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Posted: 31 Jan 2011 12:20 PM PST

While many of us would like to think that motorcycling has had a rich history in the USA, we are reminded regularly that while we’ve had some innovative advances in the industry over the years, Europeans have been building and riding these machines not only before we were, but also that what they built was superior to our efforts for quite some time. You would not be hard pressed to find some of us even today that think European bikes are STILL better made than ours here...but that’s another story all together. One person who has quite a following in Europe is Ernst Neumann-Neander. The following story was written by Ralf Kruger about the exhibit and history of Neander Motorcycles for Ed Youngbloods Motohistory.

On the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the death of Ernst Neumann-Neander—November 3, 2009—the German VFV (Veteranen Fahrzeug Verband, or literally ”Veteran Vehicle Association,”) organized a special exhibition about his motorcycles and "driving machines" at the SinsheimTechnik Museum in the city of Sinsheim. Thanks to Thomas Trapp, a well-known Neander expert, the display (pictured below), shows Neander's creations in scope, depth, and detail not previously seen.

Ernst Neumann-Neander was not only a revolutionary motorcycle designer, but an avant-garde artist who functioned on the leading edge of social upheaval and reform in Germany at the turn of the century. Born in Kassel in 1871, he followed in his father's footsteps as a student at the local Academy

of Arts, but in 1893 he moved to Munich where he felt the teaching was more modern. It was a time when artists and intellectuals had begun to react to the poverty and plight of the working class that had been created by the industrial revolution. Workers had begun to unite. Everywhere, worker’s unions emerged, along with athletic, soccer, and bicycle clubs to cope with the absence of economic prospects in the industrialized society.

As an intellectual and an artist, Neander believed that art had to reflect the radical new age, not just to expose its flaws, but to show a path into a new and better era. In 1900, he founded a studio for drawing, lithography, and woodcarving. He specialized in poster art and became arts director for a literary cabaret group called The Eleven Executioners, one of the first cabarets in Germany devoted to social criticism and reform. This is when he added to his family name "Neander," meaning "new man" in Greek. Now with the name Neumann-Neander, his friends began to call him "N²" for his modern thought and the dual nature of his name, "newman, newman." It was a new man that the intellectuals were looking for, a modern and socially-responsible persona that could find meaning and get the unhappy new age back on track.

After several journeys to Italy to deepen his comprehension of art, in 1900 Neander and his Italian wife embarked on a passage across the Alps with a self-modified DeDion & Bouton three-wheeler. In 1903 they moved to Paris, which was then the center of the progressive arts movement. But after a short time, Neander decided the social scene in Pariswas too static. In disappointment, he turned away from the Bohemian Cafes and began to frequent the Excelsior, a meeting place for people like Baron DeDion and other motor industry pioneers and thinkers. In his youth, he had been an enthusiastic builder of steam engines and an active bicyclist, so perhaps it is natural that he was bitten hard by the motorcycle bug. Motorcycles combined the new technology of internal combustion with cycling to bring an exciting and pr

eviously unknown personal mobility. In 1904, Neander purchased a French Griffon with Swiss Zedel V2 engine. Deciding that Parishad nothing else to teach him, Neander moved toBerlin in 1908 and founded Atelier Neumann, a studio for advertising graphics and poster art. After the First World War, he turned his graphic skills to industrial design, drawing car bodies for the Austrian firm Austro-Daimler in his Berlin studio. In 1923, he moved to Cologne where he embarked on the design of motorcycles. One of his prototype designs, built by the firm Allright, became known as the "Deuschlandfahrt Model," (pictured above) based on the fact that Neander earned a medal with such a bike at this important rally during the winter of 1924. From that moment on, it became his goal to build a better motorcycle for the common man. He wanted this to be a comfortable vehicle, based on the science of ergonomics, which became the philosophy that guided his designs for the remainder of his life. Due to the effects of a lost war, motorization inGermany at the time was far behind France, England,

and theUnited States, and Neander saw the need for a motorcycle that was light and cheap, so it would be useful and affordable to the masses. In 1924, Neander moved to nearby Euskirchen and began motorcycle production. His first offering was the Neander Tourist, featuring a central steel frame tube. At his house in Düren-Rölsdorf, he set up a workshop (pictured above). Düren was also the home of Dürener Metallwerke, a company that held the patent for Duralumin, an advanced alloy that would feature prominently in Neander's designs. Developed in 1906, the exceedingly light Duralumin was used for

airships, including the great Zeppelins. Neander first tried this modern material for a simple but effective frame for his P1 model (pictured above). This model was the starting point not only for application of advanced materials, but also for Neander's unique aut his career, he stuck wnd characteristic design. Throughoith a U-profile-type of brace of I-beam design. This concept—now often called an "aluminum spar frame"—has become standard fare in high-performance motorcycles, but in 1925 it was uncommon and totally new. The P1′s frame design, arranged in triangles for an outstanding strength-to-weight ratio, was in fact a construction technique similar to that used in Paris'Eiffel Tower. All connections of Neander's frames (pictured above) were bolted or riveted for a quick and easy production process. Other modern features included a hub brake at the rear wheel and a pendular suspended-fork at the front. By 1926, he built a mostly aluminum racing motorcycle featuring the ideas proven with the P1. Fitted with a 175cc Villiers engine, it weighed less than 40 kilos (88 lbs.)!

Ernst Neumann would not have been "Neander" if he had compromised on this achievement. His next step was to build an expert's competition motorcycle, driven by the most powerful and reliable engines of the time. These were the

1000cc British JAP for road & racing (the1928 alcohol fueled race-bike pictured here has 50hp) and the Swiss MAG V2. From 1927, a P3 uniform chassis was utilized. While using the design features of the P1, it was made of steel rather than Duralumin. The same technology of stamped sheet metal beams was later used by both Zündapp and BMW in the 1930s. To avoid rust as much as possible and to give them a distinctive look, the frames were cadmium-plated. About 2,000 motorcycles were built from the P3 chassis. They were powered not only by the big MAG V2s, but also by 500cc singles from Küchen and MAG (pictured above and left are a JAP-powered racing bike, a MAG-powered road bike, and a JAP-powered road bike).

Nedander's unique design became instrumental in a motorcycle production revival by Opel during the same decade. After Opel phased out its motorcycle production in 1925, a new Opel bike was introduced in 1927 after the company acquired Elite-Diamant Werke A.G. from Brand-Erbisdorf/Sachsen (Saxony).

Opal continued to built Fritz Gnädig’s “Diamant” motorcycles with their own logo stamped on the tank. Even the engines—bought-in 350 and 500cc Kühnes from Dresden/Sachsen—were the same as before. Opel decided to expand its motorcycle line with side-valve and overhead-valve engines of their own design and manufacture in 1928, but they purchased a license to use Neander's frame. These new motorcycles were named Opel Motoclub (pictured above). The project, however, was short-lived after General Motors acquired Opel in 1929. Production of motorcycles continued into 1930, but was ceased after nearly 6,000 Motoclubs werebuilt, which had been a huge success. Special prototypes with Küchen engines were built to try to convince GM of the viability of the product and the German motorcycle market. But it was to no avail. The car-minded overlords simply had no interest in motorcycles.

In the 1930s, Neander—at the age of 61—turned his attention to a new kind of vehicle he called the “Fahrmaschine,” or "Riding Machine." He refused to allow his new creation to be called a car. Rather, it was to appeal to the sporting and exciting nature of the

motorcyclist. Over a period of five years, Neander produced many different kinds of riding-machines; about 30 in all. Some were four-wheelers for racing. Fahrmaschine 1 (pictured above and right) had a Harley racing engine, modified for methanol fuel and producing about 60 hp. This “cycle car” was built in 1937 as a special service for Paul Weyres, a Harley-Davidson works racer from Aachen. Its body is of special plywood and weighs less than nine kilos (20 lbs) for each side of its clamshell-type body. Weighing in at 270kg (600 lbs), the machine featured four speeds and front wheel drive, and could achieve 170 kph (about 105mph). There was also an ultra light 200cc, six horsepower two-stroke streamliner with a top speed of 35mph that could have been driven without a license and without obligation to pay a yearly tax. Though containing a smaller engine, it was similar to the vehicle pictured here above, which is a racing machine with

a MAG D50 500cc engine. It was raced as late as 1947, and earned a second place at the Nürburgring that year. But Neander's most exciting Fahrmaschines were three-wheelers whose bodies pitched over in curves like a motorcycle while the chassis kept flat on the ground. This "riding machine" was developed just after the Second World War, built from the destroyed remains of his fleet of prototypes. To imagine the excitement and agility of this vehicle, think of a three-wheeled Morgan on a diet!

At last, Neander's "motorcat" was his suggestion for mobilizing the German people after the Second World War (pictured left and below). Its name came from the purring noise of its ILO two-stroke engine. Prototyped in 1947, much attention was paid to ergonomics. Note the small rear wheel for a low seating position, and the footpegs are mounted far in front for a relaxed body position. The suspended seat is covered with inflated air-pillows for outstanding comfort. The frame has an adjustable head-stay so the steering angle can be modified. Perhaps the most novel and creative feature is its silencers, made from a flexible material to "breathe," to expand and contract like a human lung.

Neander even got a Patent for this idea. But all this effort did not pay off. Though praised for their comfort by all who rode them, Motorcats remained hand-built one-offs, and were never put into production. Having contributed so much to modern motorcycle technology and design, even building notional bridges with his Fahrmaschine for later micro-car development by other German manufacturers, Neander never made the economic break-through. During the last five years of his life he returned his attention to painting, producing about 100 watercolors before his death.