How Audi got its name -- and its 4 rings

More than a century ago, the German auto pioneer August Horch lent his name to two fledgling automakers.

In 1899, Horch, the 31-year-old head of the motor vehicle department at Karl Benz's firm in Mannheim, struck out on his own and founded A. Horch & Cie. Motorwagen Werke.

A decade later, after a falling-out with his partners, Horch left the company and launched a new automaker in Zwickau, Germany.

But what to call the new company? With Horch (meaning "listen" or "hearken" in German) already taken as a trade name, he chose its Latin translation for his company one century ago: Audi.

Within a few years, Horch made the Audi name well known in Europe. Audi's victories in the Austrian Alpine Rally from 1911 to 1914 bolstered the brand. The Audi Type C 14 was especially successful and became known as the "Alpine Conqueror."

In 1914, Audi Automobilwerke GmbH went public, and the new Audi Werke AG introduced the first left-hand-drive car in Germany in 1921, the 50-hp Audi 14 Type K.

The Type M, with a six-cylinder engine, followed in 1923, and the Audi Imperator, the first Audi car powered by an eight-cylinder engine, was introduced in 1927.

A Dane, Joergen Skafte Rasmussen, the owner of the Zschopauer MotorenWerke, acquired a majority stake in Audi in 1928 and folded the firm into his own company.

With the start of the global economic crisis in October 1929, sales of large models with six- and eight-cylinder engines fell tremendously. Rasmussen had to take action: He allowed Audi to develop a small front-wheel-drive car that came to market in 1931.

A year later, with the auto industry in peril, the Saxon State Bank pushed for a merger. In June 1932, Audi, Horch and the Zschopauer MotorenWerke merged into the Auto Union AG. Later, the Wanderer Werke's automotive division made it a foursome. The new company was based in Chemnitz.

The new firm's four-ring logo represents Audi to this day, symbolizing each of the four companies of the Auto Union: Audi, Horch, Zschopauer and Wanderer.

One segment was allotted to each brand. Upmarket mid-sized cars were assigned to Audi.

"The young company managed to climb to the second spot among German automakers with a smart synergistic strategy in development, production, marketing and sales," said Rupert Stadler, the current CEO of Audi AG.

World War II ended Audi's run of success. The last Audi model rolled off the line in April 1940. After the war, Auto Union was confiscated and its factories were dismantled. But the executive staff was brought to Bavaria to run an Auto Union replacement parts depot set up at Ingolstadt in late 1945. Auto Union GmbH evolved from the parts depot.

Starting in 1954, entrepreneur Friedrich Flick began acquiring shares of Auto Union stock and also sought a strong partner. In 1958, he found one: Daimler-Benz AG, which acquired 88 percent of Auto Union's equity.

In 1964, Volkswagen bought control of Auto Union from Daimler. A year later the F104 model, with a four-stroke engine, reached the market. A new era required a new product name, and the decision was made to bring back "Audi." The new model, called the Audi 72, was built until 1972.

With the later success of the first Audi 100, Auto Union's independence was assured. But the period of mergers wasn't over. VW merged Auto Union and NSU of Neckarsulm, Germany, in 1969, forming Audi NSU Auto Union AG.

The Audi brand name was gaining global traction in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the company was ready for yet another new moniker. In 1985, the company was renamed simply Audi AG.

So the name of August Horch, who died in 1951, would live on. Kind of.