History of the Audi car name

[duman444]

Reminds me of the old joke...

Or, as Art Linklater used to say: "Kids say the darndest things"

For some reason this came into my head yesterday during a long trip back from a medical appointment through heavy traffic. (Although I don't drive an Audi). The company was founded in 1899 and produced its first car in 1901.

From Wikipedia:

After troubles with Horch chief financial officer, August Horch left Motorwagenwerke and founded in Zwickau on 16 July 1909, his second company, the August Horch Automobilwerke GmbH. His former partners sued him for trademark infringement. The German Reichsgericht (Supreme Court) in Leipzig, eventually determined that the Horch brand belonged to his former company.

Since August Horch was prohibited from using "Horch" as a trade name in his new car business, he called a meeting with close business friends, Paul and Franz Fikentscher from Zwickau. At the apartment of Franz Fikentscher, they discussed how to come up with a new name for the company. During this meeting, Franz's son was quietly studying Latin in a corner of the room. Several times he looked like he was on the verge of saying something but would just swallow his words and continue working, until he finally blurted out [presumably something from his Latin textbook], "Father – audiatur et altera pars... wouldn't it be a good idea to call it audi instead of horch?"

"Horch!" in German means "Hark!" or "hear", which is "Audi" in the singular imperative form of "audire" – "to listen" – in Latin. The idea was enthusiastically accepted by everyone attending the meeting. On 25 April 1910 the Audi Automobilwerke GmbH Zwickau (from 1915 on Audiwerke AG Zwickau) was entered in the company's register of Zwickau registration court.​

And the four ring logo? The merger of four brands:

In 1932, Audi merged with Horch, DKW and Wanderer, to form Auto Union.​

We now return you to your regular programming.

Old joke was the Japanese car manufacturer had a new car line, but owner did not know what to call it. Had a German advisor and neither knew the others language. They both spoke a spattering of English. German advisor asked how long it took to build the car. When told the answer he replied in broken English "Dat soon". Thus Datsun was named.

 

[Jack Flash]

My brother and father worked for Jeep. Then Chrysler aquired Jeep. Then Chrysler was acquired by Mercedes Benz. On a visit to dad's house, I happened to notice that all the official documents for their Jeep products referenced the parent company as Daimler-Benz.

So where did Mercedes fit in?

Way way back, circa the early 1900s, D-B was turning out big black cars. Someone got the idea to test the market for a little two seat roadster.

To further distinguish the new car from its stable-mates, D-B painted it white. Apparently old man Benz doted on his granddaughter, so he saw this pretty little car, he named it after her.

The story was publicized and the public found it enchanting. So much so that the company became popularly known as Mercedes Benz.

 

[swsig]

So where did Mercedes fit in?

Way way back, circa the early 1900s, D-B was turning out big black cars. Someone got the idea to test the market for a little two seat roadster.

To further distinguish the new car from its stable-mates, D-B painted it white. Apparently old man Benz doted on his granddaughter, so he saw this pretty little car, he named it after her.

The story was publicized and the public found it enchanting. So much so that the company became popularly known as Mercedes Benz.

That's close. The Mercedes was named after the daughter of France's importer of Daimler automobiles, Emil Jellinek. Here's the story from the Mercedes-Benz website:

Emil Jellinek, who had a large house in Nice and maintained good relationships with the international finance world and aristocracy, also increased his car-dealing activities from 1898 onwards: he promoted and sold the Daimler vehicles in the highest echelons of society. DMG supplied Jellinek with 10 vehicles as early as 1899. Emil Jellinek asked DMG for increasingly powerful and fast vehicles and also entered races with them – most notably the Nice Race Week – where he appeared under a pseudonym: he used his daughter's first name. The successes he achieved meant that the name 'Mercedes' was already on everybody's lips in motoring circles, even back then.

In April 1900 the pseudonym 'Mercedes' became a product name. Jellinek and DMG concluded an agreement covering the sale of vehicles and engines, also agreeing to develop a new form of engine which would bear 'the name Daimler-Mercedes'. About two weeks later Jellinek ordered 36 vehicles for a total price of 550,000 Marks – roughly three million euros according to today's value. This was a very large order by any standards. A few weeks later he ordered a further 36 vehicles, all with eight-horsepower engines. On December 22, 1900, DMG delivered the first car equipped with the new engine to Jellinek, a 35 hp racing car. This first Mercedes, which was developed by DMG's Chief Engineer Wilhelm Maybach, caused a sensation as the new century began. With its low centre of gravity, pressed steel frame, lightweight yet powerful engine and honeycomb radiator it is now acknowledged as the first modern automobile. The Nice Week in March 1901, during which the Mercedes racing cars proved practically unbeatable in almost every discipline, helped to make Jellinek and the brand name extremely well-known. The 12/16 hp and 8/11 hp sister models appeared in March and August 1901. Thanks to Jellinek's further orders, the production capacity of the Daimler factory in Cannstatt was stretched to the limit.

On June 23, 1902 'Mercedes' was registered as a brand name, and legally protected on September 26.

In June 1903 Emil Jellinek obtained permission to call himself Jellinek-Mercedes in future. 'This is probably the first time a father has borne the name of his daughter,' the successful businessman remarked at the time.

Here she is:

The "Benz" was added when Daimler merged with its competitor, Benz automobiles, in the 1920s.