A Brief History of the Marque
Manufactured: 1955-1956, DDR
Former Junkers designers Roland Berger and Werner Deglau brought examples of Lambretta, Glas Goggo and Zundapp Bella scooters to East Germany in 1953 and using ideas from these developed the Pitty.
In June of 1954 a 125 prototype was ready, and 75 of these were built. They proved a disaster - poor welding and other problems plagued the new machines, and experienced riders were hurt due to mechanical failure. All 75 were returned to the factory, repaired, and with a further 39 machines released back to the now somewhat dubious public "making the roads unsafe again" 1.
According to one source over 11,000 scooters were delivered, and once the numerous bugs were sorted out the owners were quite happy with them. 2 However, other sources give very different production figures and indicate that the whole project was an unmitigated disaster. A senior figure involved in the Pitty escaped to the West with less than glowing reports. Towards the end of 1956 the Wiesel was released, and this proved more successful.
The nose of the Pitty was used on the both the Piccolo and the Krause Trumpf.
Sources: SLUB, iwl-stadtroller-berlin.de, Der Speigel
Notes
1. Der Speigel
2. iwl-stadtroller-berlin.de
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