Buses from Baden: SAG in Gaggenau picks up speed

Benz und Daimler were not the only ones who developed a liking for building buses. Another pioneer, domiciled in the city of Gaggenau in Baden, soon also was battling strongly for the lead: it was SAG, which Benz would acquire a few years later to concentrate commercial vehicle production there.

But until that happened, within a short time SAG made a name for itself as a manufacturer of commercial vehicles. It was not until February 1905 that Georg Wiss, partner in Bergmanns Industriewerke and son-in-law of a Mannheim industrialist, backed by his wife’s fortune, took over the motor vehicle division of Bergmanns Industriewerke and made it an independent company called Süddeutsche Automobilfabrik. The articles of incorporation dated February 22, 1905, state the company’s object as “the fabrication and sales of automobiles.” The Swiss design engineer Franz Knecht engaged by him was supposed to see to that: he designed a new production program in which trucks and buses played first fiddle.

S.A.G.Gaggenau, light bus operated by the Reichspost, C/24 model of 1907.

The demand definitely was there. For example the establishment of the Gernsbach – Baden-Baden bus line dates from the year 1905, and, of course, buses from Gaggenau operated on it. But the SAG buses quickly gained popularity not only in Baden. In 1905 the company from Baden managed to land a sizable order from Berlin: the Berlin municipal utilities had the first large-capacity bus for 52 passengers built in Gaggenau. In 1906 the Imperial Post Office even became one of the regular buyers of SAG buses.

Buses from Gaggenau went into service in 1905 on the new Gernsbach–Baden-Baden route.