Goliath Pionier

Carl F. W. Borgward started the Bremer Kühlerfabrik Borgward & Co., a radiator firm, in Bremen in 1921.source 1 His first complete production vehicle, from 1924, was a three-wheeled delivery cart, the Goliath Blitzkarren, and its successors were the Goliath Rapid and Goliath Standard.source 1source 2 In 1929 Borgward and Wilhelm Tecklenborg took over the Hansa-Lloyd works in Bremen too, the start of what became the Borgward group.source 1source 2

A car for the Depression

Borgward showed his first car at the Berlin motor show in 1931, by German Wikipedia’s account; the Lane Motor Museum, on another page, has it born in 1932.source 3source 1 It was aimed at people the Depression had left unable to afford a car. A light three-wheeler could be driven without a driving licence and paid no vehicle tax, and German Wikipedia says no insurance either; the Lane museum says Borgward designed it to escape the annual tax on four-wheelers.source 3source 4

Everything was kept light. The body was synthetic fabric over a wooden frame, and the car weighed about 350 kg (772 lb) empty.source 4source 3source 5 An ILO single-cylinder two-stroke, air-cooled, gave 5.5 PS (4 kW) at 3,200 rpm from 198 cc, or 6.7 PS (5 kW) from 247 cc, through three speeds.source 3source 5source 4 Where it sat is disputed: the Lane museum, which owns a Pionier, says at the back, driving the rear wheels, and English Wikipedia’s summary table says at the front.source 4source 5 The single wheel was at the front.source 5 The two-door, two-seat body came as a coupé or a cabriolet, 3,100 mm (122 in) long and 1,500 mm (59 in) wide.source 3source 5 It cost RM 1,400, used about 5 litres per 100 km, and reached 50–60 km/h by German Wikipedia or 40 mph (64 km/h) by the Lane museum.source 3source 4

About 4,000 were sold, out of some 24,500 three-wheelers sold in Germany in those years.source 4source 3source 5 In 1933 a three-wheeled light lorry, the Goliath F400, was derived from it, and in 1934 a streamlined fastback was added, of which only a few hundred were made.source 5source 3

The end of the loophole

The sources agree that the tax advantage ended, but not on when or how. The Lane museum’s Pionier page says three-wheelers escaped the tax until 1933 and that the change in the law in 1934 extended it to all vehicles; its page on the Atlas says the concessions ended in 1933; English Wikipedia gives the tax period as 1906–⁠1933.source 4source 1source 5 The Atlas page blames a “socialist” government, which is wrong: from 30 January 1933 the government was Hitler’s. No German legal source settling it has been found.source 1 Goliath’s answer was four wheels, the Hansa 400 or Goliath Atlas of 1932–⁠35, with a two-cylinder two-stroke, at RM 2,450.source 1 Goliath-Werke went on after the war until 1959.source 1

Borgward’s first vehicle came out of a complaint. In the spring of 1924 his designer, Dietrich Klie, objected to pushing handcarts of radiator material between the works halls, and Borgward built a motor cart instead.source 6source 7 It was the Blitzkarren, the “lightning cart”: an open delivery tricar with no cab (more on micro vans), a load platform ahead of the driver for 250 kg (550 lb), and a single front wheel on a motorcycle fork, which the driver steered from his open seat at the back.source 6source 2source 7 A two-stroke of 120 cc and 2.2 PS (1.6 kW), from DKW and later from ILO, drove the left rear wheel by a V-belt. There was no clutch, no gearbox and no starter: it was pushed to start and stopped by stalling the engine.source 6source 2source 7 It cost RM 980.source 6source 7

Borgward saw that traders and small businesses could drive it without a licence. He patented the front-loader layout, in Germany on 20 June 1925, and in Britain as GB 248625, “Improvements in motor tricycle box carriers”, granted on 11 March 1926.source 6source 2 Six to eight a day were built at first. With no dealers, Borgward gave demonstration drives himself and found only five agents; on one drive, early in March 1925, he met the wealthy Wilhelm Tecklenborg, who became his partner. The Reichspost used Blitzkarren too.source 6 No production total and no survivor have been found, and the name Goliath, often given to it now, came only with the successor of 1925: still a front-loader, but with two front wheels and an ILO engine of 200 or 250 cc. Klie had proposed calling it Liliput.source 6

By 1929, according to the Weser-Kurier as both Wikipedias cite it, a quarter of the registered commercial vehicles in Germany came from Bremen.source 6source 2

Only about four Pioniers are believed to survive, by the Lane Motor Museum’s count, and it has one of them, a 1933 car, in Nashville.source 4 No dated auction result has been found.