Büssing AG was a German

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

and

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructi ...

manufacturer, established in 1903 by Heinrich Büssing (1843–1929) in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

. It quickly evolved to one of the largest European producers, whose utility vehicles with the Brunswick Lion emblem were widely distributed, especially from the 1930s onwards. The company was taken over by

MAN AG MAN Truck & Bus SE (formerly MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG, ) is a subsidiary of Traton, and one of the leading international providers of commercial vehicles. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, MAN Truck & Bus produces vans in the range from 3.0 to 5.5 t ...

in 1971.

Heinrich Büssing

At the age of 60, the

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

and businessman Heinrich Büssing together with his two sons founded the ''Heinrich-Büssing-Spezialfabrik für Motorwagen und Motoromnibusse''. Büssing, the son of a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...

dynasty at Nordsteimke (in present-day

Wolfsburg Wolfsburg (; Eastphalian: ''Wulfsborg'') is the fifth largest city in the German state of Lower Saxony, located on the river Aller. It lies about east of Hanover and west of Berlin. Wolfsburg is famous as the location of Volkswagen AG's he ...

), had studied engineering at the Collegium Carolinum in Braunschweig and had founded several bicycle, engineering and railway signal works with varying degrees of success. His first truck was a 2-ton payload machine powered by a 2-cylinder gasoline engine and featuring

worm drive A worm drive is a gear arrangement in which a worm (which is a gear in the form of a screw) meshes with a worm wheel (which is similar in appearance to a spur gear). The two elements are also called the worm screw and worm gear. The terminol ...

. That successful design was later built under license by other companies in Germany, Austria, Hungary and by

Straker-Squire Straker-Squire (also known as Brazil Straker) was a British automobile manufacturer based in Bristol, and later Edmonton in North London. The company was formed in 1893 at St Philips, Bristol, as Brazil, Straker & Co by the Irish engineer J.P. ...

in England. One year later he debuted a first 20 HP omnibus model carrying up to twelve passengers on the route from Braunschweig to Wendeburg, operated by his own ''Automobil-Omnibus-Betriebs-Gesellschaft''. Büssing busses soon served public transport in European cities like

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

( ABOAG),

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

(''Fross–Büssing''), or

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

History

Before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Büssing started to build heavy-duty trucks for the time. These trucks featured 4- and 6-cylinder engines (5 tonnes and 11 tonnes, respectively). In 1914 the

Büssing A5P The Büssing A5P was an armoured car produced in Germany during World War I. History The Büssing company had received its first orders of military vehicles in 1910, producing artillery tractors and supply trailers. By November 1914, the Germa ...

armored car was developed at the behest of the German ''

Oberste Heeresleitung The ''Oberste Heeresleitung'' (, Supreme Army Command or OHL) was the highest echelon of command of the army (''Heer'') of the German Empire. In the latter part of World War I, the Third OHL assumed dictatorial powers and became the ''de facto'' ...

''. After the war, Heinrich Büssing had to enter a ''

Kommanditgesellschaft A (abbreviated "KG", ; from + ) is the German name for a limited partnership business entity and is used in German, Belgian, Dutch, Austrian, and some other European legal systems. In Japan, it is called a '' gōshi gaisha''. Its name derive ...

'' limited partnership, converted into the Büssing AG

joint-stock company A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareholders a ...

in 1922. In 1923, Büssing introduced the first rigid three-axle

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpar ...

which was used in upcoming models and allowed Büssing to lead the market share in Germany in commercial vehicles. Fleets of their double and single deck buses ran on the streets of Berlin and were a common sight in the interwar years. Büssing NAG used inmates of several

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

concentration camps in Braunschweig from 1944 to March 1945 for slave labor. These camps were subcamps to the

Neuengamme concentration camp Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in Northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, th ...

.The main camp Büssing and Schilldenkmal is listed as No. 165 Braunschweig in th
official German list
After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

civilian production resumed with 5-tonne and later 7-tonne trucks. In 1950, the company name became Büssing Nutzkraftwagen GmbH and production was concentrated on underfloor-engined trucks which were to become the firm's speciality. Most tractor units and all normal-control trucks had vertical engines, but in the mid 1960s there was a version of their Commodore maximum-weight tractor unit, the 16-210, which had a horizontal diesel mounted under the cab ahead of the front axle, the gearbox being mounted halfway along the truck's chassis. In 1969, Büssing started strong ties with

. MAN was a customer to some Büssing's innovative trucks and parts while they were promoting their own line-up. In 1971, an MAN takeover of Büssing was announced. MAN started to use the lion logo on its newly named "MAN-Büssing" trucks. Büssing's unique underfloor-engined truck range continued in production under the MAN AG through to the late 1980s.

Acquisitions

* First acquisition for Büssing was Mannesmann-Mulag Motoren und Lastwagen AG of Aachen. * Elbing plant of Automobil Fabrik Kornnick AG. * In 1934, Neue Automobil Gesellschaft (NAG). After the takeover Büssing used the brand Büssing-NAG until 1950. * Büssing took over the Borgward plant at Osterholz-Scharmbeck in 1962. This plant used for building military 4-tonne 4x4. (1968 Factory was sold to Faun-Werke GmbH)

Innovations

*1923: The Büssing III GL 6 is the world's first full-size bus * 1930s: Büssing began building heavy duty trucks with

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-cal ...

s * 1936: Büssing pioneered the horizontal "underfloor" diesel engines * During World War II Büssing once again supplied military vehicles including 6x4 armoured cars and an 8x8 with all-wheel steering.

Trolleybus production

Büssing manufactured

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or trol ...

es between 1933 and 1966, producing approximately 71 models.Murray, Alan (2000). ''World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia'', p. 103. Yateley, Hampshire, UK: Trolleybooks. . Most were for German cities, but production also included three trolleybuses for Chernyakhovsk, Russia, in 1939; four for

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

, Denmark, in 1940–42; and 14 for

Lucerne Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label= Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital o ...

, Switzerland, in 1965. In Turkey,

ESHOT Elektrik Su Havagazı Otobüs Troleybüs ( en, Electricity, Water, Coal Gas, Bus, Trolleybus) or ESHOT is a bus service operating in the İzmir. ESHOT, along with İZULAŞ are the two main bus transit service in İzmir. Buses serve all districts ...

converted 21 Büssing

motorbus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for char ...

es into trolleybuses in 1962 and 1968 (these are not counted in the total of 71 given above). At least four Büssing trolleybuses have been preserved, including ones at the Frankfurt Transport Museum, ( :de:Verkehrsmuseum Frankfurt am Main) at the ''Hannoversches Straßenbahn-Museum'' and at the ''Historama'' transport museum in Ferlach, Austria.

Notes