"Listen!" -Hoch-Audi (Audi)
1an engine test failed in June, 909, which led to a fierce quarrel between Halsey himself and other investors in the company. In a rage, Holsey left the company named after him and set up a new company. However, the new company was defeated by Holsey in the subsequent infringement lawsuit, so the name of the new company became a puzzling problem. While Halsey and his partner Fickencher were racking their brains for this, Fickencher's youngest son was doing his Latin homework, and the word "Audi" he read made his parents feel refreshed. It turned out that Horc listened to the imperative "Listen!" For german. The meaning of, while listening to Latin is pronounced "Audi". This name makes the new Audi company and Holsey company both different and related. Thus, 19 10 On April 25th, a great automobile brand was born inadvertently. It issued the sound of "listening"-"Audi" in one of the oldest international languages in the West, which echoed for nearly a century. In July of the same year, the first car named after Audi was born, and the owner was the owner of the store in Munich, Deller.
Hoshi set a "high profile" for the product.
From the beginning, Holsey set a "high profile" for the products produced by his company: "I am determined to produce only large, powerful and high-quality luxury cars under any circumstances!" This is true for both Horsey and Audi. This is the firm purpose of Audi, which has gone through hardships so far: to open up the high-end car market with leading technology.
After Horsey left, Horsey basically inherited Horsey's own design ideas and positioned Horsey brand cars as powerful, excellent in quality and luxurious in decoration. 1926 The Horch 8 car listed at the Berlin Auto Show in autumn is a significant model of Horsey Company. It uses an 8-cylinder inline engine, which is the first example in Germany. Its advanced technology, high-level performance and excellent reliability have become the representative of the quality of the German automobile industry, and it has been hailed as the symbol of the prosperity of the automobile industry in the 1920s, and has become the object of imitation by all competitors. It is this Horch 8 that has firmly established Horch's high-end luxury brand image and laid a solid foundation for HORCH to lead the top luxury car market in the future.
The four-in-one new company adopted the four-ring logo.
Since its birth, Audi has been pursuing high-quality and high-grade products. The D car produced by Audi has been designated as the car for the king and government of Saxony, and the daily output of the company has already caught up with Hoshi, the same brother and competitor before the outbreak of World War I. 1923, Audi has equipped the special car made by the Swedish royal family with exquisite sinks, and the seats are sewn with elephant skins, which is extremely luxurious. 1927, Audi's R-type car "Archon" was the most technologically advanced luxury car in Germany at that time. An Audi car produced in 1935 was priced at 10300 mark, which was quite expensive for Germans with an average monthly salary of only 100 mark at that time.
On June 29th, 1932, Audi, Horsey, Wanderer and DKW established Auto Union AG in chemnitz. Within the automobile alliance, there are four brands aiming at specific target markets: DKW undertakes the market of motorcycles and small cars, Rover is responsible for manufacturing medium-sized cars, Audi produces high-end cars, and Hoshi manufactures ultra-luxury top cars. The four-in-one new company has adopted a new logo, which is the four-ring logo that everyone is very familiar with.
The automobile alliance has rapidly grown into the second largest automobile company in Germany.
In 1930s, cars produced accounted for a quarter of the German market, with an annual output of over 67,000 vehicles.
In terms of luxury cars, the representative works of automobile alliance include Horsey 830, 850 and 930. , but the most famous is 853. Cars and convertibles are extraordinary in style and have all the elements of classic luxury. At that time, the price of a Horsey 853 was as high as 14900 goldmark (1930s), which was equivalent to the price of an independent mansion. Today, a Horsey 853 has always been a treasure of the town museum, whether in Wolfsburg (Volkswagen headquarters), Stadt, Ingall (Audi headquarters) or any German automobile museum. It is said that Hitler didn't like riding horses. Fortunately, the aristocrats named Feng and the generals from the empire didn't want to equate their tastes with this "Bohemian Corporal", so that the Hoshi brand occupied more than 40% of the high-end luxury car market in Germany in the 1930s. At that time, there were no fewer than 10 luxury car brands competing.
Nowadays, people are talking about whether Audi will revive Horsey, an ancient noble brand, after Mercedes-Benz revived Maibakh brand, thus forming a "four kings" pattern of super luxury brands such as Horsey, Maibakh, Rolls-Royce (owned by BMW) and Bentley (owned by Volkswagen) in the global automobile market. The answer is no, because, unlike the owners of the other three ultra-luxury brands, Audi is a direct descendant of the ultra-luxury brand Horsey, and they share the same genes. In other words, Audi is Horsey, and the so-called difference is only the difference in pronunciation between the two languages.
Technical leadership comes down in one continuous line.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Hoshi was not only one of more than 30 automobile factories in Germany at that time, but also a pioneer of automobile technology. His first design is a "shock-free" two-cylinder horizontally opposed engine, sharing a combustion chamber; He was the first to adopt universal shaft as power transmission mode, instead of belt transmission and chain transmission; He also emphasized the application of light alloy in transmission, differential case and crankcase, and the application of Cr-Ni alloy steel in high strength gears.
19 1 1 year, Horsey personally drove Audi's Model C car to win the world's highest-level rally racing competition at that time, the Austrian Alps International Rally Racing Competition, and later won the championship for three consecutive races. The honor of "three consecutive championships" is inseparable from the company's first adoption of advanced technologies and processes such as cast aluminum engine, dry cylinder liner and four-wheel brake.
192 1 year, the Audi K-car designed by Lange, the technical successor and chief designer of Horsey, was the first car in the world with a left steering wheel and an operating system. 1923, Audi launched Germany's first car with a six-cylinder engine.
In 1930s, the automobile alliance won more than 3,000 technical patents.
Speed miracle
Audi's racing champion can be traced back to the beginning of last century. At the beginning, Audi was very popular. For three consecutive years (19 12- 14), he won the world's highest-level rally-Austrian Alpine International Rally Championship.
1In March, 934, the four-ring logo "Silver Arrow" A racing car launched by the Automobile Union, driven by racing star Hans Stark, won the international grand prix in Nuremberg, Germany, and set a world record for racing speed.
1937, a four-ring logo "Silver Arrow" racing car designed by Porsche, an automobile genius, rewrote the 15 world car speed record in one fell swoop, in which the car speed record was 406.3 km/h, which made contemporary people stunned.
The "Silver Arrow" racing car has an ultra-modern dynamic shape. Anyone who sees this car in the Audi Museum for the first time will be surprised: Could it be a 1930s car? Unfortunately, this "Silver Arrow" racing car was destroyed by war during World War II. 1982, with the full support of Audi, the sole heir of the automobile alliance, the car was successfully copied and appeared on the track again, but no driver wanted to compete with it because he didn't want to risk being reviled by fans all over the world because he didn't want to hit the "silver arrow". This "silver arrow" stood out from the crowd at the peak of racing history and became a religious relic.
This series of speed miracles created by ancestors injected powerful power genes into the Audi brand more than 60 years ago.
Germany's fifth largest automobile manufacturing enterprise
After experiencing the "Golden 1930s", due to the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the automobile alliance stopped its normal production. From 1944, the allied forces began to carry out "carpet" air strikes. Saxony, as an important industrial base, was certainly not spared and was razed to the ground overnight by air strikes. 1945, 10 At the end of the year, the Soviet Red Army, which controlled the eastern part of Germany, officially announced the confiscation of "bourgeois property"-automobile alliance. In fact, before this, the Russians had taken the company's equipment as a trophy and began to dismantle it. More than 28,000 pieces of equipment originally scattered in the four major companies were almost completely dismantled, and many of them were transported to the Soviet Union. After 46 years of existence, Audi's ancestors were destroyed by smoke and ruins. The remaining workshops and parts factories were pieced together to form the only automobile enterprise in the late East Germany-IFA Automobile Factory. (1990 After the reunification of Germany, IFA disintegrated, and Volkswagen decided to take over some assets and rebuild the automobile industry in Saxony. The decision-maker is Dr. Carl Hahn Jr, the son of Dr. Carl Hahn, then the chairman of Audi AG, who originally rebuilt Audi. )
After the catastrophe, the Audi people fled to western Germany and came to Munich, the capital of Bavaria. Although the initial unsupportive attitude of the Munich government poured cold water on them, they did not lose heart. Dr. Bruen and Dr. Hahn led their former headquarters to set up camp in Ingstadt, and at the same time got a loan with their personal reputation, and started the second venture of the automobile alliance, which is today's Audi Company. At that time, the office facilities and production environment of the automobile alliance were very simple, and some employees laughed at themselves as "workshop alliance", but in any case, the automobile alliance had begun the mission of revival.
1955 Automobile Alliance developed the most popular car P94 in the German market in 1950s. Three years later, the automobile alliance has grown into the fifth largest automobile manufacturer in Germany after Volkswagen, Opel, Mercedes-Benz and European Ford. During this period, the automobile alliance developed the full-time four-wheel drive technology and manufactured the small off-road vehicle MONGA for the Federal Defence Force. Until 1968, this car was still the main force in the national defense force.
Established the status of "Audi brand"
1964 12. after the merger of Mercedes-benz, the automobile alliance officially joined Audi ag. The first step in the real revival of Audi after the war was 1968, which developed Audi 100 on the basis of its inherent experience. Audi 100 was a great success. The Audi 100 originally planned to produce 800,000 vehicles sold. Audi 100 re-established the status of "Audi brand" and the "four-ring logo" re-glowed.
Looking back on this history, people can't help feeling: If there is no such noble and unique lineage, if Audi people don't have such perseverance, will there still be Audi brands in today's global luxury car market? Fortunately, this ancient luxury brand, which once had the glory of the "Golden 1930s", has not become a regrettable historical story that can only be "heard" after experiencing disasters and painful suffering. Its noble bloodline has extraordinary vitality, which makes it destined to be reborn one day.