The Foundation of the DKW Owners Club of Great Britain

"About a year has passed since the evening when Mr. Denys Middleton, in a small London restaurant, a little exhausted from a long speech, reached for his glass and asked those present to break out into a triple ‘cheers!’ to the successful founding of the new DKW Club of Great Britain. Since then, Mr. Stanley Williams, chief engineer of the British Overseas Airline Company and secretary of the DKW Club, has filled in 100 names and addresses of new club members from all over England.

Parade of English DKWs

"What, of all things," some will ask, "would drive Englanders to join together in a club that focuses on the trademark of a foreign manufacturer?” We could say it is a proof of sympathy - or should one better say ‘affection’ - as has so far not been shown to any other German make other than DKW. This is not surprising considering Sir Stafford Cripps, chancellor of the British Empire, dictated “Splendid Isolation" of the English economy after the war. The restrictions applied on their own market resulted in absolute import block from the foreign market. This background reveals the grey fact that England's automobile market was no less worn out at that time than in Germany. The logical consequence for any DKW driver would have been to swap his pre-war DKW for a new, English brand. One day even the most impatient among them got his "allocation" but - and now we come to the key point of our considerations - they didn't want to! They didn't want to lose their DKW, which for ten, twenty and even more years had the dust of England's streets on his back, in exchange for any other vehicle. Stott expected that one hundred (out of a total of more than four hundred still existing in England) DKW drivers would be prepared to form a club and community "through which they can help themselves” keep their beloved cars on the road.

Mr. Middleton, chairman of the club.

It is understandable that the wife of a well-known London doctor greets a farmer from Wales at a DKW club meeting with the words: "How is your piston doing?" While another club member is doing a Germany trip to fulfill the secret mission of smuggling a handful of cylinder head gaskets across the border unnoticed.

Exchange of experiences at DKW Club meetings.

The Englishman - far more than the German - loves his vehicle and invests great effort on its conservation. It is a hobby for him to have his 1932 DKW in such a state of repair today that an observer is faced with the question of whether it is a new old or an old new vehicle.

You can also find old DKW motorcycles in England

But one day - and this is of course the great hope of the English DKW drivers - the first new DKW cars will also arrive in the port, and then they will have no hesitation in saying "au-revoir" to their old veterans."

This write up of the founding of the DKW Owners Club of Great Britain was published in the DKW Nachrichten magazine volume 23 1953. The original Nachrichten magazine can be found here: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2019/03/1953-dkw-nachrichten-vol-23.html At this time Britain had implemented a trade embargo with Europe in order to encourage domestic production. DKW owners in Britain felt it was necessary to form a club where parts and knowledge could be exchanged in order to keep their cars on the road. This is a service the club continues to provide to this day: http://www.dkw.org.uk/