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Opel Heritage
Opel looks back on a long company history.
Here are some key dates:
1862 Adam Opel founds a company in Rüsselsheim to build sewing
machines, laying the foundation for the future Adam Opel AG.
One million sewing machines are built up to 1911.
1863 Opel’s first advertisement is published.
1865 The company hires its first apprentice.
1886 By entering the booming bicycle manufacturing business,
Opel secures a second foothold for his company and an
affordable form of mobility for his customers. In the following
decades, Opel becomes the world’s largest bicycle producer.
1890 The first factory fire service is founded.
1899 “Opel Patent Motor Car, System Lutzmann” is the name
given to the first Opel automobile.
1902 The first Darracq chassis are outfitted with Opel bodies in
Rüsselsheim. The vehicles are marketed under the brand name
Opel Darracq.
1906 The one-thousandth Opel automobile leaves the factory.
1907 The first “workers’ committee” is founded; the first Opel works
council starts its work.
1911 Opel builds the first aircraft engine.
Foundation of a pension fund, the “Adam Opel Stiftung”,
for the employee retirement pension plan.
1912 Opel celebrates its fiftieth anniversary.
1924 The first car built with assembly-line processes rolls out
of the plant: the legendary 4/12 hp model, better known as the
“Laubfrosch” or “tree frog”.
1929 General Motors acquires Adam Opel AG.
1930 Market launch of the Opel Blitz truck series.
1931 Opel is the first manufacturer to set up a customer service
training center.
1935 Opel becomes the first German carmaker to manufacture
more than 100,000 vehicles per year.
1937 Opel observes its seventy-fifth anniversary. The company focuses
on automobile manufacturing, selling its bicycle production.
1939 For the fourth consecutive year, Opel is the largest automaker
in Europe.
1946 The first postwar Opel, a 1.5-ton Blitz truck, is built.
The production of “Frigidaire” household refrigerators
commences in Rüsselsheim.
1950 The Opel plant in Rüsselsheim destroyed during the war
is completely rebuilt.
1962 Opel celebrates its one-hundredth anniversary.
Inauguration of the second Opel plant in Bochum, Germany.
Start of production of the Bochum-produced Kadett.
1963 Production starts at Ellesmere Port car plant in the U.K.
1966 Inauguration of the component plant in Kaiserslautern.
Opening of the Opel test center in Dudenhofen.
1968 Presentation of the Opel GT with the advertising slogan
“Only flying is better”.
1982 Plant opens in Zaragoza, Spain, to produce the Opel Corsa.
Production also starts in the engine and transmission plant in
Vienna (Aspern), Austria.
1992 Opel opens the plant in Eisenach, Germany.
1996 The engine plant in Kaiserslautern, Germany, begins production.
Opel and Renault sign a cooperation agreement in the light com-
mercial vehicle sector.
1998 Inauguration of Adam Opel House, the new Opel headquarters in
Rüsselsheim.
Opening of Opel plant in Gliwice, Poland.
1999 Opel celebrates 100 years of car production.
2002 Production starts at Opel’s state-of-the-art facility in Rüsselsheim.
2007 Opel expands further in Central and Eastern Europe:
start of Opel Antara production in St. Petersburg, Russia.
25th anniversary of Opel/Vauxhall Corsa.
2009 The ten millionth Opel from Zaragoza rolls off the assembly line –
an especially thrifty Corsa ecoFLEX 1.3 CDTI.
2010 After staying with GM, the company is restructured and together
with the employees decides on a plan for the future. This provides,
among other things, for extensive investments in new products.
The 16 millionth Opel vehicle “Made in Rüsselsheim” leaves the plant.