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Hercules
Carl Marschütz started making bicycles in Nuremberg, Germany in 1884 at the age of 20, creating the Hercules brand in 1885 and founding Carl Marschuetz & Co in 1886. Marschütz started making electric cars & trucks in 1898 followed by motorcycles in 1904. In 1938 Germany's Nuremberg Racial Purity Laws forced the Marschütz family to emigrate to the USA, selling the company to a local doctor who made cough drops. WWII saw the destruction of Nuremberg's factories after which it was acquired by Triumph-Werke in 1948 and then Fichtel & Sachs AG in 1963, Mannesmann in 1987, ATAG Cycle Group in 1995, Accell Germany and finally https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zweirad_Einkaufs_Genossenschaft|Zweirad-Einkaufs-Genossenschaft (ZEG)]] in 2014. Carl Marschütz lived in retirement in Los Angeles until 1957.
Today a full range to Hercules bicycles are available from https://www.hercules-bikes.de, built in Hungary and Asia.
Other Hercules bike manufacturers have existed alongside Hercules of Germany:
- Hercules Cycle & Motor Co., of Birmingham, England : 1910 → 2003 wikipedia
- At one point they considered themselves the world's largest bike manufacturer, producing over 500,000/year in the 1930s. Not related to Nuremberg's Hercules.
https://herculesmuseum.wordpress.com/hercules-werke-ag-nurnberg-germany/
- Hercules Bicycles of India : 1951 → today https://hercules.in
- An off-shoot of Hercules, UK.
Resources:
Marschütz's factory, ca. 1930.
nordbayern
Hercules-Werke, ca. 1896
pinterest
Carl Marschütz, at left, ca. 1883.
artsandculture.google.com