DKW (''Dampf-Kraft-Wagen'', en, "steam-powered car", also ''Deutsche Kinder-Wagen'' en, "German children's car". ''Das-Kleine-Wunder'', en, "the little wonder" or ''Des-Knaben-Wunsch'', en, "the boy's wish"- from when the company built toy
two-stroke engine
A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of t ...
s) was a German
car
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods.
The year 1886 is regarded as ...
- and
motorcycle
A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...
-
marque
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
. DKW was one of the four companies that formed
Auto Union
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 f ...
in 1932 and thus became an ancestor of the modern-day
Audi
Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide.
Th ...
company.
In 1916, Danish
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen
Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen (30 July 1878 – 12 August 1964) was a Danish engineer and industrialist.
Life
The son of a shipmaster who died when Rasmussen was still a young child, he attended middle school in Nakskov and in 1894 began an appre ...
founded a factory in
Zschopau
Zschopau (), is a town in the Erzgebirgskreis district of Saxony, Germany.
Geography
The town is located on the northwestern slopes of the Ore Mountains, on both Bank (geography), banks of the Zschopau (river), Zschopau River, about south-east ...
,
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
, Germany, to produce steam fittings. That year he attempted to produce a steam-driven car, called the DKW.
[Odin, L.C. ''World in Motion 1939 – The whole of the year's automobile production''. Belvedere Publishing, 2015. ASIN: B00ZLN91ZG.] Although unsuccessful, he made a two-stroke toy engine in 1919, called ''Des Knaben Wunsch'' – "the boy's wish". He put a slightly modified version of this engine into a motorcycle and called it ''Das Kleine Wunder''
– "the little wonder" the initials from this becoming the DKW brand: by the late 1920s, DKW had become the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer.
In September 1924, DKW bought , saving them from Germany's
hyperinflation
In economics, hyperinflation is a very high and typically accelerating inflation. It quickly erodes the real value of the local currency, as the prices of all goods increase. This causes people to minimize their holdings in that currency as t ...
economic crisis
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the p ...
. Rudolf Slaby became chief-engineer at DKW.
In 1932, DKW merged with
Audi
Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide.
Th ...
,
Horch
Horch () was a car brand manufacturer, founded in Germany by August Horch & Cie at the beginning of the 20th century.
It is one of the predecessors of the present day Audi company, which itself resulted from the merger of Auto Union Aktienges ...
and
Wanderer to form Auto Union.
After
World War II
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 ...
, DKW moved to
West Germany
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 ...
. The original factory became
MZ.
Auto Union came under
Daimler-Benz
The Mercedes-Benz Group Aktiengesellschaft, AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German Multinational corporation, multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It ...
ownership in 1957 and was purchased by the
Volkswagen Group
Volkswagen AG (), known internationally as the Volkswagen Group, is a German multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. The company designs, manufactures and distributes passenger and commercial ...
in 1964. The last German-built DKW car was the
F102, which ceased production in 1966. Its successor, the
four-stroke
A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directio ...
F103, was marketed under the Audi brand, another Auto Union marque.
DKW-badged cars continued to be built under license in Brazil and Argentina until 1967 and 1969 respectively. The DKW trademark is currently owned by Auto Union GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Audi AG which also owns the rights to other historical trademarks and intellectual property of the Auto Union combine.
Automobiles made between 1928 and 1942
![MHV DKW F1 1931 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/MHV_DKW_F1_1931_01.jpg)
DKW cars were made from 1928 until 1966, apart from the interruption caused by the Second World War. DKWs always used two-stroke engines, reflecting the company's position by the end of the 1920s as the world's largest producer of motorcycles. The first DKW car, the small and rather crude
Typ P, emerged on 7 May 1928
Oswald Oswald may refer to:
People
* Oswald (given name), including a list of people with the name
*Oswald (surname), including a list of people with the name
Fictional characters
*Oswald the Reeve, who tells a tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's ''The Canterbu ...
, p 86 and the model continued to be built at the company's
Spandau
Spandau () is the westernmost of the 12 boroughs () of Berlin, situated at the confluence of the Havel and Spree rivers and extending along the western bank of the Havel. It is the smallest borough by population, but the fourth largest by land ...
(Berlin) plant, first as a roadster and later as a stylish if basic sports car, until 1931.
More significant was a series of inexpensive cars built 300 km (185 miles) to the south in Zwickau in the plant acquired by
the company's owner in 1928 when he had become the majority owner in
Audi Werke AG. Models
F1 to
F8 (F for Front) were built between 1931 and 1942, with successor models reappearing after the end of the
war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
in 1945. They were the first volume production cars in Europe with
front wheel drive
Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional lon ...
, and were powered by
transversely mounted two-cylinder two-stroke engines. Displacement was 584 or 692 cc: claimed maximum power was initially 15 PS, and from 1931 a choice between 18 or . These models had a generator that doubled as a starter, mounted directly on the
crankshaft
A crankshaft is a mechanical component used in a piston engine to convert the reciprocating motion into rotational motion. The crankshaft is a rotating shaft containing one or more crankpins, that are driven by the pistons via the connecting ...
, known as a
Dynastart
SIBA Elektrik G.m.b.H is a former German automotive electrical manufacturer, noted as manufacturers of the Dynastart combined starter motor and dynamo, used on many cars, motorcycles and scooters in the 1950s and notable for providing an electric m ...
. DKWs from Zwickau notched up approximately 218,000 units between 1931 and 1942.
Most cars were sold on the home market and over 85% of DKWs produced in the 1930s were the little F series cars: DKW reached second place in German sales by 1934 and stayed there, accounting for 189,369 of the cars sold between 1931 and 1938, more than 16% of the market.
Between 1929 and 1940, DKW produced a less well remembered but technically intriguing series of rear-wheel drive cars called (among other names)
''Schwebeklasse'' and ''Sonderklasse'' with two-stroke
V4 engines.
Engine displacement
Engine displacement is the measure of the cylinder volume swept by all of the pistons of a piston engine, excluding the combustion chambers. It is commonly used as an expression of an engine's size, and by extension as a loose indicator of the ...
was 1,000 cc, later 1,100 cc. The engines had two extra cylinders for
forced induction
In an internal combustion engine, forced induction is where turbocharging or supercharging is used to increase the density of the intake air. Engines without forced induction are classified as naturally aspirated.
Operating principle Overvi ...
, so they appeared like
V6 engine
A V6 engine is a six-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.
The first V6 engines were designed and produced independently by Marmon Motor Car Company, Deutz Gasmotoren Fabrik ...
s but without
spark plug
A spark plug (sometimes, in British English, a sparking plug, and, colloquially, a plug) is a device for delivering electric current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the compressed fuel/air ...
s on the front cylinder pair.
In 1939, DKW made a
prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...
with the first
three-cylinder engine
The engine configuration describes the fundamental operating principles by which internal combustion engines are categorized.
Piston engines are often categorized by their cylinder layout, valves and camshafts. Wankel engines are often categorize ...
, with a displacement of 900 cc and producing . With a streamlined body, the car could run at . It was put into production after
World War II
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 ...
, first as an
Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau
''Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau'' ("Industrial Association for Vehicle Construction"), usually abbreviated as IFA, was a conglomerate and a union of companies for vehicle construction in the former East Germany.
IFA produced bicycles, motorcycles ...
(IFA) F9 (later
Wartburg
The Wartburg () is a castle originally built in the Middle Ages. It is situated on a precipice of to the southwest of and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It was the home of St. Elisabeth of Hungary, the p ...
) in
Zwickau
Zwickau (; is, with around 87,500 inhabitants (2020), the fourth-largest city of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ' ...
,
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
, and shortly afterwards in DKW-form from Düsseldorf as the 3=6 or F91.
DKW engines were used by
Saab
Saab or SAAB may refer to:
Brands and enterprises
* Saab Group, a Swedish aerospace and defence company, formerly known as SAAB, and later as Saab AB
** Datasaab, a former computer company, started as spin off from Saab AB
* Saab Automobile, a fo ...
as a model for the
Saab two-stroke
The Saab two-stroke was a two-stroke cycle, inline, two cylinder, and later three cylinder engine manufactured by Swedish automotive manufacturer Saab that was based on a design by German manufacturer DKW.
Two-cylinder
The first version was a ...
in its
Saab 92
The Saab 92 was the first production car from Saab Automobile, Saab. The design was very aerodynamic for its time, with a drag coefficient (''cx'' or ''cw'') of 0.30. The entire body was stamped out of one piece of sheet metal and then cut to ac ...
car manufacturing venture, in 1947.
Automobiles made after 1945
![Osmo Kalpala - 1956 Rally Finland](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Osmo_Kalpala_-_1956_Rally_Finland.jpeg)
As Auto Union was based in Saxony in what became the
German Democratic Republic
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
(East Germany), it took some time for it to regroup after the war. The company was registered in
West Germany
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 ...
as Auto Union GmbH in 1949, first as a spare-part provider, but soon to take up production of the RT 125 motorcycle and a new
delivery van
A panel van, also known as a blind van, car-derived van (United Kingdom) or sedan delivery (United States), is a small cargo vehicle with a passenger car chassis, typically with a single front bench seat and no side windows behind the B-pillar. ...
, called a ''
Schnellaster'' F800. Their first line of production took place in
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
. This van used the same engine as the last F8 made before the war.
Their first car was the F89 using the body from the prototype F9 made before the war and the two-cylinder
two-stroke engine
A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of t ...
from the last F8. Production went on until it was replaced by the successful three-cylinder engine that came with the F91. The F91 was in production 1953–1955, and was replaced by the larger F93 in 1956. The F91 and F93 had 900 cc three-cylinder two-stroke engines, the first ones delivering , the last . The ignition system comprised three independent sets of
points
Point or points may refer to:
Places
* Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland
* Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States
* Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland
* Point ...
and
coils, one for each cylinder, with the points mounted in a cluster around a single
lobed
The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...
cam
Calmodulin (CaM) (an abbreviation for calcium-modulated protein) is a multifunctional intermediate calcium-binding messenger protein expressed in all eukaryotic cells. It is an intracellular target of the secondary messenger Ca2+, and the bind ...
at the front end of the crankshaft. The cooling system was of the
free convection
Convection is single or multiphase fluid flow that occurs spontaneously due to the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity (see buoyancy). When the cause of the convec ...
type assisted by a fan driven from a pulley mounted at the front end of the crankshaft.
The F93 was produced until 1959, and was replaced by the Auto-Union 1000. These models were produced with a 1,000 cc two-stroke engine, with a choice between or S versions until 1963. During this transition, production was moved from Düsseldorf to
Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt (, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an independent city on the Danube in Upper Bavaria with 139,553 inhabitants (as of June 30, 2022). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan area. Ingolstadt is the second largest city in Upper Bav ...
, where Audi still has its production. From 1957, the cars could be fitted with a
saxomat
Saxomat was a type of automatic clutch available as an option on Fiat 1800, Lancia Flaminia, Saab 93, Borgward Isabella, Goliath/Hansa 1100, Auto Union 1000, Ford Taunus, Trabant, other than some models from BMW, Opel, Steyr-Puch, NSU, Glas ...
, an automatic clutch, the only small car then offering this feature. The last versions of the Auto-Union 1000S had
disc brakes
A disc brake is a type of brake that uses the calipers to squeeze pairs of pads against a disc or a "rotor" to create friction. This action slows the rotation of a shaft, such as a vehicle axle, either to reduce its rotational speed or to hol ...
as option, an early development for this technology. A sporting 2+2 seater version was available as the Auto-Union 1000 SP from 1957 to 1964, the first years only as a
coupé
A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors.
The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...
and from 1962 also as a
convertible
A convertible or cabriolet () is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers.
A convertible car's design allows an open-air driving expe ...
.
In 1956, the very rare
DKW Monza
The DKW Monza was a sports car built on an Auto Union DKW base. Named after the world-famous Italian Grand Prix circuit, the car set five world records in 1956.
After the series of wins by the DKW 3=6 'Sonderklasse' in European touring car rac ...
was put into small-scale production on a private initiative, with a sporting two-seater body of
glassfiber
Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...
on a standard F93 frame. It was first called Solitude, but got its final name from the long-distance speed records it made on the
Autodromo Nazionale Monza
The Monza Circuit ( it, Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, , National Automobile Racetrack of Monza) is a race track near the city of Monza, north of Milan, in Italy. Built in 1922, it was the world's third purpose-built motor racing circuit after ...
in Italy in November 1956. Running in
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; en, International Automobile Federation) is an association established on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. It is the governing body for ...
(FIA) class G, it set records including 48 hours at an average speed of , 10,000 km at and 72 hours at . The car was first produced by 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 ...
, then by Massholder in
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
and lastly by Robert Schenk in Stuttgart. The number produced is said to be around 230 and production finished by the end of 1958.
![DKW Junior DeLuxe 1962](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/DKW_Junior_DeLuxe_1962.JPG)
A more successful range of cars was sold from 1959, the Junior/F12 series based on a modern concept from the late 1950s. The range consists of Junior (basic model) made from 1959 to 1961, Junior de Luxe (a little enhanced) from 1961 to 1963, F11 (a little larger) and F12 (larger and bigger engine) from 1963 to 1965, and F12 Roadster from 1964 to 1965. The Junior/F12 series became quite popular, and many cars were produced. An assembly plant was licensed in
Ballincollig
Ballincollig () is a suburban town within the administrative area of Cork city in Ireland. It is located on the western side of Cork city, beside the River Lee on the R608 regional road. In 2016 it was the largest town in County Cork, at whic ...
,
County Cork
County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
between 1952 and c.1964 and roughly 4,000 vehicles were assembled, ranging from saloons, vans and motorbikes to commercial
combine harvester
The modern combine harvester, or simply combine, is a versatile machine designed to efficiently harvest a variety of grain crops. The name derives from its combining four separate harvesting operations—reaping, threshing, gathering, and winnow ...
s. This was the only DKW factory outside Germany in Europe and for many years after its closure its large DKW sign could be visible on the wall of the factory. The building was demolished in the late 2000s and was redeveloped into a German
Aldi
Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when t ...
store and a McDonald's drive-thru.
All the three-cylinder two-stroke post-war cars had some sporting potential and formed the basis for many
rally
Rally or rallye may refer to:
Gatherings
* Demonstration (political), a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade
* Pep rally, an event held at a United States school or college sporting event
Sports ...
victories in the 1950s and early 1960s. This made DKW the most winning car brand in the European rally league for several years during the fifties.
In 1960, DKW developed a
V6 engine
A V6 engine is a six-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.
The first V6 engines were designed and produced independently by Marmon Motor Car Company, Deutz Gasmotoren Fabrik ...
by combining two three-cylinder two-stroke engines, with a capacity of 1,000 cc. The capacity was increased and the final V6 in 1966 had a capacity of 1,300 cc, which developed at 5,000 rpm using the standard configuration with two
carburettor
A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meterin ...
s. A four-carburettor version produced , a six-carburettor one . It weighed only . The V6 was planned to be used in the
DKW Munga
The DKW Munga is a DKW-branded off-road vehicle that was built by Auto-Union in Ingolstadt, Germany. The name ''Munga'' comes from the German phrase ''Mehrzweck Universal Geländewagen mit Allradantrieb'', which translates as "multi-purpose univer ...
and the F102. About 100 engines were built for testing purposes and 13 DKW F102 and some Mungas were fitted with the V6 engine in the 1960s.
The last DKW was the F102, coming into production in 1964 as a replacement for the old-looking AU1000. However, the F102 sold poorly, largely due to its two-stroke engine technology which was at the limit of its development. Auto Union's parent, Daimler-Benz, decided to offload the company to Volkswagen. The car was re-engineered with a four-stroke engine and relaunched as the Audi F103. This marked the end of the DKW marque for cars, and the rebirth of the Audi name.
From 1956 to 1961, Dutch importer
Hart, Nibbrig & Greve assembled cars in an abandoned asphalt factory in
Sassenheim
Sassenheim () is a town and former municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland.
The former municipality covered an area of 6.62 km² (of which 0.23 km² water) and had a population of 14,906 in 2005. Since ...
, where they employed about 120 workers, two transporter, that collected SKD kits from Duesseldorf and built about 13.500 cars. When the DKW plant moved the import of SKD kits stopped, as it became too expensive.
DKW in South America
From 1956 to 1967, DKW cars were made in Brazil by the local company Vemag (''Veículos e Máquinas Agrícolas S.A.'', "Vehicles and Agricultural Machinery Inc."). Vemag was assembling
Scania-Vabis
Scania AB is a major Swedish manufacturer headquartered in Södertälje, focusing on commercial vehicles—specifically heavy lorries, trucks and buses. It also manufactures diesel engines for heavy vehicles as well as marine and general indus ...
trucks, but Scania Vabis became an independent company in July 1960.
The original plans were to build the Candango off-roader (Munga), a utility vehicle and a four-door sedan, called Vemaguet and Belcar respectively. The first model built was the 900 cc F91 Universal but the Belcar and Vemaguet names were applied later.
![1967 DKW-Vemag Belcar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/1967_DKW-Vemag_Belcar.jpg)
In 1958, the F94 four-door sedan and station wagon were launched, in the early 1960s renamed Belcar and Vemaguet. The company also produced a luxury coupe (the DKW Fissore) and the off-road
Munga
Munga is a locality situated in Västerås Municipality, Västmanland County, Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom o ...
(locally called Candango). In 1960 Vemag cars received the larger one-litre, engine from the
Auto Union 1000
The Auto Union 1000 is a luxury compact front-wheel drive automobile manufactured by Auto Union GmbH between 1958 and 1965. It was the first (and in many markets the last) model branded as an Auto Union by the manufacturer since the 1930's; it r ...
.
Vemag had a successful official racing team, with the coupe GT Malzoni, with fiberglass body. This project was the foundation of the long-lasting Brazilian sports car brand
Puma
Puma or PUMA may refer to:
Animals
* ''Puma'' (genus), a genus in the family Felidae
** Puma (species) or cougar, a large cat
Businesses and organisations
* Puma (brand), a multinational shoe and sportswear company
* Puma Energy, a mid- and d ...
. The Brazilian F94 line has been improved with several cosmetic changes and became more and more different from the German and Argentine models. Vemag had no capital to invest in new products and came under governmental pressure to merge. In 1964–1965 Volkswagen gradually took over
Auto Union
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 f ...
, a minority holder in Vemag, and in 1967 Volkswagen bought the remainder of the stock. VW quickly began phasing out DKW-Vemag production and introduced the
Volkswagen 1600 sedan to the old Vemag plant, after a total of 109,343 DKW-Vemag cars had been built.
DKW vehicles were made in Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
from 1960 to 1969 by IASF S.A. (Industria Automotriz Santa Fe Sociedad Anónima) in Sauce Viejo, Santa Fe. The most beautiful were the Cupé Fissore, which had many famous owners (Julio Sosa, César Luis Menotti, and others). Other models are the Auto Union 1000 S Sedán (21,797 made until 1969) and the Auto Union 1000 Universal S (6,396 made until 1969). and the Auto Union Combi/Pick-up.
The last version of the Auto Union Combi/Pick-up (DKW F1000 L
The Mercedes-Benz N1300 is a light commercial vehicle designed and manufactured by the Spanish subsidiary IMOSA (Industrias del Motor SA) based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, in the Basque Country, north of Spain. Its body had its roots in the Fissore-desig ...
), launched in 1969, survived a few months and was bought out by IME
Ime is a village in Lindesnes municipality in Agder county, Norway. The village is located on the east side of the river Mandalselva, along the European route E39 highway. Ime is an eastern suburb of the town of Mandal. Ime might be considered ...
, which continued production until 1979.
Vans and utility vehicles
The DKW Munga
The DKW Munga is a DKW-branded off-road vehicle that was built by Auto-Union in Ingolstadt, Germany. The name ''Munga'' comes from the German phrase ''Mehrzweck Universal Geländewagen mit Allradantrieb'', which translates as "multi-purpose univer ...
was built by Auto Union in Ingolstadt. Production began in October 1956 and ended in December 1968, with 46,750 cars built.
From 1949 to 1962, DKW produced the '' Schnellaster'' with a trailing-arm rear suspension
Suspension is the system of tires, tire air, springs, shock absorbers and linkages that connects a vehicle to its wheels and allows relative motion between the two. Suspension systems must support both road holding/ handling and ride q ...
system with springs in the cross bar assembly. Spanish subsidiary IMOSA produced a modern successor introduced in 1963, the DKW F 1000 L. This van started with the three-cylinder 1,000 cc engine, but later received a Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...
Diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...
and was renamed a Mercedes-Benz in 1975.
Motorcycles
During the late 1920s and until WWII broke out, DKW was both the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer, as well as Europe's pioneer of front-wheel drive
Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longit ...
automobiles with their successful 1931 and later DKW Front models, before the 1932 Adler Trumpf
The Adler Trumpf is a small family car introduced by the Frankfurt based auto-maker, Adler in March 1932, though Trumpf production only got under way in the late summer of that year.Oswald, p 19 In a move reminiscent of British Leyland in the ...
and the 1934 Citroen Traction Avant. In 1931, Arnold Zoller started building split-single
In internal combustion engines, a split-single design is a type of two-stroke where two cylinders share a single combustion chamber.
The first production split-single engine was built in 1918 and the design was used on several motorcycles and ca ...
s and this concept made DKW the dominant racing motorcycle in the Lightweight and Junior classes between the wars. This included off-road events like the International Six Days Trial where the marque scored some considerable inter-war year successes alongside Bavarian Motor Works At the same time, the company also had some success with super-charged racing motorcycles which because of their light weight were particularly successful in the ISDTISDT award winning DKW 246cc 1935
.
The motorcycle branch produced famous models such as the
RT 125
The RT 125 was a German two-stroke motorcycle made by DKW in Zschopau in the 1930s, IFA and MZ in the 1950s and early 1960s, and DKW in Ingolstadt in the 1950s and 1960s. "RT" stands for "Reichstyp" or "National Model".
In the 1930s DKW pi ...
pre- and post-
World War II
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 ...
, and after the war with production at the original factory in
GDR
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
becoming
MZ it made 175, 250 and 350 (cc) models. As war reparations, the design drawings of the RT125 were given to
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson, Inc. (H-D, or simply Harley) is an American motorcycle manufacturer headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1903, it is one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depressi ...
in the US and
BSA in the UK. The Harley-Davidson version was known loosely as the
Hummer
Hummer (stylized as HUMMER) is a brand of pickups and SUVs that was first marketed in 1992 when AM General began selling a civilian version of the M998 Humvee. Although discontinued in 2010, Hummer returned as a sub-brand of GMC in 2020. ...
(Hummer is really just a few specific years, but generally people call the Harley lightweights Hummers), while BSA used them for the
Bantam. IFA and later
MZ models continued in production until the 1990s, when economics brought production of the two stroke to an end. Other manufacturers copied the DKW design, officially or otherwise. This can be seen in the similarity of many small two-stroke motorcycles from the 1950s, including from
Yamaha Yamaha may refer to:
* Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below).
** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...
,
Voskhod,
Maserati
Maserati S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer. Established on 1 December 1914, in Bologna, Italy, the company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. The company has been owned by Stellantis since 2021. Ma ...
, and Polish
WSK.
Cars
Pre-war production
![DKW F8 Meisterklasse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/DKW_F8_Meisterklasse.JPG)
*
DKW Typ P
The DKW Typ P was the first motor car made by DKW. It was a light-weight design with a unit body made of wood Posthumus, Cyril: The Story of Veteran & Vintage Cars, pp. 120, 122–123 and imitation leather.Oswald, p 86 It was powered by a two strok ...
(1928–1931) ~ 2,000 units
*
DKW Typ 4=8
The DKW Typ 4=8 is a small rear-wheel drive two-stroke V4 engined car produced at the company's Spandau plant by DKW (part of the Auto Union).Oswald, p 87 It was launched at the Berlin Motor-show in 1929 as a successor to the DKW Typ P built at t ...
(1929–1940) ~ 24,000 units
*
DKW F1
The DKW F1 was a small car produced by DKW (part of the Auto Union) between 1931 and 1932. It was launched at the Berlin Motor Show in February 1931. Oswald, Werner: Deutsche Autos 1920-1945, volume 2, p. 94: ''"Innerhalb von 6 Wochen sollten nic ...
(1931–1932) ~ 4,000 units
*
DKW F2
DKW (''Dampf-Kraft-Wagen'', en, "steam-powered car", also ''Deutsche Kinder-Wagen'' en, "German children's car". ''Das-Kleine-Wunder'', en, "the little wonder" or ''Des-Knaben-Wunsch'', en, "the boy's wish"- from when the company built to ...
(1932–1935) ~ 17,000 units
*
DKW F4
DKW (''Dampf-Kraft-Wagen'', en, "steam-powered car", also ''Deutsche Kinder-Wagen'' en, "German children's car". ''Das-Kleine-Wunder'', en, "the little wonder" or ''Des-Knaben-Wunsch'', en, "the boy's wish"- from when the company built to ...
(1934–1935) ~ 7,000 units
*
DKW F5
The DKW F5 is a Compact car, sub compact front wheel drive Sedan (car), saloon launched by Auto Union, Auto Union's DKW division in 1935 as a replacement for the DKWs DKW F4, F4 (Meisterklasse) and DKW F2, F2 (Reichsklasse) models.
The body
The ...
(1935–1937) ~ 60,000 units
*
DKW F7
The DKW F7 is a front-wheel-drive small family car launched by Auto Union’s DKW division in 1937 as a replacement for the DKW F5.
The body
Changes between the F5 and the F7 were mostly at a detailed level. However, the entry level Reichsklass ...
(1937–1938) ~ 80,000 units
*
DKW F8
The DKW F8 is a compact front-wheel drive two-stroke engined saloon, introduced in 1939.Odin, L.C. ''World in Motion 1939 - The whole of the year's automobile production''. Belvedere Publishing, 2015. ASIN: B00ZLN91ZG. The F8 was slightly shorter ...
(1939–1942) ~ 50,000 units into the war.
*
DKW F9
The DKW F9 was the prototype of a car Auto Union intended to launch as a successor to the DKW F8.
The small DKWs were among top selling small cars in Germany in the 1930s, and regular model updates were part of the company's strategy for main ...
prototype (1939)
Pre-war and war-years production of civilian models totalled almost 250,000 units, of which some 218,000 were front-wheel driven.
Post-war
![DKW-F12-Baujahr1965](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/DKW-F12-Baujahr1965.jpg)
*
DKW Schnellaster
The DKW Schnellaster, also known as the DKW F89 L, was a van produced by DKW from 1949 to 1962. Alongside the DKW F89 passenger car, it was the first vehicle to be manufactured by the new Auto Union conglomerate in Ingolstadt following the re-es ...
van (1949–1962)
*
DKW F10 {{Unreferenced, date=December 2009
The DKW F10 was a car sold by DKW of Ingolstadt, West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its ...
(1950)
*
DKW F89
The DKW Meisterklasse (English: "Master Class"), also known as the DKW F89, is a compact car, compact front-wheel drive automobile, saloon manufactured by ''Auto Union Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, GmbH'' between 1950 and 1954. It was t ...
(1950–1954)
*
DKW 3=6
The DKW 3=6 is a compact front-wheel drive saloon manufactured by ''Auto Union GmbH''. The car was launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show in March 1953 and sold until 1959. It carried the name ''Sonderklasse'' ("Special Class") on the right h ...
(F91/F93/F94) (1953–1959)
*
DKW Monza
The DKW Monza was a sports car built on an Auto Union DKW base. Named after the world-famous Italian Grand Prix circuit, the car set five world records in 1956.
After the series of wins by the DKW 3=6 'Sonderklasse' in European touring car rac ...
(1956–1958)
*
DKW Munga
The DKW Munga is a DKW-branded off-road vehicle that was built by Auto-Union in Ingolstadt, Germany. The name ''Munga'' comes from the German phrase ''Mehrzweck Universal Geländewagen mit Allradantrieb'', which translates as "multi-purpose univer ...
off-road (1956–1968)
*
DKW Junior
The DKW Junior was a small front wheel drive saloon manufactured by Auto Union AG. The car received a positive reaction when first exhibited, initially badged as the DKW 600, at the Frankfurt Motor Show in March 1957. The ‘Junior’ name was gi ...
(F11/F12) (1959–1965)
[Michael Sedgwick & Mark Gillies, A-Z of Cars 1945–1970, page 54]
*
DKW F102
The DKW F102 is a passenger car that was produced from August 1963 by the German manufacturer Auto Union. Superseding the Auto Union 1000, it was the last model branded as a DKW by the manufacturer and also the last West German production car equ ...
(1963–1966)
Motorcycles and scooters
File:DKW E 206, Bj. 1927 (museum mobile 2013-09-03).JPG, DKW E 206, 1927
File:DKW 97ccm 1939.JPG, DKW (1939)
File:DKW 198ccm 1940.jpg, DKW (1940)
File:DKW 1950-1.jpg, DKW RT 125 W (1950)
File:DKW RT200 9,2PS 1952.jpg, DKW RT 200 (1952)
File:DKW RT 350 S, Bj. 1956 (links) im museum mobile.JPG, RT 350 S, 1956
File:DKW RT175-1 174ccm 1955.JPG, DKW RT 175 S (1955)
File:DKW Hummel.JPG, DKW Hummel
File:Express T.Sport DKW.JPG, Express T. Sport (DKW-Motor)
File:ZweiRadMuseumNSU DKW Hobby.JPG, DKW Motorroller ''Hobby'' of 1954 in the ''Deutsches Zweirad- und NSU-Museum''
See also
*
Eucort
Eucort (Eusebio Cortés SA) was a Spanish automobile manufacturer based at Barcelona from 1945 till 1953.
An attempt at creating a "popular car", the first Eucort was based on a prewar DKW design. It featured a 764 cc twin-cylinder two-stro ...
*
List of automobile manufacturers of Germany
Current major manufacturers
Current minor manufacturers
* 9FF (2001–present)
* Aaglander (2003–present)
* AC Schnitzer (1987–present)
* Alpina (1965–present)
* Apollo Automobil (2016-present)
* Arden
* Artega (2016-present)
* ...
Notes
References
*
*
* Siegfried Rauch Hrsg. von Frank Rönicke: ''DKW – Geschichte einer Weltmarke''. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, .
* Thomas Erdmann: ''Vom Dampfkraftwagen zur Meisterklasse – Die Geschichte der DKW Automobile 1907–1945''. autovision, Hamburg 2003, .
*
Peter Kurze
Peter Kurze is a German publisher and author. He became known through his book series on the history of the automobile.
Life
Born 1955 in Bremen, after two one-year internships at a machine factory and a bank, he studied mechanical engineerin ...
: ''DKW Meisterklasse – Ein Wagen für die ganze Welt''. Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 2005, .
*
*
*
* Harald Linz, Halwart Schrader: ''Die Internationale Automobil-Enzyklopädie''. United Soft Media Verlag, München 2008, .
External links
UK-based official Wartburg, Trabant and IFA owners' clubAUTO UNION Sales Brochures 1939DKW Owners' ClubDKW Motorcycle ClubThe Long History of Reverse-Cylinder Engine Designs– motocrossactionmag.com
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Audi
Auto Union
Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1916
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Germany
Motorcycle manufacturers of Germany
Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1966
Volkswagen Group