The five best German car brands that no longer exist

Shifting his focus, in 1919 DKW produced a two-stroke engine, engineering what would underpin much of the company’s motorbikes and cars for the next five decades. Dubbed, Des-Knaben-Wunch (the boy’s wish), the DKW two-stroke found its way into the company’s first motorcycle, called Das Kleine Wunder, the little wonder. It was a masterstroke and by the end of the 1920s, DKW was the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world.