Dortmund Motor Company

Dortmund Motor Co. was a Brunanter auto manufacturer headquartered in Dortmund. It was the most successful Brunanter car company.

History
Dortmund was founded in 1888 by Wilhelm and August Kepler as a bicycle manufacturing company. In 1898 the brothers built their first car, a simple machine using modified bicycle parts. In 1903 they built a second car (another single-cylinder) uprated to 3/4 HP. In 1905 they began production of this model. Dortmund was by 1920 the largest Brunanter auto manufacturer, producing twin-and 3-cylinder models and in 1921 introduced a 4 cylinder car.

The Dortmund 49 was a family car introduced in 1949. It was very small but featured modern styling, and was cheap at around $1000 equivalent. Hundreds of these microcars were being produced and in 1957 a new model, the 57 was introduced. This one was in production until 1966 when the 580/590 series was introduced. But the opening up of the car market to foreign firms in the mid 1960s led to declining sales (VW's were very popular) and in 1974 Dortmund shut down operations.