The Germans didn’t make many armoured vehicles in WWI – everyone knows the A7V, but there were several other vehicles. One is the Büssing A5P armoured car, which was built in very small numbers – in fact, just one !
The Germans entered WWI with no armoured vehicles in service at all, but after encountering Allied armoured cars in 1914 (such as the improvised Belgian Minervas) they realised their value and set out a series of technical requirements for their own vehicles. Three companies were approached, Büssing, Ehrhardt and Daimler, and all produced a single vehicle to the specifications. Büssing’s example couldn’t have been any further from the small, nimble Minervas, being almost twice the length – in fact, it’s still the largest armoured car ever built. It had a double-ended design, the front and rear being almost indistinguishable, and could be driven in either direction. Armed with three machine guns, it had a crew of 10. The single example was delivered in 1916 and served in Romania and Ukraine, surviving until the end of the war.
