page_title: Wilhelm Karmann Jr.
section_title: Years of growth
hierarchical_section_title: Wilhelm Karmann Jr. / Years of growth
caption_attribution_description: English: Production of the Volkswagen Corrado Deutsch: Produktion des VW Corrado
context_page_description: Wilhelm Karmann Jr. was a German entrepreneur. He took over the management of Wilhelm Karmann GmbH based in Osnabrück in 1952 and led the company to become a recognized partner of the automotive industry as a contract manufacturer of complete vehicles and as a supplier of pressed parts, production systems and roof modules for convertibles. He was also involved in numerous vehicle developments.
  It was the VW Karmann-Ghia that made the name Karmann known worldwide. In 1955, Karmann presented the coupé version of the VW 1200, designed by Luigi Segre, the owner of the Italian Ghia bodywork plant in Turin, to the General Director of the Volkswagen plant, Heinrich Nordhoff. Volkswagen liked the soft lines of the coupé and this was the beginning of the worldwide success story of the Karmann-Ghia. The love for open cars accompanied Karmann throughout his life; not only the VW Beetle and then the Golf Cabriolet came from Osnabrück, but also convertibles from Audi, Ford and Mercedes as well as a variety of roof systems as component deliveries.
context_section_description: In addition to the Beetle Cabriolet and the Karmann Ghia, Karmann also produced all the Golf cabriolets and the VW Scirocco and VW Corrado sports coupés for Volkswagen. Karmann built further vehicle plants, in 1960 in São Bernardo do Campo (Brazil) and in 1965 in Rheine. From 1965 onwards, Karmann produced complete vehicles and bodies of the BMW Coupé 2000 C/CS (four-cylinder), later also the larger BMW E9 six-cylinder coupés (2.5 CS, 2.8 CS, 3.0 CS/CSi) at the Rheine plant in Westphalia. From 1976 to the 1980s, Karmann first took over the series production and then the body shell of the BMW 6-series coupé (628 CSi, 633CSi, 635 CSi). All convertible models of the Ford Escort were delivered in Rheine as complete vehicles.
  Karmann also produced motorhomes under the name Karmann-Mobil from 1977 onwards. Karmann got the idea for his first motorhome during a trip in South Africa. The first vehicles were built on the basis of a Volkswagen T2, followed by the T3 and LT as well as the Mercedes-Benz T1. Parallel to this, the Postilion 4500 and 5000 caravan models were developed and built in Brazil and launched on the market in 1982. This was followed by many other motorhomes with the type designations Gipsy, Davis and Distance. 
  A special highlight in Karmann's life was the production anniversary with the Volkswagen plant. On 23 June 1981 the 1.5 millionth car with the Volkswagen emblem produced in Osnabrück left the assembly lines. It was a white Scirocco GTI.
  Karmann was chairman of the Board of Management until his 75th birthday in 1989. That year marked a number of anniversaries. Karmann Rheine had existed for 25 years. The Golf Cabriolet was 10 years old and Karmann could not only look back on 40 years of cooperation with Volkswagen, but also celebrate his company’s 50th year in operation. His successor to the board of management was Rainer Thieme, who previously managed Keiper Recaro, a company that produced seats for the automotive and aircraft industries. After retiring from operational management, Karmann continued to steer the company in his roles as chairman of the shareholders' meeting and as liable general partner of the holding company Wilhelm Karmann KG. When Karmann took over the company in 1952, 1,415 employees generated a turnover of 24 million DM. In 1998, the year of his death, the turnover of the group of companies with about 7,000 employees had increased to over 1.1 billion DM.
caption: The production of the VW Corrado
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