Stransky-Steinhagen

Motorcycle engine made in 1930s by Steinhagen & Stransky factory based in Warsaw. Artur Steinhagen has founded the engine manfacture in Warsaw in 1931, together with his partner Henryk Stránský, who had worked earlier for Skoda automobile factory in Czech Republic. They produced engines for motorcycles, cars, boats and aeroplanes. Among others, Polish motorcycle manufactures Tornedo and Perkun were using Stransky-Steinhagen engines. Short before WW2 Stransky and Steinhagen were employing about 400 workers. The factory was taken over by Germans when they entered Warsaw in 1939. It didn't stop Artur Steinhagen from producing machine guns for Polish Home Army, the main resistance movement in Poland. He did it in deep conspiracy. He was arrested in 1943 and he died in Majdanek camp soon after. The factory was blown up by Germans before they left Warsaw in 1944.

Artur Steinhagen. The photograph was shot through during the Warsaw Uprising (from www.polacyzwyboru.pl)