I was always told that the EMW was the East German version of the BMW. In preparation for the war, Germany moved all its car and motorcycle manuacturing equipment to Eisenach, Germany so they could again manufacture airplane engines in Bavaria. After the war Eisenach was behind the Iron Curtain and they started manufacturing the R35 BMW again using the BMW Rondel. BMW finall sued them and won. That was when they cnaged the name to EMW All they had to do was take the front edge off the B and make it an E.

I have the 1951 version with the BMW Rondel on it. It is hand shift as they did not make any improvement to the bike. Most of the post war East German Made bikes were shipped to Russia