Max Hipstå was born in Bavaria in 1853. Little his known of his early life other than that he had worked as an Engineer on steam engines in the Bavarian Military, he retired with the rank of Captain and moved to Berlin to open Die Hipstå Fahrradfirma from a small workshop in the old city in the summer of 1893.
Exports to the emerging markets of central Europe quickly accelerated and demand for his high-quality but simple and low-cost cycles quickly grew and so did his factory output. His mechanisation of the manufacturing process was inspired by the great industrialists of England, and was instrumental in Germany's modernisation. In his time he was recognised as a pioneer in the simplification of bicycle design and was an early proponent of engineering processes specifically to reduce component count. Hipstå is credited with the development of the first double-diamond cycle frame, paving the way for the road bicycles still in use at time of writing.
In 1902 he employed a young schoolboy-apprentice named Jurgen Küntz, a young Berliner with an eye for detail and a passion building his own bicycles, and for competitive cycling. He was a believer in sturdy frames, and like his mentor, simple and reliable equipment. In 1905 he is credited with developing the first drop-handlebar for racing use, and In 1910 he had worked his way to the top of the company, becoming a full partner.
With exports to the US,UK and the low countries increasing exponentially as demand for this simple and effective transport increased, a new company was formed, registered in Berlin, Den Hague and London, The Hipstå-Küntz Cycle Co.
In 1914, with outbreak of The Great War the company was nationalised by the German Government and given over to small arms production whereupon it provided specialist small scale armaments in small runs.
In 1918 the Company was returned to its shareholders and resumed bicycle production, however, it never again reached the scale of its previous achievements, although many connoisseurs feel that their best bicycles were produced in the postwar period, 1918 to 1922. In March 1923, with demand almost at a standstill the company was absorbed by Daimler BV.
Max Hipstå died peacefully in his sleep at his Berlin home in March 1938 aged 83. He was a senior member of the Nazi Party and had given much of time over philanthropic causes advancing the promotion of Aryan purity. He credited his long life to the residual fitness that cycling had given him and a love of pure German beer.
He had two sons, both senior SS officers and both casualties of the Second World War. The eldest, Max, was lost during the infamous British aggression against Dresden while Ernest, his youngest son was executed for war crimes following his work at Belsen.
The same year Jurgen Küntz, fearing persecution for his political views and with the political situation in Germany becoming more tense, sought and received political refugee status in the UK. Records are sparse as he changed the family name sometime in 1948-1949, perhaps due to unfortunate linguistic coincidence, with only heavily redacted Interior Ministry and Political Surveillance records detailing infrequent checks on his political activities surviving.
Historians believe that he settled in Shoreditch, East London where he eventually found a career in the media. It is thought that he had many children before his death in 1965 at the age of 90.
Whilst the Hipstå-Küntz never challenged the dominance of Raleigh, BSA and Sturmey Archer in the global bicycle industry, many of their innovations were quickly picked up by the British corporations and many are still an integral part of bicycle design today.
This bike is a tribute to their pioneering work.
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