August Horch
Co-founder 1909Background
August Horch, a brilliant but stubborn engineer, was forced out of the board of Horch Automobil-Werke GmbH in 1909 and founded a new company, translating his surname into Latin—'Audi'—to create a new marque that would eventually revolutionize rally racing with the Quattro system.
Role at Audi AG
Audi does not trace its lineage to a single, triumphant founding moment, but rather to a bitter corporate dispute and a legally mandated rebranding. The company was founded by August Horch, a pioneering German automotive engineer. In 1899, Horch founded his first automobile company, A. Horch & Cie, in Cologne. He was a brilliant, obsessive engineer who focused on high-performance materials, building some of the first cars in Germany to feature aluminum engines and high-strength steel. However Horch was notoriously temperamental and clashed violently with his financial backers and board of directors regarding the company's direction. In 1909, the dispute escalated to the point where Horch was ousted from his own company. Furious, he immediately established a new automotive company in the same city of Zwickau, intending to continue building cars under his own name. However, his former partners sued him for trademark infringement and won; Horch was legally barred from using his own surname for his new business. During a meeting to choose a new name Horch was at the apartment of his business partner, Franz Fikentscher. Fikentscher's young son was sitting in the corner of the room studying Latin. The boy suggested that since 'Horch' means 'listen' in German, they should simply translate the name into Latin: 'Audi.' Horch loved the idea, and the Audi Automobilwerke GmbH Zwickau was officially registered in 1910. The company quickly established a reputation for building high-powered luxury vehicles and dominating international rally races. In 1932, amidst the crushing economic pressure of the Great Depression, Audi merged with three other German manufacturers (DKW, Horch, and Wanderer) to form Auto Union AG, symbolizing the merger with the iconic four-ring logo that Audi still proudly displays on its grilles today.