Zweirad Union

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Victoria

The two-wheeler union Nuremberg was a 1958 from Victoria , Express and DKW -Zweiradsparte the Auto Union Resulting enterprises. As part of the Nuremberg motorcycle industry she put motorcycles and other two-wheelers, such as mopeds ( motor bike ), mopeds ( motor vehicle pedal ), moped (scooter with kickstarter ) and mopeds as well as normal bicycles ago. In 1966 Zweirad Union was formally taken over by Hercules Werke GmbH from Nuremberg .

In 1957, Victoria Werke AG suffered losses in the millions. Odilo Burkart , a confidante of Friedrich Flick and owner of Alumetall GmbH in Nuremberg, took over the Victoria works. A short time later, Burkhart also acquired Express Werke AG in Neumarkt for one million German marks . In April 1958, Daimler-Benz AG and its major shareholder Friedrich Flick took over 88% of the share capital of Auto Union GmbH in Ingolstadt , in whose two-wheeler division Flick was not interested. At the extraordinary Victoria General Meeting on November 8, 1958, Zweirad Union was launched as a successor to the Victoria and Express factories and DKW motorcycle production, and its production was completely concentrated in the Nuremberg location.

Initially, the Victoria models Avanti, Preciosa, Vicky, the Express models and the DKW RT 175 VS were produced , with the focus more and more on the production of small two-wheelers with 50 cm³ engines. An almost unmistakable variety of types and names quickly developed. Because of their idiosyncratic design, the 115 and 155 types, popularly known as tin bananas , are still known today.

From 1962 to 1966, Maico motorcycles for the German armed forces were manufactured in the factory . Furthermore, the Kraka was delivered for the Bundeswehr . From 1961 small parts were produced for the truck manufacturer Faun . Since the economic development was below expectations, Burkhart sold a block of shares to Faun and in 1962 Faun had the majority in Zweirad Union and so a small Faun truck was quickly produced in the factory. However, two-wheeler production continued to decline sharply.

Faun ended his engagement in 1966 and Fichtel & Sachs AG from Schweinfurt took over Zweirad Union and made the Zweirad Union premises available to the Hercules factories. The 159 TS was presented in 1966 as the last vehicle under Zweirad Union . Fichtel & Sachs discontinued engine production at Zweirad Union in favor of its own engines. In 1968 no more machines were manufactured with the Express logo, a year later the Victorialogo had also disappeared. For the international market, due to the excellent and well-known brand, the DKW logo alone was used.

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