Fisher Body

The Fisher Body Co. was an American operation wheelwright, who was based in Detroit.

The company was founded on 22 July 1908 by Frederic J. Fisher ( 1878-1941 ) and his brother Charles J. Fisher ( 1880-1963 ) in Detroit. Albert Fisher, the uncle of the two, acted as donors. Among the first customers included, inter alia, Ford and Oldsmobile.

1909 Albert Fisher wanted to leave the company again because he did not agree with the policy of his nephews. With the help of the Mendelssohn family could pay him; the Mendelssohn (two brothers and their sons ) were gradually thus a well in the company as the other five brothers Frederic and Charles, Lawrence P. Fisher ( 1881-1961 ), William A. Fisher ( 1886-1969 ), Edward F. Fisher (1891-1972), Albert J. Fisher (1892-1962) and Howard A. Fisher ( 1902-1942 ). Yet 1909 was a design department for open bodies.

In 1910, on the basis of orders for the new closed bodies, eg Cadillac, who founded Fisher Closed Body Co.. 1914 Fisher had already ten offices in the U.S. and Canada, this year they established 105,000 bodies. 1916, both companies were merged again, headquarters was now New York City.

1919 originated from Fisher considerations continue to build not only bodies, but all the cars. At the same time did Ford, Studebaker and General Motors takeover bids. GM finally came to the course and initially acquired 60 percent of the company's capital. 1920 378.978 bodies have already been manufactured at Fisher. Four years later, Fisher had 44 plants with 40,000 employees, the annual production of 500,000 bodies.

1925 Fisher bought the Fleetwood Metal Body Co. of Fleetwood (Pennsylvania). A year later, GM bought the remaining 40 percent of Fisher's company shares. Headquarters was again Detroit.

From the early 1930s, Fisher was as Fleetwood, only a GM division. The Fisher brothers were directors at GM. 1934 Fisher built the first all-steel bodies. In the same year the founders Frederic and Charles Fisher retired from GM. They had the wooden body always defended as optimum in the automotive industry. 1937 disappeared the last wooden structures at Fisher.

The Fisher Body Co. - and later the Fisher division of GM - has often been a pioneer in the body technology. So go developments such as wind-up windows, backward inclined windshields and reflective glass on its activities back. The first GM airbags incurred in Fisher.