History of the Victoria Works
Pioneer Work
1886 – Foundation of the Nuremberg Company and start of bicycle production.
1901 - Manufacturing of the first motorcycles with purchased engines from Cudel and Fafnir.1920 - Motor cycle production started after World War I with the use of BMW „M 2 B15"- 494 ccm sv-engines in the KR I.
1923 - Martin Stolle came from BMW and developed an ohv Boxer engine for the KR II, exactly one year before BMW`s ohv boxer appeared.
1925 - Engineer Steinlein built the first German supercharged motors at Victoria.1926 - Adolf Brudes set a new German speed record with a 497 ccm supercharged-Victoria at 166 kph.
1928 - 350 cc-ohv, 200 cc-sv and from 1930 on, 500 cc-ohv and sv-engines from the English company Sturmey Archer (part of the Raleigh group) were imported to complete the smaller range of machines.
1931/32 -Victoria won the European Mountain Championship „Bergmeisterschaft" in the 600 cc side car class, the new boxer model was immediatly named the Mountain Champion „Bergmeister".
New Developments
1937 - Richard Küchen designed the new Victoria model range (Aero, Lux, Fix, Pionier)1939 - Production of civil vehicles almost stopped until 1945. The German Army ordered 4000 so called Pionier models with special equipment (the bike in the front - see photo).
1945 -Factory facilities are almost completely destroyed.
1946 -Engine production started again with the 38 cc, 1 bhp bicycle auxiliary engine.
1948 - The KR 25 „ Aero" was built again and together with the „Vicky" they were among the bestsellers in the years after the war.
Boom and Collapse
1951 - Georg Dotterweich set a new World speed record with the 38 cc „Vicky" on the "Autobahn" motorway Munich-Ingolstadt at a speed of 79 kmph.
1953 - The newly developed KR 26 and 350 cc ohv V 35 Bergmeister twin appeared.1954 - Rudi Ebert wins the 500 cc-side-car-class of the 2500 km long distance event (Liege/Belgium - Milan/Italy - Liege/Belgium) with the Bergmeister.
1957 - The 175 cc ohv „Parilla" with italian Parilla engine from the Milan company became the last Victoria motor cycle ever built.1958 - Victoria merged with Express (Neumarkt) and DKW (Ingolstadt) to the „Zweirad Union.
Today
1988 - The first meeting of the Victoria Interessengemeinschaft founded by Thomas Hey`l was arranged in Idar-Oberstein.