page_title: Zündapp
section_title: Early history: 1919–45
hierarchical_section_title: Zündapp / Early history: 1919–45
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Zündapp-„Volkswagen“, Porsche Typ 12 (1932), Rekonstruktion im Nürnberger Museum Industriekultur English: Zündapp-"Volkswagen", Porsche Typ 12 (1932), reconstruction at the Museum for Industrial Culture, Nuremberg, Germany
context_page_description: Zündapp was a major German motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1917 in Nuremberg by Fritz Neumeyer, together with the Friedrich Krupp AG and the machine tool manufacturer Thiel under the name "Zünder- und Apparatebau G.m.b.H." as a producer of detonators. In 1919, as the demand for weapons parts declined after World War I, Neumeyer became the sole proprietor of the company, and two years later he diversified into the construction of motorcycles.
  Following World War II, Zündapp expanded into the microcar, moped and scooter markets. The company collapsed in 1984.
context_section_description: The first Zündapp motorcycle was the model Z22 in 1921. This was the Motorrad für Jedermann ("motorcycle for everyone"), a simple, reliable design that was produced in large series. Zündapp's history of heavy motorcycles began in 1933 with the K-series. The "K" refers to the type of  drivetrain that these models used, Kardanantrieb, meaning enclosed driveshaft with two universal joints. Zündapp introduced the enclosed crankcase (then a novelty). The series encompassed models from 200 to 800 cc displacement and was a major success, increasing Zündapp's market share in Germany from 5% in 1931 to 18% in 1937.
  The Zündapp KS600, first released in 1938, had a 28 hp (21 kW) horizontally opposed twin cylinder motor with overhead valves displacing 597 cc (36.4 cu in). The KS600 was often coupled with a Steib sidecar, the BW38 (Beiwagen 1938). The BW38, fitted with the B1 (Boot no. 1) sidecar body was produced between 1938 and 1941 and supplied exclusively to the Wehrmacht. While the KS600 was discontinued and eventually replaced by the purpose-built KS750, its motor was to be the only remnant to live beyond the destruction of war. When Zündapp returned to motorcycle production in the late 1940s, it chose to reuse the KS600's motor to power the KS601 with few modifications.
  The Zündapp K800 had unit construction, flat-four engines with shaft drive (a layout adopted by Honda for the Gold Wing in 1974) and were the only 4-cylinder machines used by the German armed forces in World War II.
  From  1931 Ferdinand Porsche and Zündapp developed the type 12 prototype Auto für Jedermann ("car for everyone"), which was the first time the name Volkswagen was used. Porsche preferred the 4-cylinder flat engine, but Zündapp used a water-cooled 5-cylinder radial engine. In 1932 three prototypes were running. All three cars were lost during the war, the last in a 1945 Stuttgart bombing raid.
  From 1936 to 1938 Zündapp produced the KKS500 model. This was the first Zündapp with a foot gear change, and 170 examples were built. From 1940 onward Zündapp produced more than 18,000 units of the Zündapp KS 750. This is a sidecar outfit with a driven side wheel and a locking differential, supplied to the German Wehrmacht.
  Zündapp also made aircraft engines including the 9-092, which was used in light aircraft, including the Brunswick LF-1 Zaunkönig (1942) ab initio trainer aircraft.
caption: A reconstruction of a Porsche model type 12, Industrial Culture Museum, Nuremberg
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