DKW Auto-Union Project: East German IWL Scooters

VEB Industriewerke of Ludwigsfeld (IWL) was established in a thickly wooded estate on the southern outskirts of Berlin in 1936 by the Daimler-Benz company to build aircraft engines. Being a military facility, the factory was severely bombed during the Second World War and, as part of the post-war reparations program, the Soviets dismantled and removed everything that could be salvaged from the destroyed factory. The empty shells of the eleven assembly halls lay in ruins until 1950 when the Soviet Occupation Authority (SMAD) approved the site's partial reconstruction. On 1 March 1952 the factory was formally instituted as the VEB Industriewerke Ludwigsfelde producing machine tools, pots and pans, wheelbarrows and farm tools.

As East Germany slowly began to reindustrialize, the government assigned new projects to the Industriewerke. Recognising that the former workforce had prior experience with Daimler-Benz engines, a contract was issued to the factory to build copies of the wartime Daimler-Benz MB 511 diesel engines for the newly re-established DDR Navy. Only 20 engines would eventually be built due to the lack of quality components and poor build quality. Consequently, these engines would only enjoy a short service life before they needed to be replaced.

http://s-boot.net/englisch/sboats-vm-forelle.html

The post-war political and economic backdrop in East Germany

In May 1952, the Soviet Foreign Ministry sent a note to the West German government and the western occupying powers calling for an end to the occupying regimes, reunification of Germany and the signing of a final peace treaty between the beligerent nations. Soviet support for German reunification was conditional on the withdrawal of all occupying troops, free national elections under UN supervision and a German declaration of neutrality, but the US and UK refused to withdraw their troops from Germany, preferring to retain West Germany as a forward base for a planned future war against the Soviet Union. After Soviet premier Josef Stalin died in March 1953, the Cold War rapidly escalated and all discussion of German reunification was forgotten.
https://stolzuntermenschen.substack.com/p/falsificators-of-history-part-3

The rejection of the Soviet reunification offer had an immediate impact on trade and relations between the two Germanies. Relations had been frosty since 1948, when the the US imposed a unilateral monetary reform in West Germany. Now relations turned openly hostile. Germany was not the sum of equal parts. East Germany was predominately agricultural, with only a few major industies in the south and east. Germany's coal and steel industries were in the West, in the Ruhr and in the region of Hannover. East German industries were dependent on West German specialized components, such as bearings, electrical components, brakes and carburetors, which the East paid for with agricultural produce. As part of the Marshall Plan, the US flooded West Germany with cheap food exports, depriving East Germany from a market in the west. Slowly but surely, shortages in critical technical components and raw materials began to paralyze East German industries.

For the government of hardline communist Walter Ulbricht, the demise of the German reunification plan was welcome news. Even in a federalized Germany (as proposed under the Potsdam Agreements of 1945), the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany could not have hoped for anything more than minor regional influence in any future national elections. Now they were the only party in town, so Ulbricht decided to press ahead with the radical Sovietization of East German society. A national import substitution plan was developed to fill the urgent need for specialised tools and parts, agriculture was collectivised, privately owned factories and companies were forcibly nationalized. People considered politically unreliable were arrested and deported to the east. Work quotas were increased and workers were extolled to make greater sacrifices for the well-being of the state. East Germans began fleeing west in their tens of thousands.

The inevitable effects of this program were not long in coming. Goods disappeared from store shelves, inflation spiked and the black market thrived. The government responded by increasing working hours by 10 hours per week with no increase in pay. This was intolerable to many workers, who were already suffering from the inflation and shortages arising from the farm collectivization program, leading to industry-wide strikes.

In Moscow, these developments were viewed with alarm. The Soviets had already adjudged the East Germans were not amenable to such extreme measures and were concerned that the growing unrest in East Germany could spread to other occupied nations. The Foreign Ministry advised Ulbricht to step these measures back, however, the Soviet commissars on the ground in Berlin secretly encouraged the government to press ahead. Protests and demonstrations escalated until on 16th June 1953 Berlin was effectively shut down. Attempts by the police to move the protesters on failed and on 17th June, with the situation spiraling out of control, the East German government declared martial law and the Soviet garrison was mobilised to restore order. Chaos reigned with some Soviet units opening fire on protestors, while in other instances, troops refused to follow orders. 39 people were killed in the uprising and an indeterminate number of protest leaders were arrested. Order was restored by the end of June 1953 but the incident had a much deeper effects. The reputation of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany was gravely damaged in the eyes of the East German people - and the Soviets. Ulbricht's government was told in no uncertain terms there would be no Soviet-style forced industrialization in East Germany. In late 1953 the Central Government announced a change of policy to focus on meeting the people's demand for consumer goods.
https://historycollection.com/why-the-east-german-uprising-of-1953-was-so-intense/20/

The scooter revolution.

When the Italian Piaggio company unveiled the Vespa motor scooter in 1946, they started a motoring revolution that would sweep the world. By enclosing all the mechanical components within stylish bodywork, the Vespa appealed to everyone - men and women, young and old. You didn't need riding leathers and could ride one in a three-piece suit or a summer dress. All over Europe, companies began building motoring scooters for a transport hungry public. East German consumers were equally enthusiastic for the motor scooter. Small numbers of West German scooters filtered into the zone and several small engineering workshops showcased domestically manufactured prototypes at the Leipzig Messe motor show. The motoring press were universally full of praise for these developments, but the Central Planning Committee regarded the motor scooter as a capitalist frivolity, and denied approval for any scooter projects.

https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2023/01/1954-ifa-rico.html

Following the June 1952 uprising, the Central Planning Committee recognized that they needed to respond to the public demand for cheap and reliable personal transport. In late 1953, the VEB motoring division approved funding for a motor scooter project, but who would design it and where would it be built? East Germany had two motorcycle manufacturers - AWO (Simson) and Motorrad Zschopau (the former DKW motorcycle works). Neither had spare capacity. Nor were any of the automobile plants able to assist, so VEB assigned the project to the under-utilized VEB Industrialwerke at Ludwigsfelde. The problem was that no one at IWL had any experience with motor vehicle design and development and, to add to confusion, Ludwigsfelde was officially operated by the Volksmarine and the reprioritization of resources and priorities caused friction between the marine and automobile directorates.
https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2023/01/1954-illustrierter-motorsport-gdr-year_12.html

The Pitty

On 14 October 1953 a project team was assembed under chief designer Roland Berger to begin work on the scooter design. Berger had no experience with motorcycles or scooters, but an engineer at the diesel engine plant owned a Lambretta scooter and there were two Zundapp Bellas were on the inventory of the IWL-werke, and these were examined. The team also sent some representatives to visit a Heinkel dealer in West Berlin. Within 81 days the team had put together the design, however, production would not be ready for some time.

Hall 9 at the Industrialwerke was allocated as the production facility for the new motorscooter, but Hall 9 had lain in ruins since the end of the war. The debris was cleared, the hall roofed over and windows installed by early 1954, and a rudimentary production line established. Virtually all the factory's machine tools needed to be built from scratch.

The Pitty ('little Pete') was conceived as a 'city scooter' for urban use only. There was a some initial debate about the scooter's engine. VEB had suggested the use of VEB-Barkas EL-150 air-cooled stationary motor and there was talk about relocating the production line for these engines to Ludwigsfelde, which would free up VEB Barkas to concentrate on their Framo 901 light truck. However, it was quickly realised that relocating the stationary engine production line would require a considerable investment in time and resources, so the idea was dropped.

Consequently, motorcycle manufacturer MZ were contracted to supply IWL with their trusty 123cc two-stroke engine. This was the same engine used in the revolutionary prewar DKW RT125 motorcycle that would become the most copied motorcycle in the world. Despite its small size, the RT125 engine was a model of efficiency and delivered 5 hp. After the war, MZ ressurected their own version of the DKW RT125 as the IFA RT125 motorcycle, which was a popular seller in East Germany and abroad. As the engine would be enclosed within the scooter body, fan-cooling would be required, something that MZ could not provide. The IWL team designed a pully driven fan and cooling shrowd. Drive to the rear wheel was by chain and a sprung rear suspension was designed. The design team however neglected to allow for constant tension on the rear axle, which led to a loss of power as the suspension moved up and down, although the impact on performance was not recognised at this time.

Five prototypes were put together in short order and presented for inspection. Their first public exposure was participating in the May Day parade on 1 May 1954. The Pitty's most distinctive feature was its large fixed nose fairing, which fully enclosed the front wheel. The prototypes were then displayed at the 1954 Leipzig Messe exhibition and bold claims were made that the Pitty would be available in stores shortly. These politically motivated claims were wildly over-optimistic. Lack of critical parts, such as carburetors, decent rubber shocks and quality electrics hampered production and required constant redesign to accommodate locally manufactured substitutes. Lack of experience among domestic parts manufacturers resulted in breakdowns, delays and parts failures. There were catastrophic failures of wheel rims, load bearing bolts, suspension arms and even the rear swing-arm frame.
https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2020/06/soviet-zone-scooter-debacle-der-speigel.html

The motoring press and the public became increasingly frustrated by the endlessly delayed release of the Pitty, with vocal complaints appearing in the press. The editors of Illustrierter Motorsport called out IWL and the transport ministry in the July 1954 edition:

"For the future, we recommend not to advertise anything before it is ready. Don't raise hopes if you can't realize them quickly enough. Basically, we would like to state that this time it was least of all due to the material difficulties, which are often used as an excuse, but to numerous design flaws that had to be ironed out in testing. The fact that these weaknesses appeared in the Ludwigsfelde industrial plant cannot be concealed. A collective of engineers there, with great initiative, succeeded in "getting a scooter up and running". The design results weren't bad at all, but you couldn't expect these designers, who come from a different field, to develop a mature motor vehicle right away. Therefore, experienced designers from the state-owned vehicle industry should have been brought in earlier, who could have solved these problems more quickly on the basis of their knowledge. Admittedly, this has now happened in the last stage of development, but why did so much have to be done beforehand?"
https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-iwl-pitty-through-pages-of.html

By early 1955 it appeared that the Pitty was finally ready to begin series production, but once again there were delays due to lack of skilled process workers. IWL eventually got the production line running successfully by making up the shortfall with 50% apprentices working in two shifts. See the reports in Illustrierter Motorsport below:
https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-iwl-pitty-through-pages-of.html

Despite the Pitty's rather lacklustre performance - it was really too heavy for its small 5hp engine - it was a popular seller. There were a lot of features that needed improvement, which the motoring press wrote extensively about. Surprisingly, the Pitty was even used in cross-country rallying with IWL fielding a works team to compete in many events. It was here that issues with chain tension were noted. Production ceased in April 1956 after 11,293 Pitty's had rolled off the production line.
https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2020/04/1954-iwl-pitty-brochure.html

Despite somewhat laudatory reporting in the East German motoring press, there was general disappointment with the Pitty, although its unique appearance made it an advertising icon (even featuring in advertising for feminine hygiene products!). There were numerous complaints from customers about the scooters slow speed, poor handling and the lack of an anti-theft lock - the East German workers paradise wasn't without its criminals! The placement of the exhausts came in for specific criticism as it was easy for the pillion passenger to burn their feet. A series of improvements were recommended for the team at IWL action.

The Wiesel SR56

Fortunately, even before the Pitty went on sale in May 1955, the design team at IWL were working on an improved version. Most of these improvements were undertaken in order to simplify production and save costs. The most obviously change was the replacement of the fixed nose faring with a smaller fender that rotated with the wheel. Handling was improved by completely redesigning the rear suspension and swing arm, which addressed the issue of constant chain tension on the rear wheel.

To test the new design in practice, IWL entered the prototype in a cross-country rally outside Dresden, however to avoid the risk of reputational damage on the company, the scooter was described as a 'home-built' vehicle without badges or identifiers. IWL need not have worried as the prototype performed extremely well, winning its class. Three Pittys also competed in the same event and came 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Unfortunately, production of the Weisel was delayed by shortages of tube steel imports from West Germany. There were also problems with supplies of sheet steel as well as the inevitable quality issues with domestically produced technical components.

The new scooter, named the Wiesel SR56 finally went into production in July 1956. 56,000 would be manufactured before production ceased in 1959.

The Berlin SR59

MZ had never been enthusiastic about supplying IWL with engines for their scooters as it impinged on their own manufacturing capacity, so in June 1956, just as the Wiesel was going into series production, MZ announced they would be retiring their RT125 motorcycle from 1957 and terminating 125cc engine production. As an alternative, MZ offered IWL their new 175cc engine. Once IWL recieved test examples of the new engine, they found that it would not fit within the Wiesel frame without significant redesign. IWL management attemped to negotiate with MZ for a continuation of the 125cc engine, MZ were not amenable. As a safeguard, the IWL design team were instructed to begin reverse engineering the 125cc engine for in-house production. However, before that could be commenced, Jawa in Czechoslovakia offered IWL a contract to supply them with their own 175cc engine. This engine was smaller than the MZ engine and fitted the Wiesel frame better, requiring only minor modifications to the bodyshell to accommodate a relocated fan shroud. At the end of 1956, Jawa publicly announced they would be supplying IWL with 11,000 engines the following year, depending of course on the East German and Czechoslovakian trade boards coming to an agreement on price and terms.

In early 1958 100 examples of the Jawa-engined Wiesels (designated the SR58) were built and put through successful trials. This promising development did not come to fruition however. The IFA RT125 motorcycle had been particularly popular and was a strong export earner, so the East German foreign trade board intervened directly with MZ management to force them to reverse their decision. The RT125 was to remained in production and the supply of 125cc engines to IWL was guaranteed until at least 1958. The 100 SR58s were sold on to IWL employees.

All of this engine redesign work had led to a comprehensive redesign of the Wiesel. Many problems with the Wiesel's build quality, suspension, exhaust and stability were addressed during this time and, when MZ announced a new 150cc engine (actually only 143cc) would be available in early 1958, IWL jumped to secure the new engine. This new engine was rated for 8 hp, which was more powerful than the Jawa 175cc engine. IWL proposed to build 30,000 units of the new scooter, designated the SR59 Berlin per annum, but MZ advised they could not meet this volume so plans were scaled back to 25,000 per annum. The new scooter went into series production in April 1959 and became an immediate best seller. The new engine gave the scooer a top speed of 82kph. It also featured a 4 speed gearbox and rider comfort was much improved by the use of pneumatic rear shock absorber, longer front arm suspension and sprung seats. It also had a number of advanced features, such as seven starting settings, with cold and hot starting in summer and winter. It also featured an anti-theft lock, something that customers had vocally complained about since the Pitty first went on sale. The placement of the exhaust was still problematic for passengers however.

Styling was also enhanced by a new two-toned paint scheme, with the combinations of green/white, orange/white, light blue/white and black/white. The Berlin was IWL's best selling and best loved scooter. 113,943 Berlins were built between 1959 and 1962. Many thousands are still on the roads today in Germany and elsewhere around the world.

Introduced at the same time as the Berlin was the Campi single-wheeled trailer. Fixing to a connection on the spare wheel luggage carrier, the Campi significantly improved the scooter's utility and carrying capacity. With adaptor fittings the Campi could also be attached to the Wiesel and the Berlin's successor, the Troll.

A diversion at Ludwigsfelde

In 1958, the VEB Ludgwigsfeldewerkes was allocated a major new project, the manufacture of Junkers Pirma 014 jet engines for the DDR's new Baade 152 jet airliner. The Baade project was the culmination of a jet aircraft project that Junkers of Dessau had been working on since the early 1940s. Originally developed as the Ju 287 jet bomber, which was notable for its swept forward wings, the flight-ready prototype had been captured by the Soviets as they advanced across Germany. The Soviets' seized the aircraft and its development team, but encouraged the the team to continue development under the leadership of Junkers chief engineer Brunolf Baade. In September 1946 the Soviets dismantled the entire factory and evacuated all machinery, the prototype aircraft and the development team and their families from Dessau to Podesbeye, near Moscow. Podesbeye was in a restricted military district for special projects and the Junkers team were housed in their own private village. Although they were unable to leave, the self-governing community were given ample resources and comforts, creating a little German township deep in the Russian taiga. Several experimental jet bomber projects were undertaken for the Soviet airforce until 1953, when the project was wrapped up and development team were allowed to return to Germany, although some people would opt to stay on in Russia. The East German air ministry then took over the project and progressed it as a civilian airliner. Given its prior experience with Daimler-Benz aircraft engines, VEB Ludwigsfelde was assigned the project to build the Baade's jet engines. This was a major project for the factory and some of the technical resources of the scooter plant were reallocated to the new aeronautical division. Three Baade airliners were completed before the project was cancelled after one of the prototypes crashed during a test flight in 1961. IWL continued manufacturing jet engines for fighter aircraft.

For information about Junker's post-war aircraft designs, including those developed for the USSR, see here:
http://www.hugojunkers.bplaced.net/junkers-post-war-aircraft-designs.html

The Troll TR1

The project for the Berlin's replacement was initiated in January 1960. For research purposes the project team purchased a Zundapp Bella and a Puch SR150 at the Leipzig Messe. A critical driver for the project was to remove the dependency on imported tube steel from West Germany and a reduction of production costs through standardization of components. To assist these aims, Rudi Schott, technical engineer from MZ, took over the project in May 1961. The tube steel frame of the earlier scooters would be replaced by a pressed-steel central chassis. To save weight, aluminium was used for the front-shield, front fender and side panels, which were easily removed by a twist lock to provide access to the engine. The headlamp nacelle, handlebars, headstock and indicators were supplied by MZ and shared with the new MZ 175 motorcycle. The engine was the same MZ-supplied 143cc type, but was now rated for 9.5 hp. The scooter recieved Earles forks suspension working on a new front swing arm, which gave the scooter good road-holding over rough ground. The body of the new scooter was substantially larger than its predecessors and the seating position was raised, making it more comfortable for larger riders or when riding over longer distances. With a top speed of 90kph, IWL had delivered an effective touring scooter, which was reflected in the model's name - "Touring Roller", contracted to 'TROLL TR1'. https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2020/08/iwl-troll-review-1963.html

In October 1962, VEB provided an initial technical assessment of the Troll and provided a raft of criticisms and suggestions. Firstly, they observed that the Troll was not as attractive as its stylish predecessor. More importantly, it was noted that the scooter's slab sides made it susceptible to cross winds and the front swing arm vibrated dangerously at speeds over 50 kph. These swing arm problems had not occurred during testing so IWL investigated and discovered there had been a casting issue in the swing arms of the preproduction scooters. This was quickly fixed and the issue resolved. Side-wind sensitivity would remain a problem however. Although the Troll was a good scooter, by the early-1960s the era of the scooter was over and the Troll never matched the success of its popular predecessor. 56,531 Trolls were built between January 1963 and December 1964.

The IWL team was planning an improved version which would include an electric starter - a common criticism as this feature was available on cheaper Czech scooters - along with plans to target the export market, but at the end of 1964 VEB put an end to scooter production at Ludwigsfelde and transferred the responsibility for motorscooter production to MZ. MZ were already building a similar spec motorcycle, the ES150, which shared its engine, components and styling with the Troll, and after reviewing the Troll's design, MZ decided there was no sense in continuing production of what they considered an inferior vehicle.

The cessation of motorscooter production from Ludwigsfeld allowed VEB to reallocate capacity to higher priority projects, such as the W50 truck project. The VEB truckworks at Werdeu had developed medium-sized truck, designated the W50, but did not have the facilities for series production. Ludwigsfelde began building the W50 truck in 1965, continuing until 1990, with more than 570,000 vehicles rolling off the production line. In 1991, following the reunification of Germany, the IWL factory was purchased by Mercedes-Benz, which continues to use the plant to build Mercedes-Benz light commercials.

https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2022/12/ifa-w50-pritschenfahrzeug.html

Today there is a dedicated following for IWL scooters in Germany and many thousands are still on the roads today. The Berlin remains the most popular. The unfortunate Pitty is the rarest, most having been junked years ago. The use of MZ engines and running gear has made restoring and maintaining IWL scooters very easy as there is abundant supplies of all spare parts. There are also many remanufacturers of fittings supplying the Ostalgia market. Of all IWL products, probably the most desirable is the Campi trailer, which fetch prices around 2000 euro.

Ludwigsfeld Museum