‘In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock.’ Spoken by the Harry Lime character (played by Orson Welles), this is most famous line in 1949’s The Third Man, rated as the greatest British movie of all time.
Those involved in its production were obviously automotive outsiders – also, all credit to those far-from-cuckoo Swiss watchmakers, whose timepieces sell for thousands, and sometimes hundreds of thousands of pounds.
But vastly more interesting were Switzerland’s clutch of innovative truck and diesel engine manufacturers.
Arbenz was the smallest. Founded in 1904, it was taken over in 1928 by Oetiker in 1928, which fell by the wayside in 1936.
Berna was established in 1905. In 1929 – by then the second biggest Swiss truck manufacturer – Berna was acquired by its bigger rival, Saurer. Berna trucks continued as a separate product line until eventually replaced by badge-engineered models identical to their Saurer counterparts.
FBW took its name from founder Franz Brozincevic. Opened for business in 1910, it merged with Saurer in 1982.
Latecomer Mowag was formed in 1948 by coachbuilder Seitz u Ruf. In commercial truck terms it remained a niche player, finally focussing exclusively on armoured vehicles. Although taken over by US defence contractor General Dynamics in 2003, the Mowag nameplate has been retained.
Finally, the big one, Saurer. The merger with FBW in 1982, constituted as NAW (Nutzfahrzeuggesellschaft Arbon & Wetzikon),
