Borgward, Bremen

The company's roots are the 1914 merger of Hansa Automobilgesellschaft, founded 1905, with NAMAG; Carl F. W. Borgward (1890–1963) took control during the troubles of the late 1920s and founded the modern company in 1933. It sold cars under four marques — Borgward, Hansa, Goliath and Lloyd — and the Isabella was one of the most popular German premium cars of the 1950s. The truck works at Bremen-Sebaldsbrück were destroyed by Allied bombing in 1944. The group became insolvent in 1961 in the middle of the Wirtschaftswunder; once the creditors were paid there were still 4.5 million marks left, which has kept the case argued about ever since. The name was revived by Borgward Group AG of Stuttgart in 2008 with Chinese backing, and that company filed for bankruptcy in Beijing on 8 April 2022.