This great photograph shows the great Ewald Kluge from Germany and the magnificent DKW 250 SS two stroke “Ladepumpe” Grand Prix racer during the 1938 AVUS rennen.

One of the most successful motorcycles that DKW made was the racing DKW 250SS of the 1930s. The DKW 250SS featured a twin cylinder engine with a bore and stroke of 47 x 68mm and a three speed casette gearbox. It featured a rather special engineering novelty though, what the Germans call in their language very efficiently the “Ladepumpe” (loading pump). Basically the Ladepumpe can be described as an integral supercharging system, consisting of an extra (third) piston and cylinder (diameter 120mm, stroke 36mm!) to increase crankcase compression and hence cylinder filling. The engine featured also other novelties like variable inlet timing through mostly disc valves. Thanks to the Ladepumpe, the power output was over 20hp at 5,000 rpm. The topspeed of the DKW 250SS was 86,99 mph (140 km/h). Only 30 were produced.

DKW (= Dampf-Kraft-Wagen (German: steam-driven car) is an historic car and motorcycle brand with a long and interesting history. In 1916, the Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen founded a factory in Saxony, Germany, to produce steam fittings. In the same year, he attempted to produce a steam-driven car, called the DKW. Although unsuccessful, he made a two-stroke toy engine in 1919, called Des Knaben Wunsch — "the boy's desire". He also put a slightly modified version of this engine into a motorcycle and called it Das Kleine Wunder — "the little marvel". This was the real beginning of the DKW brand: by the 1930s, DKW was the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer. In 1932, DKW merged with Audi, Horch and Wanderer, to form the Auto Union. Auto Union came under Daimler-Benz ownership in 1957, and was finally purchased by the Volkswagen Group in 1964. The last DKW car was the F102 which ceased production in 1966; after this the brand was phased out. Before World War II, the company had some success with forced induction compressor racing motorcycles, and during the late 1920s and 1930s, DKW was the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer. After the war, the company made the RT 125, 175, 250 and 350 models. The motorcycle branch of the company produced very famous models such as the RT 125 pre- and post World War II. As reparations after the war, the design drawings of the RT125 were given to Harley-Davidson in the US and BSA in the UK. The HD version was known as the Hummer, while BSA used them for the Bantam. IFA and later MZ models continued in production until the 1990s, when economics finally brought production of the two stroke to an end. Other manufacturers also copied the DKW design, officially or otherwise. This can be seen in the similarity of many small two stroke motorcycles from the 1950s, including a product of Yamaha, Voskhod and Polish WSK.

We have more photos listed on Ebay of DKW with Winkler, Geiss , Sandford , Hollaus etc. etc.and other brands with various riders.

This is your rare chance to own this non period photo that reflects a very interesting and historic piece of motorcycle and D.K.W. history. Therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca. 8" x 12" (ca. 20 x 30 cm).