Even those who are not a motorcycle fan and have never heard the name Ernst Neumann Neander can now take a look at an exhibition about the designer – and about the body he created. The man and the machines stay in the head, even days after visiting the Central Garage Automuseum in Bad Homburg. The life and work of Ernst Neumann, who doubled his last name, were so unusual by led him in ancient Greek: Neander, and his new was his elixir. Neumann Neander, born in Kassel in 1871 and died in Düren in 1954, sprayed with ideas. He even realized many. He drew and built aesthetic motorcycles and futuristic driving machines. He stood on stage, married three times, painted people, constructed ships, and the curator and collector Thomas Trapp tells. The Frankfurt Harley dealer includes 18 of the total of about 30 Neanders motorcycles. Trapp also has a small number of Neanders. He has collected it for decades and exhibited them in the Guggenheim Museums in Las Vegas and Bilbao, for example. With the motorcycle from Paris to Rome and back “I bought my first Neander in 1978,” says the 68-year-old Trapp, who, according to him, earned his money with IT. He published an article in 1980 in the magazine “Oldtimer-Markt”. Thereupon he had been offered more Neanders motorcycles. Curator Thomas Trapp bought his first Neanders in 1978. Maximilian von Lachnerach The estate of the motorcycle builder and artist belongs to Trapp. Great and Dürr was Neumann Neander and “a tough dog,” says the curator. Until January 2026, the car museum of his friend Dieter Dressel is now showing the vehicles, documents and pictures. The holistic in Neumann Neanders work is the focus. The show begins with a bike. It is a high wheel of the NSU brand. Neumann, as his name was still unadorned at a young age, ran around 1890. He even put up world records, with other high cyclists in other world regions probably also claimed. In 1904, Neumann undertook a record trip on a vehicle from the Paris manufacturer Griffon. Maximilian from Lachner with her in her early 20th, he went to Munich to study art. There he founded the cabaret “Die 11 Scharfricht” with Frank Wedekind. At the end of each performance, someone was beheaded on stage. In 1903 he moved to Paris, studied graphics and design, designed advertising posters for companies and built yachts with a steamship engine on which its drivers. He lived near the motorcycle manufacturer Griffon, for which he undertook an advertising record in 1904: Neumann drove twice on a gripon motorcycle from Paris to Rome and Retour. He bought the gasoline in pharmacies, as was usual at the time.
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The next stop was Berlin, where he even worked with Ferdinand Porsche. Neumann drew body, colored her by hand. At Potsdam, he built a villa on his own design, but had to sell it when a company Pleiteging in which he had entered. In February 1924 he went on a tour again: This time the motorcycle went a good 3000 kilometers through Germany. For this, he built prototypes with a special leaf spring fork for himself and two passengers. He directed the exhaust gases from the exhaust into the running boards – so the feet were like heat bottles. He had the adventure filmed. “Keep on, the engine continues to whizzed,” the strip says. Half of the 125 tour participants had to cancel. All three Neander drivers came through. More than a racing car: Cockpit of a Neandersmaximilian from Lachnerdas, the man had experienced everything before starting the actual motorcycle building. From 1926 to 1928, NEIDS machines were built in his work in Düren. Depending on the wallet, says Trapp, customers were able to have an engine in the unit frame installed. Neumann had 30 employees, but apparently little commercial talent. The company went bankrupt at the end of 1928. The vehicles of other manufacturers had pipe frames, Neande steel press frame used. They liked the Opel company. It took over the license and produced motorcycles with it – but with its own engines. These vehicles are no longer called Neander, but Opel Motoclub. The models have red tires and seats. Commercial success was greater than with Neander. 6000 pieces ran off the assembly line to General Motors Opel 1929. The designer and designer Ernst Neumann Neander had creative ideas, but little commercial skill. Maximilian from Lachner cars did not want to build Neumann Neander. He called himself a friend of the guards. So he moved to driving machines in 1935. He built about 30 pieces until the outbreak of war – a rarity. The sleek, elongated companions lie flat above the street, the driver sits in it like a canoe. For the use of war, the almost 70 -year -old designer was too old. Neumann Neander and his third woman lived in a caretaker’s house on the factory premises in Düren. According to Trapp, he was not in the NSDAP. The almost 80 -year -old man constructed motor cats on the subject of 1949, whose rear wheels are smaller than the front wheels. But nobody wanted to recreate the prototypes. “Too futuristic,” suspects the curator. In the year before his death in 1954, Neumann Neander still painted 120 pictures of moderate artistic quality. One thing is at the end of the exhibition. For an artist who has built motor vehicles for decades, it is surprisingly critical. It shows an army of motorcyclists with uniform faces – the “mass of human” in motorized Germany. Trapp says: “The man was extremely versatile.” Ernst Neumann Neander – a life between art and technology, Automuseum Central Garage, Bad Homburg. Wednesday to Sunday, from 12 noon to 4.30 p.m., closed on public holidays, until the end of January 2026. Free admission to a donation.
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