Messerschmitt in Garden
15” x 20”
Ink and Watercolor on Paper
This is another drawing in my garden series. In 2023 I did “Isetta in Garden,“ and last year I got a model of a Messerschmitt KR 200 Auto. I set it in our neighbor’s garden and took photos to do this drawing.
Willy Messerschmitt was a German aircraft designer. He promoted a concept he called “lightweight construction,” and his designs became popular in Germany in the 1930s. He became the chairman and managing director of Messerschmitt AG in 1938. During World War 2 the company manufactured fighter planes and bombers.
After the war, the company was not allowed to manufacture aircraft for 10 years. One alternative the company came up with (to stay in business) was the three-wheeled motorcycle/bubble car or Kabinenroller (cabinscooter) KR175 / KR200, designed by an aircraft engineer, Fritz Fend.
The cars were actually made by Fend’s own company in the Messerschmitt works at Regensburg, and Willy Messerschmitt had very little to do with the vehicles other than ruling that they carried his name. Production of the KR200 ceased in 1964. (paraphrased from Wikipedia)