The first Admiral was introduced early in 1937 at the Berlin Motor Show, although production did not begin until the end of the year, with just eight being produced in 1937.

Unlike the slightly smaller unitary bodied Opel Kapitän introduced at the end of 1938, the Admiral used a traditional separate chassis.

It turned up with several different bespoke cabriolet and limousine bodies, and also provided the chassis, engine and running gear for various substantial ambulances.

[3] The engine was shared with the 3.5-ton Opel Blitz truck produced at the manufacturer's recently opened commercial vehicle plant at Brandenburg an der Havel[2] southwest of Berlin, and similar enough to the Chevrolet and Vauxhall/Bedford straight-sixes of the time that many service parts interchanged – something that was discovered when the Germans and Allies captured each other's vehicles during World War II.

[citation needed] The basic Admiral was offered as a four-door "Limousine" (sedan/saloon) with a manufacturer's listed price of 6,500 Reichsmark which was considered very competitive.

Customers wishing to spend more money for more style could choose a 2+2-seater cabriolet bodied Admiral from the coach builder Hebmüller of Wuppertal, listed at 8,450 Marks.

Hebmüller also offered an imposing six-seater "Pullman-Limousine" bodied Admiral with a lengthened passenger cabin (in return for a shortened luggage locker) listed at 8,580 Marks.

[4] The Admiral's front end was similar to the American revolutionary DeSoto Airflow, incorporating a sloping grille and body-embodied headlights.

In September 1967, a new twin-carburetor "HL" (Hochleistung, German for High Output) version of the 2,784 cc six 140 PS (103 kW; 138 hp) was introduced as an option for an extra 495 Marks.

All KAD models received discreet rubbing strips on their flanks below the doors and identification of the modified cars was facilitated by the rearranging of the name badges on the front wing panels.

[9] The design which could be presented in 1969 as flamboyant and futuristic was not in keeping with the more restrained mood that took hold in Germany in the mid-1970s as fuel costs rose following the 1973 oil price shocks.

The Admiral "B" was fitted with a De Dion rear-axle[8] which greatly improved road holding, but made the cars costly to manufacture when compared with the simpler suspension arrangements on the previous model.

The 2,784 cc six cylinder unit could also be ordered with Bosch D-Jetronic fuel injection which increased the maximum output further, to 165 PS (121 kW; 163 hp).

The oil price shock of 1973 knocked sales dramatically, and in 1974 Opel produced only 1,168 Admirals out of a total of 1,754 "KAD" models.

Opel produced 36,522 Admiral "B" models between 1969 and 1977, together with 4,976 Kapitän "B"s (all between 1969 and 1970) and 21,021 Diplomat "B"s.[13] This entry incorporates information from the equivalent article in the German Wikipedia.