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Hanomag 2/10 PS

Also known as “Kommissbrot”, “Kommißbrot”

It was named after the square loaf of bread issued to German soldiers, the Kommissbrot. It had one headlamp, in the middle of its nose, one door, a single cylinder behind the seat, and no running boards at all, so that two people could sit side by side in a car less than 1.2 metres wide.

A white open two-seater with wooden wheels, a single headlamp and plate H-G 305 on paving before a glass facade.
White Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet of 1925 before the German Pavilion on the Expo grounds, Hanover, in September 2013.Photo: Hmg210, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

The spec plate

Hanomag 2/10 PS

2/10 PS · Hanover-Linden

Built
1924–⁠1928First cars 1924; on an assembly line from 1925; replaced in 1928
Country
GermanyHanomag works, Hanover-Linden
Maker
Hannoversche Maschinenbau AG (Hanomag)Designed by Carl Pollich and Fidelis Böhler, with Hellmuth Butenuth
Engine
502 cc single-cylinderWater-cooled, overhead valves, crosswise ahead of the rear axle; three speeds
Power
10 PS7.4 kW at 2,500 rpm; 2 PS for tax
Length
2,780 mm1,180 mm wide, 1,600 mm high
Weight
370 kg370–430 kg by body
Seats
2Side by side
Wheels
4A single cylinder set crosswise ahead of the rear axle, driving it by chain, with no differential
Price new
2,000–2,800 RMThree undated figures from three sources
Production
15,7751924–⁠28
Survives
about 30Roadworthy, by Auto Bild’s estimate in 2010
Top speed
60km/h60 km/h40 mph (64 km/h) by the Lane Motor Museum

How big is it?

True proportion

2.78 m

It is 190 mm shorter than a Fiat 500, about 1.6 adults laid end to end, and twice the length of a Peel P50.

  • 1.18 m wide
  • 370 kg: about five adults
  • Two seats side by side, no running boards
  • One door, on the left
Drawn at true proportion. The track is 3.6 metres long; the adult stands at the same scale. The Peel P50 is the smallest production car, on every page for comparison.

The story

History

Hanomag, the Hannoversche Maschinenbau AG, had built its first steam engine in 1836 and was making steam lorries by 1905. As that market declined, the company of Hanover-Linden looked for something new to make.12

It found it at the Berlin motor show of 1923. That year three young men in Hanover had set up the Butenuth-Fahrzeugwerke, Bufag for short: Fidelis Böhler, born in 1887 at Friedingen, who had trained with Luftschiffbau Zeppelin at Friedrichshafen and then at NSU; Hellmuth Butenuth, born in 1898 in Dortmund and a student at the Technische Hochschule in Hanover since 1920; and the designer Carl Pollich. A Hanomag representative saw their small car at the show. Hanomag bought Bufag and its plans and took on all three, Butenuth as test engineer.34 Auto Bild credits the design to Böhler and Pollich alone; German Wikipedia names all three.25

The army loaf

Their car began from the seat. To make it wide enough for two people, the designers left off the running boards and the separate wings, and by putting the engine at the back they freed the front for legs.126 What was left was a slab-sided envelope of a body, and the shape gave the car its nickname: the Kommissbrot, the square loaf of army bread, from Kommiss, soldiers’ slang for the army. Auto Bild says the press meant it mockingly; English Wikipedia calls it affectionate.1265 German Wikipedia claims it as the first car with a full-width body of the kind Germans call a Ponton; English Wikipedia says one of the first.26

There was one door, on the left, for the sake of a stiff body, and the driver sat on the right. There was one headlamp, in the middle of the nose; two were not compulsory in Germany until 1931.2 The engine was a water-cooled single of 502 cc with overhead valves, giving 10 PS at 2,500 rpm, and it sat across the car just ahead of the rear axle.25 English Wikipedia counts that as a rear-mid engine, and Auto Bild calls the car the first mid-engined car built in series, a claim only it makes.65 The name 2/10 PS meant 2 taxable horsepower and 10 real ones.6 A chain took the drive to the rear axle, which was solid and had no differential, and a single drum on that axle did all the braking: shoes inside it for the pedal, a band outside it for the handbrake.26 The front axle hung on two transverse leaf springs, one above the other.2

A man in a hat sits in a small pale open two-seater with a single round headlamp in its rounded nose.
Plate I · 1928 S. Keestra, Hanomag’s Dutch importer, at the wheel of a 2/10 PS Cabriolet in Apeldoorn in 1928: the full-width body and the one headlamp.Photo: Spaarnestad Photo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On the line

The car went on sale in 1924, and demand was strong enough that from 1925 Hanomag built it on a moving assembly line. It was the second German small car built that way, after the Opel 4 PS Laubfrosch of 1924.2 There were four bodies, all two-seaters: the Limousine, the Roadster, the Cabriolet and the Landaulet. Auto Bild adds a sports model, a delivery van and a flatbed.25 Prices are given as just under 2,000 to 2,500 Reichsmark by body, from 2,000 RM, and 2,800 RM, none of them dated.125

It was not a refined car. The big single shook so much at idle that the whole car hopped. Top speed was about 60 km/h (37 mph), or 40 mph by the Lane Motor Museum’s figure.125 What it did well was save fuel: at 4.0 litres per 100 km (about 70 mpg), Horst-Dieter Görg calls it the most economical mass-produced car of the years between the wars, and the subtitle of his book on it calls it Germany’s first people’s car.26 About 16,000 had been sold by 1927, by Auto Bild’s count.5

Racing at the new Nürburgring

Butenuth drove the car in races and long-distance trials to prove it (more in racing and rallying). In 1927 he won the racing class up to 500 cc at the Feldberg hill climb in the Taunus.4 On 19 June 1927, at the opening meeting of the Nürburgring, three Hanomags ran in the class up to 750 cc, driven by Butenuth, Wilhelm Höpfner and Karl Wery. They were stripped for racing, with bare wheels and only a cowl over the nose.27 Höpfner crashed on the fourth lap and Wery retired after two.27 Butenuth spun soon after the start, broke a rear wheel and ended in a ditch. He took 15 minutes to reach the pits for a new wheel, rejoined about 20 minutes down and, with a bent front axle, drove on to the finish: 12 laps, 340.8 km, in 5 h 36 min 19.4 s.27 That is an average of 60.51 km/h by the racing historians’ arithmetic, or 60.8 by German Wikipedia’s, and the racing historians count him third in his group.27 A racer with a wicker body, the Korbwagen, is dated to about 1928.26

Outsold

The design answered the small-car problem, but buyers wanted something more like a proper car. The Dixi 3/15, the Austin Seven built under licence at Eisenach, and the Opel Laubfrosch sold better.26 The Lane museum says the Austin, as the Dixi, came to Germany with four seats at a lower price than the Hanomag; English Wikipedia says the rivals were better in nearly every way and cost no more.16 In 1928 Hanomag replaced the 2/10 PS with the conventional, front-engined 3/16 PS, and built 15,775 of the loaf in all.126 Hanomag went on making cars until 1951.2

Five small rounded cars with single central headlamps parked in a row before brick houses on a sandy yard.
Plate II · 1928 Hanomag 2/10 PS cabriolets, saloons and a van lined up at the yard of the Dutch importer Keestra, Apeldoorn, 1928.Photo: Spaarnestad Photo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The designers went their ways. Böhler later built a single-seater of his own, the Böhler Monoplace, at Riedlingen, a prototype in 1932 and a few after the war at 400 RM, and died at Fellbach on 11 August 1954.3 Butenuth became Hanomag’s technical director in the late 1920s, ran its agency for Berlin and Brandenburg from 1933, founded the Econom lorry firm after the war, and died in Berlin on 20 August 1990.4

A green saloon with an open windscreen, rounded wings and wooden wheels on a wooden floor.
A 1926 saloon at the Louwman Museum in The Hague: the slab sides that made it the army loaf.Photo: Alf van Beem, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
A louvred rear lid propped open over a small engine compartment with a single-cylinder engine and tank.
The engine lid raised at the back of a dark-green 1927 saloon at the Hannover Messe in 2017.Photo: Frank Schwichtenberg, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Pictures

More photographs, old and new

The car 22

  • A dark blue open two-seater with red wooden wheels and a single headlamp before a curved glass building. Opens a larger view

    1 Blue Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet of 1927 with red wheels before the German Pavilion on the Expo grounds, Hanover, in February 2011.

  • A brown open two-seater with cream coachlines, a single headlamp and wooden wheels on a wooden floor. Opens a larger view

    2 Brown Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet of 1926 at the Lane Motor Museum, Nashville, in April 2009.

  • A maroon open two-seater with cream spoked wheels, a single headlamp and plate IS-44730 on a grey floor. Opens a larger view

    3 Maroon Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet of 1925 at the Deutsches Museum Verkehrszentrum, Munich, in 2010.

  • A cream open two-seater with wooden wheels on white gravel, a museum information board in front. Opens a larger view

    4 Cream Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet at the Auto & Technik Museum Sinsheim in October 2009.

  • A cream two-seater with a black hood, wooden wheels and a single headlamp on a pink show carpet. Opens a larger view

    5 Cream Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet of 1927 with its hood up at Techno-Classica, Essen, in April 2007.

17 more picturesFewer pictures
  • A yellow two-seater with a black hood, yellow wheels and a 1924 plate behind a red rope on a dark floor. Opens a larger view

    6 Yellow Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet of 1924 with its hood up in a museum in Germany in March 2010.

  • Side view of a cream car with a box body lettered ADAC Straßen-Hilfsdienst and pale spoked wheels. Opens a larger view

    7 Cream Hanomag 2/10 PS ADAC Straßen-Hilfsdienst road-patrol car in profile at the Verkehrsmuseum Dresden in March 2016.

  • Side view of a dark blue two-seater with a black hood, red wheels and slotted vents behind the door. Opens a larger view

    8 Blue Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet of 1927 in profile with its hood up on the Expo grounds, Hanover, in February 2011.

  • Side view of a green two-seater with cream spoked wheels and a suitcase on its tail, before framed factory photographs. Opens a larger view

    9 Green Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet in profile at the Historisches Museum Hannover in September 2014.

  • Side view of a cream two-seater with wooden wheels and a folded hood on white gravel, motorcycles behind. Opens a larger view

    10 Cream Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet in profile at the Auto & Technik Museum Sinsheim in October 2009.

  • Rear three-quarter view of a cream car with a tall lettered box body and a louvred rear wing. Opens a larger view

    11 Cream Hanomag 2/10 PS ADAC Straßen-Hilfsdienst road-patrol car from behind at the Verkehrsmuseum Dresden in March 2016.

  • Rear three-quarter view of a yellow road-patrol car with a lettered tool box on its louvred tail. Opens a larger view

    12 Yellow and black Hanomag 2/10 PS ADAC Straßen-Hilfsdienst road-patrol car from behind at Techno-Classica, Essen, in April 2024.

  • Rear three-quarter view of a brown open two-seater with cream coachlines, a louvred tail and wooden wheels. Opens a larger view

    13 Brown Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet of 1926 from the rear quarter at the Lane Motor Museum, Nashville, in April 2009.

  • The rounded cream tail of a small car with rows of louvres, a slatted wooden rack and an orange wooden wheel. Opens a larger view

    14 Louvred tail and wooden luggage rack of a cream Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet at the EFA Museum, Amerang, in September 2008.

  • Rear three-quarter view of a cream two-seater with a louvred rounded tail, a black hood and wooden wheels. Opens a larger view

    15 Cream Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet of 1927 from behind at Techno-Classica, Essen, in April 2007, showing the louvred cover over its rear engine.

  • Rear three-quarter view of a yellow two-seater with a leather suitcase on a rack and a Hanomag plate. Opens a larger view

    16 Yellow Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet of 1924 from behind with a suitcase on its rack, in a museum in Germany in March 2010.

  • Close front view of a cream rounded bonnet with one large headlamp set low between two wings. Opens a larger view

    17 Single headlamp and rounded nose of the Hanomag 2/10 PS ADAC road-patrol car at the Verkehrsmuseum Dresden in March 2016.

  • Front view of a cream rounded bonnet with a single round headlamp at its centre, flanked by wings. Opens a larger view

    18 A cream Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet head-on at the EFA Museum, Amerang, in September 2008, its single headlamp in the nose.

  • Front view of a cream rounded car with a single headlamp and a Museum Sinsheim plate on a white gravel floor. Opens a larger view

    19 Cream Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet head-on at the Auto & Technik Museum Sinsheim in October 2009.

  • A helmeted driver in a tiny bare-wheeled racing car with a race number on its nose rounds a bend. Opens a larger view

    20 Hanomag 2/10 PS in racing form, number 62, on the Nürburgring’s southern loop at the Oldtimer Festival in June 2007.

  • A yellow open two-seater with white spoked wheels and a single central headlamp behind a museum label. Opens a larger view

    21 Yellow Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet of 1928 in a museum in Oslo, Norway, in July 2008.

  • A cream two-seater with a brown hood and orange wooden wheels on a black plinth before a swirling grey mural. Opens a larger view

    22 Cream Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet of 1927 on its plinth in the ZeitHaus, Autostadt, Wolfsburg, in April 2010.

The car: Limousine 10

  • A glossy maroon saloon with a bulb horn on the bonnet, a single headlamp and red wooden wheels. Opens a larger view

    23 Maroon Hanomag 2/10 PS saloon from the offside front at Autoworld, Brussels, in December 2018.

  • A small dark green saloon with a tall glazed cab, wooden wheels and a single headlamp on a trade-fair stand. Opens a larger view

    24 Dark-green Hanomag 2/10 PS saloon of 1927 on show at the Hannover Messe, Hanover, in April 2017.

  • A blue saloon with a single headlamp, Hanomag lettering on its flank and blue wire wheels on a tiled floor. Opens a larger view

    25 Blue Hanomag 2/10 PS saloon at the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum, Pinellas Park, Florida, in February 2008.

  • Side view of a small maroon saloon with a black fabric roof, one door and red wheels on a pale floor. Opens a larger view

    26 Maroon Hanomag 2/10 PS saloon in profile at Autoworld, Brussels, in May 2011, showing its slab-sided “loaf” shape.

  • Side view of a small green saloon with a tall cab, a single door and green wooden wheels on a wooden floor. Opens a larger view

    27 Green Hanomag 2/10 PS saloon of 1926 in profile at the Louwman Museum, The Hague, in January 2018.

5 more picturesFewer pictures
  • A blue saloon with Hanomag lettering on its flank and a black cab, a museum sign beside it. Opens a larger view

    28 Blue Hanomag 2/10 PS saloon at the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum, Pinellas Park, Florida, in February 2014.

  • Rear three-quarter view of a blue saloon with a black cab, its louvred rear lid raised over the engine. Opens a larger view

    29 Blue Hanomag 2/10 PS saloon with its engine cover open at the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum, Pinellas Park, Florida, in February 2008.

  • A small maroon saloon with a black cab roof, red wheels and an Autoworld sign before it, behind a rope. Opens a larger view

    30 Maroon Hanomag 2/10 PS saloon at Autoworld, Brussels, in May 2022.

  • A small saloon with a black cab and pale blue bonnet, a single headlamp and black wheels on a white floor. Opens a larger view

    31 Two-tone Hanomag 2/10 PS saloon of 1928 at the Prototyp museum, Hamburg, in December 2012.

  • A small green saloon with a light wooden-framed glass cab and wooden wheels parked on a street under trees. Opens a larger view

    32 Green Hanomag 2/10 PS saloon of 1924 at a classic car meeting outside the Technisches Museum Wien, Vienna, in June 2012.

Inside and details 8

  • A wooden steering wheel, a mahogany dashboard with a few gauges and a black bench seat inside a cream car. Opens a larger view

    33 Cockpit of a cream Hanomag 2/10 PS Cabriolet at the EFA Museum für Deutsche Automobilgeschichte, Amerang, in September 2008.

  • A cream steering wheel and a plywood dash with one gauge, framed by a woven wicker body. Opens a larger view

    34 Cockpit of the wicker-bodied 1928 Hanomag 2/10 PS Korbwagen at the Automuzeum, Gostyń, Poland, in September 2016.

  • Close view of a worn single-cylinder engine with a black cooling-fan housing, pipes and a fuel filter. Opens a larger view

    35 The 499 cc single-cylinder engine of the dark-green 1927 Hanomag 2/10 PS saloon at the Hannover Messe, Hanover, in April 2017.

  • A single-cylinder engine with a black fan housing, exhaust pipe and brass-topped tank in a small rear bay. Opens a larger view

    36 Rear engine compartment of the blue Hanomag 2/10 PS saloon at the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum, Pinellas Park, Florida, in February 2008.

  • A brass fuel tank on a leather strap above a small engine and a finned radiator inside a wicker body. Opens a larger view

    37 The single-cylinder engine and brass fuel tank of the 1928 Hanomag 2/10 PS Korbwagen at Gostyń, Poland, in September 2016.

  • Close view of a brass-topped radiator, a single-cylinder engine and a drive chain on a bare chassis. Opens a larger view

    38 Engine, radiator and chain drive of a Hanomag 2/10 PS in racing form at the Nürburgring Oldtimer Festival in June 2007.

  • A small chrome badge shaped like a car with the word Hanomag, on glossy maroon paint. Opens a larger view

    39 Car-shaped Hanomag badge on the maroon Hanomag 2/10 PS saloon at Autoworld, Brussels, in May 2011.

  • A bronze badge shaped like a small car with the word Hanomag above it, fixed to woven wicker. Opens a larger view

    40 Car-shaped Hanomag badge on the wicker body of the 1928 Hanomag 2/10 PS Korbwagen at Gostyń, Poland, in September 2016.

Variants and relatives 4

  • A cream open car with an ADAC sign on a frame above its cab and a box body, on a slatted floor. Opens a larger view

    41 Cream Hanomag 2/10 PS ADAC Straßen-Hilfsdienst road-patrol car at the Verkehrsmuseum Dresden in March 2016.

  • A small yellow saloon with a black cab lettered ADAC Strassen-Hilfsdienst and black wire wheels on a dark show floor. Opens a larger view

    42 Yellow and black Hanomag 2/10 PS ADAC Straßen-Hilfsdienst road-patrol car at Techno-Classica, Essen, in April 2024.

  • A tiny black and cream van with a lettered box body, wooden wheels and a single round headlamp on a show stand. Opens a larger view

    43 Hanomag 2/10 PS delivery van in black and cream DEKRA livery at Retro Classics, Stuttgart, in April 2024.

  • A small car whose rounded body is woven from wicker, with red wooden wheels and a single headlamp, by a museum board. Opens a larger view

    44 Wicker-bodied Hanomag 2/10 PS Korbwagen, dated 1928 by the museum, at the Automuzeum, Gostyń, Poland, in September 2016.

Period photographs 2

  • A half-tone of a slab-sided small car with a canvas roof standing on rail wheels before a garage wall. Opens a larger view

    45 Hanomag 2/10 PS converted into a rail inspection car on flanged wheels, from Illustrierte Technik für Jedermann, 1927.

  • A small dark saloon with a single headlamp drives down a wide track ahead of other old cars, flags overhead. Opens a larger view

    46 A Hanomag 2/10 PS saloon leading veteran cars past the pits at Zandvoort on the Pionier Automobielclub run, 12 October 1962.

Picture credits (46)
  1. 1 Hmg210, CC BY-SA 3.0
  2. 2 dave_7, CC BY 2.0
  3. 3 High Contrast, CC BY 3.0 de
  4. 4 Alf van Beem, CC0
  5. 5 Andrew Bone, CC BY 2.0
  6. 6 Robotriot, CC BY-SA 3.0
  7. 7 NoRud, CC BY-SA 4.0
  8. 8 Christian Jaeger, CC BY-SA 3.0
  9. 9 Hajotthu, CC BY-SA 3.0
  10. 10 Alf van Beem, CC0
  11. 11 NoRud, CC BY-SA 4.0
  12. 12 Matti Blume, CC BY-SA 4.0
  13. 13 dave_7, CC BY 2.0
  14. 14 Norbert Pietsch, CC BY-SA 4.0
  15. 15 Andrew Bone, CC BY 2.0
  16. 16 Robotriot, CC BY-SA 3.0
  17. 17 NoRud, CC BY-SA 4.0
  18. 18 Norbert Pietsch, CC BY-SA 4.0
  19. 19 Alf van Beem, CC0
  20. 20 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
  21. 21 Pudelek, CC BY 3.0
  22. 22 Klaus Nahr, CC BY-SA 2.0
  23. 23 Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0
  24. 24 Frank Schwichtenberg, CC BY-SA 4.0
  25. 25 dave_7, CC BY-SA 2.0
  26. 26 Thomas Quine, CC BY 2.0
  27. 27 Alf van Beem, Public domain
  28. 28 Crwpitman, CC BY-SA 4.0
  29. 29 dave_7, CC BY-SA 2.0
  30. 30 Loudumo, CC BY 2.0
  31. 31 OlliFoolish, CC BY-SA 3.0
  32. 32 GuentherZ, CC BY 3.0
  33. 33 Norbert Pietsch, CC BY-SA 4.0
  34. 34 flyz1, CC BY-SA 3.0
  35. 35 Frank Schwichtenberg, CC BY-SA 4.0
  36. 36 dave_7, CC BY-SA 2.0
  37. 37 flyz1, CC BY-SA 3.0
  38. 38 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
  39. 39 Thomas Quine, CC BY 2.0
  40. 40 flyz1, CC BY-SA 3.0
  41. 41 Wuselig, CC BY-SA 4.0
  42. 42 Matti Blume, CC BY-SA 4.0
  43. 43 Alexander-93, CC BY-SA 4.0
  44. 44 flyz1, CC BY-SA 3.0
  45. 45 Illustrierte Technik für Jedermann (1927), Public domain
  46. 46 Joop van Bilsen / Anefo, CC0

Variants

Bodies and racers

The 2/10 PS family
VariantYearsWhat differsHow many
Limousine (L2)1924/25–28The closed two-seat saloonIn the total
Cabriolet (Cb2)1924/25–28A folding hoodIn the total
Roadster (R2)1924/25–28The open two-seaterIn the total
Landaulet (Ld2)1924/25–28A landaulet roofIn the total
Sports, van and flatbed1920sListed by Auto BildNot found
Racing car1927Bare wheels and only a cowl over the nose; about 90 km/hAt least 3
Korbwagenc.1928A racer with a wicker bodyNot found

Specification

The 2/10 PS, all bodies

Engine and drive

EngineSingle cylinder, four-stroke, upright, water-cooled, overhead valves; set crosswise ahead of the rear axle25
Capacity502 cc, 80 × 100 mm25499 cc by the tax formula
Power10 PS (7.4 kW) at 2,500 rpm25
Compression6:12
GearboxThree speeds and reverse, gate change, no synchromesh25
Final driveChain to a solid rear axle, no differential26

Body and chassis

BodyFull width, with no running boards or separate wings; one door, on the left; right-hand drive26
Front suspensionTwo transverse leaf springs, one above the other2
Rear suspensionSolid axle on trailing arms with coil springs, damped by pads rubbing on the frame2
BrakesOne drum on the rear axle: internal shoes for the pedal, an external band for the handbrake2
Electrics6 volt; one headlamp, in the middle2
Tyres27 × 3.5 in2

Dimensions

Length2,780 mm (9 ft 1 in)265
Width1,180 mm (3 ft 10 in)261,118 mm in Auto Bild5
Height1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)261,500 mm in Auto Bild
Wheelbase1,920 mm (6 ft 4 in)26
Track1,040 mm front, 910 mm rear2
Weight370 kg (816 lb)65370–430 kg by body; 570–630 kg loaded2

Performance and running

Top speed60 km/h (37 mph)2540 mph (64 km/h) by the Lane museum1
Consumption4.0 litres per 100 km (about 70 mpg)26
Price newJust under 2,000 to 2,500 RM by body2From 2,000 RM in Auto Bild; 2,800 RM, about US$660, by the Lane museum51

How many were built?

Every figure, with its source

15,775 built15,775, given by the Lane Motor Museum and by German Wikipedia, which draws on Görg’s monograph of 2005. A figure that exact suggests a count from the factory. The round figures agree with it.

  1. about 16,000sold by 1927One source

    Auto Bild Klassik, 20105

  2. 15,7752/10 PS of all bodiesTwo sources agree

    The Lane Motor Museum; German Wikipedia, after Görg12

  3. 15,000sold in the 1920sOne source

    German Wikipedia’s life of Hellmuth Butenuth4

  • Two sources agreetwo good sources give the figure
  • One sourcea good source, alone
  • Unconfirmeda lead only, not yet checked

Famous for

Three points

  1. The army loaf

    Its slab sides earned it the name of the German soldier’s square loaf, the Kommissbrot.126

  2. One of everything

    One cylinder, one headlamp in the middle of the nose, one door, and no running boards.25

  3. Four litres

    It used 4.0 litres per 100 km, the thriftiest German car of its day by Görg’s account.26

Racing

The opening of the Nürburgring

Hanomag sent three stripped 2/10 PS cars to the first meeting at the Nürburgring; one finished.

19 June 1927
three Hanomags started in the class up to 750 cc at the Nürburgring’s opening race; two retired.7
340.8 km
in 5 h 36 min 19.4 s, by Hellmuth Butenuth, after a spin, a broken wheel and a bent axle.27
1927
Butenuth won the racing class up to 500 cc at the Feldberg hill climb.4

Survivors and collecting

Today

Auto Bild reckoned in 2010 that about 30 roadworthy cars survived, and put a complete, drivable car in fair condition at about €15,000 and the best at over €25,000.5 There is a 1926 car at the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, and another at the PS.Speicher in Einbeck.12 The Siegfried-Grösche-Stiftung at Alfeld has a Kommissbrot that the Grösche family owned from 1930 and gave to the foundation in 2001; it was back on the road in the late summer of 2016, and the foundation puts the little Hanomag in its logo.2 On film, the reporter Spike Holland, played by Eddi Arent, drives a white 2/10 PS Cabriolet in the West German Edgar Wallace thriller Der grüne Bogenschütze, The Green Archer (see microcars on screen).2 No club and no recent auction result has been found.

The racers have their survivors too. A wicker-bodied Korbwagen dated 1928, a car or a replica, is shown at the Automuzeum at Gostyń in Poland, and a replica is in Germany; a 2/10 PS in racing form, bare wheels and all, ran at the DAMC 05 Oldtimer Festival at the Nürburgring in 2007.26 Hanover has not forgotten the car. It was part of the city’s exhibition 750 Jahre Verkehr in & um Hannover in 1990, and for its hundredth birthday the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung called it “Eine Legende aus Linden”, a legend from Linden, in January 2024, and “Mythos aus Hannover” in July 2025.2

A stripped racing car with a radiator at the front, a long exhaust pipe, wooden wheels and race number 62.
A 2/10 PS in racing form, bare wheels and engine on show, at the Nürburgring in 2007.Photo: Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons

Sources

Numbered as in the text

No period road test or contemporary press account was read; Görg’s monograph and the centenary articles of 2024–⁠25 were not seen. Sources are given as plain text; the links are on the Credits page.

  1. Lane Motor Museum, “Hanomag 2-10 PS – 1926”, collection page, read in full.
  2. German Wikipedia, Hanomag 2/10 PS, read in full. It cites the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung of 15 January 2024; Auto Bild, 6 May 2010; Gebauer and Buck (1956); Horst-Dieter Görg, 80 Jahre Hanomag Kommißbrot: Deutschlands erster Volks-Wagen (2005); Behrndt and others, ADAC Eifelrennen (2009); and goldenera.fi.
  3. German Wikipedia, Fidelis Böhler, read in full.
  4. German Wikipedia, Hellmuth Butenuth, read in full.
  5. “Das Brot der frühen Jahre”, Auto Bild Klassik, 6 May 2010.
  6. English Wikipedia, Hanomag 2/10 PS, read in full. It cites Posthumus (1977), Görg (2005) and the Lane museum.
  7. Leif Snellman and Hans Etzrodt, “Nürburgring Eröffnungsrennen” (1927), The Golden Era of Grand Prix Racing.