The Econom Teddy Was Just As Silly As Its Name

"Jonee" (Jonee) 10/13/2015 at 13:08 • Filed to: Econom Teddy, Hanomag, Microcars

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Amongst the myriad postwar microcars that were too cool to make it to production is this wee winsome fellow, the Econom Teddy. It was designed by the impressively named Hellmuth Butenuth and is the only car I know of named after a stuffed animal. It was meant to be the cheapest car in the world. So cheap, the company left off the last letter(s?) of their name just to save on paint and/or chrome.

Butenuth was an avid tinkerer his whole life. He started out by taking bicycles and motorbikes apart and putting them back together again in his youth and graduated up to designing, building, and selling his own three-wheelers at the age of 22. These little cars were minimal and primitive, but smartly engineered and caught the attention of a manufacturer of locomotives and steam engines called Hanomag. Hanomag were in the midst of designing their own small, cheap car to help buoy their business as apparently they weren’t selling many trains between the wars. Hellmuth was hired as a test engineer, and the car became the legendary !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

The 2/10 was Europe’s first real economy car and its design was revolutionary. Butenuth helped work out the kinks in the developmental stage and then drove the car extensively to test and promote it. He raced it in under 500cc classes even entering it in the opening race of the Nürburgring, covering 341 kilometers in just over 5 1/2 hours for an average speed of about 38 mph which sounds positively adorable. Here’s a photo of a recreation of that car and event.

Hanomag sold almost 16,000 2/10’s and its success saw Hellmuth promoted to Technical Director. A decade later, as Germany armed itself, Hanomag began to concentrate on military vehicles, so Butenuth left the company to start a Ford dealership in Berlin. When the war started and he couldn’t sell Fords any more, he called upon his tinkering skills and began converting old trucks to run on wood gas, or steam. He even designed and built his own steam powered two-stroke motor that he installed in 3-ton Ford trucks.

He had built a shop in an derelict factory that previously manufactured soldiers’ helmets. When the Soviets invaded Berlin, they captured the factory, and Hellmuth, and ordered him to design for them a steam truck for clearing rubble. When he was finished after almost two months, they took his designs back to Russia and abandoned him, apparently converting his plans into some kind of river dredger back in the U.S.S.R.

Wanting to avoid the Commies, Butenuth moved to the Spandau part of West Berlin and, with raw materials and fuel still scarce, set up shop once again converting cars and trucks to run on wood. He soon got an idea that many technical minded entrepreneurs thought of in those days, build a cheap form of transportation. With his recent experience selling refurbished old trucks, he knew there was an untapped market in economical commercial vehicles. So, with help from Marshall Plan funding, he started the Econom company.

Starting production in 1949, Econom became the first postwar German motor vehicle manufacturer. Their first trucks were pretty basic with 25 horsepower Motoren-Werk Mannheim stationary engines powering them. They were meant for cities or farms, and with nothing else available, they sold pretty well especially to municipalities.

Soon they would offer a whole range of weird trucks and other kinds of industrial vehicles like street sweepers, and dump and garbage trucks.

One of them was this nutty coal-hauler with three axles and 4-wheel steering only all of those wheels are under the cab for some reason.

Eventually, they built long haulers with 75hp diesel motors even exporting some to Belgium, Portugal, and Turkey. Some of the bigger Economs were advertised as having a 5 ton load capacity with the ability to tow 5 more tons.

But, trucks weren’t all Hellmuth had in mind for his new company. Remembering all the success he had with the Kommissbrot two decades earlier, and seeing all the motorcycles buzzing around Berlin, Hellmuth set to designing a four-wheeled car that would cost the same as two-wheeled transportation.

He used some of the same tricks the engineers at Hanomag had to keep costs down; a simple ponton body, chain drive, and rear wheels set at a narrow track to eliminate the need for a differential. That body was as basic as any car ever made. It’s basically one piece of shaped sheet metal welded to a floor with a cap on each end. Looking like a child’s pedal car, it was only 7 feet long, just under 4 feet wide, and weighed 700 lbs. soaking wet. Power came from a hand-started 6.5 horsepower, 245cc ILO two-stroke. The engine was placed mid rear and was connected to a 3 speed transmission with reverse which actually was pretty fancy for a microcar. You had turn your engine off and restart it backwards in order to go in reverse in a Messerschmitt.

Despite how tiny it was, there’s actually room for three [ contortionists -ed .]. Helmut put a sideways facing rumble seat over the motor that served as both an engine shroud, and easy storage for a human torso you need to transport. It would cost 2000 Marks which was indeed about the same as a new motorcycle, but, like a motorcycle, it had no roof. And, unlike a motorcycle, it was criminally slow with a top speed of 43 mph. Hellmuth had a canvas top made that must have created an experience akin to being stuffed in a duffel bag. Three prototypes were built, with the later two gussied up with chrome to distract from how spartan they were otherwise.

Workers at the factory called the car the “Crab,” which annoyed Hellmuth. He decided to name it after the symbol of Berlin, a bear, and called it “Teddy” which is completely ridiculous. It made its debut at the 1950 Berlin Auto Show where Carl Borgward told Butenuth he was crazy.

Borgward was there with his Lloyd 300 which, despite a body made of plywood, had a roof and room for a family. The Teddy, he said, was appropriately named as it was better suited as a kid’s toy. Hellmuth also didn’t have the money or room to manufacture the car himself. But, he was determined and spent most of 1950 looking for a licensee to produce the little Teddy. The closest he got was when Hans Glas came to Berlin to see it. Glas loved the idea, but thought the Teddy was too small to be practical and decided instead on a microcar of his own design, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . So, Hellmuth’s dream of the world’s cheapest car died. Plenty of other people would try and fail just like him, but few of them made such an all around cute stab at a people’s car. Butenuth and his sons apparently kept the prototypes and drove them around Berlin for years until they wore out and were junked.

Hellmuth would open a new Ford dealership that became much more successful than Econom’s truck business which he closed in 1954.

In the 60’s, he became a board member of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! or German Traffic Watch, an organization of volunteers that patrol German roads in the name of safety.

For his work with them he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit twice, and the Ernst-Reuter-Plackette for “outstanding services to Berlin.” A pretty distinguished cap on a fairly anonymous, but important career in the German auto industry.

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RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Jonee 10/13/2015 at 13:16

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Looks like the pedal-car version of a late 40s DeSoto.

KnowsAboutCars > Jonee 10/13/2015 at 13:34

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Interesting stuff, as your articles usually are. There has been at least one other car (well, special trim) named after teddy bear, Mitsubishi Dingo Teddy Bear Edition .

Jonee > KnowsAboutCars 10/13/2015 at 13:36

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Thanks. I figured there had to be some Japanese car called “Teddy Bear” and there it is.

Klaus Schmoll > Jonee 10/13/2015 at 13:42

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Fascinating read. I hadn’t heard of the car or even the brand.

Jonee > Klaus Schmoll 10/13/2015 at 13:45

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Thanks. Glad you liked it. I had only ever seen pictures of the car, so it was interesting to research.

KremerK3 > Jonee 10/13/2015 at 15:08

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Who you callin’ silly?

c4v3man > Jonee 10/13/2015 at 15:23

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While it’s great to read stories of the latest and greatest that the automotive world has to offer, nothing captures the imagination quite like stories of do-it-yourselfers building their own unique creations on a personal or commercial scale. I am especially fascinated by these post war microcars, as they are typically very simple, practical designs. Keep these articles coming!

meccapanzer > Jonee 10/13/2015 at 15:44

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More like... amirite or amirite or amirite ?

Steve in Manhattan > Jonee 10/13/2015 at 15:48

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What’s not to like?

deutschophile85 > Jonee 10/13/2015 at 15:51

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Looks a bit like the “Put it in H!” car from The Simpsons.

tapzz > Jonee 10/13/2015 at 17:52

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These kinds of inspired failures always make me wonder whether there is formula that can distinguish minimal proper cars from niche not-a-car.

I mean, it’s very clear to me that an econom teddy, a messerschmitt, a Crosley or pretty much any modern Aixam or a ‘10s voiturette are not-a-cars.

An Austin 7 or mini, Citroën type C or 2cv, Subaru 360 or a Smart forTwo are cars.

But what determines that status? A certain power/weight ratio, or a performance range relative to the norm of their eras?

Jonee > tapzz 10/13/2015 at 18:03

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I see where you’re coming from and it’s an interesting question. It seems to be a case by case basis with factors being horsepower (if it’s single digits, the not-a-car distinction seems appropriate), general shittiness (Crosley), or weirdness of shape (Messerschmitt). Is an Isetta a car? I call it a car. One of those GEM electric things? Not-a-car.

tapzz > Jonee 10/13/2015 at 18:30

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I wouldn’t say that an Isetta is a car. Nor is a BMW 600, IMHO, but a BMW 700 ... maybe. Which kind of makes me think that not-a-cars repurpose motorcycle or stationary engines while real cars have dedicated powerplants.

Hence the fact that a Mazda R360 is a car, and a Goggomobil T400 is not, even if they have similar engine outputs and weights

It also explains why a BMW 700 or a Citroën 2CV are such edge cases; their drivetrains are motorcycle derived, but not exactly...

Jonee > tapzz 10/13/2015 at 18:43

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Interesting. That does make sense. Microcars were often called covered scooters. I’d actually switch the Mazda and Goggo, personally. The 360 Mazda engine came out of a 3-wheeled truck and as a v-twin was motorcycle-like. The Goggomobil motor was designed especially for that car. It had its roots a little in an Adler motorcycle engine by the same designer, Dozekal, but it was a unique motor, and Goggomobils were much more normal car-like than many other micros.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Jonee 10/13/2015 at 18:54

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Daily.

Jonee > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 10/13/2015 at 19:06

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Totally.

tapzz > Jonee 10/13/2015 at 20:00

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You’re right: the Goggo and Mazda perhaps aren’t the best examples. Maybe a Mazda Carol and a Heinkel Kabine would be better comparators.

In that sense, I came across this recent German test of a BMW Isetta, a Goggomobil TS and an NSU Prinz I , and it’s pretty clear that the Goggo is a good deal closer to cardom than the BMW, not least because of the drivetrain. The NSU is a car, clearly.

Considering other edge cases like the Lloyd 300 and 400, and the Vespa 400 (all cars, just about), I did consider whether car like architecture might be the deciding factor, but no: many French voitures sans permit (Mochet, Rolux et al) are car-like four wheelers, but none are cars.

shthar > Jonee 10/13/2015 at 21:40

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We have something similar in this country. We call them golf carts.

Jobjoris > Jonee 10/14/2015 at 04:51

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Well documented and researched piece Herr Eisen. You should totally do a piece on the Deutsche Verkehrswacht as well, volunteers that patrol the roads to make it safer sounds truly amazing.

The Teddy is nice but it doesn’t come near that Hanomag Kommisbrot !

Joe Squirrel > Jonee 10/14/2015 at 14:41

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4x8/10 would hoon

Jonee > Jobjoris 10/14/2015 at 17:51

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Thank you. This one turned out more interesting than I was anticipating when I started it. I am intrigued by the Verkehrswacht, too. Yeah, I should do more research on that and write about it. I could never see something like it existing here. The Germans just really care about driving and everything that goes with it. It’s pretty refreshing.

That Hanomag was an epic little car. The Treefrog and Dixi outsold it, but it had a greater influence on the future of motorcars methinks. On a conceptual level anyway. We don’t drive rear engined cars with wagon wheels although I can’t see why not.