GERMANY - In tutto il mondo VESPA All over the world

The first Vespa 125 manufactured in Germany by the licensee Hoffmann-Werke in Lintorf (Düsseldorf) – with whom Piaggio enters into its first licensing agreement in the summer of 1949 – is presented at the Frankfurt Exhibition in the spring of 1950. Production is launched in March (the first Vespa rolls off the German production line on 14 March, to be precise), but by September 1954, it has already stopped: Hoffmann breaks the licensing agreements by producing a non-approved model, the Vespa 125 Königin. Up to this point, an amazing 60,000 Vespas have been produced. In 1955, Piaggio enters an agreement with a company with similarly aeronautical roots, Messerchmitt of Regensburg, in Bavaria, which begins assembling 150 cc models first and foremost, which prove particularly popular with the German public. In 1957 Messerschmitt gives up its licence. Piaggio takes over the Ausburg facility and founds Vespa GmbH, a subsidiary company which it uses to assemble the engines and scooter bodies that arrive from Pontedera. Despite fierce local competition, Vespa wins the hearts of the German people: in 1959, the Vespa Clubs number 172, with a total of more than 5,000 members.