Friedel Münch

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Friedel Münch (born February 6, 1927 in Dorn-Assenheim ; † April 27, 2014 in Altenstadt ) was a German designer and manufacturer of motorcycles . He became famous for the Münch motorcycles he developed .

Life

After finishing school, Münch completed an apprenticeship as a motor vehicle mechanic. As a two-time Reich winner in the professional competition , he received a gifted grant. At the age of seventeen he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and served with the air force's technical staff . After the end of the war, Münch founded a small workshop in his father's factory, where he mainly repaired motorcycles. At the same time he passed exams in mechanical engineering and electrics at the Christiani distance learning school ( Konstanz ) with the grade “very good”.

In 1948 he began racing motorcycle races , first with a single-cylinder Horex that he had tuned himself . After a fall, however, he refrained from further starts and devoted himself entirely to the design and construction of motorcycles. In 1955 there was a brief interlude at Horex, where Münch was given a position in the testing and racing department. But after six months he gave up the job. A year later, Horex ended motorcycle production, and Münch bought the manufacturing equipment for the engine production of the 400 OHC two-cylinder Imperator .

From 1964 Münch sold a self-developed, very powerful and light front wheel brake for racing and street motorcycles. And in spring 1966 the first prototype of his most famous development was ready to drive: Münch had created a motorcycle that was huge for the time around the engine of the NSU 1000 . As an enthusiastic technician and designer, Friedel Münch placed little value on the profitability of his company. Financial problems regularly accompanied the production of his motorcycles; with different partners and owners, however, production could be maintained until 1980.

Münch Mammut 2000

As early as 1977 Münch became independent again and developed kits under the Horex brand to increase the displacement of the NSU engines of his earlier motorcycles as well as independent machines under the name Titan. In 1991 Münch suffered a stroke . However, as early as the mid-1990s, he had designed another motorcycle, the Münch Mammut 2000 "Trial". Inspired by this prototype, the entrepreneur Thomas Petsch developed a machine called “Münch Mammut 2000”, of which a total of fifteen were built from 2000 to 2002, first in Poland and then in Nuremberg .

From 2000 to 2008 Friedel Münch ran an engine museum in Laubach . 26 motorcycles from the former Friedel-Münch-Museum in Walldorf (Baden) , which existed since 1994, were taken over by the Technik-Museum Speyer in 2010 .

literature

  • Winni Scheibe: The legend Friedel Münch and his motorcycles. Art-Motor-Verlag, Rösrath 1995, ISBN 3-929534-15-0 .
  • Siegfried Rauch, Frank Rönicke: Men and motorcycles - a century of German motorcycle development. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-613-02947-7 , pp. 102-111.
  • Erik Meesters: With heart and soul. Münch by Meesters Foundation, NL-7231 AE Warnsveld 2013, ISBN 978-90-821002-0-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berit Horenburg: Friedel Münch died - a technology pioneer and visionary. motorradonline.de , April 30, 2014, accessed April 30, 2014 .
  2. ^ Farewell to the designer genius: Friedel Münch passed away. (No longer available online.) Motorrad.net, May 2, 2014, archived from the original on May 17, 2014 ; accessed on January 24, 2018 .
  3. ↑ a b Friedel Münch. (No longer available online.) Muenchmotorbikes.com, archived from the original on September 5, 2012 ; accessed on January 24, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Welcome to the Friedel Münch Museum. (No longer available online.) Muenchmuseum.de, archived from the original on May 1, 2009 ; accessed on January 24, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Obituary. (No longer available online.) Muenchmuseum.de, archived from the original on July 1, 2007 ; accessed on January 24, 2018 .
  6. ^ Friedel Münch exhibition . From speyer.technik-museum.de, accessed January 24, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Münch, Friedel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German designer
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Dorn-Assenheim
DATE OF DEATH April 27, 2014
Place of death Altenstadt