---
title: Horch · HICONIUM
description: "August Horch’s Zwickau marque became Auto Union’s crown — five-litre straight-eight cabriolets against the 540 K, no supercharger required."
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---

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# Horch

Zwickau, Germany · est. 1899

Auto Union's crown — the straight-eight aristocrat of prewar Germany.

August Horch built cars twice: first the company that carries his name, then — forced out of it — Audi, its Latin translation. Under Auto Union the Horch marque became Germany's luxury flagship, meeting the supercharged Mercedes-Benz 540 K with five unblown litres of straight-eight.

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Period 1899–

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Complete catalogue

## Every Horch on file

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The house

## Auto Union's crown — the straight-eight aristocrat of prewar Germany.

Founded 1899 A. Horch & Cie opens in Cologne-Ehrenfeld on 14 November 1899; the Zwickau joint-stock works follow on 10 May 1904. The Audi connection horch → audi Forced out of his own company in 1909, August Horch founded a second marque and translated his name into Latin: audi — listen. Auto Union One ring of four From the 1932 merger with Audi, DKW and Wanderer, Horch supplied the combine's luxury car — and more than half of all German eight-cylinder registrations. The 853 619 built The 4,944 cc SOHC straight-eight Sport Cabriolet line, 1935–1939 — 100 PS at launch, 120 PS from 1937; club and auction registers count 619 to 647 Type 853 before the revised 853 A. Civilian production ends 1940 The Zwickau works turn to war output; the marque never returns, though the crowned H badge survives in Audi's museum and lineage.

Selected milestones

### A bloodline, not a list.

1. 1899

  Cologne, then Zwickau

  August Horch — once Karl Benz's production manager — starts on his own; by 1904 the company is a Zwickau joint-stock firm.
2. 1909

  The founder leaves, twice named

  Ousted after a boardroom dispute, Horch founds a new company across town and calls it Audi — his own name, translated.
3. 1932

  Auto Union

  Horch becomes the luxury marque of the four-ring combine with Audi, DKW and Wanderer.
4. 1935

  The 853 arrives

  The five-litre straight-eight Sport Cabriolet answers the Mercedes-Benz 540 K without a supercharger — ten main bearings and unhurried authority.
5. 1938

  853 A

  The revised car standardises the Autobahn overdrive and 120 PS; coachbuilt one-offs by Erdmann & Rossi and Voll & Ruhrbeck crown the line.
6. 1940

  The last civilian Horch

  Production turns to the war; postwar Zwickau builds Trabants where the eights were once assembled.

What defines Horch

### Displacement over devices

Where Stuttgart supercharged, Zwickau added cylinders and bearings — refinement through sheer engineering mass.

### The chauffeur optional

The 853 was that rare prewar flagship built to be driven by its owner — a sporting cabriolet on a limousine's mechanicals.

### A name that outlived its cars

Horch the marque ended in 1940; horch the word drives on in Latin on every Audi badge.