The Audi company, which now owns Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer automobiles, originated from a merger of four car companies in Saxony. Here is a quick summary of how AUDI AG came into being.
Founded: July 16, 190
Founder: August Horch
Headquarters: Ingolstadt, German
Owner: Volkswagen Group
Subsidiaries: Lamborghini, Audi Sport GmbH, Ducati, Italdesign Giugiaro
Official Site: www.audi.com
The Story Behind Audi’s Four-Ring Logo
Audi Logo Four rings = Four Brands
Audi | DKW | Horch | Wanderer
Our interlocking rings symbolised the merger of four automobile manufacturers based in the German state of Saxony: Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer became Auto Union AG, then the second-largest motor vehicle manufacturing group in Germany. Here are brief details of the roots of today’s AUDI AG.
AUDI LOGO 1909
AUDI LOGO 1932
AUDI LOGO 1985
AUDI LOGO 2009
History of the Audi
Audi
August Horch founded Audi Automobilwerke GmbH, Zwickau on July 16, 1909. Due to competitive reasons, the company could not take Horch’s name. In order to come up with a new name for the company, Horch’s name, which means “listen!” or “hark!” in German, was translated into Latin. The second company founded by August Horch began operating as Audi Automobilwerke GmbH, Zwickau on April 25, 1910.
DKW
Rasmussen & Ernst, a firm based in Zschopau, Saxony, was established in 1907. Initially, the company manufactured and sold exhaust-steam oil separators for steam power plants, mudguards, and lights, as well as vulcanisation equipment and centrifuges of all kinds. Jörgen Skafte Rasmussen began experimenting with a steam-driven vehicle in 1916, and in 1922 the DKW (Dampfkraftwagen, or steam-driven vehicle) trademark was registered. Rasmussen began producing two-stroke engines in 1919, the first of which was produced as a working toy engine. In 1921, the Zschopauer Motorenwerke J.S. Rasmussen OHG firm was formed as a result of the name change. In 1923, the DKW motorcycle was introduced as the first motorcycle to leave the Zschopau factory.
Horch
Toward the finish of the nineteenth 100 years, there were at that point various vehicle producers in Germany. One of them was August Horch and Cie., established on November 14, 1899 in Cologne. August Horch was one of the spearheading figures in auto designing. Prior to setting up in business all alone, his expert experience had remembered three years for charge of auto creation at Carl Benz in Mannheim. In 1904, August Horch moved his business to Zwickau and changed it into a business entity.
Wanderer
In 1885 two mechanics, Johann Baptist Winklhofer and Richard Adolf Jaenicke, opened a bike fix studio in Chemnitz. Without further ado subsequently they started to make bikes of their own, since request around then was extremely high. These were promoted under the brand name Vagabond, and in 1896 the actual organization started to exchange as Drifter Fahrradwerke AG. Vagabond assembled its most memorable bike in 1902. Spreading out into vehicle creation was at long last tried in 1913.
