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QUATTRO QUARTERLY SPRING 2009 100 Years EUROPOINT of by Elaine Catton I’M Not Very Good with Birthdays; I Even Forgot My Husband’S Once — That Didn’T Go Down Well

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QUATTRO QUARTERLY SPRING 2009 100 Years EUROPOINT of by Elaine Catton I’M Not Very Good with Birthdays; I Even Forgot My Husband’S Once — That Didn’T Go Down Well 20 QUATTRO QUARTERLY SPRING 2009 100 Years EUROPOINT of by Elaine Catton I’m not very good with birthdays; I even forgot my husband’s once — that didn’t go down well. However, it has been diffi cult to avoid noticing that 2009 marks an important milestone for Audi — its centenary, no less. IT STRUCK ME, THEREFORE, THAT THIS Horch was thinking farther ahead and Ehrenfeld near Cologne, A. Horch & Cie might be a good time to brush up on some envisioning great things for expanding the later moved to Reichenbach, before finally Audi history. While Audi’s market position power and scope of the automobile. settling in the Saxon town of Zwickau in in the U.S. may sometimes seem like one of The largely unsung hero at the side of 1904. Clearly, moving a car factory was an a niche player, it does no harm to remember August Horch was the engineer Hermann easier task in those days. that the company has its roots in the very Lange, whom Horch met early in his career Anyone who has ever seen a vehicle built dawning age of the automobile. in Leipzig. When Horch moved to work with by August Horch is well aware that they are When Carl Benz first unleashed his Benz Carl Benz, he took Lange with him as Senior imposing and luxurious pieces of machinery Patent-Motorwagen on an unsuspecting Engineer. built for discerning and, above all, extremely world, an 18-year old boy from the German Apparently frustrated by his inability to wealthy customers. Almost all of the ground town of Winningen was busy following in bring to fruition any of his own ideas, Horch work for this was laid during the ten years his father’s footsteps as a blacksmith. In left Carl Benz to set up his own operation of August Horch’s tenure. Impressed by the wave of enthusiasm for engineering in 1899 — taking Hermann Lange with the forward thinking of the French, Horch that was rife at the time, the young August him. Originally established in the town of was the first German manufacturer to put Horch shifted his attention away from the forge and onto mechanical engineering. By 1896, the 28 year-old had joined Carl Benz in Mannheim to work initially in Engine Manufacturing before going on to head up Motor Vehicle Construction. Whenever I read through tales of how the automobile first sputtered to life, I wonder if any of these engineering pioneers were also possessed of the social intellect and foresight to appreciate what it was they were starting back then. Or were they too wrapped up in the innovative roller coaster to spend any time musing over the socio-political impact of this new-fangled contraption? By all accounts, August Horch fell more into the category of visionary thinker and manager than of technical inventor. While Carl Benz jealously held onto full developmental control of his motor car, Audi 10/22 hp (Type A) and Audi 10/28 (Type B) in the Austrian Alpine Run, May 1911 SPRING 2009 QUATTRO QUARTERLY 21 100 Years off August Horch in Zwickau 22 QUATTRO QUARTERLY SPRING 2009 EUROPOINT the engine up front and to separate the adversarial relationship with commercial Latin scholars out there will be able to body from the chassis. Some features were director Jakob Holler finally erupted in make that leap pretty easily. And thus Audi original Horch/Lange inventions, the key Horch’s departure from the company Automobilwerke GmbH was born. principles of which are still in use to this day. bearing his name. While the Horch brand was focused on Horch, for example, was the first to Unperturbed, Horch decided to set up luxury and grandeur, August Horch took introduce a transmission with permanently shop all over again across the road from his new baby down a more sporting route engaged gears. He also used a friction his old company. Naming a company and embraced the burgeoning gentlemen’s clutch in order to avoid shifting the drive back then was obviously a self-obsessed pastime of motorsport. belt from the idler pulley to the driving exercise, with virtually all vehicle makers Between 1911 and 1914, Audi enjoyed gear. However, one of the most significant being named after their founders. Horch, considerable success on the Austria Alpine contributions made by Horch to automotive however, was hamstrung by the company Run. The Type C, which later became technology was his introduction of the already in existence. It was the son of a known as the “Alpensieger” (Alpine Victor), universal drive shaft. business partner that came up with the was powered by a four-cylinder 3.5-liter But all this is preamble to what idea of using the Latin version of his name. engine generating 35 hp and boasted an then occurred in 1909. August Horch’s As Horch means “listen” or “hark”, those impressive top speed of 80 km/h (50 mph). Horch model 1, “vis-á-vis”, two-cylinder, 4-5 hp SPRING 2009 QUATTRO QUARTERLY 23 100 Years of August Horch himself entered the race right side — in order to ensure that the Now, I don’t personally have much of a feel with the Type C in 1911 and, on winning horses didn’t steer into roadside ditches. For for what marketing must have been like as it, decided to return in subsequent years Audi, however, it was clear that the more a commercial discipline in those days, but with an entire team of cars and drivers. imminent danger facing the passengers I am forced to deduce that the guys who Audi was victorious every year through to of the automobile was from oncoming named the “Imperator” were not necessarily 1914, picking up a substantial international vehicles and carriages. The Type K was involved in the creative process that came following along the way, until WWI came followed in 1923 by the six-cylinder Type up with that particular name. along and put a damper on things. M, with Audi’s first eight-cylinder vehicle Regardless of the creativeness of its In many ways, the Alpine Run years were appearing in 1927 — the now legendary moniker, the DKW Front was a hit from August Horch’s finest hour at Audi. As the and gloriously-named Imperator. day one. Within just two months of the company emerged from WWI, its founder It was in 1928 that the owner of start of production, one of the earliest began to take a back seat, moving in 1920 motorcycle manufacturer DKW, a Danish true “people’s cars” was at number two to Berlin to act as a technical consultant entrepreneur named Jörgen Skafte in Germany’s registration figures behind on automotive matters to the German Rasmussen, acquired a majority stake in the Opel — a state of affairs that pretty much government. By that time, however, the publicly-owned Audiwerke AG, going on to remained until the outbreak of WWII. foundations had been laid. merge it with DKW a year later. Alongside downsizing, the great In keeping with Horch’s far-seeing Rasmussen had been working for some depression was also a period of intense approach, which constantly challenged time on the idea of a small front-wheel drive rationalization within German industry — contemporary thinking, Audi shook things car, but his endeavors had yet to come to giving rise to the formation of Auto Union up in 1921 when it launched Germany’s fruition when the full force of the depression AG in 1932. first left-hand drive car. Although cars hit home. As the market for high-end luxury It was at the behest of the State Bank drove on the right side of the road, the Audis collapsed, Rasmussen applied his of Saxony that Audiwerke and DKW convention was for the driver to sit where Zwickau resources to the issue and, in 1931, were merged with Horchwerke and the the coach driver had always sat — on the the first DKW Front saw the light of day. automotive division of Wanderer to form Production of DKW cars with front-wheel drive, 1937 (Type F7) Audi 18/70 hp dating from 1925 Charles de Gaulle in his Horch 830 BL 24 QUATTRO QUARTERLY SPRING 2009 EUROPOINT Auto Union AG, marking the birth of the European Grand Prix with legendary vehicles Eventually, in a spate of industry four rings — each representing one of the such as the 16-cylinder Type C and even rationalization, a major shareholder of both four original brands and bringing together more legendary race drivers like Hans Stuck, Daimler-Benz and Auto Union “persuaded” both of the companies founded by Tazio Nuvolari and Bernd Rosemeyer. the Stuttgart company to buy up his August Horch. However, that all came to a crushing interests in Auto Union GmbH in 1958. It The synergies of the four companies end in 1939. Following the decimation went on to become a 100 percent subsidiary were put to good use in the creation of a of German industry in the aftermath of of Daimler-Benz a year later. Thus, in yet coordinated model range. DKW occupied WWII and the annexing of East Germany another exercise of full-circle completion, the entry level with Wanderer covering (including Saxony) by the Soviets, Auto the Horch name (both in German and the mainstream mid-size sector, while Audi Union GmbH re-emerged in the garrison Latin), found their way back into the took the luxury mid-size market. Horch, of town of Ingolstadt in Bavaria. Initially, Benz fold. course, remained firmly placed in the high- it concentrated on its pre-war bread- It was during this period of ownership end prestige market.
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