August Horch

He was born in Winningen, Moselle. He was educated in Mittweida.

He worked for Carl Benz[?] from 1896 before founding A. Horch & Cie in November 1899 in Ehrenfeld, Cologne, Germany. The first Horch automobile was built in 1901. The company moved to Reichenbach in 1902 and Zwickau in 1904. Horch left the company in 1909 after a dispute and set up in competition in Zwickau. His new firm was initially called Horch Automobil-Werke GmbH, but following a legal dispute over the Horch name he changed it to Audi Automobilwerke GmbH in 1910, Audi being the Latinization of Horch.

In August 1928 the Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen of DKW acquired a majority holding in Audiwerke. In June 1932 Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer merged to form Auto Union[?] AG, the new company's logo was four interlinked rings, one for each of the founder companies. Horch was on the supervisory board of Auto Union.