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DKW
EntityQ639268· pop 30· linked from 596 articles

Also known as Des-Knaben-Wunsch, Deutsche Kinder-Wagen

DKW was a German car and motorcycle marque. DKW was one of the four companies that formed Auto Union in 1932 and thus became an ancestor of the modern-day Audi company.

Key facts

Company.logo_caption
DKW is derived fromthe German compound word Dampfkraftwagen(English: steam-power car);other meanings for DKW includedes Knaben Wunsch (''the boy's wish),das kleine Wunder (the little wonder) andder korrekte Wagen (the correct car'')
Company.foundation
1916
Company.fate
Zschopauer Motorenwerke J. S. Rasmussen merged into Auto Union AG in 1932, marque defunct 1969
Company.successor
Auto Union AG (until 1948)Auto Union GmbH (1949–1969) >Audi NSU Auto Union AG (1969−1985) >Audi AG (since 1985)
Company.location
Germany:Zschopau (1916–1932) >Chemnitz (1932–1948) >Ingolstadt (since 1949)
Company.industry
automotive
Company.key_people
Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen, founder of DKW
Company.products
cars, motorcycles
Company.name
DKW
Company.logo
DKW-logo.svg
Company.logo_size
100

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Show 3 more facts
Commons category
DKW
dissolved, abolished or demolished date
1966-00-00
inception
1916-00-00
Sources (4)

via Wikidata · CC0

~30 min read

Article

17 sections
Contents
  • Automobiles made between 1928 and 1942
  • Automobiles made after 1945
  • DKW Worldwide
  • Vans and utility vehicles
  • Motorcycles
  • Cars
  • Pre-war production
  • Post-war
  • Motorcycles and scooters
  • Companies that used DKW engines
  • Refrigerators from DKW
  • DKW replicas, copies, and licensed replicas
  • DKW engines and stationary engines, boat engines, aircraft engines, agricultural engines
  • See also
  • Notes
  • References
  • External links

DKW was a German car and motorcycle marque. DKW was one of the four companies that formed Auto Union in 1932 and thus became an ancestor of the modern-day Audi company.

In 1916, Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen founded a factory in Zschopau, Saxony, Germany, to produce steam fittings. That year he attempted to produce a steam-power car; , from which the acronym DKW is derived. That steam car was unsuccessful, and in 1919 he made toy two-stroke engines under the name des Knaben Wunsch – ''the boy's wish. He put a slightly modified version of the toy engine into a motorcycle and called it das kleine Wunder – the little wonder'', and by the late 1920s DKW had become the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer.

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