History
NSU originated as a knitting machine manufacturer established in 1873 by Christian Schmidt, a technically astute entrepreneur, in the town of Riedlingen on the Danube. The business relocated in 1880 to Neckarsulm, where the river Sulm flows into the Neckar. There followed a period of rapid growth and in 1886 the company began to produce bicycles, the first of them branded as the "Germania", and by 1892, bicycle manufacturing had completely replaced knitting machine production. At about this time, the name NSU (from Neckar and Sulm) appeared as a brand name.
The first NSU motorcycle appeared in 1901, followed by the first NSU car in 1905. In 1932, the car factory in Heilbronn was sold to Fiat.
During World War II NSU designed and produced the Kettenkrad, the NSU HK101, a half-tracked motorcycle with the engine of the Opel Olympia.
Read more about this topic: NSU Motorenwerke
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“When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.”
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