Descendants of Jewish brothers forced to sell company to Nazis say appropriation by German far right is ‘repulsive’
The Jewish descendants of a German motorbike manufacturer that was forced by the Nazis to be relinquished have voiced their repulsion at the appropriation of the vehicle by far-right populists.
Members of the family, whose ancestors were forced to flee Germany in the 1930s, say they consider the use of the bike’s name by the anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) as a “mockery of our history”.
The origins of the Simson moped go back to 1856, when brothers Löb and Moses Simson founded the company in Suhl, Thuringia – now an AfD stronghold.
It was the most popular form of two-wheel mobility during communism, when cars were hard to come by. It gave many teenagers in particular their first taste of freedom.
