''Auto Motor und Sport'', often stylized as auto motor und sport and abbreviated AMS or AMuS, is a German
automobile magazine
''Automobile'' was an American automobile magazine published by the Motor Trend Group. A group of former employees of ''Car and Driver'' led by David E. Davis founded ''Automobile'' in 1986 with support from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, u ...
.
It is published
fortnight
A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (two weeks). The word derives from the Old English term , meaning "" (or "fourteen days," since the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights).
Astronomy and tides
In astronomy, a ''lunar fortnight'' is h ...
ly by Motor Presse Netzwerk's subsidiary Motor Presse Stuttgart, a specialist magazine publisher that is 59.9% owned by the publishing house
Gruner + Jahr Gruner may refer to:
People
* Dov Gruner (1912–1947), Jewish Zionist leader
* Eduard Gruner, Swiss engineer
* Elioth Gruner (1882–1939), Australian painter
* Gottlieb Sigmund Gruner (1717–1778), Swiss cartographer and geologist
* Klaus ...
.
History
''Motor und Sport'' was initially published in 1923 in
Pößneck
Pößneck (also spelled ''Poessneck'') is a town in the Saale-Orla-Kreis district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated 19 km east of Rudolstadt, and 26 km south of Jena.
History
Pößneck, which is of Slavonic origin, passed about 1 ...
, Germany. It was founded by Fritz Pullig and Felicitas Von Reznicek. Pullig began his career by racing motorcycles in 1912 at the
Nurburgring. Pullig was also an aviation pioneer (his first flight was at what is now Hangelarer Airport on July 17, 1909) and became a flight instructor in 1913. He served as a soldier in
WWI
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and
WWII
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. After the latter, Pullig became an acclaimed author, writing over 30
novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...
s. Notable works include ''Lockfuhrer Lund'' (1940), ''Du bist nicht Sylvia'' (1939) and ''Der Held seiner Liebe''. In the early 1950s, Pullig was a prototype test driver for
Daimler Benz and
Opel
Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Grou ...
car prototypes in
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
and tested over 345 prototype cars.
In 1963 Pullig died sitting behind the steering wheel of his car in a garage in Mainz, Germany.
Felicitas Von Reznicek co-authored to ''Motor und Sport'' magazine with Fritz Pullig. She authored many novels throughout her career. One of the novels was ''Hitler’s Spy Princess,'' based on Von Reznicek's tale of how she became implicated in a conspiracy to overthrow the German government.
The magazine was renamed several times. The first edition, entitled ''Das Auto'', appeared in time for Christmas in 1946
with a cover price of . It was edited and in large part written by F.A.L. Martin contributed his report of automotive developments in the US.
A two-page feature highlighted the virtues of the "
Jeep
Jeep is an American automobile marque, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with remaining assets, from its previous owner American Moto ...
", a word that "appeared in no dictionary but nonetheless defined the ideal vehicle for agriculture and forestry".
Two pages were devoted to the future of
nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...
, incorporating four pictures of nuclear explosions, but concluding that on the grounds of cost, oil-based fuels were likely to continue to power motor vehicles in the immediate future because of the high cost of "atomic fuel" ''(Atombetriebsstoff)''.
The second edition appeared in January 1947, and was a double issue covering February 1947; this approach was enforced by paper rationing.
By 1950 an expanding circulation had enabled relocation to larger premises in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
.
During the 1960s, demand for circulation increased from approximately 150,000 copies to approximately 400,000.
This reflected rapid growth in
West German
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
registrations, with 4.5 million cars registered in 1960, rising to 12.5 million in 1969.
Readership continued to increase. Sales peaked in 1991 at 523,387 copies.
Circulation was 406,474 copies for the 2010–2011 period, making it the ninth best-selling European automobile magazine. Its 2013 circulation was about 370,000 copies.
In 1996, a special anniversary issue featured a Berlin subscriber who had retained every copy of Auto Motor und Sport since the age of 17; just over a year after his father's car had been confiscated by a Russian officer, he had first subscribed.
The circulation of the magazine was 494,000 copies in the period 2001–2002.
Managing editors Ralph Alex and Jens Katemann took over from Bernd Ostmann in September 2012.
[, ] Earlier managing editors included
Ferdinand Simoneit
Ferdinand Simoneit (14 June 1925; Duisburg – 3 April 2010; Löffingen) was a German journalist, author, professor and World War II veteran.
Life
During the German invasion of the Soviet Union he was a '' Panzersoldat'' and seriously wounded on ...
.
Motor Presse Netzwerk issues a yearly publication called ''Auto Katalog'', usually in August. This highly respected publication is an excellent resource and is issued in other languages as well. Its main shortcoming was a nationalist myopia, resulting in a strong focus on German models. Yearly sales figures and an in-depth technical section are included.
International versions are published in Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Hungary,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey.
At one point the English-only language edition was called ''Complete Car''.
References
14. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Pullig
External links
auto-motor-und-sport.deofficial site
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Auto, Motor und Sport
1946 establishments in Germany
Biweekly magazines published in Germany
Automobile magazines published in Germany
German-language magazines
Magazines established in 1946
Mass media in Freiburg im Breisgau
Magazines published in Stuttgart