| Gerald Böhm, Hector Fratty, Christian Bemmer, Ralf Klädtke, Stefan Hauptmann |
Last month, ZKW celebrated their 80th birthday! The company’s story started in 1938 when Karl Zizala received his trade license for the start-up. The firm grew constantly and in 1947 ground was broken for a plant in Berging, lower Austria. At that time ZKW—which stood for “Zizala Karl in Wien”, that is “Karl Zizala of Vienna”—produced supplies for cars, motorcycles, and bicycles. In 1953 a permanent establishment in Wieselburg was acquired, and a year later production started with metal components for the Lohner and Puch plants not far away.
In the ’50s ZKW held a 50% share of motorcycle maker KTM, though this was terminated at the beginning of the 80s.
Vehicle minor lights, windscreen wipers, and signal horns were the company’s main products in the 1960s. In 1973 Karl Zizala passed away and his family took over the company, then in 1982 sold ZKW to the industrialist family Mommert.
A few years later the first headlamp was produced and in 1990 Ulrich Mommert took over ZKW.
And recently in 2018 ZKW was taken over by LG.