The man who started the Opel dynasty, Thonges Opel, was a simple farmer with but one goal: to give his children an easier life than his own. He urged his young son Philipp Wilhelm (born in 1803) to become a blacksmith. Following his father’s advice, Philipp moved to Russelsheim, where he married and had three children – Adam (born in 1837), Georg and Wilhelm. In the space of fifteen years, with the invaluable support of his wife, Philipp had built up a flourishing company manufacturing sewing machines, and had embarked on a number of other business ventures making him the most successful man in the little town of Russelsheim.
In 1886, the year that Benz and Daimler presented the world’s first automobile, the son Adam Opel already had 300 employees and produced 20,000 sewing machines a year. But this was not enough for him, and he decided to also start manufacturing bicycles with the support of his sons, who were actually cycling champions in their own right. In 1895 Adam died at the age of just 58, leaving the company in the hands of his wife Sophie, his brother in law Georg and his sons, who continued to produce bicycles and sewing machines.
A slump in sales caused by global overproduction led his sons to explore new directions, as their father had done a decade before, and this time around, naturally, that could only mean the automobile. After a few abortive attempts, in 1901 they sealed a deal with Darracq to produce its cars under license. This was an important year, as it also saw the first Opel motorcycles go into production. 1901 was spent in a painstaking analysis of every detail of the Darracq chasses and engines to identify every shortcoming and assess quality. The first true Opel came in 1902: a low-slung car with a 10/12 HP two cylinder engine costing 6000 Marks – a huge sum at the time. Powered by two different engines – an Opel and a Darracq – this model was sold under the two separate brands until 1906.
Meanwhile, motorcycles were also manufactured alongside the company’s cars, and the choice of models offered in both ranges continued to grow. 1907 was the year that Opel truly established itself as a serious carmaker, with the driver Carl Jorns winning the Kaiser Preis and the Emperor himself choosing Opel cars for his personal transport needs. One of the brand’s most famous cars was born in 1909: the 4/8 HP 2-seater nicknamed the “Doktorwagen” – doctor’s car – now considered a pioneer of the utilitarian vehicle. The extraordinary success of the ‘doctor’s car’ made Opel Germany’s biggest car manufacturer, with a production of 3,335 units per year.
The situation changed radically with the outbreak of the Great War. The government granted Opel a string of generous orders for reliable and easily repaired military vehicles – most of which trucks – and the flagship civilian model, the “Püppchen” (little doll) was converted into a light reconnaissance vehicle.
1919, Opel resumed production of motorcycles and a handful of its pre-war car models, among which the Püppchen. However, what truly set Opel apart in the immediate post-war era was its decision to use modern production systems inspired by the assembly line invented in the United States by Ford. The result was the first modern Opel, the “Laubfrosch” (frog), so-named for its big, bulging lights and its green paintwork (the car was in fact only sold in this colour, much like the Ford Model T, which was only offered in black). Benefitting from new production methods, the price of the Laubfrosch dropped continuously from an original 4,500 Marks to 2,000, and its success – buoyed by numerous race victories – was truly remarkable.
In 1928 Opel was by far the biggest carmaker in Germany, detaining 37.5% of the domestic market. Overtures toward an accord with General Motors were now being made, and the following year, in 1929, this led to the acquisition of 80% of Opel by GM (with Opel transforming into a public limited company to facilitate the deal). This support from the American giant would allow the German company to survive – albeit with major economic sacrifices and lay-offs – the recession afflicting all of industry in Europe in the early 1930s.
In 1931, after the company was acquired entirely by General Motors, Opel launched an economical model with a 1.2 engine. Over 100,000 examples of this car were sold between 1931 and 1935, setting an all-time record for a German car.
The Olympia presented in 1935 was the first mass-produced German car with a body and chassis in pressed steel.
The following year, a model appeared on the scene with a name destined to survive to the present day: the Kadett, a small economy car with the chassis and body integrated in a single structure.
This model allowed Opel to become not only Europe’s biggest carmaker, but also its largest exporter. This was followed by a stream of successful models (the second generation Olympia, the Admiral and Kapitan), while the factory also manufactured refrigerators of the famous GM-owned Frigidair brand.
Opel Admiral
Opel Kapitan
The Second World War forced Opel to switch to military production once again. Opel was hard hit during the war, with over half of the Russelsheim factory and the entire Brandenburg factory destroyed by allied bombing, but suffered almost as heavily once peace was restored, as the entire Kadett production line was dismantled and sent to Russia as part of the reparations for wartime damage caused by the Germans. Opel managed to resume production in 1946 however, first with refrigerators and then with a new version of the Olympia.
Over the next years, the American style became more and more evident in the brand’s design, to such an extent that Opels started to look like scaled-down American cars: with features such as strongly curved windscreens and rear windows, and with the range updated continuously with each new model year. During this era, Opel racked up an increasing number of motorsports victories (such as in European rally championships) and released a succession of high volume models (the Kadett, Rekord and Senator).
The 1980s brought increased concern for emissions, and in 1985, Opel became the first European manufacturer to offer at least one model with a catalytic converter. Opel also achieved excellent results in aerodynamics: when it was launched in late 1986, the new Omega sedan astonished the world with a Cd of just 0.28, the lowest in its class.
The Corsa, Vectra, Astra, Frontera, Calibra, Tigra, Zafira and Meriva were the models taking Opel into the 1990s and beyond, allowing the carmaker to compete with more prestigious brands even in terms of image.
From an organisation point of view, in early 2011 Opel became public limited company once again after a period as a limited responsibility company from December 2005 to immediately after the end of 2010. 2011 also witnessed the arrival of a groundbreaking new model in the crusade against harmful emissions: the Ampera, Opel’s first hybrid model, which was also developed under the supervision of the GM Group. The Opel Karl, the future replacement for the Agila, was previewed at Geneva after the launch of the new Corsa in 2015, while the Mokka X, the restyled version of the Mokka crossover introduced in 2012, was presented at the 2016 edition of the Geneva Motor Show.
