Why did the German motorcycle market collapse in the 1950s and 1960s in favor of Italian scooter manufacturers such as Vespa and Lambretta?

The German motorcycle market did not collapse due to Italian scooter manufacturers, but because the automobile was increasingly undergoing. With rapidly increasing prosperity, motorcyclists now changed to the growing range of small and small cars or the buyers waived the purchase of a two-wheeler from the outset. The scooters, on the other hand, spoke to a clientele from the beginning, which would normally never have been driving motorcycles, but a car could not afford yet.

Compared to the motorbike, the downturn at the scooters was a little delayed. In Germany, by the way, the German manufacturers dominated the market very quickly with their own models. The large German travel scooters were more attractive to many buyers than the (German) licensed buildings of Italian models – despite the higher purchase costs. The Vespa, originally built by Hoffmann, had the market leadership only in the year of its launch in 1950. It only reached this position at the beginning of the 1960s after most German producers had stopped their production. At that time, however, the scooter market was as good as dead. Compared to 1955 (approximately 95,000 trains), sales had already halved in 1959 and later were in the four-digit and then even in the three-digit range per year.

My father, who curiously first drove a used Vespa and then a motorcycle, bought his first car in 1955. He never touched a motorized two-wheeler again.