Striking images: Wehrmacht motorcycle from Danube looks almost 'new'
The discovery of a motorbike wreck and the remains of two German soldiers is making headlines worldwide. Low Danube levels in Budapest exposed the Second World War machine, now cleaned and remarkably well preserved.
The photo of the Wehrmacht motorcycle recovered in Budapest is going around the world: from the "Times of India" and "Vietnam.VN" via British media such as the "Daily Mirror" to US platforms like Yahoo Autos, the spectacular find is making headlines.
According to the Hungarian Institute and Museum of Military History, the recovered motorcycle is a DKW NZ 350-1.
The DKW NZ 250 and NZ 350 models were regarded by motorcyclists at the time as particularly robust and reliable. From 1944, a version developed specifically for wartime use was therefore introduced under the name NZ 350-1.
The Hungarian museum recovered the machine on 2 August at Batthyány Square, opposite parliament. The motorcycle is almost completely intact. Because it was saturated with water and mud when it was salvaged, it weighed more than 200 kilograms. The machine is currently being cleaned and conserved in the museum's hangar in Budapest.
The DKW NZ 350-1 was produced between 1944 and 1945, with just under 12,000 units built by the end of the war.
One particularly interesting feature is a small detail that is easy to overlook today: on the rear frame there was a kind of "fin" or mud and snow scraper. It was intended to prevent mud and snow from building up on the tyre and then getting into the chain drive. This modification apparently went back to experiences during the Russian winter.
The engine block, made of grey cast iron, a cast-iron alloy with a high graphite content, was also striking. One reason for this was the wartime shortage of aluminium. On the basis of the information published so far, however, it is not yet possible to date the specific find to a particular day or month of production.
DKW, the manufacturer of the NZ 350-1
The company DKW goes back to the Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen. In 1907, he initially set up a mechanical engineering and steam technology business in Zschopau in Saxony. The brand name DKW was coined later and originally stood for "Dampfkraftwagen", or "steam-powered vehicle". In 1922, the first DKW two-stroke engine was produced in Zschopau. In the years that followed, the company grew into one of Germany's most important motorcycle manufacturers.
In 1932, DKW merged with Audi, Horch and Wanderer to form Auto Union AG. Within the new group, the DKW plant in Zschopau remained the centre of motorcycle and engine production.
In the 1930s, DKW became increasingly involved in German rearmament. The NZ 350 was also produced in large numbers for the Wehrmacht.
The importance of the Zschopau plant is evident from the production figures: as early as 1934, the 350,000th DKW motorcycle rolled off the production line, followed in 1939 by the 500,000th. With the start of the Second World War, civilian motorcycle production was increasingly scaled back and manufacturing shifted more and more towards military needs.
The DKW NZ 350-1, like the one now recovered from the Danube, dates from this late phase of the war.
After the end of the Second World War, the DKW plant in Zschopau was dismantled by the Soviet occupation authorities. Machinery and equipment were taken to the Soviet Union. DKW engineers from Zschopau were also sent to Izhevsk to help rebuild motorcycle production there. The story of the NZ 350 did not end there: from 1946, the IZh-350 was produced in the Soviet Union, based to a large extent on the DKW NZ 350. More than 127,000 units were built by 1951.
In recent days, further parts of the original equipment have been found in the dried-up riverbed of the Danube alongside the Wehrmacht motorcycle, including a petrol can, a Y-strap and a bayonet frog.
A Y-strap was a leather harness worn over the shoulders and joined at the front and back with additional straps. It was used to attach equipment to the body, such as bread bags, ammunition pouches or canteens. The name "Y" comes from the shape of the shoulder straps.
The term bayonet frog refers to the holder for a bayonet that is attached to the belt or other equipment. The bayonet is carried in it when it is not fixed to the rifle.
The mortal remains of two German soldiers were discovered beneath the motorcycle. Their fully preserved identity discs could, for the first time in more than 80 years, provide information about who they were and what happened to them. A so-called "Kuban" sleeve shield was also found.
This badge may indicate that its wearer had previously served at the Kuban bridgehead in the Caucasus.
It is currently assumed that the remains of the two men are those of the motorcycle's rider and passenger. However, there is a possible alternative explanation: the Hungarian Institute of Military History (source in German) (source in Hungarian) believes that the site may have been used as a wartime rubble or refuse pit created after the end of the siege. It appears that ammunition and equipment were among the items disposed of there.
The finds alone therefore do not yet allow any definitive conclusion to be drawn as to whether the two men were on the DKW at the time of their deaths.
Remains of two Wehrmacht soldiers found in Danube: one served in Waffen-SS
A Wehrmacht motorbike is recovered from the Danube; underneath are the remains of two German soldiers with ID tags, one likely Waffen-SS. Experts now study the bones: how old were they and did they drive over a mine?
For more than eight decades, the remains of two German soldiers lay in the mud of the Danube. Only the exceptionally low water level of the river in Budapest has brought their story back to light.
Both bodies still carried intact German identity discs, giving investigators an unusually good chance of identifying the men more than 80 years on.
The discovery is closely linked to a remarkably well-preserved DKW NZ 350-1 motorcycle found at the beginning of August on the Buda bank of the Danube.
Under or right next to the motorcycle, staff from the Hungarian Institute and Museum of Military History came across the human remains. Volksbund employee Gábor Kohlrusz recovered the bones of the two men from the exposed riverbed.
For many years Kohlrusz has been working in Hungary for the Volksbund, reinterring war dead. His duties include searching for, recovering and documenting German war dead, as well as securing personal belongings and identity discs. Together with historians and local partners, he helps to establish the identities of the fallen and shed light on long-unresolved wartime fates.
Two dead men who were likely still recorded as missing
In the Second World War, the identity disc of a fallen German soldier was split in two: one half remained with the body, the other was sent to the Wehrmacht information office in Berlin so that deaths could be registered and relatives informed.
Because both identity discs recovered from the Danube were still complete, this suggests that their families probably waited in vain for any official notification.
Alongside the identity discs, a wedding ring and a Kuban sleeve shield were also found. If the badge can be definitively attributed to one of the two dead men, it could provide an important clue to his military career. The Kuban Shield was awarded to German soldiers who served in 1943 at the Kuban bridgehead in the south of the Soviet Union. The decoration was instituted in September that year.
If it is confirmed that one of the two soldiers wore the shield, it would suggest that he had been serving on the Eastern Front for several years before his death.
Arne Schrader, head of the Department for War Graves Service and International Relations, knows how difficult such an attribution can be. Several examinations are needed to establish whether the two identity discs really belong to the bodies that have been found. The names of the original bearers may be determined relatively quickly. But that alone is far from sufficient to confirm their identities.
Identifying the dead is a painstaking process
The starting point is a detailed examination of the remains. Even the length of individual bones can provide clues to the deceased's height. Wherever possible, different bones are used for this – for example, lower and upper leg bones. Taken together, these findings gradually build up a picture that can be compared with the known data on the possible bearers of the identity discs.
There are various anatomical indicators for the age of the soldiers, which allow experts, with a high degree of probability, to assess whether a bone belonged to someone under 20, between 20 and 25, or an older person up to and over 40.
How old the two soldiers were is not yet known. The anthropological analysis of the remains is intended, among other things, to use bones, epiphyses and wisdom teeth to determine their approximate age.
"Here, among other things, the sacrum and the epiphyses on the long bones can be evaluated, and the wisdom teeth can also provide information," explains Arne Schrader. Dental fillings can also give clues to a person's origins: teeth filled with amalgam indicate that the deceased probably came from Western Europe.
One of the identity discs found on the Danube belonged to a Wehrmacht soldier, the second to a member of the Waffen-SS.
It still has to be clarified whether the discs in fact match the two bodies that were recovered. Any provisional identification by the Volksbund would subsequently have to be officially confirmed by the Federal Archives.
Around 900,000 people served in the Waffen-SS over the course of the war. They included committed National Socialists and foreign volunteers, but also, especially towards the end of the conflict, conscripts and minors. The Waffen-SS was responsible for numerous war crimes and took part in the Holocaust; in 1946 the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal declared it a criminal organisation.
The site lay in an area where harbour sludge had accumulated, mixed with gas oil. These unusual conditions apparently helped to preserve both parts of the motorcycle and the identity discs in remarkably good condition.
The Volksbund can now compare the details on the discs with military records, missing-person reports and its own "Gräbersuche online" service, a database that now contains around 5.4 million entries.
What does the DKW NZ 350-1 have to do with the soldiers?
According to current knowledge, the motorcycle is a DKW NZ 350-1 manufactured in Saxony. This model was developed from 1944 specifically for wartime use.
However, the mere fact that the motorcycle was found together with the two dead men does not prove that the soldiers were actually travelling on it.
Several scenarios are conceivable: the two men may have ridden the motorcycle themselves, one as the driver and the other as passenger. It is equally possible that the DKW belonged to one unit, while the two soldiers came from a different context. The motorcycle might also have reached the site only after the men's deaths. The machine could have ended up in the Danube during the fighting, or been deliberately sunk there late
Ammunition was also lying on the riverbed
The bomb disposal service had to be called in during the recovery work because, in addition to other pieces of equipment, Type 35 Teller mines were discovered – German anti-tank mines from the Second World War.
The Hungarian Military History Institute (source in German) (source in Hungarian) considers it possible that the site is a dumping ground for war materiel and rubbish created after the end of the siege. It is not yet possible to say definitively whether the items were deliberately disposed of at this spot, or under what circumstances.
A link to the Battle of Budapest?
Historically, a connection with the fighting for Budapest is plausible.
The Battle of Budapest lasted from the end of October or beginning of November 1944 until 13 February 1945 and was among the bloodiest and most hard-fought battles of the final phase of the Second World War in Hungary. Budapest was defended by German and Hungarian units against the Soviet Red Army and Romanian forces. After the city was encircled at the end of December 1944, the battle turned into a protracted siege, ending with the capture of Budapest by Soviet troops on 13 February 1945.
The fighting was extremely fierce and claimed numerous lives on both sides.
Today the German-Hungarian war cemetery at Budaörs, west of Budapest, is the largest burial site for German and Hungarian war dead in Hungary. It is the final resting place mainly for those killed in Budapest and in the areas east of the Danube. According to the Volksbund, 16,630 dead have now been buried at Budaörs.
Whether the two men from the Danube actually fell during the Battle of Budapest is something only future research will show. What is already certain is that their remains will be laid to rest at the Budaörs war cemetery.
The discovery shows how many traces of the past are still hidden today in Europe's rivers. The Danube has been an important transport and trade route not only in times of war.
The Volksbund explicitly expects that the current low water level could also lead to more war dead being recovered from emerging shipwrecks.
The find in Budapest may therefore not be the last of its kind.
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