August Horch Museum Zwickau

The August Horch Museum was reopened after extensive remodeling and reconstruction measures in the former Audi factory in Zwickau in 2004. The museum on the history of over a hundred -year-old West Saxon automobile is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage.

History

August Horch founded on May 10, 1904 in Zwickau, August Horch & Cie. Motorwagen Werke AG. After disagreements with the CFO, he resigned from the company - founded and within sight of the old location, the August Horch Automotive GmbH. After trademark disputes over the name Horch, who lost the founder of the company on 25 April 1910, renamed the Audi Automobile Works Zwickau GmbH and in 1915 converted to Audi Werke AG Zwickau.

On June 29, 1932, Auto Union AG ( subsidiary of DKW now ) was retroactive to November 1, 1931 established, in which in addition to hikers and DKW Horch and Audi also aufgingen. After the war (1948 ), the corporation has been cleared and made ​​way to the start-up free. Then became the VEB Horch motor vehicle and engine plants in Zwickau and 1957 the VEB Sachsenring motor vehicle and engine plants in Zwickau From Horch. This is where the final assembly of the " GDR 's car" was Trabant.

Plans for a car museum, there were already 1975, but an unused dining room was only in 1988 converted into a showroom. After the political changes the ownership of the museum changed hands several times and was only cemented when the city of Zwickau and Audi AG gGmbH were formed on 12 December 2000 as equal partners in the nonprofit August Horch.

"Our history is to remain visible in Zwickau. The diverse history of our business means we have a special obligation to the public. "

The groundbreaking ceremony for the redesign was carried out on 27 September 2001, after 800 participants of an architectural competition had vied for a concept involving the historic structure. The reconstruction of part of the factory building and the construction of a new station building began in 2002. In September 2004, the hundredth year after the foundation of " August Horch & Cie. Motorwagen Werke AG ", the newly designed exhibition was opened; a year later to the Horch Villa and the former office building extended to a total area of ​​about 3000 m².

"Our new Zwickau Automobile Museum is a showcase in Saxony as it was hardly built in a different region of Germany in the past 100 years. "

Exhibition

With an exhibition area of ​​3,000 sqm approx 70 large exhibits of historical brands Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer are shown. The visitor learns not only the life and work of August Horch know, but also the history starting at the origin of the Saxon automotive industry with the establishment of the Saxon -Thuringian Automobile Club in 1903, its continuation by the Established in 1932, Auto Union up to the VEB Sachsenring and Volkswagen. Part of the exhibition is devoted to the effects of the Second World War and the difficult new beginning in the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR. Exhibits such as the H3A truck, the Horch P240, the last Horch ever built, to the East German Volkswagen Trabant, it is shown that the employees of the " state-owned enterprise " in spite of innovative development services chance Günter Mittag, the " SED economic experts " in Politburo faced.

A special feature of the museum is the exhibition of the exhibits in the context of each era. For example, an open for visitors to the museum street scene ( retail stores, in front of parked vehicles, the DKW F-series) is recreated from the thirties. On certain days of August Horch declared " personally " with a demonstration of the practical operation of a Horch original eight-cylinder engine to a dynamometer with Water brake.

Gallery

(Selection)

Horch 12/28 PS (1912 )

Horch 670 V12 (1932 )

Auto Union Type C ( 1936)

Audi 920 (1939)

Horch 901 Type 40, moderate off-road car unit of the Armed Forces (1942 )

3.5 -to- truck Horch H3A (1954 )

Horch 240 Cabriolet P (1956 )

Audi Type C ( 1913)

Audi Zwickau ( 1930)

DKW F7 ( 1938)

IFA F8 ( 1954)

IFA S4000 ( 1958-1968 )

Sachsenring P 240 (1958)

Trabant P50 ( 1957-1962 )

Trabant 600 Kombi ( 1962-1964 )

Trabant 601 Kombi ( 1964-1990 )

Trabant 1.1 ( 1990-1991)