Karmann: End of an era

Rich in tradition, the automotive company Karmann has finally ceased the production of completely assembled vehicles. At 11.35 am last Monday, the last cabrio - a Mercedes CLK - rolled off the production line in the German town of Osnabrück, heralding the end of a successful car company that goes back to 1901. Since 1949, the company had been assembling complete cars in small series and produced a total of 3.3 million vehicles. The company achieved particular fame with an especially unusual vehicle: the legendary VW Karmann Ghia, of which 500,000 were manufactured between1955 and 1974 for Volkswagen. The gallery provides an overview of the Karmann production.