Friedel Münch - the pioneer who installed car engines in motorcycles
06/01/2014
On April 27, 2014, Germany's famous designer Friedel Münch, known for his motorcycles under his own name, passed away after a long illness.
Born in 1927, Münch was the designer and manufacturer of the Münch motorcycles "Mammut", "Münch-4" and "Titan", which he developed.
After the Second World War, he began racing motorcycles in 1948, but after a bad crash in 1949 he gave up further starts and devoted himself entirely to designing
and building motorcycles.
In 1954, he made a brief guest appearance at Horex before taking over his father's workshop in 1962. Here, in 1964, Münch manufactured and sold the "Münch racing brake", a duplex drum front wheel brake for racing and road motorcycles, which he had developed.
Although the two-wheeler market in Germany was at rock bottom in the mid-1960s, Münch continued to believe in the motorcycle and from then on planned his "dream machine"!
When a school friend of Münch's came to visit in spring 1965 with his NSU Prinz 1000 TT and saw the NSU's in-line four-cylinder OHC engine, the decision was made to build his own motorcycle - the "Münch Mammut" was "born", which he now called the "Münch-4" due to naming rights!
In 1966, it was presented to the public at the IFMA and the motorcycle world turned upside down.
However, even the entry of investors could not prevent the company from going bankrupt several times, partly due to very high production costs, and in 1974 it was Heinz W. Henke who bought the entire bankruptcy estate, including the naming rights, from him.
In 1976 Münch founded his own company again, "Horex-Motorrad GmbH", and in the following years the Münch-4 Turbo, Horex 1400 TI and the Titan 1600 were produced here.
As an enthusiastic technician and designer, Friedel Münch unfortunately attached little importance to the profitability of his company and financial problems often accompanied production, but production of the Münch-4 could be maintained until 1980.
In 1987 Münch started MT-Motorentschnik-GmbH and in 1990 the "Titan 2000" was completed. Even a stroke in 1991 did not prevent him from "tinkering" again on a motorcycle of superlatives and in 2000 the Münch-Mammut-2000 "Versuch" was ready!
From 2000 to 2008, Münch ran his private engine museum, which had to be closed for health reasons.
In a unique way, Friedel Münch's motorcycles have had a great influence on motorcycle construction to this day, e.g. he created ...
- the first production motorcycle with a four-cylinder in-line engine!
- the first production motorcycle with fuel injection!
- the first cast wheels on a motorcycle!
- the first turbo motorcycles in a small series!
Until his death, Friedel Münch, unfortunately confined to a wheelchair, lived a very secluded life together with his wife in a nursing home for the elderly. He lived to be 87 years old.
