Skoda Works was established as an arms manufacturer in
1859 and Skoda Auto (and its predecessors) is one of
five oldest companies that begun producing cars and
has an unbroken history (together with Tatra, Daimler,
Opel and Peugeot).

The origins of what became Skoda Auto go back to the
early 1890s where, like many long-established car
manufacturers, a company started out manufacturing
bicycles. It was 1894, and 26-year old Vaclav Klement,
who was a bookseller in Mlada Boleslav, in today's
Czech Republic, which was then part of Austria-
Hungary, was unable to obtain spare parts to repair
his German bicycle. Klement returned his bicycle to
the manufacturers, Seidel and Naumann, with a letter,
in Czech, asking them to carry out repairs, only to
receive a reply, in German, stating: "If you would
like an answer to your inquiry, you should try writing
in a language we can understand". A disgusted Klement,
despite not having technical experience, decided to
start a bicycle repair shop, which he and Vaclav

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