How the Audi got its name
10/21/2012
In 1909, August Horch had to leave the Horch company, which he had founded himself and named after his own name, following disputes with the Supervisory Board.
However, this defeat was no reason for the imaginative engineer Horch to give up. Just one month after his "release", he entered "August Horch Automobilwerke GmbH" in the Zwickau company register. He set up shop in the former Waltersche Holzwarenfabrik, not too far from his first company headquarters. The "old" Horch company was naturally not happy that there was now to be a second car brand with the same name and took legal action against August Horch.
He had to give in and was now faced with the problem of having to find a new name for his company. During a consultation with his friend Franz Fikentscher, his son is said to have been doing his Latin homework in a corner of the room. He exclaimed: "Father - audi et altera pars ... wouldn't it be right to say Audi instead of Horch?".
The name was born, the Latin imperative of the word hören (to listen) provided the basis for the company "Audi Automobilwerke GmbH", which was registered as such on April 25, 1910. And August Horch chose the "one" as his trademark and radiator grille figure to demonstrate that there was no way around his cars. The four rings that adorn every Audi today were only added when the "Auto Union" was founded.
You can find out more about the history of Audi and Horch at the August Horch Museum in Zwickau, to which we recently dedicated a visit report .
