Even though much of the army was horse drawn, the need for mechanised transport was recognised early on and conscious efforts were made to provide a viable solution for that need.

The development of dedicated military lorries was set against a backdrop of the end of WWI and the ensuing strict restrictions placed on Germany’s remaining military establishment by the treaty of Versailles which prevented any development of ‘specialised’ military vehicles.

Compounding this was a post war economic crisis which had left the country’s industry in no fit state to commit the limited resources that remained, to set about a new program of development.

To some extent there was no urgency as there were lorries available from the former Imperial German army. These vehicles had survived the war, though due to the tight economic situation, many of these were left in a poor state with reduced means of repair and fuel to run them.

Things were to change when the Reichswehr, produced their plan for motorisation based on the development of multi-axle vehicles with load bearing capabilities from 1.5 to 3 tonnes.

A simple bit of guile was all that was required to get around the Versailles treaty and that was simply to state that this was by and for the civilian sector.

While these developments were based on civilian designs, their capabilities were never going to ultimately meet the military requirements. Not until the 1933 coming to power of the National Socialists and their flagrant flouting of the treaty rules, did a purely military endeavour to develop military transport vehicles emerge.