Österreichische Automobil Fabriks-AG, ÖAF

Österreichische Automobil Fabriks-AG, ÖAF, successor to the Fiat assembling plant (Austro-Fiat) founded at Floridsdorf in 1907, which originally assembled Fiat vehicles for the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy but started to manufacture its own passenger cars, lorries, buses, motorboat engines and powered ploughs well before the First World War. A licence agreement with Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg AG (MAN) for the construction of diesel engines was concluded in 1936; at the same time MAN acquired a majority interest in ÖAF. In World War II production focused mainly on lorries with MAN engines; after the end of the war the heavily damaged manufacturing plant, which was situated in the Soviet occupation zone, was integrated into the (see)USIA group, which was not only detrimental to further development but also meant that most of the company's producion was destined for the Soviet Union. In 1955 ÖAF was placed under public administration and not reprivatised until 1970, when it was merged with Austro-MAN, followed by a further merger with (see)Gräf &Stift in 1971, creating (see)Österreichische Automobilfabrik ÖAF-Gräf & Stift AG.