Historic Car Brands
DKW
DKW, based in Zschopau, Saxony, developed steam-driven vehicles, yet ultimately became famous for its two-stroke motorcycle and car engines.
In 1907, Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen set up a small metal goods factory in Zschopau, in the Ore Mountains.
After initially manufacturing exhaust-steam oil separators, steam-engine equipment and other metal goods, he started to experiment with steam-driven cars in 1916, but the project did not continue past the prototype phase.
What did remain, however, was the brand name derived from this project: DKW, an abbreviation of the German word for steam-driven vehicle: Dampfkraftwagen.
In 1919 Rasmussen built a two-stroke engine, which he marketed as a toy, under the name Des Knaben Wunsch – literally: ‘The Boy’s Wish’ – and that name preserved the ‘DKW’ acronym. This mini-engine was soon enlarged and used as an auxiliary bicycle engine. In 1922 it was developed into a genuine motorcycle engine known as Das Kleine Wunder (‘The Small Miracle’), again continuing ‘DKW’.
In September 1924, DKW bought Slaby-Beringer, which was suffering financially from Germany’s hyperinflation and Rudolf Slaby became chief engineer at DKW.
DKW-SB car
Slaby-Beringer had been forced out of aircraft production by post-WWI restrictions on Germany and had developed an electric-motor-powered small car that used a wooden-box body and chassis.
DKW had bought and operated 20 of these little cars since 1920 and Slaby’s Elektrowagen formed the basis of the first pre-series-production DKW cars.
However, DKW’s 1920s focus was mainly on its motorcycles. By 1928, Rasmussen, manager Carl Hahn and chief designer Hermann Weber had made DKW the world’s most important motorcycle manufacturer and the Zschopau plant was the largest motorcycle factory in the world.
‘Schnuerle’ porting from above – Andy Dingly
Key to that success was a 1926 invention by Adolf Schnürle, for which DKW obtained sole manufacturing rights. This cylinder ‘loop’ scavenging system positioned two inlet ports and a central exhaust port on the same side of the cylinder wall, in contrast to the inferior scavenging systems used by all other two-stroke engine makers.
DKW cars
DKW PS 600 – MPW57
In 1928, Rasmussen took over the Audi car factories in Zwickau, to fast-track DKW’s entry into the car business.
The first DKW car was the small Typ P that emerged on 7th May 1928 from the Spandau plant, first as a roadster and later as a stylish if basic sports car, until 1931.
It was powered by a DKW twin-cylinder, two-stroke motorcycle engine, unitary wooden body with leatherette upholstery, front and rear swing axles and front-wheel drive.
1931 DKW F1 – Martin HansV
This first effort was followed by a succession of ‘F’ models (‘F’ for ‘Front’) from the Zwickau plant from 1931 until 1942. They were the first volume-produced cars in Europe with front wheel drive, and were powered by transversely-mounted, two-cylinder, two-stroke engines.
Engine displacement was 584cc or 692cc and claimed maximum power was initially 15bhp, then a choice of 18bhp or 20bhp. These models had a generator that doubled as a starter, mounted directly on the crankshaft and known as a Dynastart.
On 29 June 1932, Auto Union AG was founded with its headquarters in Chemnitz, a result of the Great Depression. This new enterprise was formed by the merger of the four previously independent companies Zschopauer Motorenwerke J S Rasmussen AG (DKW) from Zschopau, Audiwerke AG (Audi) from Zwickau, which J S Rasmussen had already owned since 1928, Horchwerke AG (Horch) from Zwickau and the automotive department of Wanderer Werke AG (Wanderer) from Chemnitz.
The DKW products were as important for the economic development of the new company as Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen and his Zschopauer Motorenwerke enterprise had been in founding Auto Union AG.
The DKW cars with their two-stroke engines and front wheel drive served the low-priced market segment – the category between 345 and 3400 Reichsmarks – and constituted Auto Union’s high-volume range.
DKW Gelandesportwagen – Allgemeine Automobil Zeitung
DKW in Zwickau produced around 218,000 cars between 1931 and 1942. DKW achieved second place in German car sales by 1934 and averaged more than 16-percent of the market. Production was around 4800 units per month by the late 1930s.
DKW F8 Meisterklasse – Travelarz
DKW engines were manufactured at the main factory in Zschopau; bodies were produced at the DKW plant in the Spandau district of Berlin and assembly took place at the Audi plant in Zwickau. This was an innovative logistical achievement at the time.
V-engines
DKW Schwebeklasse – Brian Clontarf
Alongside the front-wheel-drive F Typs, between 1929 and 1940, DKW produced technically intriguing rear-wheel-drive cars, including the Schwebeklasse and Sonderklasse models.
Power in these cars came from two-stroke V4+2 engines that displaced 1000cc and, later, 1100cc. Each engine had the external appearance of a V6, but without spark plugs on the front cylinder pair. The front V2 section of extra cylinders acted as air compressors for forced induction into the V4 power cylinders, to aid cylinder scavenging.
Years later, in 1956, world famous racing car driver, Jim Clark, had his first competition event in a mate’s DKW Sonderklasse car, coming last for the only time in his glorious career!
DKW Skonderklasse – Crimond
DKW emphasised the power and smoothness of its two-stroke engines by adopting a ‘4=8’ marketing description, suggesting that its two-stroke V4 was the equivalent of a four-stroke eight. That moniker was later applied to the post-War three-cylinder models that were referred to as having ‘3=6’ engines.
DKW F9 Prototyp – Prisvipatel
The cheaper, two-cylinder DKW models were the mainstay in 1939 and DKW planned to counter the expected competition from the KdF-Wagen (Volkswagen) by launching the DKW F9, until WWII intervened.
That DKW prototype featured the company’s first three-cylinder engine, with a displacement of 900cc and output of 30bhp (22kW). With its streamlined body, the car could achieve 115km/h.
After the War, Auto Union GmbH was re-established in West Germany, in Ingolstadt and Düsseldorf, with the DKW brand, while the original – now East German – brands later became MZ and IFA. (BMW had a similar east-west transfer and its East German cars were branded EMW.)
As Auto Union was based in Saxony, in what became the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), it took some time for it to regroup after the War.
The pre-War F9 was put into production, first as an Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau (IFA) F9 (later Wartburg) in Zwickau, East Germany and shortly afterwards with the DKW brand, in West Germany.
The first post-War DKW was the F89 that used the body from the prototype F9, made before the War and the two-cylinder, two-stroke engine from the last F8.
Production ended when it was replaced by the three-cylinder engined F91. The F91 was in production from 1953 until 1955, before the larger F93 came in 1956.
Osmo Kalpala winner of the 1956 Rally of Finland
The F91 and F93 had 900cc three-cylinder, two-stroke engines that delivered 34bhp (25kW) and 38bhp (28kW). The ignition system used three independent sets of points and coils, one for each cylinder, with the points mounted in a cluster around a single lobed cam at the front end of the crankshaft. The cooling system was thermo-siphon type, assisted by a fan, driven from a pulley mounted at the front end of the crankshaft.
The DKW Munga was an off-road vehicle, built by Auto-Union in Ingolstadt. The name Munga comes from the German phrase Mehrzweck Universal Geländewagen mit Allradantrieb, which translates as: “multi-purpose universal off-road car with all-wheel drive”.
DKW F91-4 – Huhu
Production began in October 1956 and ended in December 1968. During this time 46,750 cars were built for military and agricultural customers.
From 1957, DKW cars could be fitted with a saxomat, an automatic clutch: the only small cars then offering this feature.
The F93 was produced until 1959 and was replaced by the Auto-Union 1000 series. These models were powered by a 981cc, three-cylinder two-stroke engine, with outputs of 44bhp (33kW) or 50bhp (37kW) ’S’ versions until 1963.
1958 Auto Union 1000 (981cc) – Acabashi
The last versions of the Auto-Union 1000S had disc brakes as option and a sporting 2+2 version was available as the Auto-Union 1000 SP from 1957 to 1964, firstly as a coupé and from 1962 also as a convertible.
In 1956, the DKW Monza was put into small-scale production, with a two-seat, glass-fibre body on a standard F93 frame. It was first called Solitude, but was renamed, following the long-distance speed records it made on the Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy, in December 1956.
The car was first produced by Dannenhauer & Strauss in Stuttgart, then by Massholder in Heidelberg and lastly by Robert Schenk in Stuttgart. The number produced by the end of 1958 is said to be around 75, of which around 50 had survived into the early 2000s.
Auto Union came under Daimler-Benz ownership in 1957 and was then purchased by the Volkswagen Group in 1964. Auto Union and NSU later merged, in 1969.
1961 DKW Junior DeLuxe – Chiemseeman
In 1959 came the Junior/F11/F12 series, powered by three-cylinder, two-stroke engines. The range consisted of Junior (741cc) made from 1959 to 1961, Junior de Luxe (796cc) from 1961 to 1963, F11 (a little larger) and F12 (larger and 889cc engine) from 1963 to 1965, and F12 Roadster from 1964 to 1965.
All the three-cylinder, two-stroke, post-War cars had some sporting potential and formed the basis for many rally victories in the 1950s and early 1960s. This made DKW the most winning car brand in the European rally league for several years during the 50s.
In 1960, DKW developed a V6 engine by combining two three-cylinder two-stroke engines, for a capacity of 1000cc. The final V6 in 1966 had a capacity of 1300cc, which developed 83bhp (62kW) at 5000rpm with two carburettors. A four-carburettor version produced 100bhp (75kW) and a six-carburettor one, 130bhp (97kW). This little rocket weighed only 84kg.
The V6 was planned to be used in the DKW Munga and the F102. About 100 engines were built for testing purposes and 13 DKW F102 and some Mungas were fitted with the V6 engine in the 1960s. However, by then, the two-stroke was becoming less popular with car buyers.
The last DKW was the F102, coming into production in 1964 as a replacement for the old-looking AU1000. However, the F102 sold poorly, largely due to its two-stroke engine technology, which was at the limit of its development.
Auto Union’s parent, Daimler-Benz, decided to offload the company to Volkswagen, in 1964. At Auto Union, in Ingolstadt, the company turned its attention to four-stroke engines, with the renaissance of the Audi brand on the F102’s successor, the four-stroke F103.
DKW-badged cars continued to be built under licence in Brazil and Argentina until 1967 and 1969 respectively. Saab used DKW engines as a model for the Saab two-stroke in its first production car, the Saab 92.
The DKW trademark is currently owned by Auto Union GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Audi AG, which also owns the rights to other historical trademarks and intellectual property of the Auto Union combine.
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