drews-Karosserie Wuppertal company continued to produce a few bodies until around 1960 and then switched to a repair business.
