page_title: Gläser-Karosserie
section_title: Bankruptcy and rebirth followed by more war
hierarchical_section_title: Gläser-Karosserie / History / Bankruptcy and rebirth followed by more war
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Horch 951 A Pullman-Cabriolet Baujahr 1937 Fg. Nr. 952 301, ehemaliger Dienstwagen der deutschen Botschafter Erich Otto Meynen und Hermann Terdenge in Buenes Aires (Argentinien) English: former official car of the German Ambassador Otto Erich Meynell and Hermann Terdenge in Buen Aires (Argentina)
context_page_description: Gläser-Karosserie GmbH was a German coachbuilder, based in Dresden, and known in particular as a producer of bespoke cabriolet car bodies. The enterprise was founded in 1864 and lasted, by some criteria, till 1952.
context_section_description: Nevertheless, after several financially challenging years as the world economic crisis unfolded, and following the cancellation of a major contract by General Motors Gläser-Karosserie found itself in financial difficulties, and in Summer 1932 Georg Heuer shot himself. His brother Emil, now aged 74, took on sole responsibility for the company, but the financial difficulties persisted and in 1934, with the business undergoing an extensive restructuring at the direction of the Dresdner Bank, Emil also died.
  On 12 June 1933 Gläserkarosserie G.m.b.H was founded, effectively a new company formed from the remnants of the bankrupt old one. Leadership passed to Willy Bachmann, by training a plumber, who had married Heuer's daughter, Johanna, in 1929.  Dresdner Bank was the principal banker of  Gläserkarosserie G.m.b.H and also of Auto Union, another Saxony based auto-business that underwent a major restructuring in order to survive the aftermath of the Great Depression. During the rest of the 1930s Gläserkarosserie produced cabriolet and other bespoke bodies for Auto Union brands, notably luxury bodies for Horch cars, but they were also producing bodies for use with chassis from other mainstream German car makers including Opel and BMW.   From 1935 the factory was also supporting German rearmament with special bodies for "commando/staff cars" based on Steyr and Skoda chassis, and specialist conversions of Ford and Opel commercial vehicles. By the time war resumed in September 1939 they were also producing a plethora of components and sub-assemblies for Messerchmitt fighter planes. Overall activity was by now at a high level, and as the war progressed it became hard to find workers with the skill levels needed. By the mid-1940s Bachmann had received an allocation of 1,000 foreign workers along with between 150 and 180 Soviet prisoners of war in order to keep the factories running.
  The massive bomb attack that destroyed large parts of Dresden on 13 and 14 February 1945 did not spare Gläserkarosserie. The Dresden premises were largely destroyed, with just four administration office rooms left. Some of the materials and production equipment for the Messerschmitt sub-assemblies survived. however, and the government ordered that these be crated up and placed on 40 rail wagons. They were then moved in March 1945 to Neustadt an der Waldnaab where it was believed that they were less at risk of destruction from aerial bombing by the British and Americans.
caption: Horch 850 (1937) with Pullman-Cabriolet body by Gläser
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