Auto Union

We see the logo every day, four interconnected circles resting side by side as it adorns one of the brilliant Audis that are cruising our roads. But while Audi dates back to 1909, the logo is a product of the Great Depression and the need to join together in order to survive.

In 1931 four German automobile manufacturers were feeling the economic crush of the Depression. The oldest, Horch was founded in 1904 by August Horch. In 1909 Horch was forced out of the company and founded another automobile manufacturer, Audi. In 1911 the company Wanderer was founded and five years after that came DKW, a Danish steam power company that quickly branched into motorcycles and small cars.

Despite a variety of financial maneuvers by each firm, they were brought together under one financial umbrella in an attempt to keep them all afloat. The name of the new group was Auto Union.

While each of the four continued to manufacture cars with their own brand name, they shared technology and overhead while turning out new and better models. Much of this technology sharing resulted in a string of very successful race cars with wins a various European Grand Prix events.

World War II brought the end of development and automobile manufacturing. All of the plants turned their attention to creating the German war machine. As the war ended the official Auto Union plant in Saxon fell under the control of the Soviet Union. The plant was shut down. A number of the company executives fled west and ended up in Bavaria where, in 1949, they re-established the name and started a new Auto Union line.

The initial cars to roll off the new line were DKW designs and it wasn't until 1958 that the actual Auto Union badge was once again rolled off in the form of the 1000SP. By 1964 Volkswagen had acquired a large chunk of Auto Union, including the trademark. It was through this acquisition and a few mergers that Audi was re-born as the sole survivor of the four Auto Union principals.

Shown here is a 1962 Auto Union 1000SP. Though the body was inspired by the Ford Thunderbird, the performance was not. The 1000SP, the SP stood for Sport, featured a 981 cubic centimeter two stroke straight three cylinder engine that pushed out a whopping 55 horse power. It was clocked from zero to 60 in a little over 23 seconds. Not at all fast.

The 1000SP was the last car to carry the Auto Union badge and was discontinued in 1965 as Volkswagen sought to seek a better identity for the newly revamped Audi name plate.