DKW

About DKW

DKW was a German car and motorcycle marque. DKW was one of the four companies that formed Auto Union in 1932 and thus became an ancestor of the modern-day Audi company. In 1916, Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen founded a factory in Zschopau, Saxony, Germany, to produce steam fittings. That year he attempted to produce a steam-power car; German: Dampfkraftwagen, from which the acronym DKW is derived. That steam car was unsuccessful, and in 1919 he made toy two-stroke engines under the name des Knaben Wunsch – the boy's wish. He put a slightly modified version of the toy engine into a motorcycle and called it das kleine Wunder – the little wonder, and by the late 1920s DKW had become the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer. In September 1924, DKW bought Slaby-Beringer, saving them from Germany's hyperinflation. Rudolf Slaby became chief engineer at DKW. In 1932, DKW merged with Audi, Horch and Wanderer to form Auto Union. After World War II, DKW moved to West Germany. The original factory became MZ. Auto Union came under Daimler-Benz ownership in 1957 and was purchased by the Volkswagen Group in 1964.