The Wörth plant, in its turn, being the central European production facility for trucks, developed into Europe’s largest truck plant in next to no time and continues to occupy this rank today with production figures that speak for themselves: since July 1965, the Wörth plant has turned out about 3.3 million trucks.

It all began on a much more modest scale and with a workforce of less than 100 employees. Wörth began producing truck cabs as early as October 1, 1963. Initially, however, the plant merely supplied primed cab shells for completion at the traditional locations, Gaggenau (heavy-duty trucks) and Mannheim (medium-duty trucks). In the first year, the Wörth plant produced over 22,000 cab shells. From December 1964, in-house manufacture was stepped up in that the interior equipment was also installed and the cab shells were painted at the new plant, starting with the cabs of the 314 model.

Centrally located between Mannheim and Gaggenau

Even geographically, Wörth seemed predestined to adopt the role as central plant. The new location, occasionally also referred to as Wörth Island, was ideally situated between the plants in Gaggenau and Mannheim, which had reached the limits of their combined capacity – 40,000 trucks annually – during the period of the economic miracle in Germany. The new plant, located in a former loop of the River Rhine, was required to overcome bottlenecks. The ground-breaking ceremony on the 1.5 million square kilometre site was held in March 1962.

It had been impossible to foresee the enormous development that would take its course on the premises acquired from the municipality of Wörth back in 1960. Initially, nothing more than an engine plant had been planned. But then in 1963, Daimler-Benz restructured its production activities, concentrating engine and bus production in Mannheim, and Unimog, axle and transmission production in Gaggenau.

It was not until 1964, however, that the final decision was made to unite all truck production and final assembly activities in Wörth. Other facets of the division of labour within the company at the time were as follows: Mannheim would not only continue producing truck engines but also retain bus production; Düsseldorf was to concentrate on all van models up to four tonnes (later up to six tonnes); Berlin was to assemble complete passenger car, truck and industrial engines and supply vehicle parts; Sindelfingen manufactured passenger cars, and Untertürkheim produced a diversified range of engines; and Gaggenau supplied axles, transmissions and individual components.

Full capacity utilisation reached as early as 1969

Initially the Wörth plant had been constructed for an annual capacity of 48,000 trucks. This volume was reached as early as 1969. Despite the first minor post-war recession in 1966/67, everything ran like clockwork: 800 trucks left the factory in 1965. Production of the LP 608 had been relocated completely from Mannheim to Wörth by the end of that year. Production of medium-duty trucks and CKD (completely knocked down) shipments to assembly plants all over the world began in 1966.

What was once conceived as an engine plant was now itself the motor for the industrialisation of the commercial vehicle business. A glance at the export quota for the domestic plants reveals the extent to which exports were growing during the period: export figures for 1960 were 35.8 percent, rising to 41.7 percent in 1966 and 47.2 percent by 1969.

With the addition of the administrative building, training workshop and staff restaurant, the plant was gradually completed, with the new assembly hall at its heart. At a length of 750 metres (today 1,000 metres) and a width of 50 metres, this was ranked as one of the largest automotive assembly halls worldwide. The fact that both series were produced on one and the same line was seen at the time as a drawback, but it would ultimately prove a blessing. Production was extremely flexible from the very start. Although trucks were not given names at the time, commonly used designations such as “light-duty Wörther” or “heavy-duty Wörther” made clear reference to the vehicles’ origin.

Next target: 100,000 units annually

From 1969 onwards, Daimler-Benz raised the capacity of the plant step by step. The aim was to produce 100,000 units annually. The factory was extended twice until this target was reached – with exactly 105,200 units coming off the production line in 1975. Long before this point in time, Daimler-Benz had relocated the replacement parts warehousing facilities from Gaggenau and Mannheim and concentrated all relevant activities at the central parts warehouse in Wörth, which started operations in 1972. From 1973, Wörth produced the heavy-duty New Generation trucks which had been systematically designed according to the modular principle. Ten years after production start-up, the 500,000th truck left the plant – by which time around 8,700 people were employed on the island in the River Rhine.

All the while, the proportion of plastic components in motor vehicle manufacture had been rising continuously. It was therefore only logical for Wörth to launch activities in this sector as well. The job of moulder was added to the wide spectrum of professions represented at the plant when, in 1977, Wörth assumed responsibility for the production of plastic components for both passenger cars and trucks. The production of aerated-plastic parts for passenger cars also migrated from Sindelfingen to Wörth.

In the 1980s the New Generation was replaced by the NG 80 and the oldest generation of vehicles from Wörth was discontinued. From 1984, the light-duty LP vehicles were replaced by the LK (Light Class) series with permissible gross weights between 6.5 and 13 tonnes and serving this segment with as many as ten basic models, from the 709 through to the 1320. Distinguishing visual features of the new series were slanting side windows – a design first introduced on the TN vans.

Four years later, the NG 80 models in the heavy-duty class were replaced by the legendary SK series, now also with slanted side windows, which remained in production as the New Generation’s grandchildren until 1996. In was at this time, too, that the parts warehouses in Wörth and Sindelfingen gradually reached their limits of capacity. As a consequence, the entire replacement parts business was relocated to a new central parts warehouse in Germersheim near Wörth, which entered service in 1989.

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