Auto Union: Төрт сақинаның тарихы (Auto Union: Tört saqınanıñ tarihı)

German automobile manufacturer

Auto Union AG was an amalgamation of four German automobile manufacturers, founded in 1932 and established in 1936 in Chemnitz, Saxony. It is the immediate predecessor of Audi as it is known today. As well as acting as an umbrella firm for its four constituent brands (Audi, Horch, DKW, Wanderer), Auto Union is widely known for its racing team (Auto Union Rennabteilung, based at Horch works in Zwickau/Saxony). The Silver Arrows of the two German teams (Mercedes Benz and Auto Union) dominated not only GP car racing from 1934 onwards but set records that would take decades to beat, such as the fastest speed ever attained on a public road (at 432.7 km/h (268.9 mph), a record lasting until 2017. After being reduced to near ruin in the aftermath of World War II, Auto Union was re founded in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, in 1949, ultimately evolving into the modern day Audi company following its takeover by Volkswagen in 1964 and later merger with NSU Motorenwerke in 1969. The current corporate entity which bears the Auto Union name, Auto Union GmbH, was founded in 1985 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Audi AG; its purpose is to act as owner of Auto Union's historical trademarks and intellectual property, as well as managing Audi's heritage operations. The company's distinctive logo of four interlocking rings to represent the original four members of the Auto Union survives as the logo of Audi.

The list of drivers for the initial 1934 season was headed by Stuck; he won the German, Swiss, and Czechoslovakian events, along with wins in a number of hill climbs, becoming European Mountain Champion. In 1935, the engine had been enlarged to displacement, producing Achille Varzi joined the team and won the Tunis Grand Prix and the Coppa Acerbo. Stuck won the Italian Grand Prix, plus his usual collection of hill climb wins, again taking the European Mountain Championship. The new sensation, Rosemeyer, won the Czech Grand Prix. Stuck also managed to break speed records, reaching on an Italian autostrada in a closed cockpit streamliner. Lessons learned from this streamlining were later applied to the T80 land speed record car. For 1936, the engine had grown to a full , and was now producing ; in the hands of Rosemeyer and his teammates, the Auto Union Type C dominated the racing world. Rosemeyer won the Eifelrennen, German, Swiss, and Italian Grands Prix, as well as the Coppa Acerbo. He was crowned European Champion (Auto Union's only win of the driver's championship), and also took the European Mountain Championship. Varzi won the Tripoli Grand Prix, while Stuck placed second in the Tripoli and German Grands Prix, and Ernst von Delius took second in the Coppa Acerbo. In 1937, the car was basically unchanged and did surprisingly well against the new Mercedes Benz W125, winning five races to the seven of Mercedes Benz. Rosemeyer took the Eifel and Donington Grands Prix, the Coppa Acerbo, and the Vanderbilt Cup. Rudolf Hasse won the Belgian Grand Prix. In addition to the new formula, 1938 brought other challenges, principally the death of Rosemeyer early in the year, in an attempt on the land speed record on a German autobahn. Tazio Nuvolari joined the team, and won the Italian and Donington Grands Prix, in what was otherwise a thin year for the team, other than yet another European Mountain Championship for Stuck. In 1939, as war clouds gathered over Europe, Nuvolari won the Yugoslavia Grand Prix in Belgrade, while Hermann P. Müller won the 1939 French Grand Prix.

The buildup and onset of World War II encouraged the development and production of special vehicles for military purposes in the 1930s. Auto Union became an important supplier of vehicles to Germany's armed forces.

Postwar, the Saxon plants of Auto Union were located in the Soviet occupied zone of communist East Germany. In 1945, on the orders of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany, the factories were dismantled as war reparations, while the racing cars found stored in a colliery were returned to Moscow for reverse engineering. Following this, Auto Union AG assets were liquidated without compensation. The former Audi factory in Zwickau, now under East German control, restarted assembly of the pre war models in 1949. Those models were renamed IFA F8 and IFA F9 and were similar to the new West German DKW versions. In time, a lawsuit compelled the East Germans to cease using the DKW brand. The factory went on to manufacture the Trabant until the early 1990s, when it was acquired by Volkswagen, effectively re establishing its connection with Auto Union and Audi.

With the Red Army quickly advancing on Zwickau immediately after the war, and faced with the prospect of trying to salvage what was left of the company, Auto Union's executives had no option but to flee and re establish the company on the Western side of a now partitioned Germany. Thus a new Auto Union company was launched in Ingolstadt, Bavaria with loans from the Bavarian state government and Marshall Plan aid. The reformed company Auto Union GmbH was launched on 3 September 1949. The Ingolstadt facility had been run purely as a spare parts operation since 1945, but eventually the directors found the funding to restart production – initially in a converted granary building in the town. With West Germany still in the early stages of rebuilding its economy after the war, the demand for cheap transport meant that only the DKW brand would survive into the postwar era. The luxury focused Audi and Horch brands were placed into dormancy, whilst Wanderer had been the property of its original parent firm. Auto Union therefore continued DKW's tradition of producing affordable front wheel drive vehicles with two stroke engines. The F 89 were based on the DKW F8 (motor) and the DKW F9 (coachwork) pre war constructions. In March 1953, the DKW 3=6 'Sonderklasse was launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show. This car proved exceptionally successful in motorsport and was built in Düsseldorf. The F91 version was soon superseded by the F93 in 1955, and soon joined by the four door F94 and station wagon Universal F94U in 1956 and 1957 respectively. From 1956 to 1968, about 46,750 DKW Munga light four wheel drive military vehicles could be produced, mostly for the German and other militaries. In response to pressure from Friedrich Flick, then its largest single shareholder, Daimler Benz acquired 87% of Auto Union in April 1958, taking complete control in the following year. In 1958 it saw the return of the Auto Union brand, represented by the Auto Union 1000, a small saloon which enjoyed sporting success. At the same time the 1000 Sp, a coupé, was produced for Auto Union by the coachbuilder Baur at Stuttgart. Under Daimler Benz ownership the company invested heavily in the Ingolstadt plant. Car production at Düsseldorf was ended, and the plant became the centre of production for Mercedes Benz commercial vehicles like the Mercedes Benz L 319 – a role which it continues to the present day. The DKW and Mercedes brands were able to establish a greater presence in the North American market by an agreement with the Studebaker Packard Corporation in 1956 which through 1964 was the only distributor in the United States. Because of SPC's large network of dealers, the Auto Union and Mercedes Benz brands were able to expand much faster in the US markets. Many dealers today can trace their origin back to being Studebaker Packard dealerships. However, as prosperity began to return to West Germany, and as West German products gained valuable currency through export to the rest of Europe and North America, Daimler became increasingly worried that Auto Union's only market for its two stroke products, without massive investment, would be impoverished East Germany. Two stroke engines became less popular towards the middle of the 1960s as customers were more attracted to the more refined four stroke engines. They began selling shares, which with the agreed help of the West German Government, were acquired by Volkswagenwerk AG. In 1964, Volkswagen acquired the factory in Ingolstadt and the trademark rights of Auto Union, with the exception of the dormant Horch brand which Daimler Benz retained. A programme that Daimler had initiated at Auto Union created a range of cars that would subsequently provide the basis for Volkswagen's line of front wheel drive models, such as the Audi 80 and Volkswagen Passat. At the time a new model, internally designated F103, was under development. This was based on the last DKW model, the DKW F102, with a four stroke engine implanted and some front and rear styling changes. Volkswagen abandoned the DKW brand because of association with two stroke engines, effectively leaving Volkswagen with the Audi brand. The new model was launched in September 1965 as simply the "Audi." The name was a model designation rather than the manufacturer, which was still officially Auto Union. As more models were later added to the Audi range, this model was renamed Audi 72. In 1969, Auto Union merged with NSU Motorenwerke AG, based in Neckarsulm, near Stuttgart. In the 1950s, NSU had been the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles, but had moved on to produce small cars like the NSU Prinz, the TT and TTS versions of which are still popular as vintage race cars. NSU then focused on new rotary engines based on the ideas of Felix Wankel. In 1967, the new NSU Ro 80 was a space age car, well ahead of its time in technical details such as aerodynamics, light weight, and safety but teething problems with the rotary engines put an end to the independence of NSU. The mid sized car NSU had been working on, the K70, was intended to slot between the rear engined Prinz models and the futuristic NSU Ro 80. However, Volkswagen took the K70 for its own range, spelling the end of NSU as a separate brand. After being merged with Neckarsulm car maker NSU, the official name became Audi NSU Auto Union AG, which was simply shortened to Audi AG in 1985, ending both the Auto Union and NSU brands. The company's headquarters returned to Ingolstadt; at the same time Audi formed the new companies Auto Union GmbH, and NSU GmbH as wholly owned subsidiaries whose function was to own and protect the historical trademarks and intellectual property of both Auto Union and NSU. In May 2009, Porsche gained majority control of Volkswagen Group and proposed a merger of the two companies. In August 2009, Volkswagen AG's supervisory board signed the agreement to create an integrated Auto group with Porsche led by Volkswagen. Volkswagen will initially take a 42% stake in Porsche AG by the end of 2009, and see the family shareholders selling the automotive trading business of Porsche Holding Salsburg to Volkswagen. Rumors began to appear in the press the name Auto Union would be revived for the new group holding company.

The trademark symbol of Auto Union (and present day Audi), the four overlapping rings, symbolized the four marques forming Auto Union: Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer. There is also a version of the logo that uses both overlapping and interlocking rings.

Auto Union was tributed at the 1999 Monterey Historic Automobile Races.