Low water: the story behind the Wehrmacht motorbike from the Danube
Record low water levels have revealed a perfectly preserved Wehrmacht motorbike in the Danube in Budapest: a DKW NZ 350-1 from the Second World War. Where was this model used, and are the dead its riders? Euronews investigates the story of the Danube motorbike.
By Laura Fleischmann
Published on 08/08/2026 - 8:45 GMT+2•Updated 11/08/2026 - 8:04 GMT+2
The water level in the Danube has never been this low. The low water has revealed what lay hidden on the riverbed for decades, including a Wehrmacht motorcycle of the DKW NZ 350-1 type from the Second World War. DKW stands for the abbreviation of "Dampfkraftwagen", a former German car and motorcycle brand from the Saxon motor city of Zschopau that was later taken over by Auto Union.
The motorcycle was found in the riverbed in the centre of Hungary's capital, Budapest, at the level of the Hungarian Parliament building. For staff at the local Institute and Museum of Military History, it is a genuine once-in-a-century find. The vehicle is almost completely intact, the institute reports. It was preserved in the Danube's mud.
The motorcycle recovered is a model developed specifically for the war and produced from 1944 onwards. It was equipped with a two-stroke engine producing 11.5 hp. Their robustness and reliability made these bikes popular with the troops. The DKW 350-1 is easy to recognise by the metal pannier mounted on the side – a feature also found on the bike from the Danube.
Around 12,000 units were built by the end of the war in 1945. According to the ADAC, the predecessor model, the DKW (source in German) NZ 350, had a top speed of 105 km/h. Within the Wehrmacht, motorcycles were used primarily as dispatch, reconnaissance or courier vehicles.
The motorcycle was built by Auto Union AG, a car and motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1932 and, at the time, the second-largest producer after Opel. Auto Union AG was formed by merging several marques, including Audi.
On earlier models from the manufacturer, the frame parts were still bolted together. On the NZ series they were welded. Because this required a high power supply, the welding could only be carried out at night, when the grid was not under other strain.
German Teller mines 35, used against tanks at the time, as well as remnants of hand grenades and artillery shells, have also been found on the bed of the Danube. This stretch of the river may have been used as a "war debris dump", according to Hungary's Military History Institute.
From March 1944 German troops besieged Budapest. Between October 1944 and February 1945 this culminated in the Battle of Budapest between the Soviet Red Army and German and Hungarian forces. Around 30,000 German, more than 17,000 Hungarian and about 80,000 Soviet and Romanian soldiers were killed. On 13 February 1945 the remaining German units surrendered.
After the war, DKW's production facilities were dismantled and taken to the Soviet Union as part of reparations. In Moscow and other locations, they were used until 1951 to manufacture, in large numbers, the largely identical ISCH-350.
Human remains were found beneath the motorcycle. The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (German War Graves Commission) took charge of the recovery and says the remains belong to two Wehrmacht soldiers. The crew of the motorcycle? Their identity tags are well preserved, so they should be identifiable. The two dead men are to be buried at the German war cemetery in Budaörs, west of Budapest. More than 16,000 German soldiers are buried there.
The Volksbund is a non-profit association which, on behalf of the federal government, searches for, recovers and buries war dead abroad. In 2025 alone, it handled more than 5,500 cases.
