Citroën

W 1919 r. the Citroën company began to produce cars in Paris with the symbol of the roof gear in the trademark.

Andre Citroen was born in 1878. as the fifth child of a Dutch merchant of Polish diamonds. As a twenty-three-year-old polytechnic graduate, he founded a gear factory in Paris.

During World War I, Citroen demonstrated all-round talents, building a factory on the Javel coast in Paris to mass-produce artillery shells. Moreover, he organized coal supplies for the inhabitants, gas and foodstuffs, introduced food stamps. During this time, he visited America twice, by getting acquainted with American methods of car production.

W 1919 r. together with the constructor Jules Salomon, the creator of the successful Le Zebre car, he started producing cars in the former ammunition factory on Quasi de Javel. The first model was the Type A with a displacement engine 1,3 liter and power 7,4 kW (ok. 10 KM). Producing daily 100 The cars were unbelievable at the level of 'cars' production in France at that time. Four years later, production rose to 300 cars a day. In the same year, Citroen released a new one, this time a popular car 5 CV, named Trefle.

The surname Citroen became popular also thanks to skilful advertising. The airmen wrote them in the sky, w 1925 r. during the opening of the world exhibition in Paris, 30-meter letters of this name were lit on the Eiffel Tower. Citroen introduced company service stations, own insurance company and own informative road signs - blue and yellow. Type B 2 with power 14,8 kW (ok. 20 KM), equipped with a half-track chassis made the company famous with its first ever trip through the African Sahara, type C 4 he traveled through Central Asia and the Arctic part of Canada.

The economic crisis in the early 1930s caused Citroen to collapse. The tire manufacturer Michelin took over 60% company shares.

Citroen itself has not lived to see the success of the new one, sensational type 7 about front wheel drive, the concept to which the company has remained faithful to this day. He died in 1935 r.