Hans Glas GmbH is a former German automotive company, which was based in

Dingolfing Dingolfing is a town in southern Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the Landkreis (district) Dingolfing-Landau. Dingolfing is home of a BMW assembly plant. History The area now called Dingolfing was first mentioned in ''Tinguluinga'' in the y ...

. Originally a maker of farm machinery, Glas evolved first into a producer of motor scooters, then automobiles. It was purchased by BMW in 1966, mainly to gain access to Glas's patents; they were the first to use a timing belt with an overhead camshaft in an automotive application. Its limited model range was shortly phased out by its new parent.

History

Mechanic A mechanic is an artisan, skilled tradesperson, or technician who uses tools to build, maintain, or repair machinery, especially cars. Duties Most mechanics specialize in a particular field, such as auto body mechanics, air conditioning an ...

Andreas Glas (born 1857, son of Maurus who founded the first agricultural machinery factory in Bavaria in Freising in 1860) founded his own repair company for agricultural machines in 1883 in

Pilsting Pilsting is a municipality in the district of Dingolfing-Landau in Bavaria in Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Rus ...

. He named the company ''Andreas Glas, Reparaturwerkstätte für landwirtschaftliche Maschinen mit Dampfbetrieb'' (in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: Andreas Glas, repair-shop for steam-powered agricultural machines). During the summer periods about 16 people worked for him. In 1905 Andreas Glas' company built their first crop sowing machines (

seed drill A seed drill is a device used in agriculture that sows seeds for crops by positioning them in the soil and burying them to a specific depth while being dragged by a tractor. This ensures that seeds will be distributed evenly. The seed drill sow ...

). He then had sufficient work to employ all his employees during the winters. The production of seed drills rose from year to year: :Winter period 1905/06 - 10 seed drills :Autumn 1906 - 20 pieces :Winter period 1906/07 - 40 machines :1907 - 60 pieces :Winter period 1907/08 - 254 seed drills. 1906 Andreas Glas partened with a financer becoming Glas & Lohn and changed its brand name from Bavaria to Isaria; the partnership ended in 1911. 1908 Glas production moved to

to overcome the mandatory rule which forbade non-local factories from participating in the important local agricultural machine exposition. The new factory started with 150 seed drills per year. The production count rose each year. 1920 Glas Werke AG became a share company partnering with Stumm Group. 1924 Hans Glas (1890-†1969) became CEO of Glas Werke AG. 1931 failure of the Stumm Group. 1933 Hans Glas bought Glas Werke by the shareholders After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the market for seed drills was declining, and the company began building little carrows and later working machines for bakers along with seed drills. 1949 Glas Werke becomes a family company renamed Hans Glas GmbH (Ltd) involving son Andreas (1923-†1990) and daughter Hertha.

Products

Glas were known for small cars like the

Goggomobil Goggomobil was a series of microcars produced by Hans Glas GmbH in the Bavarian town Dingolfing between 1955 and 1969. Glas produced three models on the Goggomobil platform: the Goggomobil T sedan, the Goggomobil TS coupé, and the Goggomobil ...

. However, in 1964 the company introduced the Glas 1300GT coupe and later the 1700GT. The body was designed by

Pietro Frua Pietro Frua (2 May 1913 - 28 June 1983) was one of the leading Italian coachbuilders and car designers during the 1950s and 1960s. Early years Frua was born in Turin, the centre of coachbuilding in northern Italy. He was the fourth son of Angela, ...

. However competition, mostly from British cars, was tough and in 1966 they released the 2600GT powered by a SOHC

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and u ...

, with a volume just under 2.6 litres. However this didn't help and later the same year the company was sold to BMW. The Glas models were kept in production by BMW, but fitted with BMW engines. The Glas 1300 GT coupe was fitted with a 1.6-litre BMW engine and renamed BMW 1600 GT. BMW also fitted a 3-litre engine and named it 3000 GT. This model kept the Glas name, but had a BMW logo in the front and rear. In 1968 BMW created their own large coupe, the BMW 2500 CS, and this meant the end for Glas. 277 copies of 2600 GT were made and 389 of the 3000 GT.

Scooters

In 1951 Andreas Glas (1923-1990), son of Hans Glas, saw the

Vespa Vespa () is an Italian luxury brand of scooters and mopeds manufactured by Piaggio. The name means wasp in Italian. The Vespa has evolved from a single model motor scooter manufactured in 1946 by Piaggio & Co. S.p.A. of Pontedera, Italy to ...

scooter from Piaggio in an agricultural machines exposition in

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...

, Italy. He was so enthused that he began production of motor scooters that July. The scooter debuted with a 125 cc motor, increased over time to 150 cc and 200 cc. Until 1956 46,181 motor scooters were built. Production of scooters stopped because of the Goggomobil cars. From 1953 on, load-carrying scooters were built as well. With the 200 cc engine and 9.5

bhp BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

, they had a load capacity of 200 kg.

Cars

A 1966 Glas 2600 with Glas logo, nicknamed ''Glaserati'', alt= *

T250, T300, T400, Sedan (1955-1969), Coupé (1957-1969), Transporter (1957-1965) * Glas Isar T600, T700 (1958-1965) * Glas 1004, 1204, 1304 (1962-1968) * Glas 1300 GT, 1700 GT (1963-1967) *

Glas 1700 The Glas 1700 is a middle class four door saloon produced by Hans Glas GmbH at Dingolfing. The prototype was first presented (at this stage as the ''Glas 1500'') in September 1963 at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Later versions of the coupé and cabr ...

(1964-1968) * Glas 2600 V8, 3000 V8 ("Glaserati") (1966-1968)

Absorption by BMW

In 1962 BMW released the

BMW 1500 Year 1500 ( MD) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. The year 1500 was not a leap year in the Proleptic Gregorian calendar. The year was seen as being especially important by many Christians in Europe, who thought it ...

. The popular four-door compact's success exhausted the production capacity of the

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

plant. In 1966 the management decided to buy Glas and absorb the Glas model line. Most of Glas' existing lineup was retired, while some models ended up being badged as BMWs until the company was fully absorbed. It was reputed that the acquisition was mainly to gain access to Glas' development of the timing belt with an overhead camshaft in automotive applications, although some saw Glas' Dingolfing plant as another incentive. However, this factory was outmoded and BMW's biggest immediate gain was, according to themselves, a stock of highly qualified engineers and other personnel. The Glas factory began the manufacture of BMW front and rear axles until they could be modernized and fully incorporated into BMW.

Becker Becker () is one of the German-language surnames, along with Bäcker and Baecker, that derive from the root, which refers to baking. The surname began as a name for a baker (and thus his family). In northern Germany it can also derive from the ...

, p. 74 BMW immediately retired most of the Glas range, including all of the outdated microcars.

Changes under BMW

* The 04-type, the GT and the 1700 sedan were given BMW badges in the last year of their production. * The GT was reengineered and so it was built with a BMW engine and rear axle and sold as BMW 1600 GT until 1968. * The V8 got a bigger engine constructed by Glas and was also sold until 1968 as BMW-GLAS 3000 V8. * The 1700 sedan was built and sold by a

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

n importer with several changes as BMW 1800 SA until 1974. * The Goggomobil T300, T400, T400 Coupé (renamed Sport), Glas Isar T700 and the Glas 1204 were licensed for manufacture in Argentina during the 1960s.www.auto-historia.com.ar
Isard Argentina S.A. (Spanish) - accessed 4 December 2008

Closure

In the late 1960s BMW shut down Glas and built entirely new production facilities, which would eventually become an important production site. In June 1969, the final Glas vehicle, a Goggomobil, rolled off the production line. , BMW's Dingolfing branch is BMW's largest factory, with 22,000 workers producing 5, 6 and 7 Series cars and as well as bodies for

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

References

External links

Company history at RitzSiteClub of Goggomobil and drivers of Glas cars Dingolfing/Bavaria
{{Authority control Motorcycle manufacturers of Germany Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Germany BMW Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1895 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1966 1966 disestablishments in West Germany German companies established in 1895