Founded by André-Gustave
Citroen, who possessed the genius for organising
mass-production, arguably second only to Henry
Ford. Educated at Ecole Polytechnique, France's
top technical university, Citroen then had
a spell in the French army as an engineering officer
and then landed a job as chief engineer at Mors. By 1913 he had set up his own business manufacturing
helix gear wheels (and thus evolved the double
chevron badge), and during the first World War
was assisted by the French government to set up
a large production facility in Paris in exchange
for munitions manufacture.
Following the war,
Citroen's factory was left full of American
machine tools, so he began the design of his first
car, the 1919 Type A. Cheap, reliable and hugely
successful, the Type A was quickly followed by
the B2, and then in 1921 by the Type C. The wonderful
Rosalie was released in 1934, and then the car
that would launch Citroen as a global auto
manufacturer, the Traction Avant. War would intervene
yet again, but the car to ensure the survival
of the marque was in fact a rival to Hitler's
Beetle, the ever popular 2CV.
Also see: The History of Citroen
