Sachs is a German manufacturer of motorcycles, mopeds, power-assited bicycles and ATVs.

At August 1, 1895 the Schweinfurter Präcisions-Kugellagerwerke Fichtel & Sachs oHG was founded in Schweinfurt by the inventor Ernst Sachs and the investor Karl Fichtel.
At the beginning it produced ball bearings and bycicle hub.

In 1911 - the year Fichtel died - the company had approximately 7,000 employees.

In 1923 the oHG was changed to a stock corporation, the ball bearing division was sold to the Swedish concern SKF with the condition that the production had to stay forever in Schweinfurt.

From 1929 until 1996 F&S also produced motors, first for bicycles, later also for motorbikes and even for very small cars, e.g. Messerschmitt Kabinenroller.
Also in 1929 F&S starts production of components for cars, mainly couplings and shock absorbers.

Ernst Sachs died in 1932, in 1936 his son Willy Sachs donatad the sport arena Willy-Sachs-Stadion to Schweinfurt. This present is still contentious because of Willy Sachs's membership of Nazi party.

In 1987 the German Mannesmann AG got the majority of F&S stocks, in 1997 F&S was renamed to Mannesmann Sachs AG.

In 2001 Sachs was sold to ZF Friedrichshafen AG and renamed to ZF Sachs AG .
The bycicle division was sold to US-company SRAM Corporation , so the Sachs group of ZF now concentrates on the production of car components for drive and chassis.
In 2003 the ZF Sachs AG had 16,511 employees in 19 countries and a volume of sales of 2,095 millions €.

External link

• Sachs Bikes
• http://www.sachs-ag.de/?weiter=2 // company page, in german
• http://www.bungartz.nl/hist-sachs.html // english, but today ( 2004-oct-11 ) "under construction"
• http://www.bungartz.nl/hist-sachs_d.html // the same page in german
• http://dhn.grahamedia.de/wss.html // about Willy-Sachs-Stadion, in german