The Adler 2.5-litre (in German Adler 2,5 Liter) was a sensation when first presented by Adler at the Berlin Motor Show early in 1937, although this did not convert into correspondingly sensational sales.[1]
Production got under way in November 1937. Seen as a successor for the six cylinder Adler Diplomat, it was an executive sedan/saloon featuring a strikingly streamlined body designed by Karl Jenschke (1899–1969) who till 1935 had been the Director of Engineering with Steyr-Daimler-Puch.[1] Jenschke's last creation during his time with Steyr had been the Steyr 50 which the Adler 2.5-litre, though larger, closely resembled.
Both on account of its uncompromisingly stream-lined silhouette and because its launch coincided with Germany’s first Autobahn construction boom, the car was popularly known as the Autobahn Adler.
The body for the four-door fast back saloon came from Ambi-Budd whose Berlin based German business made the steel bodies for several of Germany’s large automakers in the decade before the war. The two- and four-door cabriolet bodies came from Karmann of Osnabrück.