Audi has long been known for its four-ring emblem. But what do these Olympic-like rings really stand for?

The company Audi is founded by August Horch on 1899 but the first car under this car corporation carrying the Horch’s brand was manufactured two years later in Zwickau. Unfortunately, in 1909, Horch was forced out of the company he had founded and so he decided to build another troupe, still carrying the Horch brand. This had started a conflict between his present company, and his past corporation, particularly on the brand name that both companies are carrying. This odd had pushed August Horch to meet his partners and together, come up with a new name for the car brand. With the help of Franz Fikentscher’s son, they came up with the Latin counterpart of the word Horch, which is “Hark” or “Hear” in German. Here is where the word “Audi” or “audible” came into picture. At times, this name is mistaken to be an acronym which stands for Auto Union Deutschland Ingolstadt but the company still insists that it is not.

Both companies have sailed on smoothly and independently until 1932 financial crisis. At some point this year, Audi and Horch needed to merge with two other car corporations, the DKW and the Wanderer, to save themselves and the other two from experiencing bankruptcy. They were then called as the Auto Union. Before World War II, the latter used the four interlinked rings that make up the Audi badge today, representing these four brands and the unity that they have shared to salvage each and one of them. This emblem is used, however, only on Auto Union racing cars during those periods while the member companies used their own names and emblems. Moreover, because of the tormenting economic pressures of the time, Auto Union concentrated on making small cars for the rest of the decade.

Since then, the four corporations did not withdraw from the union. They later on adopted the Audi as their flagship name and made the four intertwined rings as their official emblem whether on the race track or not.