A Brief History of the Marque
Manufacturer: Krupp, Essen
1919-1922
The firm was founded by Fritz Neumeyer and Thiel in 1917, and was a division of the armaments company of the same name. After the war they were forbidden from arms production, and this was one of the many ventures in other fields which they undertook.
In 1919 Krupp built the first scooter in Germany, a front-wheel drive design built under licence to Autoped.
The price in 1920 was 4,500 marks - around 3.5 months pay for the average worker.
Production ended in 1922.
Specifications: Four-stroke single-cylinder engine, 191cc (or 198cc) with a top speed of 35 kph and weighing just under 60 kg.
Operation: If the handlebar was pushed forward the engine engaged the front wheel; turning the throttle accellerated the scooter. To disengage the engine and operate the brake, the handlebar was pulled back towards the rider.
Another licenced version of the Autoped was built by Imperial-Motor-Industries in the UK.
Sources: François-Marie Dumas, krupp-stiftung.de, et al.
Krupp Three-wheelers
It's a bit of a stretch to include these machines in a section on scooters. These were industrial-grade tricycles, behemoths which ploughed fields, swept streets and conveyed teams of firefighters, their ladders and squirty-things to the source of the latest conflagration.
Built from 1921 at their Essen factory, the Dreirad-Kehrmaschinen were exported to Sweden and South America until 1923 when the French occupied the Ruhr as part of WWI reparations.
Source: Axel Oskar Mathieu Archive
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