Karl Deutsch GmbH

Karl Deutsch GmbH was a coach building firm known, in its later years, for converting mainstream motor cars into cabriolets.

After the war ended the company started building car bodies to spezial order on chassis manufactured by automakers.

Nevertheless, the economics of auto-production were changing, as increases in wage levels and employment taxes encouraged greater standardisation of components and sub-assemblies and the beginnings of the accelerating automation revolution that transformed manufacturing in the final decades of the twentieth century.

These developments involved capital investment on a scale that the volumes available to a firm like Deutsch could never justify, and the continuing labour-intensive nature of the cabriolet conversion business created an ever-widening cost gap between the standard cars and the cabriolet versions with which, apart from the roof and some body strengthening inserts, they shared virtually all their components.

Growing public debate about the perceived lack of secondary safety available from open topped cars further reduced demand for Deutsch cabriolet conversions.