Auto Union
Automobiles |
Auto Union AG was an amalgamation of four German
As well as acting as an umbrella firm for its four constituent brands (Audi,
The current corporate entity which bears the Auto Union name, Auto Union GmbH, was founded in 1985 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Audi AG; its purpose is to act as owner of Auto Union's historical trademarks and intellectual property, as well as managing Audi's heritage operations. The company's distinctive logo of four interlocking rings to represent the original four members of the Auto Union survives as the logo of Audi.
Formation
Auto Union was formed in Germany in 1932[3] merging:
- Zschopauer Motorenwerke J. S. Rasmussen (brand DKW – steam-driven car) founded by Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen in 1916, it branched out into motorcycles, and then front-drive two-stroke cars built at Audi works in Zwickau since 1931.
- Horch – founded 1904 by August Horch in Zwickau. It built cars starting from straight-twin engines to luxury models with V8- and V12 engines.[4]
- six- and eight-cylinder-engined cars. In 1928 Audi became a subsidiary of Zschopauer Motorenwerke.
- Wanderer (car division only) – founded in 1911, with small four-cylinder cars and later a more luxurious straight-6 built in Siegmar (now Chemnitz)
In August 1928, Rasmussen, the owner of DKW, acquired a majority ownership of Audiwerke AG.
In 1930 the Saxony Regional Bank, which had financed Rasmussen's business expansion in the 1920s, installed Richard Bruhn on the board of Audiwerke AG, and there followed a brutal pruning and rationalization of the various auto-businesses that Rasmussen had accumulated. The outcome was the founding in Summer 1932 of Auto Union AG with just four component businesses, being Zschopauer Motorenwerke with its brand DKW, Audi, Horch and the car producing piece of Wanderer,[6] brought together under the umbrella of single shareholder company Auto Union. Although all four brands continued to sell cars under their own names and brands, the technological development became more centralized, with some Audi models employing engines by Horch or Wanderer.
The Auto Union racing cars
Background
Auto Union chairman,
- The people's car: a project that became the KdF car
- A state-sponsored motor racing programme: to develop a "high speed German automotive industry," the foundation of which would be an annual sum of 500,000 ℛ︁ℳ︁
At fellow director's
German racing driver
Having garnered state funds, Auto Union bought Porsche's Hochleistungsfahrzeugbau GmbH (HFB) (High Performance Car Ltd.) and hence the P-Wagen Project for 75,000 ℛ︁ℳ︁, relocating the company to Auto Union's Horch plant at Zwickau.[7]
Design
The Auto Union racing cars types A to D were built as
The cars used
Racing results
The list of drivers for the initial 1934 season was headed by Stuck; he won the German, Swiss, and Czechoslovakian events, along with wins in a number of hill climbs, becoming European Mountain Champion.
In 1935, the engine had been enlarged to 5 L (305 cu in) displacement, producing 370 bhp (276 kW; 375 PS). Achille Varzi joined the team and won the Tunis Grand Prix and the Coppa Acerbo. Stuck won the Italian Grand Prix, plus his usual collection of hill-climb wins, again taking the European Mountain Championship. The new sensation, Rosemeyer, won the Czech Grand Prix.
Stuck also managed to break speed records, reaching 199 mph (320 km/h) on an Italian autostrada in a closed-cockpit streamliner.[11] Lessons learned from this streamlining were later applied to the T80 land speed record car.
For 1936, the engine had grown to a full 6 L (366 cu in), and was now producing 520 bhp (388 kW; 527 PS); in the hands of Rosemeyer and his teammates, the Auto Union Type C dominated the racing world. Rosemeyer won the
In 1937, the car was basically unchanged and did surprisingly well against the new Mercedes-Benz W125, winning five races to the seven of Mercedes-Benz. Rosemeyer took the Eifel and Donington Grands Prix, the Coppa Acerbo, and the Vanderbilt Cup. Rudolf Hasse won the Belgian Grand Prix.
In addition to the new 3 L (183 cu in) formula, 1938 brought other challenges, principally the death of Rosemeyer early in the year, in an attempt on the land speed record on a German autobahn. Tazio Nuvolari joined the team, and won the Italian and Donington Grands Prix, in what was otherwise a thin year for the team, other than yet another European Mountain Championship for Stuck.
In 1939, as war clouds gathered over Europe, Nuvolari won the
Second World War
The buildup and onset of World War II encouraged the development and production of special vehicles for military purposes in the 1930s. Auto Union became an important supplier of vehicles to Germany's armed forces.[5] Following the outbreak of war, civilian production was interrupted in May 1940. After this, the company produced exclusively for military purposes.[5]
For the production of Junkers aircraft engine under license, Auto Union founded in 1935 the subsidiary "Mitteldeutsche Motorenwerke" (Central German Motor Works) at Taucha, northeast of Leipzig.
During World War II, Auto Union/Horch supplied the chassis for the
From the beginning of 1944, Auto Union plants (Horch and Audi plant at Zwickau, Mitteldeutsche Motorenwerke and Siegmar/Wanderer plant at Siegmar-Schönau) were heavily bombed and severely damaged. The U.S. Army occupied Zwickau on 17 April 1945 near the end of WWII. After withdrawal of the U.S. Army on 30 June from Zwickau, all Saxon plants of Auto Union were occupied by the Red Army.
The company exploited slave labor at Leitmeritz concentration camp. According to a 2014 report commissioned by the company, Auto Union bore "moral responsibility" for the 4,500 deaths that occurred at Leitmeritz.[12]
East Germany
Postwar, the Saxon plants of Auto Union were located in the Soviet-occupied zone of communist East Germany.
In 1945, on the orders of the
The former Audi factory in Zwickau, now under East German control, restarted assembly of the pre-war models in 1949. Those models were renamed
New Auto Union
With the Red Army quickly advancing on Zwickau immediately after the war, and faced with the prospect of trying to salvage what was left of the company, Auto Union's executives had no option but to flee and re-establish the company on the Western side of a now partitioned Germany. Thus a new Auto Union company was launched in Ingolstadt, Bavaria with loans from the Bavarian state government and Marshall Plan aid.[15]
The reformed company Auto Union GmbH was launched on 3 September 1949. The Ingolstadt facility had been run purely as a spare parts operation since 1945, but eventually the directors found the funding to restart production – initially in a converted granary building in the town. With
In 1950, after a former
In March 1953, the DKW 3=6 'Sonderklasse was launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show. This car proved exceptionally successful in motorsport and was built in Düsseldorf. The F91 version was soon superseded by the F93 in 1955, and soon joined by the four door F94 and station wagon Universal F94U in 1956 and 1957 respectively.
From 1956 to 1968, about 46,750 DKW Munga light four-wheel drive military vehicles could be produced, mostly for the German and other militaries.
In response to pressure from
However, as prosperity began to return to West Germany, and as West German products gained valuable currency through export to the rest of Europe and North America, Daimler became increasingly worried that Auto Union's only market for its two-stroke products, without massive investment, would be impoverished East Germany. Two-stroke engines became less popular towards the middle of the 1960s as customers were more attracted to the more refined four-stroke engines. They began selling shares, which with the agreed help of the West German Government, were acquired by Volkswagenwerk AG.
In 1964, Volkswagen acquired the factory in Ingolstadt and the trademark rights of Auto Union, with the exception of the dormant Horch brand which Daimler-Benz retained. A programme that Daimler had initiated at Auto Union created a range of cars that would subsequently provide the basis for Volkswagen's line of front-wheel-drive models, such as the Audi 80 and Volkswagen Passat. At the time a new model, internally designated F103, was under development. This was based on the last DKW model, the DKW F102, with a four-stroke engine implanted and some front and rear styling changes. Volkswagen abandoned the DKW brand because of association with two-stroke engines, effectively leaving Volkswagen with the Audi brand. The new model was launched in September 1965 as simply the "Audi." The name was a model designation rather than the manufacturer, which was still officially Auto Union. As more models were later added to the Audi range, this model was renamed Audi 72.
In 1969, Auto Union merged with
After being merged with Neckarsulm car maker
In May 2009, Porsche gained majority control of Volkswagen Group and proposed a merger of the two companies.[citation needed] In August 2009, Volkswagen AG's supervisory board signed the agreement to create an integrated Auto group with Porsche led by Volkswagen.[citation needed] Volkswagen will initially take a 42% stake in Porsche AG by the end of 2009, and see the family[clarification needed] shareholders selling the automotive trading business of Porsche Holding Salsburg to Volkswagen. Rumors began to appear in the press the name Auto Union would be revived for the new group holding company.[18]
Logo
The trademark symbol of Auto Union (and present-day
There is also a version of the logo that uses both overlapping and interlocking rings.[21]
Tribute
Auto Union was tributed at the 1999
See also
- List of German cars
References
Notes
- ^ "History of Audi AG". Archived from the original on 14 January 2013. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
- ISBN 978-3768826730.
- ^ "Porsche Designs: From Racetrack to Battlefield". Ran When Parked. 27 January 2012.
- ISBN 978-3-7688-1775-2.
- ^ a b c Audi website "Chronicle 1930-1944". Archived from the original on 4 February 2009. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
- ^ Deutsche Autos, Band 2, 2001, p. 85.
- ^ a b c d "Auto Union Type C". DDavid.com. Archived from the original on 10 October 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2009.
- ^ Setright, L. J. K. "Mercedes-Benz: The German Fountain-head", in Northey, Tom, ed. World of Automobiles (London: Orbis, 1974), Vol. 11, p.1311.
- ^ a b Setright, p.1312.
- ^ Wise, David Burgess. "Rumpler: One Aeroplane which Never Flew", in Northey, Tom, ed. World of Automobiles (London: Orbis, 1974), Vol. 17, p.1964.
- ^ G.E.T. Eyston; Barré Lyndon (1935). Motor Racing and Record Breaking.
- ^ Le Blond, Josie (26 May 2014). "Slave probe exposes Audi's Nazi past". The Local. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
- ^ a b c d Audi website "Chronicle 1945-1959". Archived from the original on 4 February 2009. Retrieved 27 April 2009.
- ^ de:Automobilwerk Zwickau
- ^ a b "Audi Worldwide> Home". Audi.com. 15 April 2009. Archived from the original on 4 February 2009. Retrieved 27 April 2009.
- ^ "Spiegel Wissen: Auto Union (german)". Der Spiegel. 11 February 1958. Retrieved 21 September 2008.
- ^ Deutsche Autos, Band 2, 2001, p. 263.
- AutoCar. Archivedfrom the original on 18 May 2009. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
- ^ Car Logo. "Audi Logo". Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 10 September 2007.
- ^ "History of the Four Rings-Part 1-Audi Auto Union". Seriouswheels.com. Retrieved 27 April 2009.
- ^ Audi's Typographic Stylings
- ^ Monterey Historics 1999. Audiworld.com (1 September 1999). Retrieved on 2013-07-16.
Bibliography
- Bruintjes, Jeroen. "Auto Union Type E—The Stillborn 1.5-litre car: Why it (Almost) did Exist"
- Clarke, R.M., ed. (1986). On Audi & Auto Union 1952-1980. ISBN 0948207876.
- ISBN 3613021706.
- Snellman, Leif. "The Early Auto Unions, From P-Wagen to A-type"
- Ward, Rod (2015). Auto Union: Audi, Horch, Wanderer, DKW, Framo (and NSU). Auto Review series, no. 112. Leeds, UK: Zeteo Publishing. OCLC 919299525.
- Wise, David Burgess. "Rumpler: One Aeroplane which Never Flew", in Northey, Tom, ed. World of Automobiles (London: Orbis, 1974), Vol. 17, p. 1964.
- Wood, Jonathan, ed. (1985). Great Marques of Germany. London: Octopus Books. ISBN 0706422562.