Bungartz T5: The mini from Munich.

“What in the heck is a Bungartz T5?”

That was the question I asked out loud a few days ago when I stumbled upon the listing. Initially, I almost thought it was a Porsche that an auctioneer had mis-labeled, but Porsche tractors never had angular fenders like this one has. Now, I don’t know everything there is to know about tractors and brands – not by a long shot. However, I consider myself reasonably aware of brands and things like that. But Bungartz? That was a new one for me, and I’ll bet it is for you, too.

This little guy sells on an online-only auction in Virginia on Saturday, February 1. Here’s the listing.

So that having been said, let’s dig in and see what there is to see about these little tractors!

From Munich with love…

Bungartz & Co. was the brainchild of Everhard Bungartz. He was a sharp guy who held a doctorate in physics and a good job with a company in Frankfurt, Germany in the early thirties. Apparently, he was also a bit of an entrepreneur…and a sucker for a good sales pitch. See, his father in law had bought a distillery in Munich in 1928, and it apparently there were a few empty buildings on the property. So, when he wanted to fill those buildings, he figured that could appeal to Everhard’s entrepreneurial tendencies and make a little money in the process. So he hit him with the sales pitch. Buy the buildings and start working for yourself, young man!

Everhard listened, and about a year later, he quit his job in Frankfurt and went to work for himself. The first few years were a little iffy; Bungartz & Co. tried to cash in on the idea of a cheap little two-seater car. They had a few models designed, but none of them ever really went anywhere. One of them was known as the Bungartz Butz, which is probably the worst name for a car…ever. It looked a little like a Volkswagen Beetle, but with a little different nose.

Back to the drawing board…

Anyway, Bungartz & Co. pivoted. They got the rights to a Siemens-designed rotary tiller and started building those. Those did a little better for them, and they eventually led to their own line of walk-behind rotary tillers and tractors. They sold pretty well, actually; the German labor shortage was steadily decreasing towards the late 30s, and farms needed to do more with less.

The company managed to survive through World War II, despite suffering some pretty major damage to the factory when Munich was bombed to smithereens. When the war was over, though, they rebuilt and got back to the business of building tillers, and a few years later, tractors!

The T-Series tractors

The first four-wheeled tractor Bungartz released was the T3 in 1953. It was based on one of their most popular walk-behind tractors, the U1. The 11-horse T3 wasn’t a runaway success per se, but it was enough to keep them working on the line. The T-series tractors all incorporated one pretty remarkable feature, though. They’d turn on a dime because you could crank the wheel almost a full 90 degrees. Furthermore, the tractor would automatically apply the brake in the direction you were turning so you could wheel it around lickety-split! The company was actually awarded a patent on that design, too!

The T5 was released in 1956, and it was a fair bit more successful than its little brother. T5s used a 12 or 13-horse single cylinder air-cooled diesel supplied by Hatz for most of the production run. They were decent sellers, too. Being as itty-bitty as they were, they were naturally a good fit for vineyards and orchards, as well as small family farms.

The tractor was successful enough that it remained in production for over 16 years – even through a merger in 1963! I’m not sure how many were built in total, but I suspect that total production was probably somewhere in the 3000-3500 area. I doubt we’ll ever know an actual total.

So how’d this Bungartz T5 end up here on a Virginia consignment auction? Bungartz had a North American distributor, Burton Supply, which was headquartered in Youngstown, OH. There weren’t a ton of Bungartz tractors sold here in the States, but there were a few, and they all went through Burton Supply, as far as I know.

The Bungartz T5 you can buy this weekend…

This tractor sells on a Rich & Rich auction in Virginia that wraps up this weekend. I don’t know much about this particular machine’s background, but I do know that it’s a Series 3 which was in production from 1964-1972.

The auctioneer stated that they haven’t attempted to start any of the old tractors on this sale. Furthermore, based on the lack of a battery, I’d say it’s no different with this one. Based on the flat spots and mold on the tires, I’m sure it hasn’t moved under its own power in a while. So, while it looks like it’s a project tractor, the one bright side is that I believe that Hatz may still have parts available for the engines in these machines. I did a quick Google search and the results looked fairly promising.

What’ll it bring?

Honestly, I have no idea. Of the 185,000-some-odd auction records of tractors in our Tractor Zoom Pro database, there’s literally only ONE Bungartz listed. It was a Series 2 tractor that sold on an Aumann Vintage Power auction back in October of 2023. It was a very clean, complete tractor that sold for $2150.

What that tells me is that despite the rarity, these aren’t super-valuable tractors. That said, they say there’s a butt for every saddle, and that applies to tractors, too. There are plenty of collectors who have a thing for compact tractors, European models, or orchard/vineyard tractors. I reckon somebody in one of those three groups will buy it as a restoration project or a parts tractor, and I suspect it’ll go pretty inexpensively. $250-300, maybe?

Wrapping up: What happened to the company?

Not a lot, actually. They merged with another company in 1963, moved their production to Hornbach, Germany, and by 1974 they’d been acquired by Gutbrod, a competitor. Gutbrod continued to build a few of their larger models like the T8 and T9 that were powered by small Volkswagen gas engines or Deutz diesels for a few years, but slowly transitioned things towards modern lawn mowers in the late 70s. I believe that Gutbrod was acquired by MTD at some point. In any event, there’s not much left of Everhard Bungartz’s legacy as far as tractors go these days.

The thing that’s kind of neat about these little tractors (to me, at any rate) is that while Bungartz was a small company, they continued to innovate what they were doing. Furthermore, the tractors they built were pretty stout little things, based on the stories I’ve read about them. They weren’t cheap little toys, y’know? They were completely capable of a hard day’s work in specialty crops like vineyards, greenhouses, and orchards. At the end of the day, they were basically the predecessors of what my family uses in our orchards back home in Michigan today!

Anyway, if you’ve got a Bungartz, I’d love to hear from you! Shoot me an email and tell me about your tractor!

Until next time, make it a great week, and go do tractor things with the Interesting Iron in your shed!

Sub-compact tractors listed on Tractor Zoom