Audi History

Source: AudiAudi's history is one of the most many-faceted stories ever told in the history of the automobile in general. The Audi emblem with its four rings identifies one of Germany's oldest-established automobile manufacturers. It symbolises the amalgamation in 1932 of four previously independent motor-vehicle manufacturers: Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer. These companies form the roots of what is today AUDI AG.

The Audi badge – the 'Four Rings' – is the emblem of one of the oldest car manufacturers in Germany.

On 14 November 1899, August Horch (1868 - 1951) established the company A. Horch & Cie. in the Ehrenfeld district of Cologne. Here he developed his first car, which was completed at the beginning of 1901. The company moved to Reichenbach in Saxony in March 1902 and converted to a share-issuing company two years later, which involved a further change in location. On 10 May 1904, A. Horch & Cie. Motorwagen-Werke AG was established in Zwickau.

The first Horch car took to the road in 1901: it had a horizontal engine which developed about 4-5 hp. An additional small piston in the engine was designed to absorb the vibrations of the crankshaft. August Horch referred to this as his 'impact-free' engine. Another new feature was the alloy crankcase, a pioneering achievement in car manufacturing.

Following the establishment of the company in Cologne in 1899 and its relocation to Reichenbach in Saxony in 1902, the success of Horch cars made it clear that the factory had to be expanded. On the advice of his business associates, August Horch decided to establish a share-issuing company. New premises were found in Zwickau. Production started in 1904, the beginning of a long tradition of car manufacture in Zwickau.

1906 saw the launch of the 'Sulmobil', a three-wheeled vehicle with a 3.5 hp motorcycle engine. However, the 'Sulmobil' was not a success. As a result, the first 'Original Neckarsulm Motor Car', with a 1308 cc four-cylinder engine and 10 hp, went into production the same year.

In 1904 Jörgen Skafte Rasmussen set up on his own as a manufacturer of boiler fittings. In 1906 he purchased a textile mill in Zschopau, Saxony. Production started there in 1907. During the First World War Rasmussen worked on a steam-driven vehicle ('Dampfkraftwagen'), from which the three letters DKW were derived.

In 1909 August Horch got into a dispute with the supervisory board of A. Horch & Cie. Motorwagen-Werke AG. Horch left the company he had set up. Shortly after, on 16 July 1909, he established a second company, Horch Automobil-Werke GmbH, in the same city. Horch lost the legal dispute over the company name. However, a solution to the problem was found: the Latin translation of his name (the German word for 'hark!'). The new company name, Audiwerke GmbH, became effective on 25 April 1910.

The first Wanderer car with a 5/12 hp four-cylinder engine was test driven in 1912. It went into series production in 1913. This small Wanderer car had not been on the market very long when it became a stage star in the operetta 'Puppchen' (which can be translated loosely as 'darling') by Jean Gilbert. The title song was rather catchy: 'Darling, you are the apple of my eye, darling, I think the world of you.' From then on the little Wanderer was known simply by the name 'Puppchen'.

The International Austrian Alpine Run was one of the most famous races of its time. August Horch took part in an Audi for the first time in 1911 and won first prize. This encouraged him to enter an Audi team in the challenge trophy in the years 1912 to 1914. Audi won the team prize in each of these three years. The Alpine Challenge Trophy was presented to the Audi drivers on 27 June 1914.

1921 Audi introduces left-hand drive
Right-hand drive originated from the age of the horse and carriage, when the coachman sat on the right-hand side. In September 1921 Audi became the first German car manufacturer to present a production car with left-hand drive, the Audi Type K. By giving the driver a better view of oncoming traffic, consequently making overtaking manoeuvres in particular safer, left-hand drive became established by the end of the 1920s.

1922 The Start of DKW motorcycle manufacture
In 1922 the company Zschopauer Motorenwerke started manufacturing its own motorcycles. The sporting successes of the lightweight motorcycles with 2.25 hp two-stroke engine were remarkable. Victories in the Berlin Avus race in 1922 and the triple victory by the DKW team in the ADAC Reichsfahrt the same year made people sit up and take notice. The first DKW motorcycle was consequently called the 'Reichsfahrt'. Over the next six years Zschopauer Motorenwerke/DKW established itself as the world's biggest motorcycle manufacturer.

1926 Horch - the first German eight-cylinder
In 1926 Horchwerke AG of Zwickau presented the Horch 303 Berlin. This was the first German eight-cylinder car to go into volume production. The engine designed by Paul Daimler had double overhead camshafts driven by a vertical shaft. With a displacement of 3132 cc, the engine initially developed an output of 60 horsepower.

1928 Start of DKW car production
Rasmussen finally had access to a powerful engine for the DKW car (600 cc, 15 hp) in the form of the two-cylinder motorcycle unit (1927). The vehicle, which had a load-bearing body covered in imitation leather, had rear-wheel drive. It was produced in the Spandau district of Berlin from 1928.

1931 The first volume-built car with front-wheel drive
In August 1928 J. S. Rasmussen acquired the majority of shares in Audiwerke AG. He had the DKW small car with front-wheel drive produced in large numbers at this company in Zwickau from 1931. This car also had a wooden body covered in imitation leather and the typical DKW two-stroke engine. This design formed the basis for one of the most successful German small cars of the 1930s, over 250,000 of which left the Zwickau plant up to 1942.

1932 Auto Union AG is established
On 29th June 1932, the four Saxon motor-vehicle brands Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer joined forces to create Auto Union AG, which had its head office in Chemnitz. The new company group was consequently able to serve all market segments, from light motorcycles to luxury saloon cars.

The first Audi with front-wheel drive
At the 1933 Berlin Motor Show, Auto Union AG presented the new Audi, its first standard-size passenger car with front-wheel drive. The company used a kind of modular design principle for the first time and the Wanderer six-cylinder engine.

1934 The Auto Union grand prix racing cars
The new Auto Union received its greatest popularity boost with the success of a racing car design that was based on plans by Ferdinand Porsche. The sixteen-cylinder engine was installed behind the driver which had a very beneficial effect on the vehicle's aerodynamics.

1936 A new head office in Chemnitz
In 1936 the group management of Auto Union, which had previously directed the company from Zschopau, moved into its new main office building in Chemnitz. In the same year, central facilities for design, development and testing were set up in Chemnitz.

1937 Speed records in the Streamliner racing
The Auto Union racing cars were high-tech products in their time. They stood for supreme achievements in motor-vehicle construction that concentrated above all on high-performance engines, aerodynamic design and the systematic use of lightweight construction. The Auto Union car with streamlined fairing and an output of 545 horsepower was the first to exceed a speed of 400 km/h on a normal road.

The First crash and rollover tests
From 1938 Auto Union AG carried out systematic rollover and crash tests, one of the first manufacturers in the motor-vehicle industry to do so. Various DKW models with sheet-metal, wooden and plastic bodyshells were tested in order to examine the various ways in which these bodies behave in a rollover.

1941 Armaments production
With the development and production of special vehicles for military purposes, Auto Union became an important supplier of vehicles to the armed forces in the mid-1930s. Following the outbreak of war, civilian production was interrupted in May 1940. After this, the company produced exclusively for military purposes.

1948 Dismantlement and expropriation
On the orders of the Soviet military administration in Germany, the Saxon plants of Auto Union were dismantled in 1945 as reparations. Following this, the company's entire assets were expropriated without compensation. On 17 August 1948 Auto Union AG of Chemnitz was deleted from the Commercial Register.

1949 A new start in Ingolstadt Auto Union GmbH
Loans from the Bavarian state government and Marshall Plan aid helped a new car manufacturing plant to be set up in Ingolstadt. Auto Union GmbH was established in Ingolstadt on 3 September 1949. Based on established DKW principles – front-wheel drive and two-stroke engine - production of a small but sturdy 125 cc motorcycle and a DKW delivery van started the same year.

1950 The first DKW passenger car after the war
In August 1950 Auto Union produced its first post-war passenger car. This was the DKW Meisterklasse F 89 P, and was available as a saloon and a four-seater Karmann convertible. Since the facilities in Ingolstadt were not adequate for the production of this model, Auto Union used the premises of the company Rhein-metall-Borsig AG in Düsseldorf. DKW vehicles were built there until the end of 1961.