Audi: What do the four rings on its logo stand for?

Audi's four rings have a complicated back story which date back to the very beginnings of Audi and its foundations in Germany.

The German entrepeneur August Horch founded an automobile company, bearing his surname, in 1899 in Cologne and right from the beginning, his cars stood out for their quality and exclusivity more or less until 1956.

Their motto was "good and strong", but in 1909 a series of serious disagreements arose between the founder and the technical directors, Fritz Seidel and Heinrich Paulmannn, saw him removed from the management.

Horch then decided to go his own way. He left the company he had created and, as he could no longer use his surname because it was already registered, he founded another brand called Audi, which means 'listen' in Latin and whose first two letters coincide with those of his name.

What do the four rings of Audi stand for?

Audi Automobilwerke GmbH continued to grow until the thirties of the twentieth century when, due to the crisis of the Great Depression, the company had to merge with the brands DKW, Horch itself and Wanderer to survive.

Thus was born an industrial conglomerate known as Auto Union and that led us to the emblem of the four rings, one for each brand that made up the company, linked together.

To this day, Audi still retains it as a distinctive feature on the front of their cars.

During World War II, the Audi name remained dormant for some time until 1964, when the Volkswagen Group bought Auto Union following expansionary industrial plans that have lasted until today.

The parent company decided to resurrect the Audi name and, already in the 70s and under the leadership of Ferdinand Piech (grandson of the founder of Porsche), drives it to become a renowned brand.

The two victories of Walter Rhorl in the World Rally Championship with the Quattro Coupe added even more prestige to the brand.

Since then Audi has remained at the forefront of technology and has differentiated itself by the values that August Horch wanted to give to his cars: quality, reliability and performance.