Following a long struggle with meager sales and its creditor, Deutsche Bank, Bayerishe Motoren Werke AG was taken over by its not-to-be rival, Daimler-Benz AG, in March '59. The proud independent car manufacturer has been repurposed into a coachbuilder by its Swabian overlords. All the personnel incapable of hammering glorified taxi-cabs into shape has been laid off. The assembly lines of M78 and OHV V8 engines were sold for scrap, but the final humiliation was revealed in July… Damiler would sell the last remaining 501s with OM636 diesel engines.
This was too much for Alexander von Falkenhausen & Ludwig Apfelbeck. Visiting potential investors by day, designing a new car and engine by night, these gentleman sacrificed their health in their noble endeavour - the destruction of Daimler-Benz AG. “Somehow”, these gentleman managed to convince the Quandt family to return to the automotive sector, after Herbert had sold his shares of BMW to DB.
But this time, they wouldn’t provide the new company with machines to produce engines or cars. They wouldn’t even pay for a single brick used to construct the factory. Nay, they would use their experience and influence to assure smooth export/import operations between Austria and Yugoslavia! Yes, gentleman, Yugoslavia. A socialist European nation, yet not part of the Warsaw Pact. “Unaligned”, as they say. Unaligned enough to allow a western nation to invest, unaligned enough to export into both communist nations, but also “unaligned” enough (read: cash starved) to jump at the very notion of German technical expertise being brought to it, supplying the nation with engines for trucks, buses and other purposes… After Mr. Apfelbeck hinted at exporting luxury cars to the West for a 35% profit margin (Sweet, sweet cheap labour!), from which a nice share may flow into Yugoslavian pockets, the Yugoslavian government scrambled to arrange a quick deal with these former BMW engineers. They (the engineers) would bring their expertise and insight to the Zastava car factory and build economical heavy-duty engines for the TAM truck factory. In turn, Yugoslavia would merge TMZ (Zagreb motor factory) & Autokaroserija Zagreb and place the newly-founded Tvornica Automobila Zagreb under direct control of these German engineers.
Thus, the Agramer Motoren Werke** were born.
*I didn’t have quite enough place to write a nice title. Semi-I means “Semi-Interactive”, meaning that your comments and suggestions are very welcome, and that I might ask for help/suggestions every now and then.
**Agram being the German word for Zagreb, it seems rather intuitive that this easier-to-pronounce word would be used… It also helps that the name doesn’t scream “COMMIES!” to your average western car-buyer.
Can’t wait for some actual cars
