Rumpler-Werke before the Tropfenwagen

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This is a bit of a mysterious picture (again!), coming from a series of photographs taken at an airport of unknown location, although we found out a lot while typing this little piece. The pictures were found in a Spanish archive but the flag looks Dutch. However, judging by what we can see of the aeroplanes, they are more likely to be taken in Germany. Oh, yes, and when you zoom in closer you may be able to read ‘E. Rumpler Luftfahrzeugbau’ on the premises in the background. Bingo.

This manufacturer of aeroplanes was a German company founded in Berlin by the Austrian engineer Edmund Rumpler. During the First World War the company built reconnaissance biplanes as well as fighters and bombers. We found that ‘In 1918, 3300 people worked for Rumpler at the Berlin headquarters and a subsidiary in Augsburg, the Bayerische Rumpler-Werke AG.’ It seems likely that this picture was taken at the Bavarian subsidiary, probably before 1918, as Rumpler was not allowed to manufacture aeroplanes after the war as a consequence of the Treaty of Versailles.

What does an aeroplane manufacturer of good repute do when it can’t build aeroplanes anymore? It focusses on cars instead. You may well remember Rumpler’s sole four-wheeler product: the aerodynamic and highly advanced Tropfenwagen with its W6 engine, introduced in 1921 but absolutely not destined for the success it hoped for. Plagued by problems, only around 100 were built in Augsburg, most probably in the hangar seen here. Today, just two survivors are known. The Tropfenwagen, however, became a star of the silver screen in the 1927 masterpiece Metropolis.

By then, sadly, it was too late. The Bayerische Rumpler-Werke AG went into receivership in 1923 with the assets being liquidated in 1926. And who took over the factory? None other than the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke, which was soon to become BMW.

Oh, there’s one question for you before we go: what is the big tourer in the foreground registered IA 3128?

Words: Jeroen Booij; picture: Girona archive
 

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