Bohse

Johann Bohse, a skilled blacksmith with an existing agricultural-machinery business, established Bohse Automobilbau GmbH at Dörpen in Lower Saxony to produce small-series open leisure vehicles. Its earliest automotive product was the Ems Blitz, a conversion kit enabling customers to turn used Volkswagen Golf Mk1 hatchbacks into beach cars. Because owner conversion proved laborious and Volkswagen did not support the project, Bohse moved to complete vehicles. In 1987 it built 30 Golf-based Sprinters using a custom polyester body with no conventional doors, removable fabric side and rear closures, a roll bar, twin detachable targa panels, a short pickup-like load deck and separate luggage space. The 1988–89 Euro-Star transferred nearly the same body to the inexpensive rear-wheel-drive Lada 2105/Riva platform; different front and rear lamps distinguished the 200 completed examples. Bohse's greatest-volume project followed around 1990: Safari converted the front-wheel-drive three-door Lada Samara into a landaulet-like leisure car retaining a fixed roof above the front seats while opening the rear. After Lada bought back the commercial rights, Bohse-built examples were distributed through Lada dealers as Samara Fun, with Taiga and Bohemia names also appearing in export accounts. Production estimates conflict: one source attributes roughly 600 commissioned two-door conversions to Deutsche Lada, while broader histories claim about 2,000 Safari/Fun vehicles. The catalog records the dispute rather than selecting an unsupported exact total. Production ended because Johann Bohse was elderly and no succession had been arranged; approximately fifty leftover vehicles were reportedly cleared for about DM 7,000 each. No secure calendar year for final closure survives, so the company dissolution remains unknown rather than inferred. The complete range comprises Ems Blitz, Sprinter, Euro-Star and Safari. Volkswagen and Lada engine sizes, later Lada retail badges and individual removable-body configurations do not create additional Bohse models, and the unrelated Böse commercial-body builder is excluded.

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