1920 - 1930.. Munich and Beissbarth in a period of change. turbulence, crises, bankruptcy. Munich was still an unspoilt idyll. A view of the south side of Marienplatz. On the left is the tower of the Old Town Hall. Photograph from 28. 07. 1910. Mergers are very much the in thing at the moment but there were mergers in Germany even in 1926. the Daimler (Mercedes) and Benz marques combined, causing Paul Daimler, Gottfried Daimler’s eldest son, to leave his father’s company for Zwickau, where he joined the Horch company. Hermann Beissbarth, who had been a good friend of Paul Daimler for many years, added to the range of Gebrüder Beissbarth’s products by becoming Horch’s dealer in Bavaria. Despite this expansion, there was no growth in sales. On the contrary. The economic situation in Bavaria and political uncertainty (Hitler’s putsch took place in Munich on November 9th, 1923) was looking increasingly bleak. To quote the Bavarian Commercial Archives again. “In previous years, the factory on Tegernseer Landstrasse has achieved sales of around 2,000,000 Marks per year… sales in 1930 were said to have amounted to 600,000 Marks … and there were around 295 waged and 20 salaried employees”, end of quote. In 1931, Hermann Beissbarth was forced to close the factory. On February 15th, 1932, unemployment in Germany was at its highest ever level of over 6 million. In 1933, Hitler seized power and in 1935 Munich was declared the “Capital of the Movement”. On September 1st, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, unleashing the Second World War. Hermann Beissbarth on an outing to the Tegernsee lake. Photograph 1924.

This Mercedes Knight from 1913 wth its beautiful Beissbarth bodywork had 4 cylinders, a displacement of 6.3 litres and an output of 65 bhp, taking the car to a top speed of 85 km/h.