Triumph 1931 - 1945

1932 KV 200 people's motorbike

Triumph is one of Germanys leading motorbike manufacturers.
For cars and motorbikes up to 200 cc, no driving licence is required. It is especially for this market that Triumph launches the KV 200 peopleÕs motorbike. This low-cost and tax-exempt two-stroke-engined vehicle proves to be as useful as it is powerful. The KV 200 acquires a huge following during the 1930s.

1936 Model 12 office machine sets new standards

Triumph sets an innovative milestone with its Standard Model 12.
This office typewriter is the first to offer segment switchover. The thimble Ð the segment Ð is now moved back and forth during switchover, rather than the entire carriage. Precision, speed and comfort make this the best typewriter of its time. The Model 12 is also sold as an Adler typewriter.

1937 Accounting machine with counting device

The modernisation of the office leads to new levels of quality.
Automated work cycles mean acceleration, and rational accounting boosts productivity. The Triumph accounting machines, including counting devices, writing and multiplying accounting machines, set new sales records. Final amounts can be calculated automatically.

1938 Record turnover prior to the Second World War

During the last year of peace before the Second World War, Triumph employs 1,800 workers and generates 15 million marks, the highest overall turnover in its history so far.
A spectacular new development is launched in 1938 in the form of the two-stroke double-piston block engine of the BD 250 motorbike. Around 1,000 machines of this type are offered for sale to the general public.

1943 Armament production and destruction

As with practically all German industrial companies during the Second World War, forced labourers are assigned to Triumph and ordered to make armaments.
The new Model BD 250 motorbike is manufactured as a motorbike for the German Army. 1942 sees the end of typewriter manufacture for the civilian market. In 1943, Allied bombs destroy the main pipe warehouse and the company archive in the administrative building.

1945 Zero hour: Workers defend the Triumph factory/New beginning with wheelbarrows

By the time the war ends in April 1945, the Triumph factory has managed to escape the same fate as the medieval city centre of Nuremberg, which is reduced to rubble as a result of the Allied bombings
During the final days of the war, courageous workers refuse to obey Nazi orders to destroy all of the machinery and equipment in advance of the arrival of US troops to take over the city. At zero hour, they protect the factory from being ransacked. These dramatic events are chronicled in an historically significant company document. This document, which was handed over to the Nuremberg City Archives in 2008 for research purposes, is available as a Downloaddownload

New beginnings. In May 1945, around 220 employees bring production back on-line under extremely difficult conditions
Wheelbarrows and trolleys are the first things to be produced, followed by bicycles and typewriters. Owing to the initial ban imposed by the conquering powers on manufacturing motorbikes with a capacity in excess of 60 cc, aggregates for pumps, compressors, tractors and other agricultural devices are developed.