Before it became Audi AG, a symbol of luxury and technological advancement in the automobile industry, it was an amalgamation of four different companies.

As a company, Audi was founded over a hundred years ago by August Horch in Zwickau, and it started trading as Audi Automobilwerke GmbH.

But this wasn’t August Horch’s first automobile company – August Horch & Cie was founded in Cologne on November 14, 1899, but Horch left his own company.

These two of Horch’s establishments, and two more, DKW and Wanderer, came together in 1932 to form the Auto Union AG. And later, along with Volkswagen Group’s acquisition, the Auto Union became the Audi AG as we know it today.

The four interlocking rings on Audi’s logo, hence, signify the four automobiles that merged to form Audi AG, and their inseparable unity.

Merging expertise

Right after the merger, each of the four brands was assigned to handle a particular portfolio as part of the whole Auto Union AG – DKW was to work on motorcycles and small cars, Wanderer was to deal with midsize cars, Audi would make cars in the deluxe midsize segment and Horch would work with the top-end luxury cars.

The simple logic behind these assigned portfolios was that each company had previously held an expertise as individual manufacturers. Horch, for instance, had become well known for its standard in elegance and luxury, while retaining technological expertise. After the merger, the Horch Body Design office also served as the common design studio for the entire group’s brands.

Also, it was because of the Horch designs that more powerful engines were developed – straight-eight engines for large cars, and V8s for the smaller ones.

While Horch looked after the higher-end of the market, it was DKW that brought its expertise with smaller two-stroke engines (for both cars and motorcycles), and by extension, the high-volume market.

DKW specialised in front-wheel driven cars, and the engines were known to be practical, economical and also durable. Its stationary engines were also suitable for a lot of applications, such as fire engines, military vehicles and road construction.

Wanderer was assigned to work on mid-size cars, and Auto Union used the Wanderer brand to work on sporty and progressive products. The Wanderer W 51 and W 25 K were introduced with supercharged engines and Auto Union styling for the same purpose.

Meanwhile, Audi, as part of the Auto Union worked on front-wheel-driven midsize vehicles. Audi worked on new six-cylinder engines among other new technologies, until the war broke out.

After the Second World War, the Auto Union found ended up in the Soviet occupied region of Germany, and was subsequently expropriated. In 1949, a new Auto Union GmbH was founded in Ingolstadt, where it has been headquartered ever since. In 1965, with the first post-war four-stroke vehicle was rolled out under the Audi brand. And since then, we have been witnessing some iconic automobiles.

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