Sodomka was a Czech

coachbuilding A coachbuilder manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles. The trade of producing coachwork began with bodies for horse-drawn vehicles. Today it includes custom automobiles, buses, motor coaches, and railway carriages. The word ...

company founded in 1895. They bodied cars and buses from various Czech companies (

Aero Aero is a Greek prefix relating to flight and air. In British English, it is used as an adjective related to flight (e.g., as a shortened substitute for aeroplane). Aero, Ærø, or Aeros may refer to: Aeronautics Airlines and companies * Aero (A ...

, Laurin & Klement,

Praga Praga is a district of Warsaw, Poland. It is on the east bank of the river Vistula. First mentioned in 1432, until 1791 it formed a separate town with its own city charter. History The historical Praga was a small settlement located at the e ...

Škoda Škoda means "pity" in the Czech and Slovak languages. It may also refer to: Czech brands and enterprises * Škoda Auto, automobile and previously bicycle manufacturer in Mladá Boleslav ** Škoda Motorsport, the division of Škoda Auto responsi ...

, Tatra, Walter), as well as foreign cars (e.g.

Bugatti Automobiles Ettore Bugatti was a German then French automotive industry, manufacturer of high performance vehicle, high-performance automobiles. The company was founded in 1909 in the then-German Empire, German city of Molsheim, Alsace, by the ...

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

, Graham,

Lancia Lancia Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis Europe, which is the European subsidiary of Stellantis. The present legal entity of Lancia was formed in January 2007 when its corporate parent reorganise ...

, Nash,

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 ...

, LaSalle (for the British royal family),

Studebaker Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, with a building at 1600 Broadway, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers Man ...

and others).

History

The Sodomka company was founded in

Vysoké Mýto Vysoké Mýto (; , also ''Hohenmauth'') is a town in Ústí nad Orlicí District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 13,000 inhabitants. Its town square is the largest example of its type in the country. The historic town ...

in 1895 by Josef Sodomka Sr. It was originally called the First East Bohemian Carriage Manufacture of Josef Sodomka. After the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

came the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

and the search for another production programme began. Josef Sodomka persuaded his father to start car bodywork. In 1925, they produced the first car body according to their own design on a

Mignon chassis. In 1928, the company produced their first bus body on a

125 chassis with a capacity for fourteen passengers and other bus bodies on Praga, Škoda, Tatra and Walter chassis. By the end of the year, a total of six buses had been produced at the factory. In the 1930s, Karoserie Sodomka became a successful company, winning elegance competitions and car shows. In total, the company produced 40 buses by 1936. In 1947, the Škoda 706 RO bus model began production. In 1948, the company was nationalised and became the national company

Karosa Karosa (, ) was a bus manufacturer in Vysoké Mýto in the Czech Republic. It was the biggest manufacturer of buses in Czechoslovakia. In 2007, its name was changed to Iveco, Iveco Czech Republic, and now the company produces buses under the name ...

. In 2020, the plant belongs to

Iveco Iveco S.p.A., an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation, is an Italian multinational transport vehicle manufacturing company with headquarters in Turin, Italy. It designs and builds light, medium, and heavy Commercial vehicle, commercial veh ...

and buses are produced there.

Literature

* Jan Černý: ''Automobily Tatra s karoseriemi Sodomka'', Vysoké Mýto, Regionální muzeum ve Vysokém Mýtě, 2007, * Jan Černý: ''Automobily Aero s karoseriemi Sodomka'', Vysoké Mýto, Regionální muzeum ve Vysokém Mýtě, 2008, * Jan Černý: ''Autobusové karoserie Sodomka na podvozcích Tatra'', Vysoké Mýto, Regionální muzeum ve Vysokém Mýtě, 2008, * Jan Černý, Martin Štěpán: ''Automobily Praga s karoseriemi Sodomka'', Vysoké Mýto, Regionální muzeum ve Vysokém Mýtě, 2009, * Jan Tulis: ''Sodomka'', Brno, Autoklub při pedagogické fakultě Masarykovy university v Brně, 1990 * {{Cite book , last=Kulíšek , first=Vítězslav , title=Vzestup a pád českého podnikatele: Josef Sodomka (1904-1964) , publisher=Vlastním nákladem autora , isbn=978-80-270-3458-1 , publication-date=2018 , trans-title=The Rise and Fall of a Czech Entrepreneur: Josef Sodomka (1904-1964) Coachbuilders Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Czechoslovakia 1895 establishments in Austria-Hungary