Auto Union models

Auto Union was a German car maker formed on 29 June 1932 by combining DKW, Audi, Horch and the car division of Wanderer. Its emblem of four interlocking rings stood for the four brands and survives today as the Audi logo. From 1936 the company was based in Chemnitz, Saxony.

In the 1930s its Grand Prix cars, developed with Ferdinand Porsche, raced as part of the German "Silver Arrows"; Bernd Rosemeyer won the 1936 European Championship, and Tazio Nuvolari joined in 1938. After the Second World War the Saxon plants were dismantled, and the company was refounded in Ingolstadt on 3 September 1949. It built two-stroke DKW cars and, from 1958, the Auto Union 1000. Daimler-Benz took control in 1958–1959 and Volkswagen bought it in 1964; the first four-stroke Audi followed in 1965. In 1969 Auto Union merged with NSU, and in 1985 the company was renamed Audi AG. Read more: the history of Audi.