DKW

DKW is a historic German automobile, motorcycle and moped brand.
DKW: J.S. Rasmussen later Auto Union AG, Zschopau, Sachsen, Auto Union AG, Ingolstadt / Donau and Düsseldorf Zweirad-Union AG, Nürnberg.

History
In 1916 started the Dane Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen (1878-1964) in Germany a plant for steam engines. One of his projects was to build a car driven by steam, the Dampf-Kraft-Wagen. When that project failed, he took the two-stroke engine developed by Hugo Ruppe, Des Knaben Wunsch into production. When he built this engine in a slightly modified form in a motorcycle, Das Kleine Wunder was born ..

In 1918 stroke specialist Hugo Ruppe joining Rasmussen. His first (18 cc) motors were built in rolling toys and the name was Des Knaben Wunsch.
In 1921, the first motorcycles were built in 1922, the 142 cc Lomos- and 122 cc Golem scooters and in 1928 DKW was the largest motorcycle factory in the world, which, incidentally, built only two-stroke engines (albeit more than 100,000 per year).
DKW threw himself on the cars with the acquisition of Slaby & Beringer. Also were Audi, Horch and Wanderer acquired and developed Auto Union.
After the war was Zschopau in East Germany and Auto Union was replaced by IFA (MZ). In 1949, was re-established in Ingolstadt Auto Union and were again DKW cars and -motor bikes built.
In 1957 DKW came along with Victoria and Express in the Zweirad Union. In 1966, the Zweirad Union AG was taken over by Fichtel & Sachs, as well as Hercules Fahrrad GmbH & Co. in Nuremberg. Although the use of the brand name DKW ended in 1970, Hercules some models, in the UK were also after this time sold as DKW.