For connoisseurs and friends of the unforgotten people’s car of the post-war era, which went down in history as the “VW Beetle”, one of the various special versions has an extra high status: the Hebmüller Cabriolet.

The construction method of the vehicles in the first half of the 20th century – frame constructions with bolted-on bodywork – made it possible for independent coachbuilders to design their own constructions based on existing production vehicles. Thus, in the reawakening of the economy at the end of the 1940s, the body manufacturer Hebmüller from the Bergisches Land region offered its services to the Volkswagen factory.

It was presented at the Geneva Show in 1949 and was a racy and elegant two-seater with a fully retractable soft top. This was in contrast to the four-seater VW Cabrio, which did not go into production until a few months later at Karmann and whose top, when open, rested high on the rear in the traditional German manner, denying the car its sporty aspect.

Hebmüller developed an elegant 2+2-seater convertible based on the Beetle, actually received a production order and manufactured a total of 696 vehicles, which were officially sold through Volkswagen dealers. Then a major fire, to which the entire plant falls victim, stops the hopeful start into the early post-war period. The company is left with only bankruptcy. Some of the vehicles already assembled are finished at Karmann in Osnabrück.