Vintage Poster Archives
NSU Motorräder 1922 | Lehmann-Steglitz Motorcycle Poster
NSU Motorräder 1922 | Lehmann-Steglitz Motorcycle Poster
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A helmeted racer in a yellow leather suit crouches low over a dark NSU motorcycle, the machine angled sharply upward toward the viewer on an unbroken black ground. Bold teal speed-lines arc behind the figure. The NSU logotype in large teal block capitals occupies the upper third; cream italic brush lettering at the foot reads Motorräder Touren u. Sportmodelle. The composition uses four colours and a low viewing angle to reduce a motorcycle and rider to a single visual gesture of forward momentum.
Designed by Martin Lehmann-Steglitz for NSU Motorenwerke, Neckarsulm, around 1922. Martin Lehmann (1884–1950), working with his twin brother Walter from their Berlin-Steglitz advertising studio founded in 1913, produced some of the most assured commercial graphic work of Weimar-era Germany. NSU, founded in 1873 and producing motorcycles from 1901, was expanding its touring and sport model range into a post-war German consumer market when this poster was commissioned. The design was produced in both paper poster and enamel sign versions, printed by the Aetz- und Emaillierwerk Robert Dold, Offenburg.
The work sits at the point where the pre-war decorative lithograph tradition gives way to the geometric palette discipline of Art Deco. The two-tone amber-yellow and teal against black anticipates the saturated commercial colour language of mid-1920s German advertising art. It is a direct antecedent of the Plakatstil approach: one figure, one gesture, one brand name.
Reproduced as an archival print on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper. Printed to order and supplied rolled. A considered choice for anyone engaged with Weimar graphic design, early German motorcycling history, or the intersection of Art Deco and industrial advertising.
