---
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."
canonical_url: https://hiconium.dev/manufacturers/horch
image: https://hiconium.dev/og/marque/horch.png
---

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> On this page: [Every Horch on file](#every-horch-on-file) · [Auto Union's crown — the straight-eight aristocrat of prewar Germany.](#auto-unions-crown--the-straight-eight-aristocrat-of-prewar-germany) · [A bloodline, not a list.](#a-bloodline-not-a-list) · [Displacement over devices](#displacement-over-devices) · [The chauffeur optional](#the-chauffeur-optional) · [A name that outlived its cars](#a-name-that-outlived-its-cars)

[Manufacturers  /  Horch](https://hiconium.dev/manufacturers)

# 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.

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Models | 0 |
| Top value | — |
| Period | 1899– |

[Explore models](https://hiconium.dev/manufacturers/horch#essential) [Manufacturer profile](https://hiconium.dev/manufacturers/horch#house-profile)

Complete catalogue

## Every Horch on file

0 models · 0 families

No car matches those filters.

The house

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

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Founded | 1899 |
|  | A. Horch & Cie opens in Cologne-Ehrenfeld on 14 November 1899; the Zwickau joint-stock works follow on 10 May 1904. |

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| 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. |

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| 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. |

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| 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. |

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| 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.