Originally Posted by
martl
Eh? i disagree. Factories like Brennabor, Dürkopp, diamant were among the largest in pre WW2 Europe. (Opel, for example, produced 15000 bikes - in 1898!). At MIFA, 700 emplyees produced 80.000 bicycles in '27.
Bike usage was huge up until the Wirtschaftswunder, in 1936 45-60% of the workers used the bicycle to commute, and there were 10000km of bike paths.
Most companies came from the small-mechanical-goods production and transitioned from making stuff like sewing machines to bicycle production, and many progressed to make motorcycles and cars - Opel, for example. Bit of a similarity to companies like Bianchi, Peugeot or Automoto really.
Thank you for giving these insights. As much information is out there for Italian, French, British, Japanese, and other's bicycle industries, it seems there is less widely known about German.
I suppose we could consider one of the biggest bicycle producers ever. Ignaz Schwinn started in Germany and emigrated to the US. The industry was there, but perhaps not the market, hence the move? Adolph Arnold was also a German immigrant.