Audi Heritage: The Horch Museum
The company was founded by August Horch and his first Salli Herz Business Partner November 14, 1899 in Ehrenfeld, Cologne 1 August Horch had been production manager for Karl Benz Three years later, in 1902, he moved the business to Reichenbach im Vogtland in May 10, 1904, he founded the Horch Motorwagenwerke Cie AG a limited company in the state of Saxony Zwickau city of Zwickau was the county capital of southwest Saxon and one of the industrial centers of Saxony at this moment.
After trouble with the CFO Horch, Horch August founded a second company July 16, 1909, the Horch in Zwickau GmbH August Automobilwerke It should change the name of the company because Horch was already a registered trademark and it has not kept the rights to the name April 25, 1910, the name Audi Automobilwerke was entered in the register of the company at the registration court Zwickau Audi is the Latin translation of Horch Horchen the German verb, meaning Listen Hark compare English Audi name was proposed by a son of one of his Zwickau 2 business partners.
In 1932, the two companies Zwickau Horch and Audi were unified with Zschopauer Motorenwerke JS Rasmussen DKW and Wanderer brand automobile production facilities to become the company Auto Saxony Union Race cars Silver Arrow team of Auto Union race in Zwickau, developed by Ferdinand Porsche and Robert Eberan von Eberhorst driven by Bernd Rosemeyer Hans Stuck Tazio Nuvolari Ernst von Delius were known worldwide in the 1930s.
The company began to produce initially 5 c.3 7 kW; 5 1 SP and 10 hp July 5 kW; 10 PS twin car near Cologne in 1901.
The first was a Horch April 5 VC 3 4 kilowatts; June 4 PS engine, with a housing alloy, a unique achievement in those days it was an open body design, with lighting provided by lanterns with candles in them contrasts with the powerful cars of years later, first Horch could barely reach a maximum speed of 32 km h 20 mph it is significant at this time, because it uses a friction clutch, and there was also a drive shaft to drive the wheels.
The company soon ran into financial problems, not surprising given the pioneering nature of the automobile business at that time Horch had to seek new partners.
In March 1902, August Horch produced 20 hp to 15 kW; 20 PS four-cylinder car with a shaft drive in Reichenbach in Vogtland Horch cars were considered by that more advanced and superior to those which are then built by Mercedes Benz or were so distinct manufacturers.
In 1903, Horch had built a car with a four-cylinder engine in March of the following year, he introduced his new car at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
In 1904, Horch August developed the first six-cylinder engine, released in 1907 In 1906, a Horch automobile led by Dr. Rudolf Stöss Zwickau won the competition Herkomer equivalent to a world championship mark at the time in the 1920s Moritz Stauss, a cosmopolitan city of Berlin, was the main shareholder of the company Horch he managed to make the highly desirable Horch brand by introducing art into advertising their products, he recognized that only a mark putting the focus on the unique features of Horch would be successful.
In 1923, Paul Daimler associated Stauss worked for Horch as the chief engineer for engines Horch 8-cylinder vehicles were then the first to introduce the 8-cylinder engines in series production citation needed.
In 1909, the German equivalent supervisory board of the company's board forced him to Horch Horch continued to Audi found Audiwerke GmbH, which became effective April 25, 1910, the name was a solution to the dispute with his old company over use of the Horch brand and a clever play on words audi is the Latin literal translation of the old German Horch, which means the need to listen.
In 1928 the company was acquired by the owner Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen of DKW German Dampfkraftwagen or motor vehicle vapor that had bought the remains of the US automobile manufacturer Rickenbacker same year The purchase included Rickenbacker their manufacturing equipment eight-cylinder engines.
Finally, June 29, 1932, Horch, Audi, DKW and Wanderer merged to form Auto Union AG, Chemnitz affiliated group The current logo of four Audi rings is the Auto Union logo that represents the fusion of all four brands in the years 1930 Horch introduced a new line of smaller and cheaper, but still presentable, V8 cars in 1936, Horch presented the 25,000th 8-cylinder luxury cars in Zwickau.
The Auto Union racing cars Grand Prix Types A to D, have been developed and built by a Horch specialist racing department works in Zwickau between 1933 and 1939 Between 1935 and 1937 Auto Union cars won 25 races, led by Ernst von Delius Tazio Nuvolari and Bernd Rosemeyer Hans Achille Varzi Stuck.
Auto Union became an important supplier of vehicles to the German Wehrmacht as the car heavy standard tourism Horch 108, using standard passenger car Horch 901 and Wanderer 901 and half-track 11 civilian production was suspended after March 1940, after the war, Auto Union AG in Chemnitz and was dissolved in Ingolstadt, West Germany of the new Auto Union GmbH was founded, where civil automotive production continued because of widespread poverty in the post-war Germany, only small DKW vehicles with two-stroke engines were produced after Auto Union was purchased in 1964 by the former Volkswagenwerk AG Audi brand was introduced again, at the same time that the new vehicle with four race Audi F103 Daimler-Benz has retained the trademark rights to the Horch brand until the mid 1980s Daimler-Benz transferred the rights to the brand name Horch to Audi, which in t our signed for any modern Audi race marks a waiver arrow to use the name Silberpfeil money, however, remained dormant.
During World War II, the factories were damaged in the heavy bomb later, advancing Soviet forces captured the area, and it became part of the Soviet sector divided Germany in 1945, and later became part of East Germany.
From 1955-1958, the old Horch plants produced the Horch P240, a 6-cylinder car that was met when the former Horch and Audi Zwickau operations were unified in 1958. A new brand, Sachsenring society east German IFA was born after unification in 1958, the P240 car was renamed the Sachsenring P240 as the Soviet administration inexplicably banned foreign export P240, the German economic administration has decided to stop production of the vehicle IFA also produced the first Trabant model P-50 1957 3.
The Zwickau site was acquired in 1991 by Volkswagen effectively restore its connection with Audi.
On June 24, 2006, a very rare 1937 Horch 853A Sport Cabriolet in a state not unprepared original auctioned in New York in Cortland 299000 US 4.
In the 1930s, Horch supplied a limited number of promotional scarves bearing the Horch logo sent only to the richest drivers, it is important collection among diehard fans of the time of the pre-war car However , there is also some controversy associated with these scarves as they were often sought by senior SS members.
Kirchberg, Peter, Pönisch Jürgen Horch Typen Delius Klasing Technik Modelle, Bielefeld 2006, ISBN 3-7688-1775-X.
Horch, August Ich Vom Schmiedelehrling Baute Autos zum Autoindustriellen Schuetzen-Verlag, Berlin, 1937.
Lang, Werner Wir bauen Horch-Arbeiter wieder Fahrzeuge Geschichte des-Werk Horch Zwickau in 1945 bis 1958 Bergstraße ARL edition, Aue 2007, ISBN 978-3-9811372-1-7.
Pönisch Jürgen Horch 100 Jahre-1899 Automotive 1999 Aufstieg einer deutschen und Niedergang Luxusmarke Zwickau, 2000, ISBN 3-933282-07-1.
August Horch Ich Baute Cars - Vom Schmiedelehrling zum Autoindustriellen, Schuetzen-Verlag Berlin 1937.
Audi AG 1994 film The Silver Arrows of Zwickau, duration about 49 minutes.
RM Auctions RM Auctions Retrieved 2010-10-02.
German car Horch, German, Horch name in April 1910 Auto Union Chemnitz.