KTM the war, demand for repair works fell sharply and Trunkenpolz started thinking about producing his own motorcycles. The prototype of his first motorcycle, the R100, was built in 1951. The components of the motorcycle were produced in house, except for the Rotax engines which were made by Fichtel & Sachs. Serial production of the "R100" started in 1953. With just 20 employees, motorcycles were built at the rate of three per day. In 1953, businessman Ernst Kronreif became a sizable shareholder of the company which was renamed and registered as "Kronreif & Trunkenpolz Mattighofen". In 1954, the "R125 Tourist" was
Austrian SS Austrian SS members were regular SS personnel. It was technically under the command of the SS in Germany, but often acted independently concerning Austrian affairs. The Austrian SS was founded in 1930 and, by 1934, was acting as a covert force to bring about the "Anschluss" with Germany, which occurred in March 1938. Early Austrian SS leaders were Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Arthur Seyss-Inquart. Austrian SS men were organized under the same manner as the "Allgemeine-SS", but operated as an underground organization, in particular after 1936 when the Austrian government declared the SS an illegal organization. Kaltenbrunner, for example, repeatedly made