Late War Bike

Post by **Paul** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 4:14 pm

Hi all, since I just found out my bike is a 45' not a 44' does anybody know when production was stopped at the plant. I guess since the DKW plant was in the east it was overrun by the Russians sometime Feb - Mar 45' timeframe? Is my thinking correct?

Also is there a serial number record of the those bikes from the last couple months of the war? I have noticed that some of the parts on my bike seem a bit cruder in production than the ealier bikes I have seem, could this just be normal German late war production. Did other bikes like BMWs and Zundapps have prodlems with quality towards the end of the war?

Thanks

Post by **thomas591** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 9:56 pm

Hi Paul,

I can quote the the historybooks as following:

1945
The works escape allied bombing in March 45 relatively undamaged.

On 14. April 1945 the female KZ-Prisoners which were forced labour in the works were "evacuated". Not many survieved that transport of death.

The Auto-Union directors board is evacuated to Chemnitz (US-Zone).

On 08. Mai 1945 Sowiet troops take over Zschopau.

Serial numbers /build records:
Nothing survived as far as I know.

Build quality:
It is reasonable to assume that in the last phase of the war, many rawmaterials became scare and that the qualitylevel of the components were lower. I cant say anything about the DKW build quality, but I know somebody who is an expert in German Wehrmacht weapons and he told me that the manufacturing quality became much lower at the end of the war. So why should it be different at the DKW site?

Regards

Thomas