Zyndapp KS750

Zündapp yhtiön perusti Fritz Neumeyer 1917 Nürnbergissä. 

Yhtiössä oli mukana Krupp AG ja Thielin työstökoneyhtiö. Sen nimi oli lyhenne sanoista Zünder- und Apparatebau G.m.b.H. - se valmisti sytyttimiä ammuksiin. 

Vuonna 1919 Neumeyerista tuli yhtiön ainoa omistaja. Hän siirtyi vuonna 1921 moottoripyörien valmistukseen, joka jatkui vuoteen 1984.

Ensimmäinen Zündapp oli Z22 vuonna 1921. Sitä kutsuttiin, kuten tuohon aikaan mainonnassa oli tapana: "Motorrad für Jedermann", jokamiehen moottoripyörä.

Zündapp alkoi vuonna 1933 tehdä raskaita moottoripyöriä K-sarjassa. Suljettu moottoritila oli tuolloin uutuus, samoin kardaaniveto, josta nimeen tuli K-kirjain. Zündappin markkinaosuus kasvoi viidestä prosentista (vuonna 1931) 18 prosenttiin (vuonna 1937). Vuodesta 1940 sodan loppuun Zündapp valmisti yli 18 000 KS750-moottoripyörää Saksan maavoimille. 

                    
Suomen armeija oli KS750 mallin (Green Elephant) ainoa ulkomainen käyttäjä.

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Zündapp's history of heavy motorcycles began in 1933 with the K-series. The "K" refers to the type of drivetrain that these models used, Kardanantrieb, meaning enclosed driveshaft with two universal joints. 

Zündapp introduced the enclosed crankcase (then a novelty). 
The series encompassed models from 200 to 800 cc displacement and was a major success, increasing Zündapp's market share in Germany from 5% in 1931 to 18% in 1937.
                    
The Zündapp KS600, first released in 1938, had a 28 hp (21 kW) horizontally opposed twin cylinder motor with overhead valves displacing 597 cc (36.4 cu in). The KS600 was often coupled with a Steib sidecar, the BW38 (Beiwagen 1938). The BW38, fitted with the B1 (Boot no. 1) sidecar body was produced between 1938 and 1941 and supplied exclusively to the Wehrmacht. 

While the KS600 was discontinued and eventually replaced by the purpose-built KS750, its motor was to be the only remnant to live beyond the destruction of war. When Zündapp returned to motorcycle production in the late 1940s, it chose to reuse the KS600's motor to power the KS601 with few modifications.

The Zündapp K800 had unit construction, flat-four engines with shaft drive (a layout adopted by Honda for the Gold Wing in 1974) and were the only 4-cylinder machines used by the German armed forces in WWII.

From 1931 Ferdinand Porsche and Zündapp developed the prototype Auto für Jedermann ("car for everyone"), which was the first time the name Volkswagen was used. Porsche preferred the 4-cylinder flat engine, but Zündapp used a water-cooled 5-cylinder radial engine. In 1932 three prototypes were running. All three cars were lost during the war, the last in a 1945 Stuttgart bombing raid.

From 1936 to 1938 Zündapp produced the KKS500 model. This was the first Zündapp with a foot gear change, and 170 examples were built. From 1940 onwards Zündapp produced more than 18,000 units of the Zündapp KS 750. This is a sidecar outfit with a driven side wheel and a locking differential, supplied to the German Wehrmacht.