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Walter Kaaden - Automotive Pioneer
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From a time when two-stroke engines were just about to die out, Walter Kaaden revived them to take on the four-strokes on the track
Today two-stroke engines have reached cult-status – not only because of their superior power-to-weight ratios, extreme states of tune and an exhaust note that can make the hair on the back of your neck stand anytime, but also because they are almost extinct. There still are a few enthusiasts out there who are keeping the two-stroke engine alive and just as it is now, the two-stroke was almost dead post World War II.
Four-strokes were winning everything on the racetracks and making their way into road-going motorcycles like never before while the two was regarded as a dying technology fit only for gardening machinery. And then, Walter Kaaden happened.
Born in Saxony, Germany Kaaden was an engineering genius and his life was spent around motorcycles from the DKW factory. His father was a chauffeur there and young Walter picked up a knack for engineering after he attended the opening of the Nurburgring racing circuit. After completing his education at the Technical Academy in Chemnitz, Kaaden started his professional life as a talented engineer working on rocket-propelled missiles.
Having worked at the Peenemunde Army Research Centre during the War which was later destroyed in a bombing raid, and then being captured and interned by the Americans, Kaaden returned to his hometown of Zschopau where he built his first racing motorcycle. It was based on the DKW RT125 and built in his workshop that made roof trusses. The sheer speed that his bikes reached caught the attention of the powers that were and in 1953 he took over the racing department at IFA.
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George Wenman
A great post , do you have any published engineering info from walter Kaaden ? I have 5 classic 2 stroke race bikes and a 1955 DKW rt 125 and would love to know more about Kaadens tuning 2 strokes
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Joseph SCHOCK
Hello, Well written story, full of facts about IFA and Mz.
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