The Rickenbacker purchase included their manufacturing equipment for eight-cylinder engines. In 1928, the company was acquired by Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen, owner of DKW (from the German Dampfkraftwagen, or steam engine vehicle) who had bought the remains of the US automobile manufacturer Rickenbacker in the same year. The name was a solution to the legal dispute with his old company over use of the Horch brand and a clever play of words ("audi" is the literal Latin translation of the Old German "horch", meaning the imperative "Listen!"). Horch went on to found Audi as Audiwerke GmbH, which became effective on 25 April 1910. In 1909, the supervisory board (the German equivalent of the Board of Directors) of the corporation forced out Horch.
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Horch vehicles were subsequently the first to introduce 8-cylinder engines in series production. In 1923, Paul Daimler (a Stauss associate) worked for Horch as the chief engineer for 8-cylinder engines. He recognized that only a brand emphasising Horch's unique characteristics would be successful. He succeeded in making the Horch brand highly desirable by introducing art into the firm's advertising.
In the 1920s, Moritz Stauss, a cosmopolitan Berliner, was the principal stockholder of the Horch company. Rudolf Stöss from Zwickau won the Herkomer Competition (equivalent to a 'brand-name' world championship at the time). In 1904, August Horch developed the first six-cylinder engine, which appeared in 1907. In March of the following year, he introduced his new car at the Frankfurt Fair. Horch cars were considered more advanced to those being built by Mercedes or Benz (who were then separate manufacturers).īy 1903, Horch built a car with a four-cylinder engine. In March 1902, August Horch produced a 20 hp (15 kW 20 PS) four-cylinder car with a shaft drive in Reichenbach in Vogtland. The firm soon encountered financial difficulty, and Horch sought new partners. It was significant at that time because it used a friction clutch, and had a drive shaft providing power to the wheels. In contrast with the powerful cars of later years, the first Horch could barely reach a top speed of 32 km/h (20 mph).
It had an open-body design, with lighting provided by lanterns containing candles. The first Horch had a 4.5 hp (3.4 kW 4.6 PS) engine, with an alloy crankcase, a unique achievement in those days. The company initially began producing 5 hp (3.7 kW 5.1 PS) and 10 hp (7.5 kW 10 PS) twin-cylinder engine automobiles near Cologne in 1901. The Silver Arrow racing cars of the Auto Union racing team in Zwickau-developed by Ferdinand Porsche and Robert Eberan von Eberhorst, and driven by Bernd Rosemeyer, Hans Stuck, Tazio Nuvolari and Ernst von Delius-became known the world over in the 1930s. Rasmussen (the DKW brand) and the Wanderer car-production facilities to become the Auto Union corporation of Saxony. In 1932 both companies from Zwickau (Horch and Audi) merged with Zschopauer Motorenwerke J. The Audi name was proposed by a son of one of Horch's business partners from Zwickau. Audi is the Latin translation of horch, from the German verb "horchen", which means "listen!" (compare English "hark").
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On 25 April 1910 the name Audi Automobilwerke was entered in the company's register at the Zwickau registration court. He had to rename the company because Horch was already a registered brand and he did not hold the rights to the name. The city of Zwickau was the capital of the South Western Saxon County and one of Saxony's industrial centres at that time.Īfter troubles with the Horch chief financial officer, August Horch founded a second company on 16 July 1909, the August Horch Automobilwerke GmbH in Zwickau. Motorwagenwerke AG, a joint-stock company in Zwickau ( Kingdom of Saxony). Three years later, in 1902, he moved the company to Reichenbach im Vogtland.
August Horch had previously worked as a production manager for Karl Benz. August Horch and his first business partner Salli Herz established the company on Novemin the district of Ehrenfeld, Cologne in Cologne.