August Horch Museum

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August Horch Museum
August Horch museum (aka) .jpg
Data
place Audistr. 7, 08058 Zwickau Coordinates: 50 ° 43 ′ 57.6 ″  N , 12 ° 29 ′ 2.7 ″  EWorld icon
Art
opening 1988/2004
operator
August Horch Museum Zwickau gGmbH
management
Thomas Stebich (Managing Director)
Website
ISIL DE-MUS-444519

The August Horch Museum is an automobile museum opened in Zwickau in 1988 . After extensive renovation and reconstruction work in the oldest part of the former Zwickau Audi factory, it was reopened in 2004. In November 2017 the museum was expanded again.

Approx. 160 large automobile exhibits and a large number of small exhibits on the history of automobile construction in Zwickau are presented on the 6,500 m² exhibition area.

The museum is also an anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage .

Site history

August Horch founded August Horch & Cie. On May 10, 1904 in Zwickau . Motorenwagenwerke AG . A total of 13 cars were sold from May to July of that year. The Horchwerke developed slowly but steadily, and two years later, with 82 vehicles sold, a profit of 200,000 Reichsmarks was recorded. After falling out with the supervisory board, August Horch left the company and founded August Horch Automobilwerke GmbH within sight of the old location . After trademark disputes over the name Horch, which the founder lost, the company was renamed Audi Automobilwerke GmbH Zwickau - the Latin translation of Horch - on April 25, 1910. In 1915 it was converted to Audiwerke AG Zwickau .

On June 29, 1932, with retroactive effect to November 1, 1931, Auto Union AG was founded, in which, in addition to Wanderer's automotive department , DKW , Horch and Audi (meanwhile subsidiaries of DKW) were incorporated. The success of Auto Union was primarily based on the comprehensive and market-driven model range - from light motorcycles to luxury luxury cars. The Saxon automobile industry, which was once badly hit, was revived and flourished again. After the National Socialists came to power, Auto Union and its production facilities were also included in the armaments program. In 1945 the Auto Union plants were almost completely dismantled as a reparation payment, and consequently the entire assets of the company were expropriated. As a result, Auto Union AG was deleted from the commercial register on August 17, 1948. This cleared the way for a new Auto Union GmbH in West Germany. A new company was then founded in Ingolstadt - Auto Union GmbH. In Zwickau, the " VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau " was created on May 1, 1958 from the merger of the "VEB Sachsenring Automobil- und Motorenwerke Zwickau" (formerly Horch) and the "VEB Automobilwerk AWZ Zwickau" (formerly Audi). From then on the Trabant was produced here.

Due to the political and economic upheaval in the GDR, the VW Group decided in 1989 to found a joint company with the IFA Kombinat PKW. The plant in Zwickau-Mosel - originally designed for the production of the Trabant 1.1 - took over the assembly of the VW Polo . On September 10, 1992, the 100,000 VW left the assembly line and by October 1993 the VW Group had achieved a market-leading position in East Germany. In 1999 Volkswagen celebrated the 1,000,000 Volkswagen from Saxony .

Museum history

Plans for an automobile museum began in 1975, but it was not until 1988 that an unused dining room in the basement of today's museum was converted into an exhibition space. After the political change, the sponsorship of the museum changed several times and was only consolidated when the city of Zwickau and Audi AG formed on December 12, 2000 as equal partners in August Horch GmbH.

“Our history should remain visible in Zwickau. The diverse history of our company means that we have a special obligation to the public. "

- Franz-Josef Paefgen , then Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi AG on the laying of the foundation stone

The groundbreaking ceremony for the redesign took place on September 27, 2001, after an architectural competition had been fought over the conception including the historical building fabric. The reconstruction of part of the factory building and the construction of a new reception building began in 2002. In September 2004, the hundredth year after the founding of “August Horch & Cie. Motorenwagenwerke AG ”, the newly designed exhibition was opened. A year later, the manufacturer's villa and the former office building were added and the total area expanded to around 3000 m².

"Our new Zwickau automobile museum is a showcase in Saxony like it has hardly been set up in any other region of Germany in the past 100 years."

- Carl H. Hahn , former CEO of Volkswagen AG, in his opening address

In 2015, the Zwickau Trabant monument was moved from Georgenplatz to the outdoor area of ​​the August Horch Museum.

In November 2017 the museum was expanded again, which means that the exhibition area now totals 6,500 m². The extension is a further listed building from the historical fabric of Audi.

Permanent exhibition

Around 160 large exhibits (cars, engines, motorcycles, etc.) can be seen in the permanent exhibition . Multimedia stations and a large number of smaller exhibits and documents complete the exhibition.

In the first part of the exhibition, vehicles from the historical brands Audi , DKW , Horch and Wanderer are shown - that is, exhibits from the period up to 1945. The extension to the museum is dedicated to motor racing from the late 1920s and 30s, among other things. This was followed by automobile construction in Zwickau after 1945: from immediate post-war production to the Trabant to the current production of VW in Zwickau-Mosel. The two parts of the exhibition are connected by an intermediate building that houses a restaurant.

A special feature of the museum is the scenic embedding of the exhibits in the corresponding period. For example, a street scene from the 1930s, open to museum visitors, with retail stores and vehicles parked in front of them is reproduced. A historic gas station, a racing grandstand and a GDR bungalow also form the background for the vehicles.

Special exhibitions

  • Trabant future developments 1959–1991 (September 2004 - May 2006)
  • AutoKino - film vehicles from 8 decades (May 2006 - September 2006)
  • 75 years of front-wheel drive in mass production (September 2006 - February 2007)
  • Cars in Uniform (March 2007 - June 2007)
  • Races, victories and records under the sign of the four rings (June 2007 - November 2007)
  • A real fifties - between consumer dreams and everyday culture (November 2007 - June 2008)
  • Power and Splendor (July 2008 - October 2008)
  • Motor racing in eastern Germany 1949–1989 (October 2008 - March 2009)
  • Dream cars (March 2009 - July 2009)
  • Listen - an Audi! (July 2009 - January 2010)
  • Auto Union is back! (January 2010 - July 2010)
  • A hiker and no other! (July 2010 - December 2010)
  • 20 years of VW Saxony (December 2010 - March 2011)
  • 125 years of the automobile - pioneers of the motor vehicle (March 2011 - October 2011)
  • Presto - a forgotten vehicle brand from Saxony (October 2011 - September 2012)
  • Röhr - Safety itself (September 2012 - March 2013)
  • Show cars (April 2013 - October 2013)
  • Clockwork, steam and electricity - tin toys from the last 100 years (October 2013 - April 2014)
  • Children's dreams (May 2014 - July 2014)
  • Longed for, loved, hated, unforgotten - 60 years of Trabant (January 2018 - August 2018)
  • He built cars - 150 years of August Horch (October 2018 - March 2019)
  • Together - the brands of the VW Group (May 2019 - November 2019)
  • Boom. 500 years of industrial culture in Saxony - 4th Saxon State Exhibition (April 25, 2020 - November 1, 2020)

Gallery (selection)

  • VW (from 1990)

  • Wörthersee Golf built in 2017 and shot at VW Phaeton

See also

Publications

  • Jürgen Pönisch: 100 years of Horch automobiles 1899–1999. The rise and fall of a German luxury brand. August Horch Museum, Zwickau 2000, ISBN 3-933282-07-1 .
  • Jürgen Pönisch: August Horch. Motor pioneer 1868–1951. August Horch Museum, Zwickau 2001, ISBN 3-00-008754-0 .
  • Friends of the August Horch Zwickau Automobile Museum : listen up. Journal for car enthusiasts. Zwickau since 2004, DNB 983700540 ( online ).
  • Matthias Kaluza, Peter Kirchberg, André Meyer: History of Zwickau automobile construction. The museum. 2nd, revised edition. August Horch Museum, Zwickau 2018, DNB 1173984518 .

literature

  • Hans Schilder: The fascination of oldtimers - car museums in Germany and neighboring countries. Hampp, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-936682-15-1 , pp. 46-49.

Web links

Commons : August Horch Museum Zwickau  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Museum history. In: Horch-Museum.de. Retrieved April 14, 2020 .
  2. ↑ August Horch Museum Zwickau. In: Boom-Sachsen.de. Retrieved April 15, 2020 .