Automotive industry in Germany
overview of the automotive industry in Germany
The automotive industry in Germany is one of the largest employers in the country, with a labor force of over 857,336 (2016) working in the industry.
Being home to the modern car, the German automobile industry is regarded as one of the most competitive and innovative in the world, and has the third-highest car production in the world, and seventh-highest total motor vehicle production. With an annual output close to four million and a 31.5% share of the European Union (2017), German-designed cars won in the European Car of the Year, the International Car of the Year, and the World Car of the Year annual awards the most times among all countries. The Volkswagen Beetle and Porsche 911 took 4th and 5th places in the Car of the Century award.
History
Early history
Motor-car pioneers Karl Benz (who later went on to start Mercedes-Benz) and Nicolaus Otto developed four-stroke internal combustion engines in the late 1870s; Benz fitted his design to a coach in 1887, which led to the modern-day motor car. By 1901, Germany was producing about 900 cars a year. In 1926 Daimler-Benz formed from the predecessor companies of Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler; it produced cars under the marque of Mercedes-Benz. BMW, though founded in 1916, didn't start auto production until 1928.
American economist Robert A. Brady extensively documented the rationalization movement that shaped German industry in the 1920s, and although his general model of the movement applied to the automotive industry, the sector was in poor health in the later years of the 1918-1933 Weimar Republic. The slow development of the German automotive industry left the German market open for major American auto-manufacturers such as General Motors (which took over German company Opel in 1929) and the Ford Motor Company (which maintained the successful German subsidiary Ford-Werke, beginning in 1925).
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