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Opel Eisenach GmbH (formerly Opel AWE Planungs GmbH) is a German manufacturing company based at
In March 1990
, accessed on 19 September 2012 who two days earlier had become the first Chancellor of a newly reunified Germany. A further agreement was signed on 13 December 1990, this time between
File:Opel Corsa front 20080111.jpg, Opel Corsa C 3-door
File:Opel Corsa 1.4 ecoFLEX Satellite (D, Facelift) – Frontansicht, 31. Juli 2012, Heiligenhaus.jpg, Opel Corsa D 3-door
File:2013-03-05 Geneva Motor Show 8017.JPG, Opel Adam
File:Opel Corsa 1.3 CDTI ecoFLEX Innovation (E) – Frontansicht, 24. Dezember 2015, Ratingen.jpg, Opel Corsa E 3-door
File:Opel Grandland X PHEV at IAA 2019 IMG 0627.jpg, Opel Grandland X PHEV
Eisenach Plant. Facts and Figures
{{Authority control Opel factories Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1990 Car manufacturers of Germany Eisenach
Eisenach
Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...
in Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and la ...
, Germany and a subsidiary of Opel
Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Grou ...
. It currently produces the Opel Grandland X.
History
In March 1990 Adam Opel AG
Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Grou ...
and Automobilwerk Eisenach (AWE) (at that time best known in the west as the producer of the Wartburg
The Wartburg () is a castle originally built in the Middle Ages. It is situated on a precipice of to the southwest of and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It was the home of St. Elisabeth of Hungary, the ...
) concluded a collaboration agreement. Things moved fast, and on 5 October 1990, AWE and Opel together opened an assembly line for the Opel Vectra
The Opel Vectra is a mid-size car (large family car) that was engineered and produced by the German automaker Opel from 1988 until 2010. Available in saloon, hatchback and estate body styles, the Vectra was also sold by the Vauxhall marque i ...
. Guests at the accompanying celebrations included Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure is the longe ...
,Geschichte Eisenachs ab 1990, accessed on 19 September 2012 who two days earlier had become the first Chancellor of a newly reunified Germany. A further agreement was signed on 13 December 1990, this time between
Treuhand
The (" Trust agency"), colloquially referred to as , was an agency established by the government of the German Democratic Republic to reprivatise/ privatise East German enterprises, Volkseigene Betriebe (VEBs), prior to German reunification. C ...
president Detlev Rohwedder, Opel Chairman Louis R. Hughes and (AWE) directors, for the purchase of land in the Gries business park, to the west of the Wartburgstadt, where a new car assembly plant could be built. A foundation stone for the new plant was laid on 7 February 1991 and, once the roof was on the building, a "Topping out
In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed atop a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is often parlaye ...
" ceremony was held on 9 September 1991. At the same time the existing (AWE) plant was closed and production there of the Wartburg 1.3
The Wartburg 1.3 is a car which was produced by Automobilwerk Eisenach between October 1988 and April 1991. The car was an updated version of the Wartburg 353, with a 1.3-litre, four-stroke, four-cylinder engine as also used in the second generat ...
(a short-lived re-engined version of the Wartburg 353) was ended.
Construction of the new Eisenach plant involved Opel in an investment of about a Million Marks.
Production started on September, 23rd 1992 at the Eisenach Opel plant, with the Opel Corsa
The Opel Corsa is a supermini car engineered and produced by the German automobile manufacturer Opel since 1982. Throughout its existence, it has been sold under a variety of other brands owned by General Motors (most notably Vauxhall, Chevrolet ...
and Opel Astra
The Opel Astra is a compact car/small family car (C-segment) developed and produced by the German automaker Opel since 1991, currently at its sixth generation. It was first launched in September 1991 as a direct replacement to the Opel Kadett. ...
models. Employing just 1,900 people at this time, the facility was described as the most successful and productive auto-plant in Europe.
The introduction of a third shift on 4 October 1993 marked the end of the plant's start-up phase. On 16 October 1996 Eisenach notched up production of half a million Opels, and the millionth car came off the line on 16 November 1999.
The well publicized bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debto ...
of General Motors
The General Motors Company (GM) is an American multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and was the largest in the world for 77 years bef ...
, its parent company, placed Opel's future ownership and indeed its survival in question for several months during 2009, and this also impacted the Eisenach facility where, at times, production was halted.
Products
Since 1993, Opel Eisenach has been producing theOpel Corsa
The Opel Corsa is a supermini car engineered and produced by the German automobile manufacturer Opel since 1982. Throughout its existence, it has been sold under a variety of other brands owned by General Motors (most notably Vauxhall, Chevrolet ...
. Between 1990 and 2009 the plant produced 2.5 million vehicles. In 2010, Opel decided to build its new city car at the Thuringian production plant, and the Opel Adam
The Opel Adam is a city car engineered and produced by the German car manufacturer Opel, and is named after the company's founder Adam Opel. It was sold under the Vauxhall marque in the United Kingdom. It was launched in France at the 2012 Par ...
duly appeared in January 2013. Production of both Corsa E and Adam ended in May 2019 and since August 2019, the Eisenach factory is producing the Opel Grandland in both regular and PHEV version.
See also
*Opel
Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Grou ...
* Opel Special Vehicles
* Opel Performance Center
Opel Performance Center (OPC) is a division of the German automobile manufacturer Opel, initially set up as a subsidiary in 1997. The main focus of OPC is the development of performance derivatives of the Opel range, such as the hot hatch Corsa ...
References
External links
*Eisenach Plant. Facts and Figures
{{Authority control Opel factories Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1990 Car manufacturers of Germany Eisenach