August Horch Museum Zwickau

Description

In the center of Zwickau, the August Horch Museum presents the region’s automotive history, linking historic factory buildings with an extensive collection of vehicles.

The museum is located in the oldest part of the former Audi plant and is part of the Europäische Route der Industriekultur. After extensive renovation and reconstruction, the exhibition was reopened in 2004; another expansion followed in 2017, so the exhibition space now covers 6,500 m².

The exhibition history of the site is closely connected to the early automobile production in Zwickau. The starting point was the founding of August Horch & Cie. Motorenwagenwerke in 1904; after internal conflicts a new company was formed in 1909, later renamed Audi. In 1932 Auto Union AG brought the brands Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer together under a single corporate roof. This broad brand portfolio and a diverse model range contributed significantly to the upswing of the regional industry. The war years brought a conversion to armaments production; after 1945 there were dismantlings and expropriations. In the GDR, VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau was established in 1958, where the Trabant was manufactured. At the end of the 1980s a cooperation led to the takeover of production by the Volkswagen-Konzern; the production of modern models in Zwickau was gradually built up in the 1990s.

Plans for a museum existed as early as the 1970s; a first exhibition space was created in 1988. After changes in institutional sponsorship, the institution was permanently secured in the early 2000s. Since then historic factory areas have been reconstructed and new building sections added.

The permanent exhibition displays around 160 major exhibits — automobiles, engines and motorcycles — complemented by numerous documents and small objects. The focus is on vehicles of the brands Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer up to 1945, motorsport exhibits of the late 1920s and 1930s, as well as postwar production including the Trabant and the later vehicle manufacture by Volkswagen in Zwickau-Mosel. Many vehicles are presented in period settings, for example in a recreated 1930s street front, at a historic filling station, on a racing grandstand or in a GDR bungalow.