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Suffragette with scooter: Florence Norman on her scooter (1916)
The most sensually spoiled the French the new gadget from overseas: A drawing of 1921 in the French erotic magazine "La Vie Parisienne" shows a narrow beauty on a scooter. Gladly she clings to the handlebars, the dress flutters in the wind. In front of her on the running board sits a stark naked creature with flowers in her hair and wings on her back.
"L'amour est mon moteur", stands under the drawing, "love is my engine". Cupid as a driving force? This was true for the readers of men's magazines - but not for the scooter: A sleazy single-cylinder four-stroke engine, developed by the German-born inventor Joseph F. Merkel, brought the vehicle on tour.
Two wheels, in between a running board with handlebar and finished was the car - the ancestor of the modern e-scooter. Around 1915, the New York-based company Autoped Company of Long Iceland City launched its (admittedly gasoline-powered) scooter on the market. Although electric vehicles were more popular than vehicles with internal combustion engines at the beginning of the century, the batteries required for a scooter were still too heavy and bulky at the time.
"Malice of an eel"
Euphorically praised the manufacturers their "motor vehicle for millions" as a solution to all transport problems: The good 30 km / h fast car scooter with 1.5 hp is the "ideal short-haul vehicle" to bring workers to the job. Or housewives for shopping, doctors for daily home visits, children to school, dealers to the customer.
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Historic scooters: "No one has to walk in the future""Everyone will enjoy the comfort and enjoyment of autopeding," was the advertising promise. US aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart even promoted the scooter in newspaper advertisements with the slogan: "No one has to walk in the future."
In New York and other cities, Swiss Post used the companions to deliver letters and parcels; Even criminal gangs are said to have used the scooters, according to US media like to spit on the police. Fans celebrated the scooter as a synonym for freedom and modernity, the opponents fought back - like today - with fervor against it.
The New York Herald, for example, wrote in October 1916: "One-man devilish vehicle could spread urban life with new terror." As a "haughty descendant of the boys toy" the sheet called the car scooter, with the "mind of an untamed horse and the malice of an eel".
The new means of transport is ridiculous, dangerous and annoying, so the criticism. In the wake of the first scooter era in the US, only a few thousand copies were produced, estimates US technology historian Peter Norton, a professor at the University of Virginia. Nevertheless, the displeasure of the non-motorized mass was also directed against the scooter. And social envy further fueled the rage: With $ 100 (equivalent to about $ 2350 today) quite expensive vehicle could afford, especially the elite.
Tumult in Hyde Park
During the First World War, the scooter trend sloshed to Europe, where self-confident early adopters took it as a fancy accessory. People like US actress Shirley Kellogg, who caused tumult in January 1917, according to the British magazine Motor Cycling, when she rattled through London's Hyde Park by car, until a policeman stopped her.
The British suffrage activist Florence Priscilla Norman also cruised through London's streets on two wheels during the First World War. A photograph of 1916 shows the Baron's daughter in the flowing coat, she stands straight on the running board of her scooter - a birthday present from her husband, the liberal deputy Sir Henry Norman. Here's the message with the women's suffrage, or we'll blow you off!
Alfred Gross / ullstein picture
Grenades to scooters: early adopter on the Krupp "Motor Runner" (around 1920)
After Germany came the US scooter only after the war. Steel baron Krupp produced a 1.30 meter long "motor rotor" from 1919 under license. "The vehicle belonged as well as the Krupp cash registers to the peace products on which the company had relocated, after it was over with the gunsmiths for the time being," the SPIEGEL wrote in 1955. Swords to plowshares, grenades to scooters.
"Cheap, safe and comfortable"
As a "link between the motorcycle and the ordinary bike" the Krupp scooter concludes an important gap in the market, is easy to use and "cheap, safe and comfortable," wrote an editor of the "Krupp Monatshefte" in August 1920.
Unlike the original US model had produced in Essen "motor rotor" a chunky saddle and a horsepower more, otherwise the principle was the same. Also, the "motor rotor" had a front-wheel drive, disengaging and braking was done by covering the handlebar, you accelerated by light forward leaning.
The photo of a gentleman - who looked rather cramped - demonstrated how the collapsible model supposedly effortlessly lumbered into the apartment. "In the traffic image of German cities should soon show in increasing numbers of Krupp scooters and a 'weighty Wörtlein in the future traffic life have a say'," predicted the mill magazine 1920th And thus was completely wrong.
Rolled out after three years
Because the Krupp scooter flopped, despite the impeccable Merkel engine. And although the company's heritage Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach himself rushed around with it. According to historian Ralf Stremmel from the Krupp archive, teenager Alfried even stood in front of the camera for a scooter commercial. It did not help: in 1922 Krupp stopped production after only three years.
How many "motor runners" the armaments giant produced in total, could not determine Stremmel. The fact that he did not succeed in the market, according to contemporary explanations, was mainly due to the poor road conditions. Added to this was the economic crisis of the Weimar Republic.
Even in his country of origin, the scooter ancestor was not successful - the car was only produced until 1921. According to US historian Norton, this was due to the high price and the uncomfortable handling: "They were too expensive to leave at the door and too heavy to carry them inside."
In addition, the original scooter had been slow and loud, the driver had to laboriously push his vehicle to start, felt every bump. "Four-wheeled vehicles made the race for supremacy on the road back then," said Norton. Especially since the early scooter drivers did not even know where to drive: "On the road it was too stressful for the autopeds, on the sidewalk mostly prohibited" - very similar to the year 2019.
And women's rights activist Florence Norman, wearer of the British Equestrian Order and icon of the very first scooter era? Even the British suffragette switched from two- to four-wheelers: instead of posing dignifiedly on their parked scooter, Norman engaged in World War II for the destitute population - and rattled through a mobile field kitchen through London's streets.