DKW Auto-Union Project: Zweirad Union

1965 Zweirad Union DKW Hummel Range

Zweirad Union Express Mopeds: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2022/06/zweirad-union-express-mopeds.html
Zweirad Union Victoria Mopeds: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2022/06/zweirad-union-victoria-mopeds.html
Zweirad Union Owner Manual and History: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/07/1965-zweirad-union-moped-manual.html

Zweirad Union - Victoria Mopeds

Zweirad Union - Express Mopeds: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2022/06/zweirad-union-express-mopeds.html
Zweirad Union DKW Moped Range: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2022/04/1965-zweirad-union-dkw-hummel-range.html
Zweirad Union Manual and History: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/07/1965-zweirad-union-moped-manual.html

Zweirad Union - Express Mopeds

Express TS

Express IG was the third part of the conglomerate Zweirad Union. The company had originally been founded as a bicycle manufacturer in 1886 in Neumarkt, near Nuremberg. By the turn of the century Express was manufacturing powered bicycles and light-weight motorcycles. The company ventured at times into automobile and arms production. The factory was badly damaged during the Second World War but returned to motorcycle and moped production in 1948. In the early 1950s, sales of Express' mopeds were booming, but the downturn in motorcycle sales at the end of 1955 hit the company hard. By 1957 the company had defaulted on its creditors and was facing bankruptcy. Negotiations were held with Victoria of Nuremberg and Auto-Union of Ingolstadt, but these came to nothing. With no solution in sight, the supervising board fired the managing director and transferred the company's shares to Victoria. At the same time, Mercedes Benz decided to sell the DKW motorcycle division and a deal was done to merge Victoria, DKW and Express into a new entity, Zweirad Union. Express' Neumarkt factory was sold off and all production moved to Victoria in Nuremberg.

Express' mopeds and lightweight motorcycles remained in production until 1959, but over time production was rationalised and Express simply became a badge name for Victoria and DKW mopeds.

The motorcycles / mopeds in this brochure are all basically rebadged Victoria and DKW products, such as the DKW Hummel and Blechbanene.

For more about Express IG, see here (in German): https://www.express-ig.de/

Zweirad Union - Victoria Mopeds: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2022/06/zweirad-union-victoria-mopeds.html
Zweirad Union DKW Moped Range: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2022/04/1965-zweirad-union-dkw-hummel-range.html
Zweirad Union Manual and History: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/07/1965-zweirad-union-moped-manual.html

Zweirad Union Moped Accessories

This ZU accessories brochure provides a nice overview of the models on offer from Zweirad Union in the mid 1960s. The DKW Hummel and Blechbanane are still on offer, along with mopeds from Victoria and Express.
https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/07/1965-zweirad-union-moped-manual.html

1965 Zweirad Union moped manual

Motorcycles had been DKW's mainstay since the early 1920s to the point that before the outbreak of the Second World War, DKW was the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world. In the aftermath of the Second World War it was again motorcycles, especially lightweight, cheap motorcycles like the RT125, that helped the company re-establish itself in West Germany. Motorcycle sales grew year on year until they reached a peak in 1956, then began a precipitous decline as the war-devastated economies of Europe experienced an economic boom. Auto-Union was not immune from this industry-wide recession and their DKW motorcycle arm began losing money throughout 1957. In 1958, when Mercedes-Benz took a controlling stake in Auto-Union AG, one of their first actions was to divest themselves of the DKW motorcycle division.

In a repeat of the foundation of Auto-Union in 1932, DKW's motorcycle division joined with two other struggling motorcycle companies, Victoria and Express, to establish the Zweirad-Union, or Two-Wheel (or motorcycle) Union in English. Each of the three companies retained their own brand name and model range, but they pooled their development and factory resources. The new company was headquartered in Nuremberg. There were two exceptions to the merger- the DKW RT175 motorcycle continued to be built at DKW's Ingolstadt factory for a short time, and the DKW Hobby scooter was sold to the French arms manufacturer, Manurhin, which built the scooter under the name Manurhin SM75 into the early 1960s.

As the market for big motorcycles had dried up, Zweirad-Union focused on lightweight motorcycles and mopeds, like the DKW Hummel, which had been a popular seller since 1955. Victoria and Express also concentrated on mopeds and lightweight motorcycles but although they both built their own engines, had by this time generally moved to proprietary engines from manufacturers such as JLO, Sachs and JAP. The Zweirad-Union gave them access to DKW's trusty two-stroke engine, sometimes rebadged, sometimes not. There was a great deal of confusion amongst Zweirad-Union's range as each company continued to sell its own products under their original brand name, while some bikes were cross-branded and rebadged. Some bikes were even sold under the Zweirad-Union brand. Therefore, a single machine might be available under four different names.

Advertising was bright and cheerful and targeted at the youth market, but sales were never particularly strong. Zweirad-Union nevertheless managed to dominate the lightweight motorcycle market in Germany.

In 1963, former Auto-Union managing director, William Werner, became chairman of the Zweirad-Union supervisory board after retiring from Auto-Union the year before. With typical force of personality, he set about a major overhaul of the company's range. Express and Victoria models progressively disappeared, in favour of the DKW and ZU brand names. Prior to his appointment as managing director at Auto-Union in 1957, William Werner had been board member and managing director at the Dutch lightweight motorcycle and moped company, Berini. It would be too much to assume that the similarity between Berini and Zweirad-Union machines was entirely coincidental at this time. https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2022/02/berini-motorcycles.html In 1967, Zweirad-Uion was bought out by another small motorcycle company, Hercules. The Hercules name then came to dominate, but the DKW name continued to be used in the export market, specifically in Britain and Australia where the name had market recognition. Motorcycles exported to the US were branded Hercules.

West Germany's largest two-stroke engine manufacturer, Fichtel and Sachs, had bought into Hercules in 1963, so the take over by Hercules ultimately spelt the end of the road for the long-running DKW two-stroke engine. From 1967 Sachs engines powered Zweirad-Union machines. Hercules continued manufacturing motorcycles right through into the 1980s until Sachs retired the brand. Sachs continue to manufacture engines today and have recently released a new range of motorcycles and scooters. http://www.zf.com/brands/content/en/sachs/homepage_sachs/homepage.jsp

This Zweirad Union user manual dates from 1965 when DKW, Victoria and Express were still brands. The manual is very generic and basically covers all their various models.