A boxer engine from the pre-war KS 600 in the frame of a 250 mock-up. The photo montage became the template for the first prototype of the KS 601.

Like so many good ideas, the concept underlying Zündapp's first new post-war development, the KS 601, was the result of tossing possibilities around. A Zündapp employee, whose name is unfortunately lost to history, took scissors and glue to some old brochures and added the image of a KS engine to a draft of a tubular frame with front and rear telescopic suspension. Zündapp's senior design engineer Ernst Schmidt liked this not entirely intentional design and had it implemented immediately.