Low water: the story of the Wehrmacht motorbike from the Danube
Record low water levels in Budapest have revealed a perfectly preserved Wehrmacht DKW NZ 350-1 motorcycle in the Danube. Where did it serve, and do the dead nearby belong to its crew? Euronews investigates the story of the Danube motorbike.
By Laura Fleischmann
Published on 08/08/2026 - 8:45 GMT+2•Updated 11/08/2026 - 7:20 GMT+2
The water level in the Danube has never been this low. The low water is exposing what has lain hidden on the river bed 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, which was later taken over by Auto Union.
The motorcycle was found in the riverbed in the middle of Hungary's capital, Budapest, level with the Hungarian Parliament building. For staff at the local Institute and Museum of Military History it is truly a once-in-a-century find. According to the institute, the vehicle is almost completely intact. It was preserved in the Danube's mud.
The motorcycle discovered is a model that was developed specifically for the war and produced from 1944 onwards. It was powered by a two-stroke engine delivering 11.5 hp. Thanks to their robustness and reliability, the bikes were popular with the troops. One of the distinctive features of the DKW 350-1 is the metal pannier on the side, which is also present on the bike recovered from the Danube.
Around 12,000 units were built by the end of the war in 1945. According to the ADAC, the predecessor model DKW NZ 350 reached a top speed of 105 km/h. In the Wehrmacht, motorcycles were mostly used as dispatch, reconnaissance or courier vehicles.
The motorcycle was manufactured by Auto Union AG, a car and motorcycle producer founded in 1932, then the second-largest manufacturer after Opel. Auto Union AG was formed through the merger of several brands, including Audi.
On earlier models from the manufacturer, the parts of the frame were still bolted together. On the NZ series they were welded. Because this required a high level of electricity, the work could only be carried out at night, when the power grid was not otherwise under strain.
German Teller mines 35, which at the time were used against tanks, as well as remnants of hand grenades and artillery shells, were also found on the bed of the Danube. This stretch of the river may have been used as a 'war rubble pit', according to the Hungarian Institute of Military History.
From March 1944 German troops laid siege to Budapest. Between October 1944 and February 1945 the Battle of Budapest took place 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 capitulated.
After the war, DKW's production facilities were dismantled and taken to the Soviet Union as reparations. In Moscow and other locations they were used until 1951 to manufacture the largely identical ISCH-350 in large numbers.
Human remains were lying beneath the motorcycle. The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (German War Graves Commission) took charge of the recovery and says they are the mortal remains of 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 there were more than 5,500.
