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Dane – Engineer J. S. Rasmussen (1878-1964) founded the company
in 1906, initially producing parts for textile machinery. In
1917 his company – “Zschopauer Maschinenfabric”, spurred by
wartime petrol shortages, produced a “DampfKraftWagen”
– steam-engined car, or shortly – DKW.
In 1919 they produced for first time a two-stroke engine – “Das
Kleine Wunder” – “The Little Marvel”, fitted to a bicycle. By
the end of 1921 the company, renamed “Motorenwerke Rasmussen”,
built the first own complete vehicle. The company built his
first complete motorcycle in 1922 and soon became powerful.
In 1926 with the E 206 DKW put into operation the assembly-belt.
The next innovation was made in 1929 – the production of press-steel-frames
was reorganized which gave the company the opportunity for a
production in great numbers – they were the world’s largest
manufacturer of motorcycles – 100 000 units per year. In the
times of the Great Depression of the 30’s DKW suffered a massive
cease in the production and in 1932 on account of economical
reasons they merged with the motorcars producers Audi, Wanderer
and Horch to form Auto Union AG. A foursome, represented in
the company’s logo – four well known today rings worn by Audi
motorcars. |
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With
the licensing of several technical innovations in the beginning
of 1930's DKW started to produce motorcycles with improved cooling
and decreased consumption. From 1934 the economical upsurge
remained constant and the company was able to introduce in this
year a number of newly developed models. The company soon became
prominent in racing – DKW’s effective designed and
reliable machines won the European Championship four times before
the World War II. During the 1930’s the DKW’s name
needed no advertising – most of Germany’s greatest
riders belonged to DKW’s international race team. A wonderful
designed 250cc machine, participant in the 1938 TT races, rode
by the famous for the time rider Ewald Kluge, achieved record-top-speed
of 183.2 km/h. Ewald Kluge was the top DKW rider in these prewar
years, who won the European Championship in 1938 and 1939. Racing
experience gave DKW the lead in the two-stroke technology worldwide.
The company produced two-stroke engines, fitted not only on
motorcycles, but cars - limousines, convertibles, roadsters
and even pickups.
Soon these untroubled times went to an end – the World
War II started. The production of the newly created NZ series
was in small amounts and without market success - the Wehrmacht
did not express an interest in the two-stroke engines. But the
Wehrmacht's reconnaissance division needed to adopt a reliable
machine to be used for scout and messenger purposes – the
DKW NZ 350. The machine was soon provided to the Wehrmacht with
almost no alterations, comparing to the civil version and became
known as "Das Motorrad der Kradmelder" - dispatch
riders' motorcycle. In 1943 the company produced a special military
version of the machine – NZ 350/1. The motorcycle’s
engine block was made from cast iron (in the civilian version
is made from aluminum), with centrifugal air filter and number
of other modifications. Although the NZ 350 was appropriate
for service in Western Europe, the machine was inadequate at
the Balkans and in USSR, where the roads were in bad state,
as well as for cross-country use. The mass – 170 kg. and
the small clearance of 12 cm (the distance between the land
and the lowest point of the bike) made it inappropriate. Then
in 1943 the Wehrmacht noted the possibilities of one of the
smaller models of the company – DKW RT 125. With a mass
of only 90 kg. this small motorcycle (123cc) was to a great
extent the best machine for the dispatch riders. In 1943 RT
125 was revised for military use. |
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| After
the war the equipment for producing the DKW NZ 350 was moved
from the factory in Zschopau to Izhevsk (former USSR, now in
Russia) and the model was produced under the Izh 350 trademark
between 1946 and 1951 with overall amount of 127 090 machines.
When Germany was divided between the Allies, Zschopau remained
in the Eastern part and the production ceased. In 1950 was built
the first motorcycle in the newly established “Industrieverwaltung
Fahrzeugbau” - IFA – the modernized version of DKW RT 125.
In 1956 IFA was renamed MZ - “Motorradwerk Zschopau” with its
own part in the two-stroke history. After the reunification
of Germany was established the new trademark “MuZ”. |
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| In
the western part of Germany after the war in Ingolstadt was
established “Zentraldepot fur Auto Union-Ersatzteile GmbH”.
In 1949 as first projects were introduced a delivery-car and
a motorcycle – the well-known RT 125, but under the name
125W (W for west), shown bellow. The design was so good that
when the design was handed over as a part of Germany’s
war reparations other manufacturers around the world copied
it freely – Harley Davidson’s 125, BSA’s Bantam
and the first Yamaha. |
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Until
the middle 1950’s there was a boom in motorcycle production
and sells, but that soon came to an end. In 1955 were bought
just about 48 000 DKW motorcycles. With the “Hummel”
model DKW tried to enter the market of smallest bikes, they
achieved success, but the end was near. From 1958 there was
never started a profitable motorcycle production. DKW merged
in the “Zweirad-Union” with Victoria and Express,
but in 1966 Fichtel&Sachs (“Hercules”) bought
the Union and the DKW logo is appearing sporadically on single
products of Zweirad-Union and later of Sachs Gruppe. Then in
the 1960's the DKW name was famous with the two-stroke cars,
made in South America. The image to the right is showing the
"Mofa 25" of the Zweirad-Union, appeared under the
DKW company-name in 1965.
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click on the images to enlarge
The images, showed on this page are collected from different
sources - magazines and Internet sites. The picture of the military
NZ 350 is from Panzermuseum
Munster; the image of NZ 350/1 is from A. Georgiev's book
"The motorcycles of the Tirth Reich", Sofia 2000;
the image of Izh 350 is from the site of A. Bogomolov www.autogallery.org.ru,
courtesy of Valdo Praust - Estonia; the pictures of the RT 125
W and MZ RT 125/2 are from the "Motor Klassik" magazine;
Schwab, Wolf©, 5/1997, the colour picture of the restored
military NZ 350 was sent me by Zunder - Brazil and the picture
of the "Zweirad-Union"s Mofa 25 is from "Bravo"
magazine©, 5/1965.For composing this brief history of DKW
company I used several DKW-related sites, mentioned in the DKW
LINKS part of this site as well as the book "Classic
Superbikes From Around The World" written by Mac McDiarmid,
Parragon 1998. |
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If you want to add or correct the information
or to contact me - e-mail me: dkwnz350@abv.bg
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