In 1922, inventor Abram Neiman moved to Germany. There, he established himself as an engineer and worked in small machine shops, fabricating and modifying tools and parts - including those used on motorbikes. Neiman, who had been born into a Jewish family in 1893, took an avid interest in motorcycling. Before long, he was designing and developing high-performance parts for his own racing bikes; these finely tuned machines, however, were then stolen. Understandably, Neman began thinking about ways to better secure the bikes - and penned a system that would lock the forks, rendering the bike unrideable and hard to move. Improving the security of his motorcycles quickly became a secondary concern, however, as Nazi rule established itself ni Germany. Before long, Neiman was forced to fleet o France in order toavoid persecution. Unfortunately, his parents were not so lucky - and disappeared during the Holocaust. When the war concluded, Neiman returned to his designs and set about putting his ideas into production. He acquired several going concerns in France, including the motorcycle horn company Klaxon, and soon established a company bearing his own name. By 1965, the Neiman plant was producing 25,000 locks a week - alongside many other parts. By 1970, the facilities were reputedly capable of producing five million locks per year.