I distinctly remember the night the Berlin Wall came down – I was nine years old. Up to that point, I had grown up completely oblivious to the Cold War – I had no clue that I was living in a world full of tension between two opposing political and economic systems. I was, however, very aware of and very bewildered by the “other Germany” – populated by fellow Germans, some of them members of my family, who shared our linguistic, cultural, and, for the most part, political history but lived in a country they were not free to leave.
The “other Germany”, back then often referred to as “over there” (accompanied by a sideways nod of the head as if to point East), was a dystopian place far, far away from my carefree childhood world, yet so very close: we lived exactly one mile (1.6 km) from the “Iron Curtain”, or “German-German border”, as Germans properly called the border between the Federal Republic of (West) Germany and the (East) German Democratic Republic (GDR for short). On “our” side, you could basically walk up right to the border – no fence, no guard tower, no border patrol, just the beautiful shore of the Wakenitz river. Only 60 feet of water separated us from East Germany – on the other side, a dense forest nobody wanted to come too close to because it was rumored to be filled with landmines.
Just a little side note: I grew up in the historic Hanseatic City of Lübeck (West Germany), known for its chocolate-covered almond candy called Marzipan, its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, its strong-willed Medical University, and the fact that Hitler had a personal dislike for Lübeck after the city had refused to allow him to campaign there in 1932.
First GDR Motorcycle Museum of Berlin © 1. Berliner DDR Motorrad-Museum
For 40 years, East Germany stood completely under the totalitarian influence of the Soviet Union and even today, you can still find numerous relics from Soviet times. During my last visit to Berlin earlier this year, I stumbled across a small museum in the heart of East Berlin, near the famous Alexanderplatz (Alexander Square): the First GDR Motorcycle Museum of Berlin, the world’s largest publicly accessible exhibition of motorcycles from East Germany.
What a treat! This museum is packed with famous and infamous gems, all in all more than 140 motorcycles and scooters from over 40 years of motorcycle production in the GDR. It was founded in September 2008 by Uwe Kobilke who grew up in East Germany riding some of the same bike models now on display at his museum. While becoming more and more popular among vintage motorcycle enthusiasts in Germany, some motorcycles/scooters from the GDR-era, such as MZ and Simson, are known far beyond the former borders of the GDR – in part because they were able to continue motorcycle production long after the collapse of the GDR.
Offroad MZ ETS 250/G - 243 cc, built in 1969
Motorradwerk Zschopau, MZ for short (although known as DKW then), built its first motor-assisted bicycle in 1920 and in 1929, became the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world with 60,000 motorcycles leaving the Zschopau factory that year (that’s about 165/day – in 1929!!!). In 1950, MZ began production of the RT 125 model, developed before the war, under the trademark IFA. The model became patent-free after WW II as part of war reparations and was further developed in Britain (BSA Bantam), USA (Harley-Davidson Hummer), Russia (M-1A Moskva), Japan, Italy and West Germany.
MZ Motocross bike from the early 1980's © 1. Berliner DDR Motorrad-Museum
MZ had to close its factory in Zschopau in December 2008. The company’s Malaysian backers withdrew their financial support after years of continuing losses, bringing a halt to motorcycle production that had lasted for 88 years in the same town. The Zschopau works was one of the oldest motorcycle factories in the world, mass-producing motorcycles since 1922. The most well known models were the ES, ETS, TS und ETZ two-stroke 125/150 and 250 series. In early 2009 however, the former GP racer Ralf Waldmann and former GP racer Martin Wimmer bought the company and started building scooters, including the zero-emission electric scooter Charley. While they are no longer manufacturing big-engined motorcycles such as the MZ 1000, and are facing a financially insecure future, they continue to compete in professional motorsport events with their own international racing team.
Simson met a similar fate. While Simson is mostly known for its scooter “Schwalbe” (swallow), it originally started out as an arms manufacturer (founded in Suhl, Germany, in 1854) which only much later started producing automobiles, motorcycles, and mopeds. During World War I, Simson produced the Mauser Gewehr 98 rifles for the German Army. Under the Third Reich, the factory was seized from the Jewish Simson family, and was renamed several times under Nazi and later Communist control. The Simson name was reintroduced in 1952 as a brand name for mopeds made at the original factory in Suhl. Production of the mopeds finally ended in 2002.
Simson AWO 425 Eskorte © 1. Berliner DDR Motorrad-Museum
The Simson Eskorte (Escort) on display at the museum is one of its most treasured rarities. It was a limited-production model built in 1957 for the GDR’s “Ministerium des Innern” (Ministry of the Interior) and for the Volkspolizei, the GDR’s police force. With a total production of only 60, half of which were exported to Hungary, the Eskorte has become a very rare gem.
On display at the GDR motorcycle museum are not just motorcycles (most of them restored by the owner himself), the exhibition also features gas pumps, motorcycle accessories, TV commercials, official uniforms, and other memorabilia from the GDR-era.
GDR police bike and traffic cop © 1. Berliner DDR Motorrad-Museum
I found one commercial particularly amusing – it was sponsored by the government and explained how to do basic motorcycle maintenance, which you were encouraged to perform before you would load up your wife and child to take them on a summer vacation at the beach. Nowadays, going on a motorcycle vacation is seen as an adventure, back in Soviet times, for many it was the only means of transportation. And it would fit a small family, including their luggage.
What’s especially intriguing about this museum is the debate over whether some of the bikes on display may be called “original”, meaning entirely “OEM” (Original Equipment Manufacturer) motorcycles. As it often happens in government-run, planned economies, the chain of production was riddled with hiccups, and the right parts weren’t always available when they were needed.
Firefighter Motorcycle - how cool is that?
So, for example, a new MZ model may have been rolling off the conveyor belt with a new headlight and seat until the parts manufacturers could no longer make the new parts because the country was short on, say, plastic. Instead of halting all motorcycle production, MZ simply played Mr. Potato Head with left-over parts from earlier models. So a new model might have come straight out of the factory (i.e. OEM) with the headlight and the seat of older model until the new parts became available again. Because nobody kept track, it’s impossible to determine in some cases if a particular bike is OEM or not, because it’s not just a question of looking it up in the manufacturer’s catalog … so much for planned economies. 
A visit to the First GDR Motorcycle Museum of Berlin is not just a trip back in time, it’s also a window into a world only few outsiders ever got to see first-hand. And it shows that life behind the iron curtain may have still been filled with fun – on two wheels.
To anybody who is interested in a look back at life in Soviet-ruled East Germany, I would recommend watching the humorous yet sincere movie “Goodbye Lenin”. Not just because the main character rides a Simson Schwalbe moped, but because it aptly captures the ongoing “Eastalgia” (a play on the words “East” and “nostalgia”) and ranks as one of the best German movies ever made.
Here’s the trailer (in the US, the movie is available with English subtitles on Netflix):
