DAAG (Dortmund Automobilfabrik AG) is a German automobile manufacturer that designs, engineers, produces, markets and distributes luxury vehicles. The company has its roots at Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
THE HISTORY OF THE BRAND:
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1949 - 1964: “Post-war motorcycle manufacturer”
A few years after World War II, Germany’s economy was starting to rise again, thanks to what was then called the Wirtschaftswunder (or “economic miracle”). Being aware of that, in the city of Dortmund, year 1949, a group of German industrial and mechanical engineers decided to merge forces and start a motorcycle company.
That same year, they rented a medium sized garage, and even a small office in the centre of the city, located a few kilometres away from the first, where they met everyday after work to start the design of a cheap and reliable motorcycle. They worked really hard for three years, spending entire nights inside the office, and lots of weekends in the garage making prototypes of what would become their first motorcycle.
In between those years, the knew that they’d need a name for their future company, so they came up with Dortmund Motorradfabrik AG (DMAG).
Finally, in 1952, they managed to get the design right. It looked similar to the contemporary Bispa (an Italian bike that was doing great in that country) was cheap to manufacter, pretty much reliable and had a low fuel consumption. It was called the DMAG Kamel 125.
That same year, they showed the final prototype to a group of German entrepeneurs, and they liked it. With their money, they bought a big hangar, which was abandoned since the mid 1940s, and bought some heavy machinery to start the manufacturing process.
The Kamel was a success, it sold really well for being produced by a recently unknown manufacturer, thanks to its low price (compared to the competition) and good reliability. This gave them lots of money.
In 1958, thanks to the success of the Kamel, they got to be known by the German people, and started selling another bike, the Trampel 250, which was a bigger product, and was offered with a sidecar as an option. It was a cheap alternative to the rather expensive sport ish bikes of the time.
This trend of expanding their motorcycle lineup kept on until 1964, year in which the company got attracted by the steadily growing automotive market.
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1964 - present: “Becoming an automobile manufacturer”
In 1964, after twelve years of selling a variety of different motorcycles under the name of Dortmund Motorradfabrik AG (DMAG) and being really successful in the market, the company founders, being aware of the then expanding economy of the country, saw an opportunity to expand their boundaries and start producing cars. So, what they did is found Dortmund Automobilfabrik AG (DAAG), and traspassed most of the engineering and design team that worked in the motorcycles company to the new one.
That same year, they put the entire team of designers and engineers (ten times bigger than in 1956) to develop a car to compete with the big trio of luxury car manufacturers that were well established in the country. Also, because the old hangar was too small for the manufacturing of their future car, they bought a 1 km² lot in the outsides of the city, and started the construction of a 180.000 m² factory in it.
Will keep on expanding it as I have some spare time.
