While I was researching Eribas and other lightweight caravans, before buying my Puck L, I am sure I read a potted history of Eriba. I thought it was on this site, but I can't now find anything. (Please don't point me at the Hymer site, there's practically no information on there.)

My Puck L is a 2000 French model. I can't now remember whether manufacture moved to or from France, and therefore am not sure if mine is a later or earlier French one. Not that it matters, it's just nice to know.

Although these short videos mention that the designers of the Eriba were aircraft engineers they make little reference to the significance of one of them. Although Erich Bachem designed a camping car before WW2 he was also notable as a designer of military aircraft for the Luftwaffe. He was a co-designer of the Fieseler Storch, a light reconnaissance aircraft with a stalling speed so low that in a headwind it could give the appearance of flying and landing backwards. In the closing years of the war he also designed the Natter, a vertical takeoff rocket plane intended to intercept Allied bombers. Having given his name to the caravan he designed (EriBa) it’s tempting to speculate that the vertical “swoosh” in the brand logo might also be a reference to his rocket plane. For the anoraks among you wanting to know more about the antecedents of our unique caravans all this information, and much more, is available in Wikipedia.

Very interesting, where can I find more information?

Quote: Richard wrote in post #5

---

Although these short videos mention that the designers of the Eriba were aircraft engineers they make little reference to the significance of one of them. Although Erich Bachem designed a camping car before WW2 he was also notable as a designer of military aircraft for the Luftwaffe. He was a co-designer of the Fieseler Storch, a light reconnaissance aircraft with a stalling speed so low that in a headwind it could give the appearance, in a headwind, of flying and landing backwards. In the closing years of the war he also designed the Natter, a vertical takeoff rocket plane intended to intercept Allied bombers. Having given his name to the caravan he designed (EriBa) it’s tempting to speculate that the vertical “swoosh” in the brand logo might also be a reference to his rocket plane. For the anoraks among you wanting to know more about the antecedents of our unique caravans all this information, and much more, is available in Wikipedia.

---

Randa’s link to the earlier thread (above) will take you to the information. If you also put Fieseler into Wikipedia it will reveal that this company, for whom Bachem worked until 1942, as well as manufacturing the slightly eccentric-looking Storch also contributed the design for the rather more sinister V1.

I’m sure I read something about Herr Bachem ‘escaping’ to Argentina after the war and running a guitar factory.

Guitars is a bit random, did he come back to Germany later then to build Eribas? Wonder if any bits fell of his guitars?

In 1947/48 Erich Bachem left Germany through Denmark and Sweden in order to settle in Argentina. Possibly he wished to escape US agents who planned to send him to the USA with Wernher von Braun's group as part of Operation Overcast. In Argentina, among other things, he constructed a factory for guitars with interchangeable bottoms.

from Wikipedia.

Interchangeable bottoms, the mind boggles 😁

The initial deal between the Hymer family and Bachem was that they would build the vans and he would run a company marketing them. His early death, soon after the vans were launched, could have spelt the end, but the Hymers stepped in and took on the marketing too and the rest is history. See http://eribaliving.blogspot.com/2011/10/eriba-living.html