AWO Simson

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Purchasing classics there

Motorcycles instead of guns

Hunting weapon supplier Simson from Suhl was no longer allowed to make weapons after the Second World War. So it was time for a new way to get bread on the shelf. Fortunately everything was well organized in the former GDR. Simson was commissioned by the Deutsch Sowjetische Aktiengesellschaft Awtowelo (AWO) to develop and build a motorcycle. The fact that the result looked more than a bit like an 250 cc BMW was undeniable. The first prototypes drove in the summer of 1949 and production started in 1950.

A kind of BMW 250

The AWO 425 could best be described as 'an 250 cc BMW from a strange litter'. Including the cardan drive and the possibility to build a sidecar on the motorcycle. The type designation AWO 425 stood for Awtowelo, four-stroke engine, 25 (0) cc cylinder capacity.

On 1 in May 1952 the factory was incorporated into the IFA (Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau) as VEB (Volks Eigenes Betrieb) Fahrzeug und Gerätebau Simson Suhl of the German Democratic Republic. IFA (Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau) was the umbrella organization of the East German motor and car industry. Under the name IFA, passenger cars, trucks, agricultural vehicles, motorcycles and (mopeds) bicycles were produced in the GDR. Simson Suhl was one of the largest manufacturers of two-wheelers in the world.

The East German reference (In the GDR people were not only inspired by BMW, but also by DKW), the motorcycle was always seen as inferior and not interesting until well after the fall of communism. The residents of the former GDR and the more experienced Europeans were in complete agreement.

The motorcycle "Ostalgie"

In the meantime, those former East German motorcycles have been discovered by The Old West and rediscovered by the former 'Ossies' as part of the 'Ostalgie'. And let's face it: the calendar age has now also become true classics.

The Simsons and EMWs are such a clear BMW motorcycle clones that it is precisely because of this that they are extra endearing for the people who are open to the imitation of a BMW. And to the left or to the right: they are usually (still) cheaper than the original.

The DDR machines were and are usually of better quality than the real Russian engines of that time. Thanks to the German desire for perfection under any circumstances.

They are made for effective motorized transport from the time that owning a motorcycle was not a lifestyle thing. The MZ club has of course been a standing phenomenon for years, but there is now also a Simson club. And parts for AWO, EMW, DKWs and MZs can be purchased via www.awo-oldtimer.de

True classics

The time that such an AWO Samson could be adopted for a take-away price is already well over. Consider amounts between the 6.000-7.000 euro for a very nice and good copy. The price rise is, funnily enough, largely due to better-off residents of the new Länder who have come to the conclusion with a certain nostalgia that life in the former GDR was not so bad.

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