| The VeloBase History of MIFA |
| founded in 1907 as Mitteldeutsche Fahrradwerke by Emil Schütze and Emil Hesse. Initially, bicycles were marketed under the names Barbarossa and Million, and from 1912 as MIFA. During the First World War, armaments were produced and only from 1920 bicycles were produced again, from 1925 the production facility was expanded and modernized, and in 1927 already 79,000 bicycles were produced. In the course of the 1930s, production decreased more and more and was finally discontinued again in 1939 in favor of armaments. From July 1945, under Soviet occupation, production of mixed household items (lighters, curlers, etc.) was resumed, but soon bicycles, ball bearings and accessories for engines were also produced again. From 1946 MIFA was under Soviet ownership AWTOWELO AG, a large part of the production went to the Soviet Union as reparations. In the 1950s, the company was transferred to a publicly owned company (VEB) and produced large numbers of units (e.g., 115,000 units in 1950). In the 1960s, among other things, a very successful folding bicycle was developed, which was produced about 2.4 million times between 1967 and 86. From 1969, the production of sports bikes was taken over from VEB Diamantwerke, but these continued to be marketed under the Diamant brand. In 1973, the 5 millionth bike of the post-war production was counted. After German reunification, MIFA was initially transformed into a Limited liability Company(GmbH) and sold to two swiss businessmen in 1991-1995 bankruptcy followed. Under new management, the company was floated on the stock market in 2004. The bicycles, which were in the low-price sector, were assembled from components bought together worldwide. After various renaming and ownership changes, bicycle production has been carried out by the newly founded Zweirad Union e-Mobility GmbH & Produktion Co. KG since 2021.
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