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Auto Union AG, Chemnitz, was an amalgamation of four German automobile manufacturers, founded in 1932 and established in 1936 in Chemnitz, Saxony, during the Great Depression. The company evolved into present-day Audi and is now a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group. Auto Union is widely known for its racing team (''Auto Union Rennabteilung'', based at Horch works in Zwickau/Saxony). The Silver Arrows of these two German teams (Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union) dominated not only GP car racing from 1934 onwards, but set records that would take decades to beat, such as the fastest speed ever attained on a public road (at 432.7 km/h (268.9mph), unbroken as of 2013).〔(【引用サイトリンク】url= http://www.classicdriver.com/uk/magazine/3200.asp?id=11459 )〕 The current corporate entity to bear the Auto Union name - ''Auto Union GmbH'' - was founded in 1985 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Audi AG; its purpose is to act as owner of Auto Union's historical trademarks and intellectual property, as well as managing Audi's heritage operations. ==Formation== Auto Union was formed in Germany in 1932〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://ranwhenparked.net/2012/01/27/porsche-designs-from-racetrack-to-battlefield/ )〕 merging: *Zschopauer Motorenwerke J. S. Rasmussen (brand DKW – steam-driven car) founded by Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen in 1916, it branched out into motorcycles, and then front-drive two-stroke cars built at Audi works in Zwickau since 1931. *Horch – founded 1904 by August Horch in Zwickau. It built cars starting from straight-two engines to luxury models with V8- and V12 engines.〔Peter Kirchberg, Juergen Poenisch: ''HORCH - Types * Technics * Models'', Edition Audi Tradition, published by Delius Klasing Germany, ISBN 978-3-7688-1775-2.〕 *Audi – because of disputes with the CFO, August Horch left in 1909 the namesake enterprise and founded Audi across town, building inline-four-, six- and eight-cylinder-engined cars. In 1928 Audi became a subsidiary of Zschopauer Motorenwerke. *Wanderer (only car division) – founded in 1911, with small four-cylinder cars and later a more luxurious straight-6 built in Siegmar (now Chemnitz) In August 1928, Rasmussen, the owner of DKW, acquired a majority ownership of Audiwerke AG.〔Audi website http://www.audi.com/audi/com/en2/about_audi_ag/history/chronicle/chronicle_1930_1944.html〕 In the same year, Rasmussen bought the remains of the US automobile manufacturer Rickenbacker, including the manufacturing equipment for eight- and six-cylinder engines. These engines were used in ''Audi Zwickau'', ''Audi Imperator'' and ''Audi Dresden'' models. At the same time, six-cylinder and four-cylinder (licensed from Peugeot) models were manufactured. In 1930 the Saxony Regional Bank, which had financed Rasmussen's business expansion in the 1920s, installed Richard Bruhn (1886 – 1964) on the board of Audiwerke AG, and there followed a brutal pruning and rationalization of the various auto-businesses that Rasmussen had accumulated. The outcome was the founding in Summer 1932 of Auto Union AG with just four component businesses, being Zschopauer Motorenwerke with its brand DKW, Audi, Horch and the car producing piece of Wanderer,〔Oswald, Werner: Deutsche Autos 1920-1945, volume 2, p. 85〕 brought together under the umbrella of single shareholder company Auto Union. Although all four brands continued to sell cars under their own names and brands, the technological development became more centralized, with some Audi models employing engines by Horch or Wanderer. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Auto Union」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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