Auto Union

Auto Union

Fate	purchased by Volkswagen, evolved into present day Audi
Successor	Audi AG
Founded	1932
Defunct	1964
Headquarters	Chemnitz, Germany
Industry	Automotive industry, Motor racing
Products	Automobiles

1938 Horch 853 Sport Cabriolet

1936 Wanderer W25K

Auto Union was an amalgamation of four German automobile manufacturers, established in 1932 in Chemnitz, Saxony, during the Great Depression. The company has evolved into present day Audi, as a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group.

Auto Union is best known for its racing team (Auto Union Rennabteilung, based in Zwickau). The Silver Arrows of these two German teams dominated not only GP car racing from 1934 onwards, but set records that would take decades to beat. For example, the power levels of the unlimited 1937 models were only equalled in the early 1980s by turbocharged Formula One Grand Prix cars.

Formation

Auto Union was formed in 1932, the merger of:

• Horch - founded by August Horch, it built luxury V8 engined cars
• Audi - having fallen out with family member, August Horch founded Audi, which built V4 and V6 engined cars
• DKW - steam equipment company founded by Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen in 1916, it branched out into motorcycles, and then front-drive two-stroke cars.
• Wanderer - founded in 1911, with small four-cylinder cars and later a more luxurious V6

In August 1928, Rasmussen, the owner of DKW, acquired the majority of shares in Audiwerke AG.^[1] In the same year, Rasmussen bought the remains of the US automobile manufacturer Rickenbacker, including the manufacturing equipment for eight cylinder engines. These engines were used in Audi Zwickau and Audi Dresden models that were launched in 1929. At the same time, six cylinder and four cylinder (licensed from Peugeot) models were manufactured.

In 1932, with all companies still loss making, Audi/DKW, Horch and Wanderer were brought together under the umbrella of communal shareholder company Auto Union. Although all four brands continued to build cars under their own names and brands, the technological development became more and more concentrated, with for instance some Audi models were propelled by Horch or Wanderer built engines.

The Auto Union racing cars

Background

Auto Union Chairman, Klaus, Baron von Oertzen, wanted a show piece project to announce the new brand. At the 1933 Berlin Motor Show, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler announced two new programs:^[2]

• 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 Reichmarks to Mercedes-Benz

At fellow director's Adolf Rosenberger insistence, von Oertzen met with Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, who had done work for him before, and developed his own P-Wagen project racing car based on the new 750 kg formula.^[2]

German racing driver Hans Stuck had met Hitler before he became Chancellor, and not being able to gain a seat at Mercedes, accepted the invitation of Rosenberger to join him, von Oertzen, and Porsche in approaching the Chancellor. In a meeting in the Reich Chancellory, Hitler agreed with Porsche that for the glory of Germany, it would be better for two companies to develop the project, resulting in Hitler agreeing to split the money evenly between Mercedes and Auto Union.^[2] This highly annoyed Mercedes, who had already developed their Mercedes-Benz W25, and resulted in a heated exchange both on and off the racing track between the two companies for the period until World War Two.

Having garnered state funds, Auto Union bought Hochleistungs Motor GmbH and hence the P-Wagen project for 75,000 Reichsmarks, relocating the company to Chemnitz.^[2]

Design

Cover of the 1937 English motor sport magazine with an Auto Union racing car on a banked track

The Auto Union racing cars types A to D were built as Grand Prix racing cars, between 1934 and 1939. The only Grand Prix racers to wear Auto Union's four-ringed logo, they were particularly dominant in 1936. Between 1935 and 1937, Auto Union cars car won 25 races, driven by Ernst von Delius, Bernd Rosemeyer, Hans Stuck, and Achille Varzi. Much has been written about the difficult handling characteristics of this car, but its tremendous power and acceleration were undeniable - a driver could induce wheelspin at over 100 mph (160 km/h).

The cars used supercharged engines eventually producing almost 550 horsepower, designed to provide optimum torque at low engine speeds. Rosemeyer would later drive one around the Nürburgring in a single gear, to prove the engine was flexible enough to do it. The fuel tank was located in the center of the car, directly behind the driver (who would be placed well towards the front), so the car's front-rear weight distribution would remain unchanged as fuel was used - the exact same location used in modern open-wheel racing cars, and for the same reason. The chassis tubes were initially used as water carriers from the radiator to the engine, but this was eventually abandoned after they often sprung small leaks.

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 five litres displacement, producing 370 bhp (280 kW). 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.

Hans Stuck in an aerodynamic Type C in Italy

Stuck also managed to break speed records, reaching 199 mph (320 km/h) on an Italian autostrada in a closed-cockpit streamliner.^[3] Lessons learned from this streamlining were later applied to the T80 land speed record car.

1939 Type C/D V16 hillclimb car

For 1936, the engine had grewn to a full 6 litres, and was now producing 520 bhp (390 kW); in the hands of Rosemeyer and his team-mates, the Auto Union Type C dominated the racing world. Rosemeyer won the Eifelrennen, German, Swiss, and Italian Grands Prix, as well as the Coppa Acerbo. He was crowned European Champion (Auto Union's only win of the driver's championship), and also took the European Mountain Championship. Varzi won the Tripoli Grand Prix, while Stuck placed second in the Tripoli and German Grands Prix, and Ernst von Delius took second in the Coppa Acerbo.

In 1937, the car was basically unchanged and did surprisingly well against the new Mercedes-Benz W125, winning 5 races to the 7 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-litre 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. The famed 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 Yugoslavia Grand Prix in Belgrade, while Hermann P. Müller won the 1939 French Grand Prix.

Second World War

Sd-Kfz 222

The build up 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.^[1] Following the outbreak of war, civilian production was interrupted in May 1940. After this, the company produced exclusively for military purposes.^[1]

During World War II, Auto Union produced the Sd-Kfz 222 armored car. Powered by an 81 hp (60 kW) Horch/Auto Union V8 engine, it reached a top speed of 50 miles per hour on the road. The the Kraftfahrzeug (KFZ 11) or the Horch Type 80, was used as a light transport vehicle to shuttle German military officials.

The Auto Union plants were heavily bombed, and severely damaged by fighting with the Russian Army in the last two years of the war.

East Germany

Postwar, the Saxonian plants of Auto Union were located in the Soviet-occupied zone of Communist East Germany.

In 1945, on the orders of the occupying Soviet military administration, the factories were dismantled as war reparations,^[4] while the racing cars found stored in a colliery were returned to Moscow for reverse engineering. Following this, the company’s entire assets were expropriated without compensation.^[4] On 17 August 1948, Auto Union AG of Chemnitz was deleted from the commercial register.^[4] These actions had the effect of liquidating Auto Union AG. The remains of the Audi plant of Zwickau became the VEB (for "People Owned Enterprise") Automobilwerk Zwickau, or AWZ; Automobile Factory Zwickau).^[5]

The former Audi factory in Zwickau, now under East German control, restarted assembly of the pre-war-models in 1949. Those models were renamed to IFA F8 and IFA F9 and were similar to the new West German DKW versions. In time, a lawsuit compelled the East Germans to cease using the DKW brand, resulting in a change to EKW.

New Auto Union

DKW F89

A new Auto Union was launched in Ingolstadt, Bavaria with loans from the Bavarian state government and Marshall Plan aid.^[6]

The reformed company was launched 3 September 1949. Only the DKW brand survived in postwar West Germany, continuing DKW's tradition of producing front-wheel drive vehicles with two-stroke engines.^[6] This included production of a small but sturdy 125 cc motorcycle and a DKW delivery van, the DKW F89, also known as DKW-Schnelllaster. Many employees of the destroyed factories in Zwickau came to Ingolstadt and restarted the production.

In 1950, after a former Rheinmetall gun factory in Düsseldorf was established as a second assembly facility, the company's first post-war car went into production: the DKW Meisterklasse F 89 P, available as a saloon and a four-seater Karmann convertible.^[4][7] The van and sedan were based on the DKW F8 and the DKW F9 pre-war constructions.

Auto Union 1000

1958 was a turning point for the company. Firstly, it saw the return of the Auto Union brand, represented by the Auto Union 1000, a small saloon. At the same time the Auto Union 1000 Sp, a stylish coupé model, was produced for Auto Union by the Stuttgart coach builders, Baur. Secondly, Daimler-Benz acquired 87% of Auto Union, taking complete control in 1959.

Auto Union 1000 Sp 1958 - 1965

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 without massive investment, would be for its two stroke products into impoverished East Germany. They began selling shares, which with the agreed help of the West German Government were acquired by Volkswagen Group. However, one programme that Daimler started was the creation of a range of cars (the Audi F103 series, the Audi 80, and the Volkswagen Passat), that would provide the basis for a Volkswagen renaissance in the 1970s.

In 1964, Volkswagen acquired the factory in Ingolstadt and the trademark rights of the Auto Union. Two-stroke engines became less popular towards the middle of the 1960s as customers were more attracted to the comfortable four-stroke engines. In September 1965, the last DKW model, the DKW F102, got a four-stroke engine implanted and some front and rear styling changes. Volkswagen dumped the DKW brand because of its two-stroke smell, effectively relaunching the Audi brand. The new model was classified internally as the Audi F103, and sold as simply the "Audi." The name was a model designation rather than the manufacturer, which was still officially Auto Union, but later it became known as the Audi 72.

DKW F102

In 1969, Auto Union merged with NSU Motorenwerke AG, based in Neckarsulm, near Stuttgart. In the 1950s, NSU had been the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles, but had moved on to produce small cars like the NSU Prinz, the TT and TTS versions of which are still popular as vintage race cars. NSU then focused on new rotary engines based on the ideas of Felix Wankel. In 1967, the new NSU Ro 80 was a space-age car, well ahead of its time in technical details such as aerodynamics, light weight, and safety but teething problems with the rotary engines put an end to the independence of NSU. The mid-sized car NSU had been working on, the K70, was intended to slot between the rear-engined Prinz models and the futuristic NSU Ro 80. However, Volkswagen took the K70 for its own range, spelling the end of NSU as a separate brand.

After being merged with Neckarsulm car maker NSU Motorenwerke AG the official name was "Audi NSU Auto-Union AG", which was simply shortened to "Audi AG" in 1985, ending Auto Union.

In May 2009, as Porsche gained majority control of Volkswagen Group and proposed a merger of the two companies, In August 2009, Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft's supervisory board signed the agreement to create an intregrated Auto group with Porsche led by Volkswagen. Volkswagen will initially take a 42.0 percent stake in Porsche AG by the end of 2009 and it will see the family shareholders selling the automotive trading business of Porsche Holding Salsburg to Volkswagen. rumours began to appear in the press the name Auto Union would be revived for the new group holding company.^[8]

Marketing

The trademark symbol of Auto Union was four overlapping rings, symbolizing the four member companies. The four ring logo of Auto Union is still a trademark, and now used by present-day Audi. Auto Union continued to market the two-stroke engined DKW brand until 1964.

Logos

The four overlapping rings represent the four marques of Auto Union. Purposefully designed with all four rings in a line, in an attempt to avoid confusion with the five Olympic rings, it symbolises: the first ring represents Audi, the second represents DKW, third is Horch, and the fourth and last ring Wanderer.^{[9] [10]}

Although Auto Union used the four interlinked rings logo, it was only used on Auto Union racing cars in that period, while the member companies used their own names and emblems.

There is also a version of logo that uses both overlapping and interlocking rings.^[11]

See also

• list of German cars

References

• Leif Snellman, "The Early Auto Unions, From P-Wagen to A-type"
• Jeroen Bruintjes, "Auto Union Type E--The Stillborn 1.5-litre car: Why it (Almost) did Exist"

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Auto-Union vehicles

• Audi History
• AUTO UNION Sales Brochures 1939
• AutoUnion: the cars, the drivers and the history