27 replies to this topic

[aportinga]

I am aware of the four marques which made Auto Union and thereby were represented by each "ring". However what I would like to know is why Auto Union eventually changed to Audi only. And what does Audi mean.

Also... is there anywhere I can get Auto Union merchandise such as a sticker for the car.... flag etc....?

Thanks

[Wolf]

Apotinga, dig a little bit around TNF; it has been discussed on few occasions...

Audi is latin word meaning hear! (imprative of the verb to listen), and German word for it would be Horch (incidentally another German marque, both were founded by the man named Horch).

I'll see what I can dig up a bit later...

[Wolf]

OK, I gotta keep my post count up somehow...;)

http://www.atlasf1.c...&threadid=31111

[aportinga]

Sorry about that - I searched the web but neglected to search Atlas

[René de Boer]

Originally posted by aportinga
Also... is there anywhere I can get Auto Union merchandise such as a sticker for the car.... flag etc....?

Audi have a very active heritage department called Audi Tradition. At many classic car meetings where Audi is somehow involved, they have a stand and sell merchandise. They do indeed have nice car stickers, and also lapel pins and loads of other nice items. They are permanently on sale at Audi's wonderful museum mobile at the factory in Ingolstadt and also, for instance, at the Techno Classica show in Essen in April or at Rétromobile in Paris in February. Maybe even German Audi-dealers can sell them, because they might have a parts number.

There is a swap meet for Audi model cars, litterature and automobilia at the factory in Ingolstadt on Sunday next week (Nov. 24), so if you happen to be around, that would be a good occasion.

[aportinga]

Thanks.... any chance of this merchandise being on the web? Jport and I would like to add a sticker to both or cars.

[ensign14]

Originally posted by Wolf
Audi is latin word meaning hear! (imprative of the verb to listen), and German word for it would be Horch (incidentally another German marque, both were founded by the man named Horch).

And 'Horch' is linguistically cognate with the English 'Hark!', we're getting to the season.

I always wondered whether the BMW 'Dixi' - Latin for 'I said' - was a dig at Audi?

[kozmo]

aport,

can't understand why you just don't just jump plane for Ingolstadt ;) but you might try ebay or yahoo auctions for Audi merch or collectables. i don't know if they have exactly what you are looking for but there is a fair amount of stuff for sale.

aloha.

[paulhooft]

prrr...
Auto Union never became Audi...
Audi was part of it..
VW only used the name..
Paul

[Holger Merten]

Hello aportinga,

what you are asking for, is a very special question in business history.

1. 2002: What Audi is today is the result of the fusion of Auto Union GmbH and NSU AG in 1969, the Auto Union GmbH (at that time owned by VW, while VW bought NSU)

2. 1949. After WW2, there was a very special situation to grow up the "new" Auto Union, cause all the rights for trade marks, constructions and ideas were left in eastern germany. This is a very difficult point. (Eastern and Western Auto Union)

3. 1932: Auto Union was founded under several circumstances. (Horch was founded fin 1899, than August Horch founded Audi in 1909. In 1932, after the "dark friday" of 1929, the "Sächsiche
Staatsbank" and some other several german banks tried to find a solution, instead to lost money in DKW and Horch, and they and the managers of AUDI (since 1928 part of DKW), DKW, Horch (same founder than Audi), and the car manufactory of Wander) founded the Auto Union Ag. One of the managers. Baron von Oertzen had the idea of the four rings.


The history of those four marques is one of the special things in business history. I wrote a book about that history.

[aportinga]

Thanks

[917]

ensign14,

the answer is no: the first Dixi was built in 1904, the first Audi in 1909.

aportinga,

the name "Audi NSU Auto Union AG" was shortened in 1985 to "Audi AG". I guess they thought the shorter name is better to handle, but the people in Neckarsulm (where NSU was located and where still the Audi A2 and A8 are built) were upset that Audi tried to get rid of the NSU memory, so they named the street around the factory NSU Street...

[Barry Boor]

There is a swap meet for Audi model cars, litterature and automobilia at the factory in Ingolstadt on Sunday next week

Rats! I wish I had known. I would have put this up for sale there, instead of on Ebay, where it is at the moment!

[curtegerer]

Here's the Audi Tradition links. Cool Auto Union T-Shirts! : -- Curt

http://collection.au.....ategory_id=59

http://shop.audi.de/...yId=10054&top=Y

[Jhope]

i though AUDI was an acronym for Auto Union Deutchland Industries?

[Holger Merten]

Audi is the latin translation of the Name HORCH, the founder of Horch (1899) and "new" Horch (1909), which became Audi after troubles with the "old" Horch Factory.

[Holger Merten]

The history of Auto Union (AU) is very complicated. Sometimes it' s like a never ending story on "who owns what":

AU was founded in 1932 by the pressure of a bank consortium. Audi (depending to DKW since 1928) DKW and Horch had -everybody for itself - no more money after these depression years after the dark friday in 1929.

So Mr. Rasmussen the founder of DKW, gave his shares to the "Sächsische Staatsbank" (saxonia national bank), and DKW was renamed in AU, which overtook Horch and the car department of Wanderer. Audi depends to DKW since 1928.

I think more than 90% of the shares were hold by the saxonia national bank. AU was unregistered on August, 17th 1948 - the story was over in eastern germany).

Two of the chairmans -Carl Hahn and Richard Bruhn- , went to the west in may 1945, but they installed new chairmans, who looked more positv to the russians -for example Hans Schüler-, who was accepted by the russians. This Hans Schüler went to the west in 1948, when a new "Industrie Auffang Gesellschaft" was founded in Ingolstadt, with the AU Filiale in Munich, which officially depends to the AU AG in eastern germany, which excists at that time. Under this constellation Carl Hahn and Richard Bruhn- and many of the "old guys from saxonia" tried to start a new automobil-productin in ingolstadt. Schüler now was in the role to give all the rights from (AU east) to the new AU (west). At the same adress in ingolstadt: Schrannenstr. 3 were excisting two Auto Union companies, represented by Schüler for the AU (east) and AU 8west) which didn't belong together, but only over Schüler who worked on both paysrols.

AU (west) was always affraid until 1954-56 about the GDR (German democratic republic), that they wanted to have money for those rights. Cause the AU (east) was about the Schüler connection shareholder in the AU (west) represented by Schüler. So they were always affraid the GDR could came and wanted to have oney for these changes of rights, drafts and so .


Going on with the story:
Since 1955/56 AU in the west didn't make good business (They had problems with selling motorcycles) and hadn't innovations in car production, the DKW cars depended on plans from 1939 and was sold even until 1962 (a little bit like the beetle story - but this car was less expensive). So MB overtook AU in 1958(!) which never stopped the development of two stroke engines, MB wanted to have 4-stroke engines in that DKW F 102 -later Audi 60.

Than MB sold the "uggly" daughter (in two times to VW 1964/65) - they wanted to produce beetles. After constructing the bestseller Audi 100, which was presented in 1968, Auto Union got more image. The cars were named Audi with the first 4-stroke Car from September 1965 on. In 1969 VW bought NSU, the AUTO UNION was implementated in NSU.

And some other struggles:
The AU (west) never depends to the AU (east) AND Audi AG never depends to the AU(west). The AU (east- based on the rest in western germany and Hans Schüler) was renamed in Autania AG and is now selling houses.

Everything clear?

[Holger Merten]

Here a short essence of the Audi (Auto Union) History. These are parts of the text I wrote in the Audi book: "Rad der Zeit" translated for the english version: "A history of progress" in 1994.


The Audi badge – the 'Four Rings' – is the emblem of one of the oldest car manufacturers in Germany. It symbolises the 1932 merger of the four independent motor-vehicle manufacturers: Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer. Together with the NSU brand, which joined in 1969, these companies are the roots of the present-day AUDI AG.

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.
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.

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.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.

At the instigation of leading entrepreneur Friedrich Karl Flick, Daimler-Benz AG acquired the majority of and, subsequently, the remaining shares in Auto Union GmbH on 24 April 1958. From this date until the end of 1967, Auto Union was a fully owned subsidiary of the Stuttgart-based Daimler Group.Once again at the instigation of leading industrialist Friedrich Karl Flick, Volkswagenwerk AG acquired the majority of shares in Auto Union GmbH in December 1964. The Ingolstadt-based company became a fully owned VW subsidiary from the end of 1966.


All work on the two-stroke engine came to an end when Auto Union became part of the Volkswagen Group. A four-cylinder four-stroke engine developed previously under Daimler-Benz - known as the "medium-pressure" engine - was installed in the last DKW model F 102 and presented as an Audi in the summer of 1965.

In March 1969, NSU Motorenwerke AG, which had just been taken over by VW, and the Ingolstadt-based Auto Union GmbH merged to form Audi NSU Auto Union AG, which had its head office in Neckarsulm.

When production of the Ro 80 was discontinued in 1977, the use of the name NSU as a product designation also came to an end. With effect from 1 January 1985, Audi NSU Auto Union AG was renamed AUDI AG. At the same time the company moved its head office from Neckarsulm to Ingolstadt. From this time on, products and the company had the same name.

[Flicker]

Unfortunately don't remember the source of this scheme, but... here it is!

[Holger Merten]

Also VW merged Auto Union with NSU, the continuity of the tree is given by NSU. So Audi today is going back to the roots of NSU juristically. Auto Union GmbH never exist any longer.

The today Auto Union GmbH (the Audi Tradition dept.) starts in the 50s as a daughter of Auto Union (as a new sales dept.) in Munich. So there are juristically no connections from Audi to the 1949 founded Auto Union GmbH or to the 1932 founded Auto Union AG, just to NSU.

[Holger Merten]

Here is a longer version of the story of Audi.



THE HISTORY OF THE FOUR RINGS

The Audi emblem of the four rings denotes one of Germany's oldest automobile manufacturers.

It symbolizes the merger in 1932 of four previously independent motor vehicle manufacturers: Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer. These companies are the foundation stones on which the present-day AUDI AG is built.



Horch
At the end of the 19th century, there were already a number of car manufacturers in Germany. One of them was August Horch & Cie., founded on November 14, 1899 in Cologne. August Horch was one of the pioneer figures of automotive engineering. Before setting up business on his own, he worked for Carl Benz in Mannheim for three years as Head of Automobile Production.



In 1904, August Horch relocated his company to Zwickau and transformed it into a share-issuing company. However, in 1909 August Horch withdrew from the company he had founded, and set up a new enterprise under the name of "Audi".



Audi
The company established by August Horch in Zwickau on July 16, 1909 could not again take its founder's name for reasons of fair trade. Horch found a new name for the company by translating his name, which means "hark!", "listen!", into Latin. So it was that the second company to have been set up by August Horch commenced operations under the name Audi Automobilwerke GmbH, Zwickau, on April 25, 1910.



Wanderer
In 1885, the two mechanics Johann Baptist Winklhofer and Richard Adolf Jaenicke opened a repair business for bicycles in Chemnitz. Shortly afterwards they began to make bicycles of their own, since demand at that time was very high. These were sold under the brand name Wanderer, and in 1896 the company itself began to trade as Wanderer Fahrradwerke AG.



Wanderer built its first motorcycle in 1902. The idea of branching out into automobile production was finally put into practice in 1913. A small two-seater by the name of "Puppchen" heralded in Wanderer's tradition of motor car production that was to last several decades.



DKW
Originally founded under the name Rasmussen & Ernst 1904 in Chemnitz, the company was moved to Zschopau in the Erzgebirge region in 1907. The company initially manufactured and sold exhaust-steam oil separators for steam-raising plant, mudguards and lighting systems for motor vehicles, vulcanization equipment and centrifuges of all kinds.



The company's founder Jörgen Skafte Rasmussen began to experiment with a steam-driven motor vehicle in 1916, registering DKW as a trademark. In 1919 the company, by now renamed Zschopauer Motorenwerke, switched to the manufacture of small two-stroke engines, which from 1922 on served as a springboard for its success in building motorcycles under the brand name DKW. The first small DKW motor car appeared on the market in 1928.



Auto Union AG, Chemnitz
On June 29, 1932, Audiwerke, Horchwerke and Zschopauer Motorenwerke - DKW merged on the initiative of the State Bank of Saxony to form Auto Union AG. A purchase and leasing agreement was concluded at the same time with Wanderer, for the takeover of its Automobile Division. The new company's head offices were in Chemnitz.



Following the merger, Auto Union AG was the second-largest motor vehicle manufacturer in Germany. The company emblem, with four interlinked rings, symbolized the inseparable unity of the four founder-companies. The brand names Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer were retained. Each of the four brands was assigned a specific market segment within the group: DKW assumed responsibility for motorcycles and small cars; Wanderer built midsize cars; Audi manufactured cars in the deluxe midsize class, and Horch produced deluxe top-of-the-range automobiles.



Auto Union GmbH, Ingolstadt
In 1945, after the end of the second world war, Auto Union AG was expropriated by the occupying Soviet forces. The company's leading figures consequently moved to Bavaria, where a new company was founded in Ingolstadt in 1949 under the name of Auto Union GmbH, to uphold the motor vehicle tradition of the company with the four-ring emblem. The first vehicles to leave the company's production line after its new start were DKW's successful models with two-stroke engines – motorcycles, cars and delivery vans.



A new Auto Union model appeared on the market in 1965, the company's first post-war vehicle with a four-stroke engine. To emphasize this dawning of a new era, a new product name was likewise needed: the traditional name of Audi was resurrected. A short time later, the last DKWs rolled off the production line in Ingolstadt. From then on, the new models with four-stroke engines were produced under the brand name "Audi". A new era had begun in another sense, too: the Volkswagen Group acquired the Ingolstadt-based company in 1965.



NSU
NSU was founded in 1873 in Riedlingen, on the Danube, by the two Swabian mechanics Christian Schmidt and Heinrich Stoll. Seven years later they moved the company to Neckarsulm. For its first twenty years, the company manufactured knitting machines.



Neckarsulmer Strickmaschinenfabrik diversified into bicycles in 1886. From then on, the bicycle was to have a decisive influence on the company's fortunes. Motorcycle production commenced at NSU in 1901, and five years later the first motor car was built there. Automobile production activities were halted again in 1929, to allow the company to concentrate on building two-wheelers. It was almost thirty years later, in 1958, that production of cars recommenced in Neckarsulm.



On March 10, 1969, Auto Union GmbH of Ingolstadt merged with NSU Motorenwerke AG, of Neckarsulm. The new company bearing the name Audi NSU Auto Union AG, with its head offices in Neckarsulm, was created retrospectively as of January 1.



AUDI AG
The last NSU left the production line in March 1977, and from then on the company manufactured exclusively Audi cars. About this time, the company's bosses began to consider streamlining the company's rather cumbersome name of Audi NSU Auto Union AG. With the objective of giving the company and its products the same name, in 1985 Audi NSU Auto Union AG was renamed simply AUDI AG. To coincide with the change of name, the company's registered headquarters were transferred from Neckarsulm to Ingolstadt.



The traditional company names Auto Union GmbH and NSU GmbH live on as Audi subsidiaries which have the purpose of nurturing and propagating a tradition that is both deep and diverse. There are historical collections open to the public in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm.

[uechtel]

Holger, just a question for which I seem to need a real expert:

What do the letters "DKW" really stand for?

In my childhood (my uncle drove a DKW Junior when I just began noticing automobiles) I guessed "Deutsche Kraftwagen Werke" or something like that. But more recently I remember to have read "Des Knaben Wunsch", which is explained by the fact, that this was the name of the very first product of Rasmussen´s factory, a toy engine for boys! Have I been victim of a joke with that?

[Holger Merten]

Uechtel,

The first expression was "DampfKraftWagen", which means SteamPoweredCar.

Rasmussen, the founder of DKW, built that "really big car" in 1916, during the first WW, cause he believed the war will go on until......... and that Germany needs those steampower cars, cause the fuel was needed for the military cars and planes. There is only one picture existing, which proofs the story is right, this picture came up in 1991, before than that DKW explanation seemded unbelievable, but....the picture shows the car. Audi ;) copied one for my archive:)

Later DKW was used for other explanations. "DasKleineWunder" means TheLittleWonder", used for a small motorcycle.

[kober]

Here we used to say Do Kopce Wytlacit - little bit crippled spelling, but it meant Push it uphill

[Holger Merten]

Yes, that was a claim often used in advertising: "Den Berg rauf...", means to climb the hill.

[Hans Etzrodt]

Originally posted by Holger Merten
.....Later DKW was used for other explanations. "DasKleineWunder" means TheLittleWonder", used for a small motorcycle.

During the Third Reich the term was coined

Deutscher
Kraft
Wagen

also jokingly Deutscher Kinder Wagen
and derogatory Deutscher Käse Wagen

[Uwe]

I remember the term "Dekawuppdich" which is sort of a diminutive. At least I cannot think of any senseful meaning.

[Holger Merten]

Yes Uwe, I know that too, from my father.