Europe's Ongoing Drought Just Unearthed a WWII Motorcycle Left In a River

What's the restoration costs, you think?

Photo by: Museum of Military History

By: Jonathon Klein

Aug 7, at 7:53am ET

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I originally wanted to be Indian Jones—didn't we all?—and even went to school for anthropology. I studied past civilizations, our proto-human ancestors, did a bit of hands-on work at the Field Museum in Chicago during one particular class, and even wrote a paper on how you could detect cannibalism in past civilizations through nitrogen content within their bones. No kerf marks required.

What's all that strange coursework have to do with RideApart? Well, when I see things that are part of our history, part of humanity's history, come up, it scratches that old itch of wanting to don my fedora, break out a whip, and start punching Nazis while I look for artifacts that belong in a museum. Yet, it's Nazi artifacts that are now creeping into the public's eye thanks to Europe's ongoing climate change-induced drought, which has seen Hungary's Danube fall to such levels that Germany's World War II history is being unearthed once again.

And this time, it's a Nazi motorcycle found in Budapest. Sorry, the Ark of the Covenant was not found with it. That's in Area 51.

Europe's continuing drought has caused a raft of problems for the continent, as water levels have fallen across the region to such a degree that some nations are turning off hydroelectric dams that offer power to huge swaths of its citizenry. And major rivers such as the Danube, which offer waterways for interstate trade, electricity, and more, are drying up to hitherto unseen levels, with many nations seriously concerned about their ongoing health.

However, in their record-low states, they're offering tantalizing looks into the past, with all manner of ancient and more modern artifacts being unearthed, including mammoth bones, German warships, and most importantly for our audience, a German DKW NZ 350-1 motorcycle, which was found in Budapest, along with "anti-tank mines, hand grenades, artillery shell fragments, German and Soviet infantry ammunition, animal bones and civilian pottery," according to Hungary Today.

The DKW NZ 350-1 came out at the tail end of World War II, as according to a site on DKW's history, "[the] German Wehrmacht wanted a more suitable bike for their Army," and commissioned the project around 1943. It was powered by an air-cooled 346cc, 1-cyl, 2-stroke cast-iron engine—due to aluminum shortages—and produced a whopping 11 horsepower with a four-speed transmission. It then went into service the following year, and then, well, Hitler pulled a Hitler and went out like a punk. But in the year or so the NZ 350-1 was in service, it made its way to modern Hungary and somehow into the Danube River right in the heart of Budapest.

Hungary Today reported that "Passers-by spotted the fork of a motorcycle protruding from beneath the rocks along the embankment at Batthyány Square, prompting specialists from the Museum to investigate. They confirmed that the object was a remarkably well-preserved German DKW NZ 350-1 military motorcycle dating back to World War II." The outlet added, "Excavation of the motorcycle and its surroundings began the following day. As layers of mud and debris were removed, archaeologists uncovered a wide variety of accompanying finds, suggesting that the site may have served as a 'wartime dumping pit,' where military equipment and other debris were discarded after the Siege of Budapest."

Basically, the Nazis knew they were beat and didn't want the enemy to get their hands on their equipment, so they tossed everything that could be used against them into the Danube. Again, Nazis are coward-ass punks.

What do you think?

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The motorcycle has since been excavated and taken to the Museum and Institution of Military History. There, according to officials, it'll go through a cleaning and restoration regimen so that it can be preserved. Other artifacts were also transported to the museum, while bomb disposal techs dealt with the still-live munitions also recovered from the area.

But while the rivers running dry is deeply concerning, it's still cool to see history once again remind us that it wasn't all that long ago. And that motorcycles have basically been used in war since their inception. A practice that continues into today.