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Romeo and Gretchen - Or: Stop walking, buy an Alfa

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Created on April 14, 2026

Text:

Dirk-Michael Conradt

Photos:

Audi AG

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Alfa Romeo / Werk

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Archiv

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Audi AG

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Alfa Romeo / Werk

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Archiv

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Romeo and Gretchen

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Alfa Romeo Giulietta (1959) - Title page of the German sales brochure

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Nicely illustrated "menu" of the NSU press conference on April 16, 1958, at which the cooperation with Alfa Romeo was announced

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Alfa Romeo 1900 (1958) - Page from the NSU press kit: The Peters Sisters (here called "Peter Sisters") drive Alfa Romeo

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Alfa Romeo Giulietta Berlina T. I. (1958) - Advertisement of the German importer NSU

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Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider (1958) - Advertisement of the German importer NSU

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Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint (1958) - Advertisement of the German importer NSU

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Simca Monaco (1960) - After the import from Alfa Romeo did not bring the desired success, NSU turned to Simca

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Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider (1955) - still without triangular window

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Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spyder (1960) - completely open

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Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce (1959) - attractive coupé

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Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint (1958) - elegance always goes down well

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Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce (1959) - with 90 hp, but without lightweight bodywork

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Alfa Romeo Giulietta (1955) - compact sports sedan with a top speed of 140 km/h

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Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale (1960) - early production version with front bumper

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Alfa Romeo 2000 (1959) - with a fully packed trunk

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NSU Prinz (1957) - next to an NSU from 1914

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NSU employees went to the NSU Lido in Italy early on, some even on their NSU Lambretta

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NSU Lambretta - Beautiful like a car - Economical like an NSU

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Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider (1958) - With the mandolin at the half-timbered house: title page of the press kit "Romeo and Gretchen", published on the occasion of the collaboration between Alfa Romeo and NSU

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Summary

In 1958, NSU in Neckarsulm took over the sale of Alfa Romeo models in Germany. The plan was to set up a German customer service network and even the later assembly of the Giulietta at NSU. In return, Alfa Romeo was to take over sales of the NSU Prinz in Italy. But nothing came of it. NSU and Alfa Romeo parted company just two years later - what had gone wrong?

This article contains the following chapters

Christmas in April
Gifts and indulgence
The real Italy in Germany
Gaining money, losing trust

Estimated reading time: 8min

Preview (beginning of the article)

NSU and Alfa Romeo - in the beginning, it was a German-Italian romance with a thoroughly rational ulterior motive. Ralph Plagmann, once the historian responsible for NSU at Audi AG, meticulously researched the initial love affair - and also its end. "Viktor Frankenberger, the Technical Director and Deputy General Director of NSU Werke AG," says Plagmann, "was a self-confessed lover of Italy." His early contacts with Lambretta manufacturer Innocenti in Milan, for example, led to the start of licensed production of the Italian scooters in Neckarsulm in 1952. Plagmann continues: "Viktor Frankenberger later also made contact with Alfa Romeo, which was intensified by the fact that he employed Franco (the son of Alfa Romeo General Director Dr. Francesco Quaroni) as his personal assistant at the NSU plant in Neckarsulm." On March 31, 1958, the same month that NSU resumed automobile production after 26 years of four-wheel abstinence in Neckarsulm, the close contact resulted in a contract for cooperation between NSU Werke AG and Alfa Romeo S.p.A., provisionally for a period of two years.

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