Express works

Express Werke AG ; Express-Fahrradwerke AG ; Expresswerke AG
legal form	Corporation
founding	January 12, 1884 (as the "Goldschmidt & Pirzer" velocipede factory )
resolution	1959
Seat	Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate , Germany
management	Jacob Goldschmidt (Director); Victor Lenz; Georg Gutmann;
Number of employees	120 (1887); 150 (1889); 175 (1897); 80 (1900); over 200 (1905); 180 (1908); about 240 (1939); 300 (1950);
Branch	Bicycle manufacturer , automobile manufacturer

The Express Werke AG in Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate built from 1884 to 1959 bicycles and motorcycles with built-in motors from various manufacturers as well as automobiles .

Company history

The first bicycle factory on the European mainland was built in Holzgartenstrasse 1 in Neumarkt as the Velociped Factory Neumarkt Gebrüder Goldschmidt .

Automobiles were first produced between 1899 and 1905. Either a two-cylinder petrol engine or an electric motor provided the drive . In 1909 production was temporarily resumed; this time the vehicles were given a choice of a four-cylinder or six-cylinder engine from Fafnir. In 1910 the production of automobiles was finally stopped. In the 1930s, small two-stroke mopeds with 75 cm³ and 98 cm³ were produced. From 1949 onwards, motorcycles with two-stroke engines from Sachs and ILO with displacements of up to 248 cm³ were produced.

The decline of the German two-wheeler industry at the end of the 1950s did not stop at Express either, and so in 1958 the Express works merged with Victoria and the DKW two-wheeler division of the Ingolstadt-based Auto Union to form the Zweirad Union with its headquarters at Nopitschstrasse 70 in Nuremberg 1959 production in Neumarkt ceased. The brand name Express was used by the Zweirad-Union and later by Sachs for bicycles in the lower price category until the 1980s .

The factory buildings in Neumarkt have been partially preserved to this day; Here is the 2009 opened museum of historic Maybach vehicles , in addition to classic cars of the brand Maybach issues Express bicycles and motorcycles. Another collection of vehicles from Express Werke is in the Neumarkt City Museum in the Upper Palatinate .

Picture gallery

Former factory gate of the Express works, today the entrance area of the museum for historic Maybach vehicles
"Express" brand motorcycles
Share over 1000 RM in Expresswerke AG from December 1941

literature

Erwin Tragatsch: All motorcycles from 1894 to today . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-87943-410-7 .
Tilman Werner: From Ardie to Zündapp . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-613-01287-1 .
Matthias Murko: motorcycle legends . W. Tümmels, Nuremberg 1994, ISBN 3-921590-27-2 .
Thomas Reinwald: Motorcycles from Nuremberg . ZWEIRAD-Verlag, Erlangen 1994, ISBN 3-929136-03-1 .
Thomas Reinwald: Nuremberg motorcycle industry . PODSZUN, Brilon 2002, ISBN 3-86133-299-X .
GN Georgano : cars. Encyclopédie complète. 1885 à nos jours. Courtille, 1975 (French)
Ulrich Kubisch : German car brands from A – Z. VF Verlagsgesellschaft, Mainz 1993, ISBN 3-926917-09-1