In 1889 Anton Kreidler formed a company: the 'Stuttgarter Telegraphendraht- und Kabelfabrik A. Kreidler'. (Factory in Stuttgart(Germany) of telegraphwire and cables). The factory did good business in telephone-wires but after worldwar I and II the factory became bankrupt.

Anton's son Alfred Kreidler succesfully re-starts the factory again in 1945. He was a good leader and he knew how to involve his employees in the company. He also protected his employees socially. But besides cables, Alfred had other things on his mind: Alfred had a hobby : small and light motorcycles. And in 1950, 5 years after the war, there was a need for cheap, reliable motorcycles.
(Cars were ofcourse only for the rich in that days).

So Alfred, who in the 30's had built some motorcycles with friends allready, decided the time was right to go to produce 50 cc 2-stroke bikes. The Kreidler R50, the Roller is the first prototype and when this proofs to be a reliable bike (Gunther Markert rode around the world on a Kreidler R50 and the press wrote about that!) the production of the first Kreidler, the K50 starts in 1951.
In the following years Kreidler becomes a succes because they build very reliable bikes and when Kreidler succesfully breaks the worldspeedrecord 50 cc and also wins some worldchampionships 50 cc roadrace the Kreidlers become very popular.

Begin 80's it goes downhill with Kreidler. Cheaper and better bikes from Japan and a variety of Kreidler bikes that became too old-fashioned made Kreidler go bankrupt.
And finally in 1983 it's all over for Kreidler, it's THE END.

Until 1988 some mopeds 'Flirt-matic' are still being sold but this are Garelli's with a Kreidler sticker.
Also there is a scooter named Kreidler Florett, it's nice but from the far-East.
But, on a small scale the good old Kreidler Florett is still being built in my country, The Netherlands, so if you have the money, you can buy a new, 1980 model Kreidler! (John Bos in Goes, see All models 1982-2000 page.



_{Kreidler K 50 prototype, 1951}