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Description
Prologue:

After the Second World War, Germany was a broken nation, literally. Parts of it had been given to Poland and Russia, and the rest had been split up into four occupied zones, one zone for each of its conquerors. A few years on, the conquerors started to pull out, and, for the most part, let the Germans try governing themselves again.  However, since the Western allies and the Soviets weren't exactly on good terms with each other by then, Germany remained divided, this time in two parts, the Federal Republic in the west, made up of the occupation zones of the Western powers, and the Democratic Republic in the east, which had been the Soviet occupation zone.

The original Allied plan for the conquered Germany was to absorb or destroy its industry and to leave it as an agrarian nation incapable of waging war.  This plan, called the Morgenthau Plan, was abandoned in favour of the Marshall Plan, which would not merely allow but actively assist the re-industrialization of Germany. Well, not all of Germany; the Marshall Plan was a Western plan that did not cover the Soviet sphere of influence, although the Soviets also had the re-industrialization of Germany in mind.

This re-industrialization both increased wealth and encouraged ideas to make products that would circulate that wealth. This, of course, led to the matter of personal transport. Scooters and mopeds were a good start, but soon the Germans wanted something a bit better, even though they could only afford something a little bit better at the time.

Adding to this was that, up until 1956, Germany was forbidden from making aircraft, so the aircraft manufacturers needed something to make in order to stay in business.

So, in the early Fifties, a partly-new phenomenon came into being in Germany.  I say "partly-new" because some of it was history repeating itself. The cycle-car craze of the early 1920s was similar, with thousands of demobilized youngsters wanting cheap personal transport, but the cars themselves were as different as scooters were from regular motorcycles. In fact, the Germans often referred to these vehicles as Kabinenrollern, meaning "scooters with cabins".  One of the manufacturers actually named its product "Kabinenroller", while another named its "Kabine".

In England, what we saw were small, bubble-like contraptions, so we called them "bubble cars".

Description
Prologue:

After the Second World War, Germany was a broken nation, literally. Parts of it had been given to Poland and Russia, and the rest had been split up into four occupied zones, one zone for each of its conquerors. A few years on, the conquerors started to pull out, and, for the most part, let the Germans try governing themselves again.  However, since the Western allies and the Soviets weren't exactly on good terms with each other by then, Germany remained divided, this time in two parts, the Federal Republic in the west, made up of the occupation zones of the Western powers, and the Democratic Republic in the east, which had been the Soviet occupation zone.

The original Allied plan for the conquered Germany was to absorb or destroy its industry and to leave it as an agrarian nation incapable of waging war.  This plan, called the Morgenthau Plan, was abandoned in favour of the Marshall Plan, which would not merely allow but actively assist the re-industrialization of Germany. Well, not all of Germany; the Marshall Plan was a Western plan that did not cover the Soviet sphere of influence, although the Soviets also had the re-industrialization of Germany in mind.

This re-industrialization both increased wealth and encouraged ideas to make products that would circulate that wealth. This, of course, led to the matter of personal transport. Scooters and mopeds were a good start, but soon the Germans wanted something a bit better, even though they could only afford something a little bit better at the time.

Adding to this was that, up until 1956, Germany was forbidden from making aircraft, so the aircraft manufacturers needed something to make in order to stay in business.

So, in the early Fifties, a partly-new phenomenon came into being in Germany.  I say "partly-new" because some of it was history repeating itself. The cycle-car craze of the early 1920s was similar, with thousands of demobilized youngsters wanting cheap personal transport, but the cars themselves were as different as scooters were from regular motorcycles. In fact, the Germans often referred to these vehicles as Kabinenrollern, meaning "scooters with cabins".  One of the manufacturers actually named its product "Kabinenroller", while another named its "Kabine".

In England, what we saw were small, bubble-like contraptions, so we called them "bubble cars".