A Specifically German Path to Mass Motorisation? Motorcycles in Germany between the World Wars

Abstract

After rapid growth of its motorcycle industry since the early 1920s, in the 1930s Germany became the world's largest motorcycle producer and exporter. Furthermore, in 1933 Germany was the country with by far the highest motorcycle density in the world. The paper discusses the reasons for the role motorbikes played in the German path to mass motorisation in the interwar era. The central thesis is that specific economic and political conditions in Germany allowed motorcycles to become the dominant motorised form of individual transport in the period.