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| Industry | Automotive |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1916 |
| Defunct | 1966; 60 years ago (1966) |
| Fate | merged intoAuto Union in 1932, marque defunct 1969 |
| Successor | Auto Union AG (1932–1969) Audi NSU Auto Union AG (1969–1985) Audi AG (1985–present) |
| Headquarters | Zschopau, Germany (1916–1932) Chemnitz (1932–1949) Ingolstadt (1949–1969) |
Key people | Dr Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen, founder of DKW[1] |
| Products | Automobiles,motorcycles |
DKW (Dampfkraftwagen, English:"steam-power car" – the same initials later also used forDes Knaben Wunsch, English:"the knave's/boy's wish";Das Kleine Wunder, English:"the little wonder" andDeutsche Kinderwagen, English:"German strollers") was a Germancar andmotorcyclemarque. DKW was one of the four companies that formedAuto Union in 1932 and thus became an ancestor of the modern-dayAudi company.[2]
In 1916, DanishengineerJørgen Skafte Rasmussen founded a factory inZschopau,Saxony, Germany, to produce steam fittings. That year he attempted to produce a steam-driven car, which he called the DKW.[3] That steam car was unsuccessful, and in 1919 he made toytwo-stroke engines under the nameDes Knaben Wunsch[4] – "the boy's wish". He put a slightly modified version of the toy engine into a motorcycle and called itDas Kleine Wunder[3] – "the little wonder", and by the late 1920s DKW had become the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer.
In September 1924, DKW boughtSlaby-Beringer [de], saving them from Germany'shyperinflation. Rudolf Slaby became chief engineer at DKW.[5]In 1932, DKW merged withAudi,Horch andWanderer to form Auto Union.[3] AfterWorld War II, DKW moved toWest Germany. The original factory becameMZ.[1] Auto Union came underDaimler-Benz ownership in 1957 and was purchased by theVolkswagen Group in 1964. The last German-built DKW car was theF102, which ceased production in 1966. Its successor, thefour-strokeF103, 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.
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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 crudeTyp P, emerged on 7 May 1928[7] and the model continued to be built at the company'sSpandau (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 bythe company's owner Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen in 1928 when he had become the majority owner inAudi Werke AG.[8] ModelsF1 toF8 (F for Front) were built between 1931 and 1942, with successor models reappearing after the end of thewar in 1945. They were the first volume production cars in Europe withfront wheel drive, and were powered bytransversely 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 20 hp (15 kW). These models had a generator that doubled as a starter, mounted directly on thecrankshaft, known as aDynastart.[9] DKW in Zwickau produced approximately 218,000 units between 1931 and 1942.[7] Most of those 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.[10]
Between 1929 and 1940, DKW produced a less well remembered but technically intriguing series of rear-wheel drive cars called (among other names)Schwebeklasse andSonderklasse with two-strokeV4 engines.[11]Engine displacement was 1,000 cc, later 1,100 cc. The engines had two extra cylinders that acted as air compressors forforced induction, so they had the external appearance of aV6 engine but withoutspark plugs on the front cylinder pair.
In 1939, DKW made aprototype with the firstthree-cylinder engine, with a displacement of 900 cc and producing 30 hp (22 kW). With a streamlined body, the car could run at 115 km/h (71 mph). It was put into production afterWorld War II, first as anIndustrieverband Fahrzeugbau (IFA) F9 (laterWartburg) inZwickau,East Germany, and shortly afterwards in DKW-form from Düsseldorf as the 3=6 or F91.
Saab used DKW engines as a model for theSaab two-stroke in their first production car, theSaab 92.
As Auto Union was based in Saxony in what became theGerman Democratic Republic (East Germany), it took some time for it to regroup after the war. The company was registered inWest Germany 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 newdelivery van, called aSchnellaster F800. Their first line of production took place inDüsseldorf. 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-cylindertwo-stroke engine 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 34 hp (25 kW), the last 38 hp (28 kW). The ignition system comprised three independent sets ofpoints andcoils, one for each cylinder, with the points mounted in a cluster around a singlelobedcam at the front end of the crankshaft. The cooling system was of thefree convection 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 44 hp (33 kW) or 50 hp (37 kW) S versions until 1963. During this transition, production was moved from Düsseldorf toIngolstadt, where Audi still has its production. From 1957, the cars could be fitted with asaxomat, an automatic clutch, the only small car then offering this feature. The last versions of the Auto-Union 1000S haddisc brakes 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 acoupé and from 1962 also as aconvertible.
In 1956, the very rareDKW Monza was put into small-scale production on a private initiative, with a sporting two-seater body ofglassfiber on a standard F93 frame. It was first called Solitude, but got its final name from the long-distance speed records it made on theAutodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy in December 1956. Running inFédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) class G, it set records including 48 hours at an average speed of 140.961 km/h (87.589 mph), 10,000 km at 139.453 km/h (86.652 mph) and 72 hours at 139.459 km/h (86.656 mph). The car was first produced byDannenhauer & Strauss [de] inStuttgart, then by Massholder inHeidelberg and lastly by Robert Schenk in Stuttgart. The number produced is said to be around 75, 50 survived. Production finished by the end of 1958.
A more successful range of cars was sold from 1959, theJunior/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 inBallincollig,County Cork,Ireland between 1952 and c.1964 and roughly 4,000 vehicles were assembled, ranging from saloons, vans and motorbikes to commercialcombine harvesters. 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 GermanAldi 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 manyrally 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 aV6 engine 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 83 hp (62 kW) at 5,000 rpm using the standard configuration with twocarburettors. A four-carburettor version produced 100 hp (75 kW), a six-carburettor one 130 hp (97 kW). It weighed only 84 kg (185 lb). The V6 was planned to be used in theDKW Munga 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.[12]
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 importerHart, Nibbrig & Greve assembled cars in an abandoned asphalt factory inSassenheim, 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.[13]
From 1957 to 1967, DKW cars were made in Brazil by the local company Vemag (Veículos e Máquinas Agrícolas S.A., "Vehicles and Agricultural Machinery Inc.").[14] Vemag was assemblingScania-Vabis trucks, but Scania Vabis became an independent company in July 1960.[15] 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.
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-roadMunga (locally called Candango). In 1960 Vemag cars received the larger one-litre, 50 PS (37 kW) engine from theAuto Union 1000.[16]
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 brandPuma. 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 overAuto Union, a minority holder in Vemag, and in 1967 Volkswagen bought the remainder of the stock.[17] VW quickly began phasing out DKW-Vemag production and introduced theVolkswagen 1600 sedan to the old Vemag plant, after a total of 109,343 DKW-Vemag cars had been built.[16][18]
| Year | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candango | 8 | 1174 | 1968 | 2481 | 1582 | 615 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7848[19][20] |
| Utility Vehicle | 1166 | 1642 | Together | with | passenger | car | ↓ | ↓ | ↓ | ↓ | ↓ | 2808 |
| Passenger Car | 0 | 2189 | 4297 | 7543 | 9337 | 14929 | 14068 | 12704 | 15260 | 14815 | 11393 | 106535 |
| Cars Total | 1166 | 3831 | 4297 | 7543 | 9337 | 14929 | 14068 | 12704 | 15260 | 14815 | 11393 | 109343 |
| Total | 1174 | 5006 | 6265[21] | 10024 | 10919 | 15544 | 14088 | 12704 | 15260 | 14815 | 11393 | 117191 |
Data from GEIA 1959[22]Data from anfavea[23]
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DKW vehicles were made inArgentina from 1960 to 1969 by IASF S.A. (Industria Automotriz Santa Fe Sociedad Anónima) inSauce 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).[24] and the Auto UnionCombi/Pick-up.The last version of the Auto Union Combi/Pick-up (DKW F1000 L), launched in 1969, survived a few months and was bought out byIME, which continued production until 1979.[25]
| Year | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pick up Frontal | 0 | 1100 | 600 | 500 | 942 | 164 | 100 | 69 | 35 | 225 | 3735 |
| 1000 SF | 0 | 0 | 280 | 0 | 288 | 132 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 700 |
| 1000 S | 904 | 1800 | 2000 | 2400 | 3350 | 3686 | 3978 | 2182 | 865 | 632 | 21797 |
| Universal | 0 | 150 | 1195 | 537 | 1440 | 1512 | 657 | 568 | 193 | 144 | 6396 |
| Total | 904 | 3050 | 4075 | 3437 | 6020 | 5494 | 4735 | 2819 | 1093 | 1001 | 32628 |
Data from ADEFA 1966[26]Data from ADEFA 1970[27]
After the Netherlands, the Danes were the second largest consumers of DKW vehicles. Due to tariffs and import restrictions, DKW was forced to find a solution. Christian Bohnstedt Petersen (1894-1967) was a pioneer in Danish aviation. He had obtained the 50th Danish pilot certificate in 1918 and was a manufacturer of both bicycles, motorcycles, automobiles and aircraft. With the Christian Bohnstedt-Petersen Automobile Assembly Factory in Copenhagen, they found a partner who could assemble DKW F5 Meisterklasse cars on site in Denmark from delivered parts. The wooden bodies delivered from Zwickau were mounted onto the also delivered chassis. Subsequently, the artificial leather upholstery was nailed on. After the installation of the engine and electrical system, one vehicle could be delivered per hour. Production was halted after the German Wehrmacht occupied Copenhagen in April 1940. By then, about 3,000 vehicles had been produced. In addition, a few F7 and F8 were built with steel bodies by M.C. Christensen near the city of Silkeborg.
A fifteen-minute film by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation from 1938 shows the following details:[28] View of the free port Frihavnen. Coachwork for DKW cars unloaded from carriages in Frihavnen and transported by lorry to Bohnstedt-Petersen's factory. On the first floor of the factory, the DKW cars are assembled by upholsterers, cabinet makers, mechanics and others who assemble the cars manually. The finished cars are driven down a slideway to the yard where they are filled up with petrol.[29] The cars in the streets of Copenhagen.
Holka AG[30]
J. A. Lawton and Sons was a company that supplied bodies for the chassis delivered from Germany. A vehicle with an F7 pickup body is documented. The company from Adelaide, which was located on North Terrace, was already founded in 1865.Another supplier of vehicle bodies was Kellow Falkiner[31] from Melbourne.
Jawa[32]
The company Agroservice from the Slovenian town ofNovo Mesto started as a maintenance company for agricultural machines. Under the new name Moto Montaza, CKD assembly of DKW vans began in 1955. In 1959, the company was renamed IMV[33][34] (Industrija Motornih Vozil). From 1962, DKW passenger cars[35][36] were assembled from CKD kits. In 1962, a transport vehicle was developed that bore a visual resemblance to theBarkas B 1000. The technical components such as the engine, axles, and other chassis parts continued to come from DKW. The engine of the vehicle called IMV 1000[37][38] had a displacement of 981 cc and initially produced 39 hp. Later, up to 44 hp was also achieved. This was sufficient for 100 to 105 km/h. In 1972, engines fromBritish Leyland were supplied for this vehicle. The vehicle designation changed to IMV 1600 B. It is therefore assumed that there was a supply stop by DKW at the end of 1971. The production capacity of IMV was a maximum of 1500 vehicles per year. Exports went to Czechoslovakia and Austria. In Austria, the transporter was sold as Donau 1000.
TheDKW Munga was built by Auto Union in Ingolstadt. Production began in October 1956 and ended in December 1968, with 46,750 cars built.
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From 1949 to 1962, DKW produced theSchnellaster with a trailing-armrear suspension system withsprings 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 aMercedes-BenzDiesel engine and was renamed a Mercedes-Benz in 1975.
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During the late 1920s and until WWII broke out, DKW was both the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer,[39] as well as Europe's pioneer offront-wheel drive automobiles with their successful 1931 and laterDKW Front models,[40] before the 1932Adler Trumpf and the 1934Citroen Traction Avant. In 1931, Arnold Zoller started buildingsplit-singles and this concept made DKW the dominant racing motorcycle in the Lightweight and Junior classes between the wars.[41] This included off-road events like theInternational Six Days Trial where the marque scored some considerable inter-war year successes alongsideBavarian Motor Works At the same time, the company also had some success withsuper-charged racing motorcycles which because of their light weight were particularly successful in the ISDT[42]
The motorcycle branch produced famous models such as theRT 125 pre- and post-World War II, and after the war with production at the original factory inGDR becomingMZ[1] it made 175, 250 and 350 (cc) models. As war reparations, the design drawings of the RT 125 were given toHarley-Davidson in the US andBSA in the UK. The Harley-Davidson version was known loosely as theHummer (Hummer is really just a few specific years, but generally people call the Harley lightweights Hummers), while BSA used them for theBantam. IFA and laterMZ 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 fromYamaha,Voskhod,Maserati and PolishWSK.
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Production figures for DKW cars in 1933 amounted to 16,000 vehicles.[43]Pre-war and war-years production of civilian models totalled almost 250,000 units, of which some 218,000 were front-wheel driven.
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In 1927, the company founder J.S. Rasmussen acquired a license for the production of scroll compressors and refrigerators based on the design of the American manufacturerNorge. In 1928, three workers were engaged in the production of refrigerators. In 1929, the DKW refrigeration was presented at the Leipzig fair and was so successful that by 1930, thirty workers were employed in the production of refrigerators. In 1931, the company was renamed in DKK (Deutsche Kühl und Kraftmaschinengesellschaft m.b.H. = German Refrigeration and Power Machinery Company Ltd.).[70] In 1938, DKK had 1200 employees.[71]
The engine division of DKW is underestimated in terms of its importance to the company.In the autumn of 1921, the 10,000th DKW engine was produced. In February 1924, the next anniversary was reached with the 50,000th engine.[73]
the Vemag company that had been manufacturing two-stroke DKW models under license in Brazil.
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