DKWs always used two-stroke engines, reflecting the company's position by the end of the 1920s as the world's largest producer of motorcycles. The DKW trademark is currently owned by Auto Union GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Audi AG which also owns the rights to other historical trademarks and intellectual property of the Auto Union combine.ĭKW cars were made from 1928 until 1966, apart from the interruption caused by the Second World War. Its successor, the four-stroke F103, was marketed under the Audi brand, another Auto Union marque.ĭKW-badged cars continued to be built under license in Brazil and Argentina until 19 respectively. The last German-built DKW car was the F102, which ceased production in 1966. Auto Union came under Daimler-Benz ownership in 1957 and was purchased by the Volkswagen Group in 1964. After World War II, DKW moved to West Germany. In 1932, DKW merged with Audi, Horch and Wanderer to form Auto Union. Rudolf Slaby became chief-engineer at DKW. In September 1924, DKW bought Slaby-Beringer, saving them from Germany's hyperinflation economic crisis. He put a slightly modified version of this engine into a motorcycle and called it Das Kleine Wunder – "the little wonder" the initials from this becoming the DKW brand: by the late 1920s, DKW was the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer. Although unsuccessful, he made a two-stroke toy engine in 1919, called Des Knaben Wunsch – "the boy's wish". That year he attempted to produce a steam-driven car, called the DKW. In 1916, Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen founded a factory in Zschopau, Saxony, Germany, to produce steam fittings. DKW was one of the four companies that formed Auto Union in 1932 and is hence an ancestor of the modern day Audi company. Das-Kleine-Wunder, English: "the little wonder" or Des-Knaben-Wunsch, English: "the boy's wish"- from when the company built toy two-stroke engines) is a German car and motorcycle marque. Dr Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen, founder of DKW ĭKW ( Dampf-Kraft-Wagen, English: "steam-powered car", also Deutsche Kinder-Wagen English: "German kids' car".
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