In the first decades of automobile manufacturing until World War II, it was the German custom of their buying a chassis complete with an engine and take it to a coachbuilder to add a custom-built body to it.

One of coachbuilders was Georg Autenrieth, who founded his company in 1921 in Weinsberg near Heilbronn and moved it in 1925 to 72 Feldbergstraße, Darmstadt.

Customized orders were made for individual sedans, coupées, convertibles and custom-made products on chassis of various well-known pre-war automotive manufacturers such as Adler, Audi, Horch, Maybach, Mercedes-Benz, Opel, NSU, and Röhr-Werke in Ober-Ramstadt near Darmstadt.

In late 1930s and early 1940s, a smaller lot of convertibles were produced, based on the chassis of the first KdF car, the later Volkswagen Beetle.

Convertibles, known as "Cabriolet" were also produced on early Citroën DS models as well as Borgward Isabella.