Astoria Motorcycles of Germany

A Brief History of the Marque

Astoria Motor GmbH was founded in 1922 at Äußere Rollnerstraße 55 in Nuremberg by Hans Wolf and Wilhelm Krauss, formerly an engineer with Zündapp.

They built a 289cc twostroke model with Druid forks, no front brake, a rear block brake and belt drive.

The Simson Suhl company filed a dispute over the Astoria name as they had registered the name "Rennastoria".

There are two versions of what happened next:

1. In 1923 the firm was purchased by Bischoff and Pedall and renamed Nestoria.

2. Wolf and Krauss renamed the company Nestoria.

Both versions are close, it seems. A descendant of Wilhelm Krauss writes, in meisterdinger.de:

In the book "Motorrad Legenden. Nürnberger Zweiradgeschichte" by Matthias Murko today I found the following note on page 83, which could confirm my mother's version: "The company 'Nestoria', which was launched in 1922 under the name 'Astoria', was already one of the larger Nuremberg motorcycle manufacturers. In 1923 the name was changed to 'Nestroia', under whose name a number of racing successes were achieved in the first half of the twenties. The name 'Bischoff und Pedall - Fabrikation der Nestoria Motorräder', which appeared in the Nuremberg address book in 1928 'indicates a merger. After this takeover, the production of own engines was given up, from now on one fell back on the offers of the big manufacturers like' MAG 'or' JAP '. The Bischoff and Pedall delivery tricycles were very popular 1927 were for sale ... "

Sources: GTU Oldtimerservice, meisterdinger.de.

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