Josef Ganz

Dipl.-Ing. Josef Ganz (1 July 1898 – 26 July 1967) was a German car designer born in Budapest, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Hungary).

Early years

Josef Ganz was born on 1 July 1898 into a Jewish family living in Budapest, then the second-largest city within Austria-Hungary. His mother was Maria Török (1872–1926) from Hungary. His father was Dr Hugo Markus Ganz (1862–1922) from Mainz in Germany who worked as a political and literary writer and journalist for the Frankfurter Zeitung. At an early age, Josef Ganz was fascinated by technology. After moving from Budapest to Vienna, the family moved to Frankfurt am Main in Germany in 1916 and took on German nationality. In July 1916, Ganz voluntarily enlisted in the German army and fought in the German navy during the First World War. After the war, in 1918, Josef Ganz resumed his mechanical engineering studies. During this period, he became inspired with the idea of building a small car for the price of a motorcycle.

Prototypes and the Standard Superior