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Ford of Germany

Ford-Werke GmbH
GmbH
Industry Automotive
Founded August 18, 1925
Founder Henry Ford
Headquarters Niehl, Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Number of locations
Two manufacturing facilities
Key people

Stephen Odell
(Chairman)

Bernhard Mattes
(CEO)
Products Automobiles
Owner Ford Motor Company
Number of employees
28,842 (2009)
Parent Ford Deutschland Holding GmbH
Website Ford.de

Stephen Odell
(Chairman)

Ford-Werke GmbH is a German car manufacturer headquartered in Niehl, Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia and a subsidiary of Ford of Europe, which in turn is a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company.

Until 27 January 1950 all Ford's European operations other than in the USSR were run from Dagenham and owned by Ford Motor Company Limited, Dearborn's 55% owned subsidiary. In Ford Motor Company Limited's published reports to their British shareholders Germany and the other Ford European interests were referred to as 'the associated companies'. These associate companies had been established in order to allow for substantial holdings by local shareholders. On the outbreak of the second world war those shares in Ford Motor Company AG not belonging to German shareholders were placed under the control of the German Commissioner for dealing with enemy property.

The earliest presence of the Ford Motor Company in Germany was a parts operation set up in Hamburg in 1912.

At the end of 1924 the US Ford Motor Company established a sales office in Berlin which at the start of 1925 received a permit to import 1,000 tractors. In 1920 the government had imposed a tariff so high that it amounted to a prohibition against importing foreign automobiles, but this was reversed in October 1925. The move had evidently been anticipated by Ford, since on 18 August 1925 the Ford Motor Company Aktiengesellschaft had been entered in the Berlin Companies Register.

During 1925 an assembly plant was constructed in a rented warehouse in the district of Berlin, which was well located for receiving deliveries of kits and components via the country's canal network. On 1 April 1926 the first German assembled Model T was produced, using imported parts. The Berlin assembly operation produced 1,177 Model Ts in 1926 and a further 2,594 during 1927 which was the Model T's final year: in August 1927 Model T production in Berlin ended, and it was nearly a year before, on 20 August 1928, Ford auto-production in Berlin recommenced, now of the Ford Model A.


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