August Horch worked in engine construction (development and construction) after his engineering studies. From 1896 to 1899, he worked as head of the motor vehicle construction department at Carl Benz in Mannheim, where he was entrusted with the most difficult task in the then largest automobile factory in the world: the coordination of production processes with a production depth of over 90%. His organisation of production had a pioneering read for the young-inducing motor vehicle industry.

 

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In 1899, Horch founded his own automobile factory and also constructed his own automobile. The most important innovation was the production of the crank and transmission housing made of light metal. It was one of the first applications of light metal for this purpose in the European automotive industry. In 1901, he had made the entire cylinder block, as well as the gearbox and differential housings completely out of light metal for his second new design. He realised how bold and far ahead of his time he was when he found no one who could make these castings - he had to pour them himself. With regard to the use of light metals, listening engines remained trend-setting for decades.

 

In the second Horchwagen (1901), Horch was one of the first to use a cardan shaft to transmit the engine power to the driven rear wheels. The prerequisite for this was above all the front arrangement of the engine, which Horch had already used in his first automobile and with which he, like few other and very important engineers - e.g. B. the brothers Renault in France and Heinrich Kleyer (Adler) in Germany - against the then dominant rear arrangement. Horch was thus one of the few pioneer engineers who, around the turn of the century, pointed the way for automotive technology for the most expedient way of transmitting power with this construction method. Since 1903, Horch was the first designer to use chrome-nickel steel for the gears. This was a very big step forward for the increasing durability of the automobile as a means of transport. The use of high-strength materials for extremely loaded parts of the drive harness was of great importance for increasing the useability and was then generally used in automotive construction.

 

August Horch founded his second automobile factory in 1909. He named them again with his name, but in Latin: AUDI (from audire = hear, listen. The imperative is audi = listen! ) . Audi AG still bears the name of its founder today.

 

All innovations in automotive technology associated with the name Horch were based on user-friendliness. In 1901, he was granted his first patent for a new linkage, with which it was now also possible to convert motor vehicles already in operation to the Bosch tear-off ignition developed in 1897 and thus make them more operationally reliable.

 

Horch's work was of far-reaching importance not only as an engineer, designer and founder of a company. Beyond that, he has worked for the entire industry and never hesitated to take responsibility for the state government in an overarching manner. Since 1917 he was a member of the board of the Entrepreneurs' Association of the German Motor Vehicle Industry (Verein deutscher Kraftfahrzeugindustrieller/VDM; since 1923 Reichsverband der Automobilindustrie/RdA). He was responsible for the standardisation commission of German industry and played a major personal role in the enforcement of modern standards as one of the most important prerequisites for exchange and mass production. He helped the Reich government as a member of the advisory board for aviation and motor vehicles to make knowledgable decisions and was appointed chairman of the foreign trade committee for motor vehicles in 1920. Horch was a member of the supervisory board of the organisation that organised the automobile shows and he was frequently asked by high-ranking courts as an expert in matters of motor vehicle technology.

 

The services of August Horch to the technique and technology of the motor vehicle, i.e. to the product and its production method, were recognised by numerous honours. In 1922, the TH Braunschweig, one of the most prestigious technical educational institutions in Germany, awarded him an honorary doctorate "in recognition of his outstanding services to the development of the construction and manufacture of the German motor vehicle".

 

In 1938 he received the badge of honour of the Association of German Engineers (VDI), the largest and most important German engineering organisation. The following year, the city of his work, Zwickau in Saxony, appointed him honorary citizen. In 1948, the ADAC, the largest German driver organisation, appointed him honorary member.

 

August Horch had remained free of an elitist self-understanding for the time of his life; he always recognised himself as a man of the common people. The most important traits of his character revealed themselves in determination, modesty, goodness and steadfastness. Despite all the temptations and attempts to persuade, he never let himself be persuaded to become a member of the Nazi Party. He assured his seriously ill wife, blind and bedridden, self-sacriming care, finally through an employed nurse. She was called Else Kolmar and remained in the family after Mrs. Horch had to be referred to a nursing home in 1938. Of course, this was not the tend in Germany at the time. Else Kolmar was Jewish. For Horch, protecting them was not political, but a matter of humanity.

 

 

 

 

Horch was an automotive engineer from the first hour and had a particularly keen sense of the necessities that the practical automotive operation demanded in a constructive way. Since at the same time he also had a happy and skilful hand in the technical implementation of his thoughts, he succeeded in visibly influencing automobile construction in the direction of higher useability through remarkable and decisively introduced innovations. He has given the motor vehicle significant impulses on its way from the "patent motor car" to the real automobile.