12 great German car designers

Germany’s significant stylists

Germany’s car industry is closely associated with engineering brilliance, but it has also bred its fair share of design talent, too.

Starting back in the very early days of the automobile, German stylists have shaped the look of cars, and many of the most desirable classic cars have come from a pen held in a German hand.

From big names like Porsche and Sacco to more understated designers like Bahnsen and Geiger, the automotive world would be a duller place without these German design greats.

The list is arranged in alphabetical order.

1. Uwe Bahnsen

A career in retail could easily have denied the automotive world of Uwe Bahnsen’s talent, because this Hamburg-born designer started his working life as a window dresser.

After studying fine art at his home town’s College of Fine Arts, Bahnsen started work with Ford of Germany in 1958, where he was involved in the Taunus 17M and then the Ford Capri Mk2.

During this period, Bahnsen was promoted to studio chief in Germany, before he was seconded to Detroit for a two-year sojourn.

Uwe Bahnsen (cont.)

When Uwe Bahnsen returned to Ford in Germany in 1970, one of his first projects was updating the Capri for the Mk2 version.

He also oversaw the move away from the ‘coke bottle’ look of Fords of the early 1970s to a sharper-edged style.

Yet the car that Bahnsen had the most influence over as design boss was the Ford Sierra, as well as the Granada/Scorpio that followed soon after.

In 1986, Bahnsen used his design experience to teach others at ArtCenter in Switzerland.

2. Ulrich Bez

Best known in recent years for his time as Aston Martin’s CEO, Ulrich Bez started his working life on the production line at Porsche.

From there, he went on to study aeronautical engineering at the University of Stuttgart before heading back to Porsche on the design side.

While at Porsche, Bez was a key figure in the design and development of the 911 RS 2.7 and then the 911 turbo, while a second stint later in his career saw him guide the 968 and 993 generation of 911.

Ulrich Bez (cont.)

After his first period as a designer at Porsche, Ulrich Bez switched to BMW, where he oversaw a number of innovations such as voice control and a dual-clutch transmission.

However, it’s his work as director of BMW Technik that Bez is most known for at the company. In this role, he was instrumental in seeing the Z1 roadster from sketch to showroom.

Bez also worked at Daewoo for five years in the 1990s and then spent a short time at Ford, before heading to Aston Martin in 2000 to see the DB9 into production.

3. Jean Bugatti

Jean Bugatti was born in Cologne in 1909 and moved with his famous father and family to Molsheim in Alsace. It was here that Jean grew up around the Bugatti car factory.

Sharing his father’s passion for cars, Jean was still only 23 when he completed most of the design work on the Type 41 Royale.

Helping him to achieve this was the younger Bugatti’s clear-minded understanding of engineering as well as styling.

Jean Bugatti (cont.)

While the Type 41 Royale gained the Bugatti company a great deal of attention for its size and opulence, it was another model that was very much Jean’s crowning glory.

The Type 57 appeared in 1934, and the sensational Ventoux, Stelvio, Atalante and Atlantic bodies that Jean created made them among the most desirable cars of the time.

Jean Bugatti’s brilliance didn’t end there, however, because he also came up with new independent-suspension designs and a twin-cam engine.

Tragically, he was killed while testing a Type 57, when he was just 30.

4. Fritz Fiedler

A circuitous route took Fritz Fiedler (pictured on the left) to the very top of the German automotive industry, and it all started with the little-known Stoewer car company.

From there, Potsdam-born Fiedler moved to Horch in 1924, becoming chief engineer and overseeing the design of the company’s larger-engined models.

When Horch was absorbed into Auto Union, Fiedler decided to move on and took up a position as chief engineer at BMW.

Fritz Fiedler (cont.)

It was at BMW that Fiedler rose to prominence as a designer. He started with the development of the six-cylinder engine that would power a number of BMW models.

The 326 was the first BMW developed fully under Fiedler’s keen eye, and he went on to lead the design of the whole car range, including the 335 saloon.

In 1947, Fiedler was persuaded to join AFN in the UK and oversaw the firm’s new models.

He also worked for Bristol while in the UK, but he returned to Germany in 1952, eventually rising to become chairman of the company.

Even after his retirement in 1966, Fiedler stayed on as a consultant up to his death in 1972.

5. Friedrich Geiger

For a designer involved with two of Mercedes-Benz’s greatest cars, Friedrich Geiger rarely gets the recognition his talent and back catalogue deserve.

After serving an apprenticeship as a cartwright, he went on to study vehicle engineering at the Meissen Engineering School.

From there, he started work with Daimler-Benz in the special-vehicle department, which suited him to a tee.

It wasn’t long before Geiger’s ability and eye for design saw him come to the fore, and he came up with the swooping lines of the 500K and 540K roadsters while still under the age of 30.

Friedrich Geiger (cont.)

After a brief time away from Mercedes between 1948 and 1950, Geiger returned and repeated his earlier form by creating the 300SL Gullwing.

The racing car developed by Rudolf Uhlenhaut was fast and successful, but its styling was not done with road use in mind.

Geiger’s design made a feature of the racer’s top-hinged door section, which also helped overcome the car’s large sills when getting in and out.

Geiger went on to become head of Mercedes’ styling and was a constant presence in the design office. He retired from Mercedes in 1973.

6. Albrecht von Goertz

From banker to car designer, via a job at a car wash, is not the obvious route to automotive-styling fame, but Albrecht von Goertz was not an average person.

Born in Brunkensen in Lower Saxony, he worked for banks in Germany and London before moving to the US in 1936, and working at a car wash and an aero-engine factory in Los Angeles.

He also served with the US Army during the Second World War.

After being demobbed, he met Raymond Loewy, who encouraged Goertz to study car design before giving him a job at Studebaker.

Albrecht von Goertz (cont.)

In 1952, Goertz set up on his own as an industrial designer and went on to create watches, pens, furniture, bicycles and refrigerators.

He also worked for BMW between 1954 and 1956.

His output while with BMW put Goertz among the most noted of car designers, because he came up with first the 503 coupé and then the stunning 507 roadster.

For some, that might have been sufficient, but Goertz then went on to have a large influence over the design of the Datsun 240Z and Toyota 2000GT.

7. Wilhelm Hofmeister

Wilhelm Hofmeister (pictured on the left) might not be one of the superstar designer names like Gandini or Giugiaro, but his name is known well beyond BMW’s inner circle thanks to a simple styling flourish.

The famous ‘Hofmeister Kink’ in the rear-window shape of BMWs was first seen in the 1962 Neue Klasse saloon, which was overseen by Hofmeister and followed the 700 that was also his work.

By inserting an upturned rear lower edge to the window line, at a stroke Hofmeister created a cornerstone of BMW design that remains in all of its models to this day.

Wilhelm Hofmeister (cont.)

Born in Stadthagen in Lower Saxony in 1912, Hofmeister trained as an engineer and was noted for his meticulous approach to work.

He served as BMW’s chief designer from 1955 to 1970, when Paul Bracq took over, yet Hofmeister regarded himself primarily as an engineer and manager.

Even so, his is credited with the 02, E3 and E9 models.

Bracq retained Hofmeister’s flourish for his designs and the kink became a necessary part of almost every BMW’s look.

8. Wunibald Kamm

In a similar fashion to Wilhelm Hofmeister and his eponymous kink, Wunibald Kamm’s name became forever linked to a single piece of design.

The Kamm tail is an aerodynamic shape for the rear of a car that helps reduce drag.

Working with Baron Reinhard Koenig-Fachsenfeld at Stuttgart University, Kamm realised an abrupt cut-off rear gave a car better aerodynamics and greater stability at high speed.

Kamm proved his ideas with maths and put them into practice with a body designed for a BMW 328.

This car competed in the 1940 Mille Miglia, which BMW won.

Wunibald Kamm (cont.)

A Swiss-born German, Kamm had previously worked for Mercedes-Benz designing and developing racing-car engines.

His thorough approach meant Kamm looked at every facet of a car’s design to make it as efficient as possible for competition.

He went on to become a founder and director of the Research Institute of Automotive Engineering and Vehicle Engines in Stuttgart, which became known as the Kamm Institute.

Another of Kamm’s long-lasting contributions to car design is a wind tunnel with a moving belt that simulates the road as a car passes over it, which better replicates real-world driving conditions.

9. Claus Luthe

One of the lesser-sung heroes of German car design, Claus Luthe’s first notable styling project was the front end of the Fiat 500.

He completed this while working for the Italian giant at Fiat’s German subdivision.

Not long after this, Luthe moved to NSU and promptly penned the Prinz 4 and Wankel Spider.

While these were interesting cars, they did not make a huge impact on the buying public.

That had to wait for the NSU Ro80 with its modern looks and aerodynamic shape.

Claus Luthe (cont.)

After the NSU Ro80, Luthe styled the Volkswagen K70 and then the Audi 50, which went on to become the VW Polo with a design widely credited to Bertone.

In 1976, Claus Luthe moved to BMW and put in some of his finest work.

The first car to result from Luthe’s design leadership was the E28 generation of 5 Series, followed by the E30 3 Series that is often regarded as his masterpiece.

Luthe was also instrumental in guiding the designs of the E32 7 Series, E34 5 Series and E36 3 Series, as well as the E31 8 Series coupé.

10. Ferdinand Porsche

The Austrian-German Ferdinand Porsche (left, with his son Ferry) was nothing if not prolific as a designer.

He started work in the pioneering days of the automobile with Lohner and developed the Lohner-Porsche hybrid that used a petrol engine to generate electricity for its twin motors.

From there, Porsche moved to Austro-Daimler as chief designer, before switching to Daimler and working on several racing-car designs.

He left in 1929 to join Steyr, but that was stymied by the global economic depression, so Porsche set up his own consultancy in 1931. He worked for many companies and went on to create the Volkswagen Beetle.

Ferdinand Porsche (cont.)

After the war, with Ferdinand Porsche in prison, his son ‘Ferry’ Porsche carried on the family business and created the 356 with Erwin Komenda.

This was the first car to carry the Porsche name and set the company’s reputation for performance, handling and reliability.

The Porsche design gene also passed to Ferdinand’s grandson, known as ‘Butzi’, who was responsible for the design of the first 911.

11. Bruno Sacco

For someone who only intended to stay in Germany for a short time, Bruno Sacco made a vast impression on the country’s car industry.

Born in Italy, Sacco moved to Germany when Daimler-Benz hired him as a stylist in 1958.

It was then he met Annemarie, a German, and the two married and had a daughter, which led Sacco to take joint Italian and German citizenship.

One of Sacco’s early successes was the C111 in 1969 with its rotary engine wrapped in a sleek glassfibre body.

Bruno Sacco (cont.)

In 1975, Bruno Sacco succeeded Friedrich Geiger as overall head of styling at Daimler-Benz, responsible for everything from passenger cars to trucks.

Sacco’s belief in making form and function equally important was also fused with his idea that a car’s style should be timeless.

It’s telling that many of Mercedes’ most celebrated designs emanate from Sacco’s lengthy stint as design boss.

These cars include the W124 E-Class, W126 S-Class and the SEC coupé.

Another of his cars is the W201 190, the compact saloon which used plastic cladding on the lower part of the bodywork, nicknamed ‘Sacco boards’.

12. Peter Schreyer

Still an executive design advisor at Hyundai at the time of writing, Peter Schreyer started work with Audi in 1978 as a student.

The Bavarian graduated in 1979 and won a scholarship from Audi to study at the Royal College of Art in London.

He returned to Germany in 1980 and continued with Audi, then moving to the Volkswagen Group’s US-based studio in California in 1991.

On his return in 1993, Schreyer was made head of exterior design for VW, where he oversaw the design of the New Beetle and fourth-generation Golf.

Peter Scheyer (cont.)

However, Peter Schreyer felt the pull of Audi again in 1994 and went back to his old car company.

Just as well for Audi, because Schreyer went on to oversee the design of the first TT, as well as the aluminium-bodied A2 that is only now being recognised for how advanced it was when unveiled in 1999.

Schreyer moved to Kia in 2006 to spearhead its move from a budget car maker to mainstream giant.