Bodo Buschmann

German founder of Brabus in Bottrop in 1977; the house later named a coachbuilt 2+2 Gran Turismo after him.

Born on 27 August 1955, he founded Brabus GmbH in Bottrop in the autumn of 1977, at 22, while still studying law and business management. Fellow student Klaus Brackmann supplied the first syllable of the name and left soon after. The first workshop stood behind his parents' Mercedes-Benz dealership; when it became too small the firm moved into what is now Brabus Plant 1. The company said the first work was the refinement of Mercedes-Benz cars.

The house grew from a Ruhr workshop into a global refiner of Mercedes-Benz cars and a maker of complete high-performance cars. In 2002 it formed the smart-Brabus joint venture with Smart, then a Daimler brand. He co-founded the German tuner association VDAT and served as its president. The company obituary named the Brabus 900 Rocket, with a top speed above 370 km/h, among cars entered in the Guinness records. From 2006 he taught as honorary professor at the Technical University of Sofia.

He died on 26 April 2018 after a short illness, aged 62. His son Constantin, previously chief marketing officer, took over as chief executive immediately, the company said. One car he had described for years but not built was a large Gran Turismo. Brabus presented it on 16 May 2026 at FuoriConcorso on Lake Como as the Brabus Bodo: a 2+2 carbon coupé limited to 77 cars, marking the 1977 founding year. His signature is embroidered in the door panels.