Walter Kaaden

Who was Walter Kaaden?

Walter Kaaden was a German engineer who improved the performance of two-stroke engines by understanding the role of resonance waves in the exhaust system. Working for the MZ Motorrad- und Zweiradwerk part of the Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau, he laid the foundations of the modern two-stroke engine. His understanding of gas flow and resonance enabled him to make the first engine to achieve 200BHP/litre with his 1961 125cc racer. His motorcycle engines were ridden to 13 Grand Prix victories and a further 105 podium finishes between 1955 and 1976.

Walter Kaaden was born in Pobershau, Saxony, Germany. His father worked as chauffeur to the sales manager at the DKW factory. At eight years old he attended the opening of the Nürburgring racing circuit, a formative event to which he later attributed his enthusiasm for engineering.

Kaaden studied at the Technical Academy in Chemnitz. In 1940 he joined the Henschel aircraft factory at Berlin-Schönefeld working under Herbert A. Wagner, the designer of the Hs 293 radio-guided rocket-propelled missile. Despite many reports to the contrary, Kaaden did not work on the V-1 flying bomb nor under Wernher von Braun on the V-2 German rocket program during the Second World War. From 1943 he worked at the Peenemünde Army Research Center on the Hs 293 project as a 'flight engineer'. But the bombing of Peenemünde in World War II in July/August 1944 destroyed the facilities there. The Germans then moved missile production and testing into the secure, deep tunnel network built beneath the Harz mountains at Mittelwerk. This is where Kaaden was transferred along with the Hs 293 project.