ORIGINAL: Grey I

Back in World War II.. Audi Was Not Called Audi.. It was called the Horch/ Auto Union....

The origins of Audi

The company traces its origins back to 1899 and August Horch. The first Horch automobile was produced in 1901 in Zwickau. In 1910, Horch was forced out of the company he had founded. He then started a new company in Zwickau and continued using the Horch brand. His former partners sued him for trademark infringement and a German court determined that the Horch brand belonged to his former company. August Horch was forced to refrain from using his own family name in his new car business. As the word "horch!" translates to "hark!" in German, August Horch settled on the Latin equivalent of his name — "audi!". It is also popularly believed that Audi is an acronym which stands for "Auto Union Deutschland Ingolstadt". Audi produces over 2 million vehicles annually at its main production site in Ingolstadt. Audi has another production plant in Neckarsulm.

Audi started with a 2612 cc (2.6 Liter) model followed by a four cylinder model with 3564 cc (3.6 L), as well as 4680 cc(4.7 L) and 5720 cc(5.7L) models. These cars were successful even in sporting events. August Horch left the Audi company in 1920. The first six cylinder model ,4655 cc(4.7 L) appeared in 1924. In 1928, the company was acquired by J S Rasmussen, owner of DKW, who bought the same year the remains of the US automobile manufacturer, Rickenbacker including the manufacturing equipment for eight cylinder engines. These engines were used in Audi Zwickau and Audi Dresden models that were launched in 1929. At the same time, six cylinder and a small four cylinder (licensed from Peugeot) models were manufactured. Audi cars of that era were luxurious cars equipped with special bodywork.

The Auto Union era

In 1932 Audi merged with Horch, DKW and Wanderer to form the Auto Union. Before World War II, Auto Union used the four interlinked rings that make up the Audi badge today, representing these four brands. This badge was used, however, only on Auto Union racing cars in that period while the member companies used their own names and emblems. The technological development became more and more concentrated and some Audi models were propelled by Horch or Wanderer built engines. During World War II the Horch/Auto Union produced the SDKFZ 222 armored car, which was used mostly in the Polish Blitzkrieg conquest and North African Campaign. It was powered by an 81 hp Horch/Auto Union V8 Engine which had a top speed of 50 miles per hour.

Another vehicle which was used in World War II to shuttle German military officials safely was known as the Kraftfahrzeug (KFZ 11) or the Horch Type 80. The military used it as a light transport vehicle which was used in the German Conquest of Poland.