The Great Marques

German Cars & the Autobahn

Course 1 · Chapter 3 · The Great Marques Before 1933

By 1933 the main German car makers had their names, their rivalries and their early reputations. This chapter follows how Mercedes, Opel, BMW and the companies that became Audi came into being, how the Daimler and Benz firms merged, and why German motoring remained a pastime of the wealthy while the United States was already a country of car owners. It also covers the first appearance of motor racing as a showcase. Names and dates are from general knowledge and flagged "check".

Mercedes and Daimler-Benz

The Mercedes of 1901

The Austrian-born businessman Emil Jellinek, a Daimler dealer on the Riviera, ordered cars designed by Wilhelm Maybach and raced them under the name of his daughter Mercédès. The Mercedes 35 hp of 1901 is often called the first modern car, with its low frame and front engine (check).

The merger

Daimler and Benz, rivals since the 1880s, merged in 1926 after the hyperinflation and the economic crisis of the early 1920s, forming Daimler-Benz and the brand name Mercedes-Benz (check). The three-pointed star became the emblem.

Engineering reputation

Mercedes built large, expensive touring cars and sports cars such as the SSK of 1928, designed by Ferdinand Porsche when he worked for the firm (check). The brand became linked with luxury and racing.

Opel, BMW and Audi

Marque and story (check each)Note
OpelAdam Opel founded a firm in Rüsselsheim in 1862 making sewing machines, then bicycles, and began making cars around 1899. The Opel 4/12 PS "Laubfrosch" (tree frog) of 1924 was among the first German cars made on an assembly line. General Motors bought a majority of Opel in 1929.
BMWFounded in 1916 as Bayerische Flugzeugwerke and reformed as BMW, making aircraft engines. Motorcycles followed in the 1920s, and its first car, the Dixi of 1929, was a licensed copy of the British Austin Seven (check). BMW cars proper came in the 1930s.
Audi and HorchAugust Horch left the company he had founded and set up a new firm in 1909, which was named Audi, the Latin for "listen", the meaning of his name in German (check). Both firms later merged into a larger group.
Auto UnionIn 1932 four Saxon makers, Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer, combined to form Auto Union, whose emblem of four linked rings is the origin of the Audi badge (check).
Hanomag, Wanderer, DKW and othersSmaller makers sold cheaper cars and motorcycles. The Hanomag 2/10 PS of 1924, nicknamed the "Kommissbrot" (army loaf), was a tiny single-seat-width car (check).
An Austin in Bavaria BMW's first car was a British design. The Austin Seven, launched in 1922, was built under licence in Germany by Dixi, which BMW took over, and also made in France and the United States under other names (check). Its use shows that the German industry learned from foreign designs, and the British connection is the kind of detail that popular histories tend to leave out.

Racing and Reputation

  • Early racing. Races such as the Gordon Bennett Cup and Italy's Targa Florio were testing grounds, and winning gave publicity (check which German marques took part).
  • The AVUS. The AVUS track in Berlin, opened in the early 1920s, was a closed road for high-speed testing and racing (Chapter 4; check).
  • The Nürburgring. This mountain circuit in the Eifel opened in 1927 (check) and became a symbol of German motor sport and later of testing.
  • Why racing mattered. Makers used results to sell cars, which is one reason the link between engineering, speed and national prestige took hold early (check).

A Car for the Rich

  • Few owners. In the 1920s only a small share of Germans owned a car, far fewer than in the United States, where Ford's assembly line had made the car a mass product (check the figures).
  • Hard times. The inflation of 1923, the loss of savings and the depression after 1929 held back demand (check).
  • Learning from America. German managers and engineers visited American factories, and Opel's assembly line and General Motors' ownership brought American methods (check examples).
  • The question left open. Who would build a car for ordinary Germans? That question leads to the Volkswagen story in Chapter 6.
A British comparison Britain followed a different path in these years. Austin and Morris built cheap mass-market cars such as the Austin Seven and the Morris Minor, which put ordinary middle-class families on the road earlier than in Germany (check the dates). The contrast helps to explain why the British Austin was a model for a German first car.
Check the details Company dates, model names and mergers are from general knowledge and vary between sources, and brand histories tend to be written by the brands. Verify with independent histories and archives, and treat claims of "first" with care.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Explain why Daimler and Benz merged in 1926 and what the new company's brand name combined.

→ Solution
Exercise 2

Choose two of Opel, BMW and Audi and compare how each began and what it was known for before 1933.

→ Solution
Exercise 3

Explain why the German car industry of the 1920s served mainly wealthy buyers, and what this left unsolved.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

  • Mercedes: 1901 car; Daimler-Benz merger of 1926 (check)
  • Opel: sewing machines to cars; assembly line 1924; GM 1929 (check)
  • BMW: aircraft engines, then the Austin-based Dixi (check)
  • Audi: Horch, then Auto Union's four rings in 1932 (check)
  • The gap: few ordinary Germans could afford a car