GERMAN GREEN

1976 DEUTZ D7209

Though Deutz had been in business many years and had been selling industrial engines in the United States since the 1950s, it didn’t start importing Deutz tractors until 1966. As you might remember from the “Vintage Smoke” column in the November 2019 issue, Deutz, known at the time as Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz (KHD), was one of the founding fathers of diesel. The company was originally created by Nikolaus Otto, famous for perfecting the four-stroke Otto cycle.

Deutz had been building tractors since 1938, though in that era it had not yet introduced its signature air-cooled diesel. Development of the Deutz air-cooled diesel would come during World War II. The war, and its aftermath would create obstacles for Deutz, but it restarted engine production in 1949 and tractors in 1950. Those first postwar tractors were essentially a redo of Deutz’s prewar water-cooled tractors, but this time with an air-cooled engine. The water-cooled version was also built.