Originally Posted by Blue Order
I checked out Herlihy's book,
Bicycle: The History, and there was a German bicycle industry, interrupted only by WWII. The German bicyles were apparently built for export, but Herlihy doesn't provide any clues about which countries these bikes were exported to. I suspect the U.S. was not one of those countries however, because he does talk about French and British exports to the U.S.
Cycleurope is the largest contemporary European bicycle manufacturer, and if you check their website, they have production sites in Denmark, France, Italy, and Sweden-- but none in Germany.
Interesting question.
Yes, they did export to the US. At least one brand, Baronia, was exported to the US in the 50's. There were not many models. They were designed to compete with low end Schwinns, but did not do very well. They were big, maroon and white, fairly ugly, 26" rimmed bikes. Nothing special, no horn or gears. Just a standard coaster brake. There was a 'tank' located under the top tube that was hollow on early models. It had standard balloon tires of the era manufactured by Continental. There were no whitewalls. How do I know? It was my first and only bike as a child. It had one advantage over all the other bikes. No one would steal it.