UPDATE:  Thanks to Dave, we have some additional Koenig history: 

“The son of the founder built the company up into a successful business making winches, “truck bodies”, and other stuff. His name was Herbert Koenig and he died in 2011 at age 95. An obit mentions that Koenig Iron Works (of Houston) was sold in 1978, and is now known as “RKI” and makes truck equipment (in Houston). They are RKI-US.com. Nothing indicates they care about Jeeps anymore!

Also, a Danish guy seems to have a website named Koenigwinches.com and it seems he makes parts for Koenig winches.”

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Original Post November 2019: 

This is a good example of simple post that spun out of control. Initially, I wanted to look at some changes in Koenig’s CJ-5 hardtop model numbers over the years; But, that then expanded to a look at twenty years (or so) of brochures.

THE EARLY YEARS:

The timeline of the early Koenig brochures are pretty easy to identify based on the jeeps used. In later years, Koenig began using numbered ‘bulletins’ to identify brochures. At first, I thought the numbered bulletins should be ordered by ascending number, but after closer examination, I the later two digits of each bulletin number reflect the year of the brochure. As you will see, other brochure elements back this theory.

Before we start, you can find installation instructions for some Koenig hardtops here.

The earliest Koenig brochure I can find was published in an early Willys-Overland Equipment brochure (1949?). The models consisted of “Full Cab” and “Half Cab”. This brochure was included among a surprisingly large number of hardtop competitors’ brochures, including Worman tops, CarsonCraft tops, Boston Top tops, Sturdee tops, Porter & Reed tops, Body V7 Works tops, Blue Star tops, Lambert tops, Hills Custom Built tops and Meyers tops (which became sears tops and a company that was different from the one that produced later Meyer tops).

This brochure circa 1949 showed half and full cabs on a CJ-3A:

This Koenig Bulletin 149 (see full brochure here) was likely published in January of 1949 and featured the full Koenig top:

This bulletin #349, was likely published in March of 1949 and featured the half-cab (the back of this brochure is blank):

 

The only example I have of an ad that focused on a CJ-3B was in this one found online; It would have been published in 1953 or later:

THE CJ-5s & CJ-6s ARE INTRODUCED:

This next brochure was numbered bulletin #355. The number “3” in the bulletin name may refer to March, making its release just after the release of the CJ-5.  It also appears to have been a pre-DJ-3A/CJ-6, so dating it as a 1955 seems correct.

This brochure also introduced the super cabs, the standard cabs, and a model-naming system. As you can see, for example, the model 550 was for the CJ-3A/3B and the model 550-5 was for the CJ-5 (this is more clear in the price list shown in the next brochure series shown next). This naming convention was gone by 1956. Note that there was no DJ-3A or CJ-6 listed, which is consistent with a 1955 brochure.

Note the price listed below; it made it more clear how Koenig used “-5” to designate CJ-5 tops. The date of April 15, 1955, potentially made its publish date only a month after the above brochure. This used the same naming convention as the above brochure. These low quality brochure images came from eBay a few years ago.

This is Koenig bulletin #156. This brochure also marked a change in model numbers from Koenig’s 1955 brochure; the “-5″s were eliminated in favor of individual hardtop numbers (which I imagine was easier for consumers to understand)

This bulletin was #857, meaning it likely appeared in August of 1957. It marked the introduction of a third line of Koenig Cabs, the Jiffy Cab.

This brochure was bulletin #1858. The date is consistent with the jeeps shown. Maybe the full date was January 8, 1958? This brochure showed all three lines of tops: Standard, Super, and Jiffy. The second page had a chart of the different lines and the hardtop model number for each model of jeep. Also introduced in this brochure were the vertical rear doors (image 4).

There was also an individual brochure for the vertical doors, date unknown. This image was from eBay:

THE NON-BRANDED KOENIG TOP FOR CJ-5s & DJ-3As:

Also from the 1950s (ebay dated this brochure 1959, but I cannot confirm that date), Koenig, as I understand it, began producing hardtops for CJ-5s with doors that could be mounted by slider or by hinges (perhaps as early as 1955).

My theory is that these same hardtops could be mounted on DJ-3As with a specially built windshield like this. However, I don’t know of anyone yet who has tried mounting the same top on both vehicles for test purposes. These tops were branded ‘Jeep’ tops, not Koenig tops. These pics are from eBay:

Koenig may have also manufactured a half-top. I have no documentation on it; this was spotted on a jeep for sale in CT.

THE 1960s

This last brochure was bulletin #1264. To be consistent with the above brochure, I suspect it was published January 2, 1964 (though it could be December of 1964). It’s the only 1960s Koenig hardtop brochure I can find.

That’s all the brochures I have found regarding Koenig.