Sachs Motorcycles

Sachs Bikes International Company Limited (SFM GmbH) is a German-based motorcycle manufacturer, founded in 1886 in Schweinfurt as Schweinfurter Präzisions-Kugellagerwerke Fichtel & Sachs, formerly known as Fichtel & Sachs, Mannesmann Sachs and later just Sachs.

It is one of the world's oldest motorcycle manufacturers, and manufactured their first motorcycle in 1904. Peugeot, the oldest extant, began manufacture in 1898. Indian Motorcycle began producing bikes in 1901.Triumph produced bikes in 1902 and Harley-Davidson and Husqvarna both in 1903. The company produced ball bearings, motorcycle engines and bicycle parts. Sachs Motorcycles was a subsidiary producing motorcycles, mopeds, motorised bicycles and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). The manufacturing of motorcycles was broken out of Sachs into its own company and the parent company producing automotive parts was bought by ZF Friedrichshafen AG to form ZF Sachs.

Current SFM GmbH is sole successor of Sachs Fahrzeug- und Motorentechnik GmbH and Hercules-Werke GmbH.

The company was established in Neumarkt by Carl Marschütz on April 5, 1886, as "Nuremberg Hercules-Werke". Initially, it manufactured bicycles and had eight employed, then increasing to 170 eight years later. By 1894 the company produced almost 5,000 bicycles. One year later, facilities were moved from Neumarkt to the Fürther Straße in Nuremberg.

Hercules developed an electronic vehicle in 1898, with a maximum speed of 40 km/h, before manufacturing its first motorcycle in 1905. By then the company also produced light trucks with a capacity of 1,2 tn. In 1930 the company started production of three-wheeled automobiles with 200 cc-engines.

Carl Marschütz and his family members were forced to emigrate from Germany to USA in the early 1930s. The Aryanization of Jewish business meant that his business was effectively taken over, and he re-settled in Los Angeles, eventually dying in 1957. Later on, although his business was stolen from him, he was still entitled to his company pension which allowed him some comfort. Like many escaping the Nazi regime, some of his family members changed to a more western sounding name. For example, his son Fritz Marschütz became Frank Marshall. Carl Marschütz died at the age of 93 is buried next to his wife in Nuremberg, who had died 26 years earlier. Carl Marschütz and Ernst Sachs have streets named after them on the site of the former factory.

"Nuremberg Hercules-Werke" had begun to manufacture motorcycle using proprietary engines from companies like FN, but later were forced to only use German manufactured engines, to the benefit of Sachs.

"Nuremberg Hercules-Werke" was heavily damaged after WW2, allies also took useful equipment from the rubble of "Nuremberg Hercules-Werke" as reparations. The remaining staff used metal and brown paint from manufacturing milk churns to eventually restart bicycle production. Hercules enjoyed 2 stroke moped popularity in next few decades. In the UK, there was also a Birmingham-based bicycle company also called Hercules, so German Hercules mopeds were sold under the brand name "Prior" as reference to the German Hercules company being older. Hercules is most known outside Germany for the 1974 Hercules Wankel engine motorcycle, using a Sachs Rotary engine.