The Ackermann Story, Part 2

Furniture trucks with wings

August 29, 2024

Bodies for trucks, trailers and semi-trailers are essential in the transport industry. Body construction companies are responsible for providing them, ensuring that commercial vehicles are fit for purpose. This is because vehicle manufacturers usually only supply chassis with cabs.

This article is about the body manufacturer Ackermann. Our freelancer Markus Hügle has researched the history of the Wuppertal-based company for us and described in detail what the company has had to offer in the almost 150 years of its existence. Part 1 deals with the company's beginnings and its development in the post-war period, while parts 2 and 3 describe the period up to the 1970s. Part 4 covers the final era in Ackermann's history, up to its bitter end in 1996.

In the period after the Second World War, vehicles with long hoods were the standard design for trucks. In the Federal Republic of Germany, Magirus initially offered its medium-heavy S 3500 model with a square hood, and from 1951 with an elegant rounded hood. Mercedes-Benz presented the completely new L 3500 in 1950, and MAN had the MK series in its range, while Henschel presented its successful HS 100 model in 1951. The chassis of these trucks in particular were used as the basis for furniture van bodies, with bus chassis also being used, as these were particularly suitable due to their low loading sill. In particular, Mercedes-Benz and Magirus supplied their bus chassis, designated O 3500, to Ackermann at the request of customers.

The MAN F8 was one of the heavy trucks of the 1950s. The Ganser & Co. forwarding company from Aachen used the Ackermann bodies of this rig as advertising space for Trumpf chocolate, a brand that also originated in Aachen from 1857.

The Faun L 7 L was also one of the German heavy goods vehicles of the post-war period. Until 1951, it was still permitted to operate with two trailers. The Ackermann bodies of the impressive rig were made of light metal.

Ackermann boss Kölker knew that a catchy brand name, effective advertising and a good reputation could bring visible sales success. So he had almost all new vehicles professionally photographed before delivery and printed brochures confidently touting the benefits of his products. He also gradually and successfully built up a well-functioning sales and service network in order to be close to the customer. At that time, Ackermann was already the market leader in Germany for furniture truck bodies. The main competitors were Staufen in Eislingen, Kässbohrer in Ulm, Buschbaum in Hanover- Langenhagen and, in the immediate vicinity, the Eylert company in Wuppertal-Sonnborn.

This MAN, built in 1949, had the model designation MKN 26, where the N stood for “Niederflurrahmen” (Low-floor frame), because the chassis had a cranked frame for bus bodies and was therefore also suitable for furniture vans.

This furniture van was also based on a bus chassis. From 1950, Mercedes-Benz offered the conventional truck L 3500. However, the bus variant O 3500, which had a lower loading edge, was often chosen for furniture vans.

In 1948, Magirus developed its pre-war model S 3000 into the S 3500, which was also popular for furniture transportation. The elegantly labeled box truck in the photo dates from 1949. A special feature of all Magirus trucks was the air-cooled Deutz diesel engine.

The design of this Opel Blitz one-and-a-half-ton truck from 1949 dated from the pre-war era. The Ackermann light metal body was used to transport food.

The design of the Ford FK 3500 from the early 1950s was based on American models, but was developed entirely in Germany, whereas its predecessors were still copies of American trucks.

Even a simple box trailer was given a touch of elegance by details such as the “Ackermann wings”. The photo shows a typical furniture trailer, here with twin tires, which was built almost unchanged for almost twenty years. The length, width and height of these trailers were variable thanks to the modular system with light metal profiles, but the basic shape remained the same. It was not until around 1965 that angular roof edges were introduced, which offered a little more loading volume in the interior.

With air-cooled engines, as used by Magirus, there was no need for angular hoods, as no water cooler stood in the way of a round shape. This is why Magirus developed the S 4500, the so-called “round nose”, in 1951. The photo shows a variant with the engine hood that was actually designed for buses. It differed significantly from the truck version of the round nose.

As early as the 1950s, Ackermann was granting licenses to regional, mostly very small body manufacturers. The Hanomag L 28 of the second series from 1957, recognizable by the one-piece windshield, received its box body from the licensee S. Schmid in Munich.

The new medium-heavy Ford FK 3500 with the distinctive “shark grill” appeared in 1955 and was built until the end of German Ford truck production in 1961.

The Opel Blitz 1.75-ton truck from the early 1950s was nicknamed the “soft blitz” because of the flowing lines of its hood, in contrast to its angular predecessor.

The fact that the hood of the trucks reduced the loading length was a problem that all German hauliers were aware of. The solution came from above, so to speak. The "Seebohm Laws" of 1958, named after the then Minister of Transport Hans-Christoph Seebohm, provided for drastic length and weight restrictions for trucks in the Federal Republic of Germany in order to give the German Federal Railways, i.e. rail transport, an advantage over road haulage. The desired success failed to materialize, but the measure did promote the development of the cab-over. The engine mounted over the axle at the front restricted the space in the cab, but increased the loading length significantly.

The Büssing 5000 TU from 1951 was equipped with an underfloor engine and was based on a Trambus chassis, hence the T in the model designation. Büssing used the term Trambus to describe all cab-over-engine buses. Their short wheelbase and long front overhang made them particularly maneuverable.

Of course, not all of the Büssing box-type delivery vans with Ackermann bodies were built on bus chassis. This heavy-duty truck-trailer combination had the chassis of the Büssing truck type LU 11. The truck did not yet have the Ackermann standard form with standardized sheet metal parts from series production.

Büssing was the only German truck manufacturer to use the underfloor engine. Located between the axles, it banished noise and the smell of diesel from the cab. Büssing also supplied underfloor and bus chassis for furniture bodies. For all other manufacturers, the chassis of the conventional trucks had to be converted to cab-overs. This was done, for example, by the specialist Clerck. It was not until the mid-1950s that Mercedes-Benz had its own cab-over chassis, with MAN and Magirus following shortly thereafter. By this time, Ackermann had already developed an attractive design for its cab-over furniture trucks. The integrated driver's cab and the box body formed a harmonious unit. Under the front roof dome there was space for packing material and optionally there was a second row of seats for the moving personnel, recognizable by the additional side window. Moving customers could also be seated here, as not everyone had their own car at that time.

The design of the front panels was initially not the same for every vehicle. The hand-finished sheet metal parts varied from vehicle to vehicle. The differences were apparent in the arrangement of headlights and trim strips as well as the emblems of the respective chassis manufacturers. The shape of the windshields was also not uniform; there were differences depending on the supplier of the windshields. In 1957, however, Ackermann moved to a uniform design for all cab-over furniture trucks and used front panels from large-scale production, which were manufactured with press tools and consisted of three parts. The center part could be adapted to the respective vehicle width. The parts at the vehicle corners were laterally variable to accommodate different overhang lengths. In addition, the openings for the headlights had to be cut out individually. The windshields now always had the same shape, because they too came from series production. The new cab-over trucks were given the internal designation "Type Amerika", but also became known as Pullman furniture trucks.

A classic Ackermann furniture truck, type America, with serially produced front panels on a Mercedes chassis of type LP 322. The first generation of these vehicles from the late 1950s initially still had tubular steel footboards. From 1960, fixed steps replaced this design, but otherwise the design of the Ackermann furniture van, known as the Pullmann, remained unchanged for ten years, although it was individually adapted to the respective chassis.

This America model furniture van with trailer, here on a MAN chassis, was built after 1960, as can be seen from the design of the access step.

The two Ackermann brochure covers from 1961 show how the Pullmann furniture vans on chassis from different manufacturers only differed in the design of the radiator grille. The same photo was apparently used for the illustrations, with the respective brand being adapted by retouching.

Ackermann also bodied tractor units such as this Mercedes LPS 322 using standardized parts at the front of the vehicle. Some customers found the factory cabs too small, so they commissioned body manufacturers to build more spacious versions.

The Ackermann cab with standardized front panels was also suitable for Büssing tractor units with underfloor engines.

This Volvo, whose body was built by the Swiss Ackermann subsidiary, was probably based on a bus chassis. Here too, the front section was made up of standardized parts.

The two pages of the Ackermann brochure from 1961 show 17 variants of the Pullmann furniture van type America on the left, and on the right the portfolio of different vehicle types on offer.

The 10.212 FS was equipped with the first MAN long-distance cab that the Munich truck manufacturer offered in the 1960s. The cab, which was widely used, was nicknamed “Pausbacke” (chubby cheeks). The Ackermann trailer was probably insulated for the transportation of fresh fruit.

Typical of Ackermann box trucks and trailers were the stylized wings made of trim at the top of the sides of the bodies. Above the windshield, the trucks bore a painted "A" with wings, unless the customer insisted on his own lettering. The connoisseur could therefore immediately recognize Ackermann furniture trucks. In addition, the name was attached to the lower edge of the side of the body on a small embossed sign. The box trucks were built in this form for almost ten years and Ackermann achieved a market share of around 70 percent with them. Minor changes were made to the steps, which from around 1960 onwards were solid instead of the usual step bars.

Smaller cabs could also be fitted with Ackermann standard parts, although the center section with the engine flap was correspondingly narrower. In 1957, Ackermann and Borgward jointly presented the five-meter furniture van, which could also be ordered directly from Borgward. Production of the vehicle, which was considerably smaller than the large Pullmann models, was discontinued when the Borgward Group filed for bankruptcy in 1961.

Vehicles for Swiss customers were still being built at the Wuppertal plant until 1962. This is a small box van on an unknown chassis for a furniture factory in Bern. Trilex rims were typical of Swiss trucks.

In addition to the large "Pullmans," as they were often called, there were also box bodies in light-alloy construction on medium-weight and light chassis. These also featured the "Ackermann wings" and the embossed side sign in the same style. As early as the 1950s, Ackermann was no longer able to meet demand, so licenses were granted to a number of smaller bodybuilders throughout Germany. In Berlin, for example, the Wingert company took over this task. Primarily light metal box bodies on smaller commercial vehicles such as the Hanomag L 28, the Opel Blitz or, until 1961, on Borgward and Ford chassis were produced by these companies, which mostly supplied customers in their respective regions. In 1955, Mercedes-Benz also entered this market segment with the extremely successful type L 319. Trucks in the one-and-a-half to three-ton weight class were used primarily to deliver new furniture from the numerous family-run furniture stores at the time to end customers, as well as to transport food. In Austria, the company Schneider & Blaha, later Brentenwerke, began building light-alloy bodies to Ackermann specifications under license in 1957 and developed into a successful supplier.

The Swiss branch of Ackermann built furniture trucks on chassis that were still rare in Germany at the time. The Dutch DAF Type 2600 from 1962 shown here was one of them.

The short wheelbase and long front overhang also suggest that this Volvo, which was bodied by the Swiss branch of Ackermann, was based on a bus chassis. It is not known which type.

In 1967, Hanomag presented its new F series with modern, angular cabs. This box van for furniture transport in Austria was bodied by the local licensee Brentenwerke.

From the mid-1960s, angular shapes became generally accepted in vehicle construction. Furniture vans with rounded fronts were beginning to look outdated. Therefore, in 1966, Ackermann presented a "new face" with a vertical front and large windows without a center bar. The area above the windshield was now also almost vertical, and the cars thus offered even more storage space above the driver's cab. With the new Ackermann front, bodies were delivered on Büssing FSA chassis (the initials FSA stand for chassis for custom bodies), and to a much lesser extent also on MAN chassis.

At the beginning of the 1960s, angular designs became popular in commercial vehicle construction, as the round shapes of the past seemed to be gradually becoming outdated. In 1963, Mercedes presented the cubic long-distance truck LP 1620, followed in 1965 by the medium-heavy variants in the same style. The second generation of Ackermann Pullmann bodies was also angular, with Mercedes-Benz chassis accounting for the vast majority. Most customers ordered the Mercedes front and not Ackermann's own “new face”. This is an LP 1113 from around 1966 with a low, still round roof.

Angular shapes also prevailed at Büssing. The group picture shows furniture vans on FSA chassis and a BS box truck at an exhibition around 1970.

This truck from the Teckentrup trucking company in Beckum was probably based on a Mercedes chassis of the MB LP 1620 type. Such large box-type trucks for long-distance transportation were rare in the 1960s, as they cost around a third more than comparable box-type trucks with a separate factory-fitted cab.

The last Pullmann bodies from Ackermann, from around 1973, could be recognized by their now almost straight lower edge. At the end of the 1960s, almost all furniture vans were built with a higher roof, including this one, which was painted in the colors of “Deutsche Möbelspedition”, a furniture removal company founded in 1968.

The vast majority of second- generation "Pullmans" were built on Mercedes-Benz chassis, primarily of the LP 1113 type, with almost all buyers preferring the Mercedes-Benz factory front, which visually corresponded to the cubic LP 1620 already introduced in 1963. Ackermann's large panel vans were still available in this angular design until about the mid-1970s. From the end of the 1960s, they were marketed under the name "Möform" as part of an overall concept developed in cooperation with Deutsche Möbeltransport GmbH (DMG). In addition to the vehicles, it also included packing materials, work clothing and staff training. The close cooperation with Mercedes-Benz and the low maintenance costs due to standardized construction and parts were emphasized. The large box and box-type vans were given the designation "Maxi", the smaller box vans on MB-LP-608/808 chassis were called "City" (mainly for inner-city traffic) and the small vans on MB-L-406/508 basis were called "Mini". They were mainly used to deliver new furniture to private customers.

In the late 1960s, the “möForm” concept was developed in collaboration with Mercedes, which not only included various vehicle types, but also packaging materials, work clothing and staff training.

Increasing cost pressure in the transport industry as well as the emergence of interchangeable bodies made the "Pullmans" unattractive, as they were significantly more expensive than box trucks with factory-fitted cabs. In addition, at the beginning of the 1970s, the maintenance-friendly tipper cab became established in truck construction, for which the integrated design of cab and cargo area in the box truck was unsuitable. Only the Warneke company in Laatzen near Hanover developed a Pullman furniture truck with tipper cab on the then new Mercedes-Benz NG in 1977 for which it held a patent. Until Warneke ceased production in 1997, these vehicles were built in small numbers, but were rather exotic in the furniture van sector.

By the mid-1970s, the era of the Pullmann box van had actually come to an end. Only the body manufacturer Warneke in Laatzen near Hannover dared to design a vehicle that was adapted to the Mercedes trucks of the “new generation” with a tiltable cab. The cab could be tilted forward, as can be seen from the shape of the roof. Some traditional furniture trucking companies still ordered such vehicles, but production ended in 1997 with the closure of the Warneke company.

The refrigeration unit attached to the chassis of the medium-heavy cubic Mercedes LP 1313 with a low box body can be clearly seen here.

The Ackermann body of this three-axle Henschel long-distance truck, type HS 22 TL, built around 1967, was equipped with a refrigeration unit attached to the front of the body.

After the merger of Hanomag and Henschel in 1969, the trucks were marketed under the name HHF (Hanomag-Henschel-Fahrzeugbau). This heavy long-distance truck, which was equipped with an Ackermann superstructure by the Austrian Brentenwerke, also had a cooling unit above the cab.

In addition to furniture trucks, refrigerated trucks were an important production area at Ackermann. For foodstuffs such as bread, milk and cheese, which were usually only transported over short distances, small box bodies made of aluminum alloys were sufficient. Here too, in addition to the light trucks from Hanomag, Opel and Borgward, the Mercedes-Benz L 3500/311 and the S 3500/4500 from Magirus, the short trucks from Mercedes-Benz and MAN were later widely used in the medium weight class. For long-distance transport, especially for meat transport, the simple side walls were not sufficient to keep the perishable goods fresh. Initially, additional insulation and dry ice bars were used, but from the end of the 1950s, separate refrigeration units were the solution. They were mounted on the front of the body, later also underfloor on the chassis, and equipped with their own drive for constant cooling. The requirements for this were closely coordinated with the "Transfrigoroute", the association of refrigerated hauliers. Karl Kölker was instrumental in the development of the corresponding refrigeration technology and Ackermann, along with several other body manufacturers, established itself extremely successfully in this market segment in the 1960s, due in part to the steadily increasing demand resulting from the growing cross-border traffic in Europe.