Audi Company History
For years now people have recognized Audi as being a brand symbolizing high quality manufacturing and superior performance, but if you take a look back, you will come to realize that the Audi company history is quite an extensive one, going back as far as 102 years… so how did it end up becoming the renowned brand that it is today?
Everything began in 1909, when August Horch was forced to set up his own company in Zwickau seeing as how he was forced out of car manufacturers. The original name of his new company was Horch Automobil-Wrke GmbH… however, as you can imagine there was a trademark dispute with his old company (aptly named Horch… the man which they forced out). As a result, Horch renamed his company to a name that would persist until even to this day, Audi Automobilwerke GmbH in 1910. Perhaps as a show of humor or wittiness, Horch did not simply choose the name Audi by coincidence. You see, Horch is actually a word which would translate to "hear" in the English language… Audi is the Latin translation of that word.
The first car Audi ever manufactured was a 2,612 cc, a four cylinder model which actually proved to be quite a success, especially in various sporting events. It garnered so much success that in 1921, Audi officially become the first car manufacturer, and just of any production car… it manufactured the Audi Type K, which turned out to be more than a tremendous success for the company, and they managed to generate enough funds to research and build a six cylinder model in 1924.
In Audi company history however, things were not all smooth at the management level, especially in 1920 when Horch decided to leave the company, after which Jorgen Rasmussen took charge, not to mention acquired practically all of the Audi shares in 1928. In 1932, a great merger occurred between Audi, Horch, Wanderer and DJW in order to create the Auto Union. Right after the merger, they created the first car in Europe which combined a six cylinder engine system with front-wheel drive; while it may seem primitive today, it was more than a huge deal back then. Also, the Auto Union vehicles adopted the four rings trademark that you can see on Audi cars even today.
When World War 2 kicked in however, most of the plants were converted into making ammunitions and such, with some of the factories ending up in ruins, After the dust settled, in 1949 the Zwickau Audi factory started once again producing pre-war car models.
After that, everything got more stable as more mergers happened in 1949 in Bavaria with the creation of a new Auto Union, and in 1969 when the Auto Union merged with the NSU, not to mention Volkswagen introducing the Audi models to the United States of America in the 1970s.
In 1985, the official name was shortened to Audi AG, and with the demise of Auto Union and NSU Audi went into full speed and has become one of the most reputable car manufacturers in the world, receiving God knows how many five star reviews.