Think of a German motorcycle brand and chances are that there’s only one name that will come to mind.
Yes, BMW Motorrad is the only mainstream motorbike manufacturer from Germany these days, but it wasn’t always that way. Just as Britain had a whole host of bike companies in days gone by, so the German motorcycle industry was once massive, with a number of manufacturers selling bikes at home and abroad.
Buoyed by the desire to discover more about these famous (and not so famous) brands from the past and present.
DKW
DKW was the world’s biggest motorcycle manufacturer between the two world wars. They enjoyed success in off-road racing in the 1930s and innovated with technology such as front wheel drive and supercharging.
DKW was founded by a Dane, Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen, in 1916 and by 1932, following the Wall Street crash it was one of four companies forming the giant Auto Union, which also included Audi and fellow motorbike company NSU.
After the war, DKW’s motorcycle division became MZ, while the small pre-war two-stroke DKW RT125 design was widely copied as part of the war reparation programme. The most famous of these, to British riders at least, was the BSA Bantam.
Horex
If the Horex name sounds familiar, that’s probably because the brand has enjoyed a revival in recent years – making the exclusive supercharged six-cylinder VR6 range.
The original Horex was formed in 1923 by Fritz Kleeman, a racer who build his own 250cc race bike. They went on to make some high end machines, before production was halted during World War Two. They came back in 1948 but by 1960 the brand had been bought out by Daimler-Benz, who stopped motorcycle production.
Friedl Münch purchased the rights to the name in 1977 and built a 1400cc machine, called the Horex 1400 TI, in a short lived revival. Another, Japanese backed, revival came in 1989, resulting in the Honda Dominator powered Horex 644 OSCA.
The current design can be traced back to 2010, when the VR6 was revealed by a new company which revived the name. This business went bankrupt in 2014, but the 3C-Carbon Group has since taken on the business and continues to make the VR6 in small numbers.
Kalex
Kalex is not a manufacturer in the traditional sense but having won the Moto2 world title for each of the last eight years, they definitely deserve a place in German motorcycle history.
Kalex Engineering was founded by Klaus Hirsekorn and Alex Baumgärtel in 2008 and made their chassis for the new Moto2 race series in 2010. The championship saw various chassis manufacturers build their own bikes around the standardised Honda CBR600RR engine. German rider Stefan Bradl won the title on their bike in 2011 and they’ve won both the riders and constructors world titles every year since 2013.
From 2019, Kalex’s Moto2 bike has been powered by the three-cylinder Triumph 765 engine from the Street Triple and, despite the change of control engine, Kalex has remained the dominant force, used by the majority of the grid.
Kreidler
If Kalex are a racing success story from today, Kreidler were one of the great champions of the 1970s and 1980s.
The company started building small motorcycles in 1951 and were very popular in Germany and northern Europe. Kreidler also built race bikes for the now defunct 50cc class and won eight world titles between 1971 and 1983, the last year of the class.
Despite the race track success, Kreidler went bust in 1982. These days the name lives on as a manufacturer of e-bikes.
Maico
Another great racing brand, but this time in the off-road world.
While Maico made small two-stroke road bikes and scooters post war, it is in motocross that it is best remembered.
Despite not having the resources of the Japanese brands, Maico riders won 125cc Grands Prix in the early 1970s. The company went bust in 1986 and today Maicos are highly sought after by classic motocross enthusiasts.
The brand still exists, with a Leverkusen company building 616cc two-stroke off road bikes in small numbers under the Maico name. With 76bhp, they are the world’s most powerful motocross bikes.
Münch
The Münch Mammoth is one of the most famous motorcycles of all time.
Friedl Münch started out working for Horex and went on to make many car engined one-offs in the 1960s. These specials used a four-cylinder 55bhp, 996cc NSU engine and, in 1966, a production version, named the Mammoth was introduced.
Two years later a new version, the Münch4 1200TTS came along. Using the NSU’s latest 88bhp, 1177cc four-cylinder engine, the 300kg machine was hand built and sold in limited numbers.
Less than 500 were built in total by the time production ended in 1975. Later models used fuel injection to hike power up to 100bhp, making it a true icon of the era.
MZ
Probably Germany’s second most famous motorcycle brand, after BMW, MZ was born out of DKW after the war.
When DKW moved to West Germany, the factory in Zschopau, Saxony, was renamed Motorenwerke Zschopau (or MZ for short) and production of cheap two-stroke bikes was resumed.
As well as building commuter machines, the MZ factory was hugely successful in racing. In off-road competition, MZ won the prestigious International Six Day Trial six times in the 1960s, but it is in road racing where MZ is best known.
The company’s two-strokes were developed by engineer Walter Kaaden and first won in 1958. They became the stuff of legend when, in 1961, rider Ernst Degner defected from the communist East Germany to the west – taking with him the secrets of the MZ design, especially the knowledge gained in understanding sound waves and the effects of expansion chambers.
Degner moved to Japan and worked for Suzuki, riding and helping to develop their race and championship winning two-strokes of the 1960s.
MZ continued to race and between 1955 and 1976 they won 13 Grands Prix and took 105 podium finishes. The company continued to sell its simple road bikes around the world too but folded soon after the fall of communism, in 1993.
The company was revived with a new single-cylinder Skorpion, powered by a single-cylinder Yamaha four-stroke motor, and the 21st century even brought an all-new 1000cc parallel twin sports tourer. In 2009 the company entered the Moto2 world championship but lack of sales led to the ultimate demise of MZ in 2013.
NSU
NSU is better known for its cars, but between 1901 and 1966 it was a major manufacturer of motorcycles.
For a brief period in the 1950s, NSU was the biggest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world, producing around 350,000 units in 1955.
NSU was noted for its high performance and racing motorcycles. It competed in the early years of the Isle of Man TT races and was active in setting land speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats in the 1950s. The team also competed in Grand Prix racing, winning five 125 and 250cc world titles between 1953 and 1955.
Despite its sporting pedigree, NSU’s most notable model was the Quickly, a step thru moped of which more than a million were sold between 1953 and 1965, when NSU stopped building motorcycles. In 1969, the marque was purchased by Volkswagen and the NSU brand would disappear as the company evolved into what would become the modern day Audi.
Sachs
Sachs made its first motorcycle in 1904. Like many companies of the time, it was not exclusively a motorbike manufacturer.
Over the years the company has become better known as a component manufacturer. Its small engines were sold to many other manufacturers and today Sachs suspension can be found on many motorcycles, including some of the latest Ducatis.
Sachs own motorcycles have had a less than gloried recent history. The XTC125 was a sporty learner bike, launched in 2006. Despite being a decent effort, it struggled for sales, as did the gloriously named Sachs MadAss, which was as crazy as the name suggested.
Zündapp
Best known for small capacity mopeds, Zündapp actually started out making some large engined four-stroke bikes, including a shaft-driven flat four machine used during the war.
After the war the company, like so many rebuilding German factories, focused on small and inexpensive two-stroke machines, both motorcycles and scooters. The company did well domestically in the 1960s and 1970s, and even won the European 125cc motocross championship in 1973 and ’74.
Demand for mopeds dropped off in the 1980s and by 1984 Zündapp went out of business.
These days the name is owned by a Chinese manufacturing company and although a range of Zündapp-badged, China-built, scooters were advertised a few years back a full scale revival has yet to be seen.
Pictures: Wikipedia
