The company was founded in 1858 by Bernhard Stoewer as a precision mechanical repair shop, after the local garrison had hired him to repair a sewing machine. In the same year, production of
sewing machines in
Stettin began. By the time of their fiftieth anniversary in the year 1908, 75,000 sewing machines and 6,000,000 typewriters had already been produced. In 1899, the ironworks was taken over by the sons, the Stoewer brothers, Emil (1873 – 1942) and Bernhard (1875 – 1937) founded the firm
Gebrüder Stoewer, Fabrik für Motorfahrzeugen and started to produce automobiles. Their first car was the
Großer Stoewer Motorwagen, with and maximum speed. Stoewer was thus one of the pioneer carmakers in Germany. In March 1906, the company Stoewer stopped producing chains and pedals for bicycles and used the factory hall to expand automobile production. With the freed-up 2000 square meters, they aimed to increase production from about 100 vehicles in 1905 to about 250 vehicles in 1906. Factory plant Stoewer with employees.jpg|Factory plant Stoewer with employees Stoewer Sewing Machine.JPG|Stoewer Sewing Machine from about 1912 Stoewer Record Typewriter.jpg|Stoewer Record Typewriter Stoewer Bicycle Greif.jpg|Stoewer Bicycle Greif 1939 Stoewer Logo - Flickr - nemor2.jpg|Logo of Stoewer in 1939 Vehicle data plate Stoewer (1904).jpg|Vehicle data plate Stoewer (1904) In late summer 1907, the company entered into a partnership with carmaker
Deutsche Motorfahrzeugfabrik GmbH. Stoewer wanted to utilize their newly expanded factory by producing the Autognom. In return, the German Motor Vehicle Factory was to take on exclusive sales of Stoewer vehicles. In 1908 Stoewers constructed the
Stoewer G4. This model was successful for them at the time – 1,070 cars were built. In 1910, Stoewer cars were also built under licence in France, by
Mathis of
Strasbourg. In 1916, the family-owned company was changed into a limited company under the name of
Stoewer-Werke AG, vormals Gebrüder Stoewer. In the mid-20s a new class of cars was introduced: the
D-Types included
D3,
D9 and
D10 with four-cylinder engines, as well as
D5,
D6 and
D12 with six cylinders. Something special was the 1921
D7 with a proprietary six-cylinder
aero engine with . Of the fifty "D10" made, the only survivor was located in Melbourne, Australia in original condition; it has since been brought to Germany. Stoewer Motordreirad (1899).jpg|Stoewer Motordreirad (1899) Stoewer Motorvierrad (1899).jpg|Stoewer four-wheeled Motorcycle (1899) Stoewer elektrischer Phaeton (1899).jpg|Stoewer electric phaeton (1899) Stoewer subsidy truck L 4 III (1909-1912).jpg|Stoewer subsidy truck L 4 III (1909-1912) Stoewer Tractor Type 3 S 17 (1919-1926).jpg|Stoewer Tractor Type 3 S 17 (1919-1926) In 1928 the company started to build
S8 and
G14 models with eight-cylinder engines. In the early 1930s Stoewer produced its highlights:
G15 Gigant,
M12 Marschall and
P20 Repräsentant, each with eight-cylinder engines, with and a maximum speed of . The production of these cars had to be cancelled after 2,500 vehicles were produced due to worldwide economic troubles. In 1931, Stoewer constructed one of the first cars with
front-wheel drive, the
Stoewer V 5 with , maximum speed. The model named
Greif Junior was built under the licence of
Tatra. Its successor
V8 Greif was the last car made by Stoewer himself; class
Arkona and
Sedina were the last civilian cars produced by the company. In 1936, the Stoewer factory developed the 'uniform light off-road car' (
le.E.Pkw,
leichter geländegängiger Einheits-PKW) for the
German army, a versatile
four-wheel drive car, the Stoewer R200 Stoewer's founders were pushed out in the early 1930s for being too focussed on civilian cars, and control of the company fell to a Nazi-controlled
supervisory board. After World War II, the
Red Army seized the remaining production facilities, dismantled the factory and sent the equipment to the
Soviet Union, and the company ceased to exist. == Passenger car models ==