14 july 1955 Kasino Hotel Georgsmarienhutte

[aerosilver]

So I was looking through some old copies of Karmann Post (Karmanns own internal publication). There was an article about the press introduction of the Ghia. My German is a little rusty, so there is a rough google translate copy of the text, an interesting read, the Karmann coupe really created a stir when it was first unveiled..

Karmann Post article..

Rough google translation.. (if a German speaker can do better please post it up)


Thursday, 14th July 1955. First press reception in the Karmann Karosseriewerk.
The room of the Kasino hotel- Georgsmarienhutte began to fill with guests. The glorious sunny summer sunshine day promised to be a particularly good start to the nine-car launch and an experience of lasting memory for the participants.

As guests were invited out of the almost 100 journalists, and some of the men from Volkswagen, also some of the major representative VW dealers.

On the stage in the hall of the hotel stood a gazelle-beige Karmann-Ghia coupe, the present still hidden by the curtain.In the welcoming address by Herr Karmann all participants and especially luigi Segre, the owner of the bodywork factory ghia in Turin, were welcomed . Following a proud history of craftsmanship in our old city with the six - spoke wheel in the city coat of arms as a sign of a highly respected, influential cart builders guild already in the Middle Ages, the genius of the work was first of all briefly outlined, beginning with the car building business founded in 1874 by Christian this present moment gives a report on the prehistory and the emergence of the karmann ghia coupes as a new volkswagen type.
Meanwhile, ten more coupes were driven from our factory at Martinistasse to the Kasino hotel and set up in the garden to visit and test drive. Only after the opening and closing of the curtain did the participants see for the first time the new creation, in which we had worked so long with joy, devotion and all the best. The enthusiasm of the experts and also of the great authoritative Volkswagen driver surpassed everything that was spontaneously expressed in stormy exclamations and applause speeches. Seldom has a body type been so unreservedly and enthusiastically received as the karmann ghia coupe.

Even though not all of the invited trade journals and newspaper reporters had been published, it soon became clear what an immensely great success was achieved with this press reception. The reports in the professional and daily press in and out of the country were so agreeably approving that the echo of more and more newspapers, almost one could say: until the last daily paper, was taken over in articles and pictures. Never had the most effective advertising ever been able to make a vehicle so popular in a short time. time and again it was pointed out that here, without renouncing the proverbial economy of the vw, a dare of its own character and unique beauty and elegance was created.
However, the start of series production did not bring an end to the difficulties, because now the worries of production began.

And a slightly later picture from the Frankfurt I.A.A. with some VIP's checking out the rear of the Lizard green coupe..

Another interesting fact from later in the article about early production numbers..

We delivered only 37 coupes in August 1955, the production in constant increase could already be brought to 500 pieces in the month of december 1955. In the first five production months of 1955, we built a total of 1280 coupe

Cool stuff..

[rhd914]

When i finish building my time machine, think this might be my first stop.....

[aerosilver]

[KGCoupe]

[GHIA]

Russ, what is the date of the article

[aerosilver]

[aerosilver]

[John Moxon]

[aerosilver]

On this day in history... Happy anniversary!

[RockStock]

Mate, top article
Must be some colour pictures around!
So 9 cars at the unveiling...with a further 10 showing up? 19 cars total?
_________________
-StockRocks-

[udo dreisoerner]

last saturday there was a little birthday meeting in Osnabrück in Germany to celebrate the birthday of the type 14 karmann ghia. the owner of Restauration-Company Jochaim Acker make this Meeting since some years.
first Meetingpont was the MUSEUM FÜR INDISTRIEKULTUR in Osnabrück. we met us there with arround 12 cars and drove from Museum to KASINO AM PARK in Georgsmarienhütte where the People saw the new karmann ghia for the first time in public. after a Cup of coffee we find the way to an aold house / Building that was in the beginning of karmann ghia production home of karmann Family members. Mr. Eick, member at the karmann leading circle told us a lot of informations about the old factory. fantastic. so our way was going from the old house to the factory VOLKSWAGEN OSNABRÜCK, the ex karmann favtory to visit the car Collection of Volkswagen. in Osnabrück are arround 140 vintage cars and volkswagen drive the cars at vintage Meetings and ralleys. at this place Joachim have a surprise for us. Mr. Eick read the original speech from Wilhelm karmann he have spoken at 14.07.1955 in Georgsmarienhütte / Kasino im Park. FANTASTIC MOMENT, great sstuff.
we have had time to look most of the cars. at the end of the Meeting we drove our ghias to the Marketplace in Sonabrück and eat an german "Bratwurs". A fantastic day, thanx to Joachim and all other.
regards from Germany, Udo and luca

(Selfie made by my son, i own an LHD ghia from 1956 )

some pics for you

_________________
Searching for a 1956 lowlight karmann ghia with a VIN number between1273054 and 1273440, and the matching engine with an Engine Number between
1525510 and 1525519 PLEASE OFFER ME ONLY THE CARS THAT I'M LOOKING FOR, THANKS!!

[GHIA]

Udo, during this event color photos, have they been unveiled?
Is there a copy of the original speech announced by Wilhelm Karmann on 14/07/1955. I would be curious to know how the car was presented to the press by Wilhelm Karmann.

What is the date the factory document? You can translate the different indications?

[KGCoupe]

[Larmo63]

Really great stuff, thank you for sharing your research!

Two observations:

The 'VW' hubcap logo has been straightened up on most of the cars, if not all of them, not randomly rolled to the spot. (Very German)

And, Mrs. Karmann isn't too bad to look at, she was a babe.

[udo dreisoerner]

The model was made by apprentices at Volkswagen or Karmann. It is an pedalcar. Fantastical details. Very very nice.
I will try to get the original speech. and will ask if there are color photos and all other information around the day of publication.

 
_________________
Searching for a 1956 lowlight karmann ghia with a VIN number between1273054 and 1273440, and the matching engine with an Engine Number between
1525510 and 1525519 PLEASE OFFER ME ONLY THE CARS THAT I'M LOOKING FOR, THANKS!!

[aerosilver]

Nice one Udo A good day out!

[RockStock]

It would make sense that there was at least one of each colour on show at the Kasino, wouldn't it?
6 colours available.

This picture, probably taken in the car park to the left of the Kasino, with the park & fountain off to the right, shows 7 Coupes, so there must be a duplicate colour here. I assume the stage Gazelle Coupe would have stayed put, unless this picture was taken before the big day. That period article^ talks of 9 Coupes being present initially.

Just for fun I've had a go at naming the colours.
I reckon the ones marked with an asterix* are correct - the three solid/single colours - easy to tell apart.

Most of the pictures in this thread show Segre with a two-tone Coupe. I wonder what colour this was? My money would be on Pelican Red. With a bit of detective work & intuition you could probably start identifying the Coupe colour in each picture available. When will a monumental hero (Udo?!) dig out period colour shots of the day?

_________________
-StockRocks-

[udo dreisoerner]

[KGCoupe]

As you probably already know, there are programs/apps which can convert Black & White photographs into full color.
Some use AI algorithms to perform the conversion automatically, while others require the user to "help" the conversion along.

I no longer own any photo manipulation software, but I did find a website that would allow you to try an automatic B&W to color conversion.

While I dont really know what color that Karmann Ghia is that Segre is standing next to, I'm fairly certain that it was not Blue with a Black roof as the conversion software wanted me to believe.

The results for the other photo showing one Ghia in each of the original available colors wasn't much better, showing the car closest to the woman as being a bright yellow.
It probably didn't help that that particular photo is actually sepia tones and not true Back & White.


If the Ghia forum only had someone that posts frequently and with some authority that obviously enjoyed taking photos of their old Karmann Ghia and enjoyed manipulating them with PhotoShop - I bet such a person would be talented enough to try their hand at manually stepping through the conversion proccedure.

[RockStock]

Well just to encourage that person...here's the plain image

Colours (roof colour on top)