Motorcycle Exhibition in Wildeck Castle

In 1906 the Dane Jorgen Rasmussen Skafte came from Chemnitz to Zschopau and tried to develop steam-driven vehicles for the German military in 1916/17. What remained after the war were only prototypes and the brand-name “DKW”. In subsequent years his company used these initials to mean different things, for instance a two-stroke toy engine “Des Knaben Wunsch” (“The boy’s desire”), an auxiliary bicycle engine “Das Kleine Wunder” (“the little wonder”) and even a refrigerator “Das Kühl Wunder” (“The cooling miracle”). But Rasmussen made his breakthrough with the manufacture of two-stroke engines for motorcycles and later also cars. His works in Zschopau were soon the largest producer of motorcycles in the world and later went on to become part of Auto Union, in which DKW was the largest brand.

After 1945, both the new Auto Union in West Germany as well as the operations of the IFA in the GDR directly continued the pre-war DKW production. In the old DKW factory, renamed MZ (Motorcycleworks Zschopau), the DKW RT125 was still built until to 1962, using pre-war plans. At the same time, new two-stroke motorcycles were developed under the brand MZ, which remained competitive until the 1970s. All this is shown in the unique motorcycle exhibition at Wildeck Castle, whose basis is the lovingly assembled original collection of the founder’s grandson, also called Jorgen Rasmussen Skafte, supplemented by prototypes and production models of postwar production.

Motorcycle Exhibition in Wildeck Castle
Schloss Wildeck 1
09405 Zschopau
Germany
+49 (0) 3725 - 287170
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