The DKW Meisterklasse (English: "Master Class"), also known as the DKW F89, is a

compact Compact as used in politics may refer broadly to a pact or treaty; in more specific cases it may refer to: * Interstate compact * Blood compact, an ancient ritual of the Philippines * Compact government, a type of colonial rule utilized in British ...

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 longitu ...

saloon manufactured by ''

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 fo ...

GmbH'' between 1950 and 1954. It was the first passenger car to be manufactured by the new Auto Union company in West Germany following the re-establishment of the business in the west in 1949.

The Factory

Apart from the former DKW factory at Berlin-Spandau, the Auto Union’s manufacturing plants had been located in

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 ...

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: ...

, Chemnitz and

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 banks of the Zschopau River, about south-east from Chemnitz. The highest point ...

when

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 ...

had put an end to passenger vehicle production in 1942. After the war the company was no longer able to access its production facilities in the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a ...

. The first post war DKWs were therefore built under contract in a refurbished plant by

Rheinmetall-Borsig Rheinmetall AG is a German automotive and arms manufacturer, headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in ...

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

The Origins

The F89 shared its underpinnings with the DKW F8 / 'Meisterklasse' which had been available between 1939 and 1942, but the F89 has a steel body based on that of the

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 maint ...

, a prototype which would have directly replaced the F8 on the Zwickau production lines had the war not intervened. Although many of the machine tools at that plant were crated up and shipped to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

in 1945, Zwickau’s new controllers also built their own version of the DKW F9 prototype, and indeed the eastern version was put into production as the

IFA F9 The IFA F9, subsequently rebadged as the EMW 309, is a compact saloon manufactured under the auspices of the Russian and East German states between 1949 or 1950 and 1956. It was initially built at Zwickau at the plant previously owned by Auto U ...

, probably shortly before the Düsseldorf built F89. The F89 was not the first vehicle built by Auto Union after the war. That honor goes to the DKW F89 L “Schnelllaster”, ''Rapid Transporter'' in English, a curiously modern light van built on the same chassis and using the same engine / transmission package, introduced in 1949.

The Body

The form of the saloon’s body closely followed that of the prewar

. However, extensive ‘streamlining’ had been applied to the earlier design, and impressive claims were made for the F89’s lowered wind resistance. In 1951 a two-seater hardtop coupe version, built by coach builders

Hebmüller Hebmüller Sons (') was a coachbuilder founded in 1889 by Joseph Hebmüller in the town of Wuppertal in Germany. History Hebmüller initially constructed horsedrawn carriages, but after the death of its founder in 1919 his sons started building ...

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and tow ...

became available, and the range was completed in October 1951 with the addition of a three-door estate version, employing a body conversion that made extensive use of timber, which was replaced in March 1953 by an all-steel body. The F89 estate, like its steel bodied, successors, was branded as the ‘Universal’. DKW F89 Universal Meisterklasse Heck 1951

DKW F89 Universal Meisterklasse Heck 1951

Technical

The F89 featured a two-cylinder

two-stroke 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 ...

engine of 684 cc with a stated output, at launch, of 23 bhp. A maximum speed of 100 km/h (62 mph) was claimed for the saloon (95 km/h / 59 mph for the 'Universal' estate). The engine was water-cooled, but there was no water pump. Cooling was by a convection-based

thermosiphon Thermosiphon (or thermosyphon) is a method of passive heat exchange, based on natural convection, which circulates a fluid without the necessity of a mechanical pump. Thermosiphoning is used for circulation of liquids and volatile gases in heat ...

system. The front wheels were connected to the engine by means of a three-speed manual gear box controlled via a dash-board mounted ''Krückstockschaltung'' lever similar to that familiar to later generations from its application in the

Citroën 2CV The Citroën 2CV (french: link=no, deux chevaux(-vapeur), , lit. "two steam horse(power)s", meaning "two ''taxable'' horsepower") is an air-cooled front-engine, front-wheel-drive, economy family car, introduced at the 1948 Paris Mondial d ...

and

Renault 4 The Renault 4, also known as the 4L (pronounced "Quatrelle" in French), is a small economy car produced by the French automaker Renault between 1961 and 1994. Although the Renault 4 was marketed as a short station wagon, its minimal rear overhang ...

. Towards the end of the production run a four-speed manual box was offered on the Meisterklasse.

Data

Sources and further reading