German Motorrad

Hansa Motorcycles

A Brief History of the Marque

Hansa-Automobil Gesellschaft m.b.H. was founded in Varel in 1905 by August Sporkhorst and Robert Allmers. From 1905, Voiturettes were built with De Dion Bouton single-cylinder engines.

In March of 1913 the Hansa organisation (later Hansa-Lloyd and then Borgward) acquired the Oelde, Bielefeld plant of Ramesohl & Schmidt A.-G. (Westfalia) and named the new company Hansa Präzisionswerke AG, which produced motor cars. Motorcycle production began in 1922 and continued until 1927.

Models included 147cc, 198cc and 246cc machines, two-stroke and four-stroke. They supplied 246cc OHV engines to AFW, and also supplied engines to Haja, Bimofa and others.

Sources: GTU Oldtimerservice, Tragatsch p154, Axel Oskar Mathieu Archive, et al.


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