Cudell

Cudell is best understood as one early German marque name used by two legally distinct automobile businesses, not as a single company that simply moved from Aachen to Berlin. Engineer Max Cudell founded Cudell & Cie. Kommanditgesellschaft in Aachen on 13 February 1896. Carl Cudell became procurist and had already operated the Gebrüder Cudell construction concern with engineer Iwan Cudell at the same address. The new firm initially made metal goods, technical apparatus, hydraulic door closers and building tools, while also undertaking nickel plating and machining; bicycle components appeared at the 1897 Brussels exhibition. It began advertising engines in June 1898 and De Dion-Bouton-pattern motor tricycles in July. Cudell had secured relevant German patent rights from De Dion-Bouton and used them for engines, tricycles and its first automobile, although it did not consistently promote the French connection until 1900. By May 1899 the enterprise reportedly employed at least 150 workers and supplied engines to other German makers. The saddle-seated 1¾ hp motor tricycle could tow freight or passenger trailers and could replace its front wheel with a detachable two-wheel passenger forecarriage, but its handlebar, bicycle saddle and readily removable attachment make it a motorcycle-derived machine rather than a dedicated automobile model in this catalog. Motorcycles, pacing tandems and detachable forecarriages likewise remain outside the automobile count. Cudell's first securely documented four-wheel car was the Patentwagen introduced by July 1899 and examined at the International Motorwagen Exhibition in Berlin that October. It was a German-built version of the De Dion-Bouton Type D-style voiturette with a rear-mounted water-cooled single, seamless tubular frame, two-speed control by a handwheel at the steering column, De Dion-type rear axle and vis-à-vis seating for two to four. The initial 3 hp rating appeared as 3¼, 3½ or 3–4 hp in period material; the best specified form used an 80 x 80 mm, 402 cc engine, 1,360 mm wheelbase, 2,050 mm length and 1,160 mm height and weighed about 260 kg. It cost 3,750 marks, or 4,150 marks with double springing. Freight coachwork and a 0.35-ton claim were available on the same chassis. Cudell developed this rear-engine licensed family to a 510 cc 4½ hp version for 1901–02 and a reported 700 cc 6 hp form in 1902. Those ratings receive separate rows because their displacement changed, but period variations such as 3, 3¼, 3½ and 3–4 hp on the original car do not become duplicate models. A specially finished Cudell voiturette was supplied to Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II in 1901. A different De Dion-derived line placed the single-cylinder engine beneath a front bonnet. Advertised from June 1901 at 6 hp, it normally carried tonneau coachwork but was also sold as a 5,250-mark phaeton and as a delivery van, including an example for Berlin's Wertheim department store. An 8 hp version was advertised from December 1902 and an improved 1903 tonneau gained a four-speed gearbox. A Royal Hungarian Post order included an 8 hp De Dion-engined Cudell with an enclosed box body. A used example described at 7½ hp became Iceland's first automobile in 1904; that owner-era rating is retained as evidence for the 8 HP family rather than used to manufacture another model. The front-engine 6 and 8 hp types had inclined steering columns, propeller shafts and bevel final drive, separating them architecturally from the rear-engine Patentwagen. Meanwhile Cudell moved beyond licensed designs. At the late-1901 Stanley Show in London it displayed an 8 hp car with its own vertical water-cooled two-cylinder engine. A detailed May 1902 description records a three-speed gearbox and a wood chassis reinforced by bridge-girder-shaped steel plates. Tonneau, double-phaeton, cab, limousine, omnibus and light-transport coachwork could be mounted on the same adaptable platform. The larger 12 hp twin, also described as 10/12 hp in omnibus service, continued from 1902 until the Aachen failure in 1905. Its best-known body system was the dark-blue Doktor-Spezialwagen shown at Berlin in March 1903: interchangeable coachwork let one chassis serve as two-seater, phaeton or coupé, so those forms remain variants of the 12 HP rather than separate models. A distinct purpose-built 10 hp postal delivery van was supplied in 1902 to the Berlin Oberpostdirektion and Hungarian postal authorities and exhibited beside an omnibus and the 8 hp commercial chassis. Its government service, closed body and independent rating justify one commercial row. A 20-hundredweight bottle-beer van shown at Leipzig in 1901, the Wertheim 6 hp delivery vehicle, the Hungarian 8 hp box van, generic light-transport coachwork and 10/12 hp omnibus remain configurations within their known passenger chassis because the evidence does not establish additional mechanical identities. Cudell's large-car ambitions expanded rapidly in 1902. Period-derived model reconstruction identifies 20, 30 and 35 hp in-house four-cylinder cars. The 35 HP Renn- und Tourenwagen announced that July used a newly developed four-speed gearbox with reverse, chain drive and a claimed speed of at least 90 km/h; despite the racing description, Cudell promoted flexible touring coachwork and reports mention bodies carrying as many as eighteen people. The 20 and 30 HP also appeared in competition and touring form. Early versions used chain drive, while under engineer Paul Henze in 1904 the factory was preparing shaft-driven 20 hp cars as well as chain-driven 20 and 30 hp types. The 20 HP reappears in 1904–05 documentation and the 30 HP in 1904, but no 1903 listing is recovered for either; the catalog preserves those evidence gaps rather than claiming a perfectly continuous annual program or splitting the same rating without proof of a clean mechanical break. The modern smaller four first appeared at the March 1903 Berlin exhibition at 16 hp. Under engineer Karl Slevogt it developed into the 2,554 cc 16/20 HP for 1904, recognizable by its upright front radiator and offered with passenger, light-delivery and light-truck bodies. A United States listing from New York agents Clodio & Widmayer described a five-passenger wood-and-steel chassis with four speeds, reverse, shaft drive and a 1,892 mm wheelbase, priced at $4,500 with a 16 hp air-cooled four; a 22 hp water-cooled alternative was available. Because the unusually short wheelbase comes from that export listing, it is not silently generalized to every European car. The 1903 16 HP and 1904 16/20 are treated as one developing family, while the separately listed larger 20 HP retains its own record. Cudell's final Aachen flagship was the Phönix. The trade name was registered late in 1904, and the new 35/40 HP car appeared at the January 1905 Berlin exhibition. Its 6,100 cc overhead-valve four used a five-bearing crankshaft and reportedly delivered 45 PS; double-phaeton and limousine bodies were planned. A commercial-vehicle history says both 30/35 and 35/40 ratings carried the Phönix name, but no evidence proves two separate chassis, so the catalog retains one 30/35–35/40 family. Hungarian Phönix Automobil-Fabrik license production is a separate maker and does not increase Cudell's Aachen output. The corporate structure changed repeatedly as technical ambition outpaced finances. Cudell & Cie. was converted into Actien-Gesellschaft für Motor- und Motorfahrzeugbau vormals Cudell & Co. with 1.1 million marks capital, formally recorded on 30 December 1899 with effect from 1 November. Max Cudell resigned from the board in September 1900, repurchased some design rights and, after later disputes and a settlement, fully separated from the Aachen operation in early 1902. The 1901/02 year produced a 247,157-mark loss as expensive own-product development displaced the former trade in French cars and parts. On 18 August 1902 Rheinische industrial investors capitalized Cudell-Motor-Compagnie mbH at 240,000 marks to take over operations. Director Hans Aschoff pursued Hungarian government business and merchant Fritz Schutze managed the enterprise; exports reached Britain, South Africa, Russia and the United States. On 25 June 1904 a major fire destroyed upholstery and assembly buildings, the motor station, store, inspection area, office and parts of the tool room, reportedly consuming all models and drawings plus fifteen to twenty completed or repair cars, nine motorcycles and a truck. Damage was estimated as high as 500,000 marks and nearly all 180 workers initially lost employment. Production resumed—about 150 workers participated in an April 1905 strike—but capital and sales never recovered. Despite orders reportedly worth 175,000 marks, shareholders refused further funds. Cudell-Motor-Compagnie entered bankruptcy on 22 May 1905; the older Aktiengesellschaft voted dissolution on 21 September and completed liquidation in 1907. Costly engine development and a failed luxury-car strategy were cited as central causes. The Phönix could not rescue the company. The Berlin Cudell cars were not a continuation of that bankrupt Aachen maker. After buying back some utility models, Max Cudell established Cudell & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft in Berlin; from 1904 his son Paul led the business from Gerhardstraße with a factory in Tempelhof. Aachen repeatedly advertised that it had nothing to do with this firm and maintained its own Berlin sales branch at different addresses. The separate Paul-Cudell range comprised a 6½/10 hp twin and 12/14, 14/16 and 20/24 hp four-cylinder cars. Surviving evidence gives ratings but not dependable displacements, transmissions, dimensions, bodies, prices, individual introduction dates or production counts. Each is therefore cataloged with the explicitly qualified 1904–07 automobile window and a Berlin manufacturer prefix. On 27 October 1906 Cudell & Co. and Leo Koelbing formed Cudell-Motoren-Gesellschaft mbH at Reinickendorfer Straße 46. Automobile building was abandoned during 1907 and the company concentrated on the well-known Cudell marine and general-purpose engines and Cudell carburetors. Later engine and carburetor activity, sometimes traced to 1945, does not extend Cudell automobile production. This documented sequence also corrects the widespread shorthand that the Aachen company simply relocated to Berlin after 1905 and built cars to 1908 or 1913. The result is a 17-record automobile taxonomy: three rear-engine Patentwagen ratings, two front-engine De Dion single-cylinder ratings, two Cudell passenger twins, four Aachen four-cylinder families, the Phönix, one distinct postal van, and four separate Berlin ratings. No trustworthy overall production total, model allocation or continuous chassis register has been found, so none is invented. The 1898 motor tricycle, motor bicycles, pacing tandem, passenger and freight trailers, detachable forecarriages, motorboats, standalone engines, gearboxes and carburetors remain outside the automobile model count. The Passe-Partout expedition motorhome used for Max Cudell and Edward Ernest Lehwess's failed 1902 world journey was a three-ton special on a strengthened 30 hp Panhard chassis with a 500-litre tank, not a Cudell production model. Cars and engines produced under license by Alexander Leutner in Riga, Christiansen in Denmark, Victoria in Nuremberg, Phönix in Budapest and other users retain their manufacturers' identities. Neither A.G. Piedboeuf's post-bankruptcy asset involvement nor the Berliner Motorwagen-Fabrik interest group creates a substantiated successor Cudell automobile marque.

Text adapted from “Cudell” on Wikipedia ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗