1954 IFA F9 English brochure

VEB Sachsenring - East Germany's People's Cars

The Allies had no grand plan to permanently divide Germany after the Second World War, but as relations between the Allies degenerated through 1946-47, the de-facto occupation zones began to take on the shape of separate regimes. By the fortune of war Auto-Union found itself in the Soviet occupation zone. Having been given over to war production, some of their factories had been severely damaged during the war. Those that weren't destroyed were stripped by the Soviets for war reparations. What was left to Auto-Union after the war wasn't much to speak of and it certainly didn't bode well for the future.

The Soviets had initially shown little interest in the general welfare of the German people, but once it became clear that the division of Germany was going to become permanent, the Soviets were forced to revise their attitude. To avoid capitalist subversion they needed to address the East Germans' political and economic needs, so in 1948 the Soviets handed over control of all commandeered industrial facilities over to the East German government.

By order to the Soviet Occupying authority, Auto-Union was formally de-registered in October 1945 after its assets had been stripped. A successor company was then founded in its place, which in February 1948 petitioned the East German government for recovery of its seized property. In July the East German confirmed the legality of the seizure and deregistration, and moved to formalize nationalization of the remnants of the company. The old Auto-Union was no more.

The East Germans faced the same challenges as their West German counterparts - the need to people to work and rebuild the shattered nation. The difference was that the recovery would be centrally directed. Apart from the Auto-Union group, East Germany was not blessed with a large auto industry. An overarching authority for the motor industry was established called VEB (Volkseigener Betrieb), under which all the companies would operate. Auto-Union became VEB-IFA. While Auto-Union in the west had to start largely from scratch, IFA was at least able recover many plans, tooling and parts from Auto-Union's archives and stocks of spare parts.

The restoration of cash-flow was the new company's immediate and understandable priority. In cash strapped GDR, it may seem unlikely that Auto-Union's luxury car brand, Horch, would have any place, but strangely that would not be the case.

VEB Horch

A Horch KFZ15. Horch built several truck models for the Wehrmacht.

Before the war Horch had specialized in luxuriously appointed limousines. They were the favorite car of Nazi Reichmarshal, Herman Goering, who delighted in their ostentatious extravagance. During the war, Horch was given over to manufacturing heavy duty military trucks. After the war the Soviets seized the designs and stripped the machinery from the factory and set up production in the USSR.

The Horch plant was left with little to work with apart from some 910 and 930 limousine chassis, engines and fittings. After clearing the damaged factory, the workers began building Horch limousine's to order. Between 1950 and 1953 approximately six spectacular Horch 930S' were built for Communist Party officials. This led on to a contract to build a luxury sedan for official use. The resulting Horch P240 was a long way from Horch's luxury car heritage, but was quite an extravagant vehicle for these straitened times. The car was powered by a 2.4 litre Horch six cylinder engine of pre-war provenance. The car was in production for a short time from 1956 and 1959.

A Soviet general approaches his Horch limousine. VEB Horch produced these cars specifically for Communist party officials, but they were a far cry from the pre-war Horch products. The Horch was eventually retired in favour of the Czech Tarta 603 and the Russian Zil.

VEB IFA
The DKW brand was renamed IFA (Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau, or the Industrial Association for Vehicle Construction) in 1949. Like their western counterpart in Ingolstadt, IFA had a stock of prewar F8 chassis, engines to call upon, so their first car, the IFA F8, was identical to its prewar predecessor. The first cars even had a green and white IFA badge based on the old DKW badge. It would be redesigned after complaints from the West German Auto-Union in 1950.

A luxury export model was also produced with bodywork based on the Baur bodied DKW F10.

The F8 was only a stop gap however and in 1950 IFA unveiled the new F9. The IFA F9 was the realization of DKW's pre-war F9, powered by the 3=6 900cc two stroke. It would be 1953 before DKW in the west finally got the 3=6 into their version. The F9 was every bit the success in the east as it was in the west. It was produced in two door and four door versions, hard and soft top.

Contemporary advertising for the F9. Life in the GDR is often portrayed as a life without choices but that isn't entirely the case. In the 1950s GDR consumers had almost as many choices of vehicle as their cousins in the west and they were just as expensive and unaffordable for the majority.

The new car was still described as the IFA-DKW. Legal problems with Auto-Union DKW led the company to drop the DKW reference.

The IFA F9 was a virtual replica of DKW's 1939 F9 prototype, but some changes were required. Although superficially similar in appearance, the IFA 3=6 engine was in fact a new design reverse engineered from a single example recovered in Leipzig. IFA abandoned the rear-mounted fuel tank in favour of an under bonnet tank as in the F8. This meant that the car did not need a fuel pump and simplified construction somewhat. Production was very slow and only 1880 cars were built between 1950 and 1953.


IFA moves on

By the the 1950s it was apparent to the East German government that a comprehensive industrial re-organisation was required. This wasn't simply an exercise in socialist political re-engineering; the random smattering of industries the East Germans inherited just wasn't equipped to meet the country's needs and production needed to be closely managed in order to marshal the countries meagre resources. All the auto companies were organized into a new conglomerate called VEB (Volkseigener Betrieb = National Corporation) and give a specific market and resource allocation. IFA was ordered to cease manufacturing cars and began manufacturing heavy trucks based on Horch designs. IFA's sturdy trucks went on to be became a major export earner for East Germany.

Introducing the Wartburg

IFA's move into truck manufacturing did not spell the end of the F9. Production of the F9 was transferred to the former BMW works in Eisenach. This factory, in the shadow of the medieval Wartburg castle, had begun building Austin 7s under the Dixi brand name in the 1920s. BMW took over the plant in the 1930s, developing a pleasant line of sporty roadsters. After the war, the plant recommenced manufacturing BMW roadsters and a large 6 cylinder four-stroke tourer called the BMW 340. All the cars built up to this point were designated BMW, but with the nationalization of the factory in 1952 BMW was forced to relocate its operations to Munich. BMW sued VEB over use of the BMW name and logo which resulted in the Eisenach company changing its name to VEB EMW (Eisenach Motorwerkes).

This Swedish advert names the car an EMW while still noting it as a BMW. EMW's products were too expensive for the domestic market and were primarily shipped for exported. Sweden and Finland received large shipments of IFA vehicles.
http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/wartburg-in-eisenach-75-year-anniversary.html

EMW's large and expensive vehicles found no market in East Germany so the factory was under utilized, nevertheless, when the employees discovered they were going to be building the budget F9, they were less than impressed. As far as they were concerned, the F9 was a low quality, budget machine that was well beneath them. VEB however, wasn't concerned with their opinion  and the F9 began to roll off Eisenach's production line from late 1952. The EMW team quickly revised and updated the car, with a wrap around windscreen and large rear window, steering column gear shift, and better quality fittings. The fuel tank was returned to the boot and a petrol pump was installed.

In 1956 the Eisenach plant stopped production of the F9 models in favour of a completely redesigned car, the Wartburg 311. Underneath the car's completely redesigned and modernised body was the F9s slightly modernised 3=6 two-stroke engine and chassis. The new car came in sedan, cabriolet, wagon, campervan and roadster models.

Contemporary advertising for the Wartburg 311, the most popular Wartburg model. http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/1959-wartburg-prospect.html

The Wartburg was a well appointed and good performing car and between 1956 and 1966 almost 300,000 cars ran off the production line. Many were exported both east and west. In 1966 the Wartburg was modernised and the engine upgraded to 992cc. The new model, the 353's square and boxy contemporary styling left a lot to be desired in the appearance stakes but it was a success domestically and abroad, selling over 1.4 million cars.


The Trabant - the Peoples Car

The Wartburg was a luxury vehicle and largely out of the price range of most East Germans. For the majority of people they had to make do with MZ motorcycles, IWL scooters or Simson mopeds to get around. VEB Sachsenring were tasked to build a cheap, people's car that did not consume too much of East Germany's scarce strategic raw materials. Sachsenring drew on its DKW patrimony to create a new, modernised budget vehicle, the AWZ P-70.

AWZ P-70 Kombi.

The P-70 looked like a new car but underneath was an F8 chassis with its two-cylinder 700cc engine. The body however was entirely new and modern, built out of a new synthetic product called Duroplast (see below), which was mounted to a wooden frame. The car came in a variety of styles; two door sedan, three door/hatch estate wagon and a neat little sports model. The P-70 was only in production for three years (1955-59) during which time approximately 36,000 of all models were made.

DKW had experimented with synthetic materials in their cars in the 1930s. One of those products was a resin impregnated wood pulp called Duroplast. The great advantage of Duroplast was that it involved no strategic materials, was cheap to make, and once set was extremely robust. It would never rust and could easily be patched if damaged. Unlike fibreglass, which was just coming into use vehicles in the west, Duroplast was easy to manufacture and and could be pressed into shape in a similar way to steel panels.

Duroplast in its various states. On the right hand side are the raw cotton fibres, these were loosely woven into a sheet and then compressed into a pattern and impregnated with resin. The resin itself was a recycled byproduct of the chemical dye industry. Once pressed and cured, Duroplast was extremely strong and long lasting. Far from being the 'primitive' product it is often claimed to be, it actually pointed the way towards the lightweight carbon fibre paneling used on our modern cars and aircraft.

Das Trabbie!

The classic P-50. The 50 designation refer to the engine ccs.

In 1959 the AWZ P-70 was replaced by the P-50; the first 'true' Trabant. The P-50 saw cost saving and austerity take precedence over 'performance.' The 700cc water cooled F8 engine was replaced by a smaller 488cc air-cooled two-stroke engine that had been developed for a prewar Framo light truck. Air cooling make the engine simpler and was something of a step backwards. Performance was ultimately reduced, but this was felt to be a fair exchange for a budget car and helped reduce both weight and cost. Styling was reminiscent of the P-70 but the Duraplast bodywork was now mounted on a steel monocoque frame.

The distinctive front of the Trabant 601.The petrol tank was in the engine bay like on pre-war DKWs.

In 1962 the P-50 received an upgraded 600cc engine and became known as the Trabant 600. The Trabant 601 was released in 1964 and would remain in production without major changes until 1991. The Trabants' long production life meant that spare parts were always available to the home mechanic. Improved engines and synchromesh gearboxes from later models could be purchased and retrofitted into even the earliest P-70s. For all of their complaints and jokes about the Trabbi, East German owners tended to take extremely good care of their cars.


A contemporary advertisement for the Wartburg 1000 and then a film of Trabants being manufactured.

Unfortunately for the staff at Sachsenring-AWZ, their numerous proposals for improvements to the Trabant came to nothing. From the central government's perspective, the brief had been delivered. The Trabant was a success and almost four million of the cars were manufactured by the time production shut down. It is true that production was extremely slow and East German customers had to wait up to 15 years to get their hands on one, but this wasn't just due to shortages of resources and poor production processes. The Trabant was popular all across the Communist east and the cash strapped East German government prioritised foreign export over domestic distribution.

By the 1980s however, the pollution generated by the Trabant's two-stroke engine was beginning to impact on its export prospects. This was slightly unfair as the problem wasn't so much the two-stroke engine as with the poor quality of the 78 octane petrol and oil being used in the east. VEB also recommended owners over-oil their engines under the false reasoning that more oil would reduce engine-wear. In fact it only caused more pollution and reduced engine performance. Nevertheless, over time the Trabant failed to find a market in the west, while the four-stroke engined products of the Czech Skoda company did. Having shut down all four stroke engine development in the 1950s, VEB were finally forced to source engines from Volkswagen, but it did not greatly help its export sales. After the fall of Communism, Volkswagen stopped production.

The history of the Trabant - https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/07/trabant-east-german-peoples-car.html

Framo-Barkas

Another sidebar to the convoluted DKW-IFA-VEB story is the Framo company. Framo was established by DKW founder, Jorgen Rasmussen to manufacture motorcycle fittings for DKW, however, in the 1920s they began building a small three wheeled commercial vehicle powered by a DKW engine. The Framo-laster (German for lorry) was a very basic affair with an exposed engine driving a single front wheel. When Auto Union was founded, Jorgen Rasmussen retained ownership of the Framo company and although his relationship with Auto Union would sour, Framo continued manufacturing fittings for DKW motorcycles and building its own light commericals powered by DKW industrial engines. During the Second World War Framo built four wheeled trucks powered by two-stroke engines. After the war the Soviets dismantled the factory and shipped it to Russia, but in 1951 the company was resurrected under VEB auspices. The new Framo V901 was a very conventional lorry powered by the now ubiquitous 3=6 engine.

http://www.f-r-a-m-o.de/

History of Framo - http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/framo.html

The Framo 901 remained in production until 1960 when it was replaced by the Barkas B1000. The B1000 was powered by the new 'big' 996cc 3=6. The Barkas was an extremely versatile vehicle, coming in all manner of body styles and configurations. It was pretty much the only light commercial van in the DDR and over 175,000 were built. They still enjoy a good reputation today.

The GDR's version of the Volkswagen Transporter - the Barkas B1000. This one is parked outside the DDR Motorrad Museum in Berlin. The museum has a great collection of Simson, IWL, EMW, MZ and IFA motorcycles and scooters as well as a display of Trabants. http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2009/10/east-german-motorcycle-museum.html and http://www.heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/barkas-prospect.html

For the story of DKW in the west https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/07/dkw-germanys-post-war-wonder-car.html

The Development of the DKW F9

On 25 January 1935, director of sales, Dr Carl Hahn, addressed a meeting of the Auto-Union board saying “In my opinion, with today’s models, we can no longer be competitive in the long term. Fundamentally we will have to create new models that, right from the start, are designed for lower cost.”

Since his earliest days in DKW, Dr Hahn had actively sought feedback from the company’s dealer network and was closely attuned to the ‘word on the street.’ DKW had made its name in the budget car market with its Front series of two-stroke light cars. However, in recent times DKW’s position had been steadily eroding against competition from more modern mass manufacturers, such as Opel and German Ford.

Additionally, a new threat had appeared on the horizon in the national ‘Volkswagen’ program. From the published specifications it was already apparent that the new, steel-bodied ‘People’s Car’ would make DKWs wooden bodied, two-stroke cars obsolete.

In 1938 the Volkswagen was unveiled to the German public, and tens of thousands of Germans immediately signed up to the purchase scheme. Almost half a million would have signed up by the start of the war.

The Volkswagen project was clearly an existential threat to Auto-Union as the group was entirely dependent on the cash flow its budget DKW brand generated. There may have been a lot of prestige in the luxury car market, but there was little profit and a lot of expense. The Group's luxury car brands Audi and Horch had been incorporated into Auto-Union in 1932 specifically because they were insolvent. Audi had virtually disappeared and Horch was only a small volume producer.

Dr Hahn outlined a completely new program for the group which would involve the development of a single, modern Auto-Union range that would include a budget entry, mid-class entry and a luxury entry. To save cost, the new range would use modern mass-production methods, share common components and have a distinctive ‘Auto-Union’ style. The new range would completely supersede the existing model range and production facilities would be rationalized. The Auto-Union board endorsed the program and on January 25, 1935, a meeting took place at the Horch plant in Zwickau in which Hahn, Technical Director William Werner, the factory directors Schuh (Audi, Zwickau) and Hoffmann (DKW, Zschopau) and the engine technicians Strobel, Kochen and Trost met to plan out the details of the new DKW program. At this meeting the car that would become the F9 was conceived.


The Engine
Auto-Union engineers were in agreement that DKW’s two-cylinder 700cc two stroke workhorse engine had reached its developmental limits. As the new car would be constructed in steel, a larger, more powerful engine would be necessary. Since 1930 DKW engineers at Spandau had been working on the V4 engine for the ‘Big DKW’ range. This complex engine, which used charging pumps rather than crankcase compression, had proven to be extremely problematic. Although it generated more horsepower than the two-cylinder engine, it had a prodigious consumption of fuel and spark plugs, as well as being prone to catastrophic failure. Despite years of development and improvements, the engine remained unreliable, so an entirely new engine was required.

In 1934, the Scott Motorcycle company of England had unveiled a new three cylinder two stroke motor. The engine drew the immediate attention of DKW engineers and an agent was sent to purchase three Scott triples from a Belgian dealership in 1935, shortly before Scott went bankrupt. The bikes and their engines were shipped to Germany for testing. It would not be correct to say that the DKW three cylinder engine was copied from the Scott engine, but DKW engineers certainly inspected the Scott engines during their studies.

DKW engineers used the standard CA 700cc twin cylinder as their starting point, adding an additional cylinder. In this arrangement the outer pistons were mirrored while the central piston was slightly different. Bench testing showed it generated 24 HP and ran very smooth. In December 1938, the engine plant at Zschopau was given approval to commence production of a preproduction run of 50 engines for road testing. All these engines received the suffix ‘V’ for versuch (research). In keeping with standard DKW practice, these engines were laid out transversely with power transmitted to the drive via a duplex chain, with a wet clutch gearbox on the right-hand side.

The first test engine was mounted in pre-series F8 chassis number 7294. Some modification to the engine and gearbox mounts were required due to the engine’s greater width, but externally the vehicle was indistinguishable from a standard F8. The test vehicle’s first drive lasted only 50 metres before the gearbox gave out. The motorcycle style, multi-plate wet clutch and chain drive could not handle the greater torque of the new engine and disintegrated. A technical report indicates that six motors and gearboxes were shuffled through chassis 7294 in rapid succession - three engines; 429286-V, 429289-V and 429291-V, being cycled through in one six-week period! The placement of the transverse engine was regularly altered, sometimes with the axles and transmission to the front, as in the F8, and sometimes with the axles and transmission to the rear, as in the post-war F89P. A technical report from August 1939 reveals that the longest distance the gearbox was able to travel before failure was only 500 kilometres. Neither an improved cast iron gearbox casing or upgrading from a double to triple primary chain improved things and gearbox problems would continue to plague the test vehicles right through the development phase.

The surviving transverse engine, number 429296-V, is on display at the Chemnitz Fahrzeugmuseum https://fahrzeugmuseum-chemnitz.de/


Fresh thinking was required. Dr Ferdinand Porsche, technical director of the Auto-Union race team (1935-37), had faced similar problems with the gearboxes of Auto-Union’s ‘Silver Arrow’ racers. Not only did the gearbox need to handle the immense torque of the Silver Arrow’s engine, it also needed to be short enough to fit within the cars’ limited wheelbase. Porsche achieved this with a compact gearbox unit that doubled back on itself. The design team adapted Porsche’s gearbox for use with the triple engine. This required the engine to be turned 90 degrees and the gearbox mounted longitudinally, doubling back on itself to place the axles immediately behind the engine. With the gearbox problem seemingly resolved (although issues would persist through the early 1950s in the IFA F9), the new unit was returned for trials in the F8 test car.

By 1939 the development of a longitudinal three-cylinder engine and its gearbox were completed, which allowed the factory in Zschopau to begin preparations for series manufacture at the end of the same year. At least 49 three-cylinder pre-production engines were manufactured with numbers 429801-429900 being reserved as test engines. Test department documents mention three successive stages of production with engines up to number 429810 described as "old execution." Like their transverse predecessors, each three-cylinder longitudinal engine remained in their test chassis only a few thousand kilometres before replacement.

The car had two new features for the Front series. Earlier DKWs had the petrol tank mounted in the engine bay and used gravity feed, but new German road safety legislation required the tank to be moved to the trunk. This required a mechanical fuel pump to be installed. They also used a distributor ignition system that was mounted at the front of the engine. However, once road testing began it was discovered that vibration from the fuel pump progressively disrupted the ignition timing. Changing fuel pumps and modifying the ignition did not seem to help so, under time pressure, the engineers abandoned the distributor in favour of DKW’s tried and tested motorcycle technology of breakers and ignition coils. This simple and fool proof technology would remain as standard DKW practice until the DKW Munga was retired in 1970.

The mechanical fuel pump was also abandoned in favour of a vacuum pump driven by crankshaft pressure. It was a simple solution but would be an ongoing point of weakness.

One final problem would trouble the engine team – the exhaust. Two stroke engines depend on finely tuned exhaust back-pressure for efficient combustion and fuel economy, but the exhaust flow of triple engine proved a challenge. The early engines followed the pattern of the earlier twin cylinder engine, with an exhaust that turned 90 degrees from the engine and connected to a straight pipe that ran under the car. This arrangement was ineffective in terms of both tuning and noise dampening. Combined with the fact that the air intake also lacked a silencer, engine noise in the cabin of the first cars was considerable. Development of an effective solution was outsourced to the recognized exhaust tuning specialist, Eberspächer. A transverse pre-production engine was assigned to Eberspächer for testing, but they were never able to develop an exhaust that combined acceptable sound dampening without negatively influencing power, torque and fuel consumption. The design office decided to entrust the manufacture of the exhaust system to a new company called Bertram, who would ultimately succeed where Eberspächer failed. Although no one would realize it at the time, this side show would take on great significance in the future.

The Body
While engine development was following its own trajectory, Auto-Union's central body development department under Albert Locke, began styling the new “Auto-Union” form. Like other German companies, Auto-Union had dabbled in streamlined car projects from the early 1930s. Streamlining specialist Paul Jaray had bodied a Audi Front in 1933 and a rear engine DKW streamliner. Neither projects proceeded. The opening of Germany’s first Autobahn in 1935 gave a practical incentive to the movement and Auto-Union began to experiment more seriously. Improved Audi and DKW Jaray streamliners were tested in 1935 and these trials demonstrated conclusively that vehicle bodies with low air resistance were capable of faster speeds and lower fuel consumption than standard body designs. These findings were supported by independent studies performed by the Kamm Institute and Konig-Fachsenfeld.

The 1937 rally and endurance racing season presented the company an opportunity to present a number of body designs for road testing. For the Rome to Liege endurance race, Auto-Union fielded a series of Wanderer W24s with streamlined aluminum cabriolet bodywork. Unfortunately, the Wanderers did not perform well in the race, but this was entirely due to their un-supercharged engines, which proved extremely unreliable. The team returned the following year with improved engines and performed better. https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/07/auto-union-streamliners.html

A more mature and practical design was applied to the 1938 Berlin Rome endurance race. A new aerodynamic body was designed by Albert Locke and manufactured in Spandau and fitted to pre-series F8 chassis numbers 7301 to 7307. The cars were fitted with a variety of engines, including a tuned 700cc two-cylinder engine and a 700cc charging pump twin cylinder racing engine develop for sidecar racing. It's likely that the pre-production transverse 3-cylinder engine was also trialed.

In the body development department, stylist Gunther Mikwausch and modeler Wilhelm Bohm adapted these competition concepts for practical use. Sculpted models were tested in wind tunnels and the results assessed. They commissioned an expert opinion from the leading scientist in the field, Professor Wunibald Kamm. Kamm was able to share comparative figures of the ‘Volkswagen’ and the Adler Autobahn, and suggested some minor changes to the body to reduce sensitivity to side winds.

By 1939, Dr Hahn’s vision of a modern ‘Auto-Union’ program had begun to crystallize. The first example was unveiled at the Berlin International Motor Show in March 1939. The Horch 930S was a far cry from the proposed DKW ‘Hohnklasse’ (high-class). The beautifully sculpted, streamlined body was cutting edge for the period. Fittings were luxurious. The most notable feature was a fold out basin for hot and cold running water that popped out behind the front wheel. The Horch 930S was not a mass production car however as the body was entirely hand crafted.

The Berlin exhibition car stunned motoring journalists and the motoring public alike.

The DKW Hohnklasse would not receive such an elaborate body, but its similarity to the Horch 930S was obvious. After mock-ups, a hand-built body was mounted on F8 chassis number 7350 with a transverse mounted engine numbered 429290-0 in 1939. Road trials demonstrated an impressive Cd factor of 0.42. The regular failure of the early gearboxes resulted in constant switches of engine and gearbox units. Longitudinal engine numbers 429804-V and 429817-V successively replaced the transverse engine.

Chassis 7350, with sunroof and two-tone paint scheme was used in a promotional photo shoot for the new model, now designated the F9 in accordance with DKW nomenclature. A brochure was prepared for the 1940 production year but plans for series production were placed on hold by the start of hostilities in September 1939.

With all elements of the new car’s design settled, Auto-Union had begun preparation for series production. The Zwickau engine plant was given the go ahead to manufacture another hundred engines. At least five vehicles were built and registered for the road by 30 September 1939. Apart from the original chassis 7350, the others were recorded in the archives as chassis 7294, 7344, 7347 and 7358, with chassis 7344 built as an open-topped tourer.

Dr Carl Hahn received one of these early cars and would clock up many thousands of kilometres, providing extensive reports on all aspects of the cars’ handling to the design team. Dr Hahn’s car constantly cycled back through the factory for improvements and repairs. One of the problem areas quickly identified by road testing was the inadequacy of the car’s brakes. The F9 was a much heavier car than the wooden bodied F8 and the F8’s cable brakes were not up to the task. Hydraulic brakes were therefore installed as standard and, as these were sourced from the supplier who was gearing up for Volkswagen mass production, costs per brake unit actually decreased.

After Germany’s lightning victory over Poland in 1939, the expectation in Germany was that an accommodation would soon be reached with Britain and France and hostilities would come to end. Therefore, while Auto-Union and other auto companies were officially banned from developing new models, work progressed discretely behind the scenes. Several more pre-production prototypes were hand built in Chemnitz for expanded road testing.

At this stage early plans for monocoque, pressed steel construction were finally abandoned in favor of traditional body and chassis construction methods. Earlier, in 1938 Konrad Schulz and Dr. Rudolf Slaby from Auto-Union’s Spandau bodywork began discussions with independent vehicle designer, Friedrich Maier, in Berlin. Maier had been an aircraft engineer with Junkers before moving into vehicle design in 1934. He held a series of wide-ranging patents for features such as a height adjustable driver’s seat and, importantly, a manufacturing method for self-supporting steel car body. As a demonstration of his method, Maier built a single test vehicle, called the Maier Lightweight. This interesting vehicle was powered by a rear mounted 600cc DKW two-stroke motor. It had a spacious interior, four doors, adjustable height seats and a single, centrally mounted headlight that turned with the steering wheel.

http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/1935-maier-leichtbau.html

Nevertheless, Auto-Union management could not convince themselves that Maier’s small-scale operation would be able to meet their requirements for mass production and they were fearful that any infringement of Ambi-Budd’s patents would embroil them in costly litigation. They decided to continue with traditional body and chassis construction methods. In fact, it wouldn’t be until 1957 with the DKW Junior that Auto-Union finally adopted monocoque construction. Panel bucks were constructed at the body development facility and passed to the industrial tool company Allgaier to build the panel presses necessary to commence series production.

The war situation however, did force the company to consider alternatives to steel body panels. Auto-Union had been experimenting with thermoset plastics for several years in the mid-1930s in partnership with several different chemical firms. The main technical challenge was mass production of panels in the required thickness. This problem was finally solved in conjunction with Dynamit AG using resin pressed sawdust, but these plans too were derailed by the war.

Against domestic expectations, the military situation escalated rapidly with the German invasion of Denmark and Norway in April 1940, followed immediately by the invasion of France and Low Countries in May. Surprisingly it took the Germans only six weeks to defeat the French army and push the British Expeditionary Force across the English Channel. In the short pause that followed peace feelers were put out to Britain and there was hope in Germany that the war would end. The British however, doggedly refused to negotiate and the road was opened for a long war. Government bans on new civilian vehicle production were extended and would become progressively more restrictive as the war went on.

In 1941, despite the war having expanded on all fronts, the German government began to wind down military production and another round of discrete production began at Auto-Union. Although penalties for breaching the ban were severe, an internal report from 1943 suggest that at least another fifteen F9s were built during the second half of the war, including six experimental chassis. All the F9 pre-production cars were improved through multiple iterations of modifications identified by extensive road testing, including the detailed reports and recommendations provided by Dr Hahn himself. Dr Hahn was to observe that in the DKW F9, Auto-Union finally had a car that could hold its own against all other auto makers.

As a sidenote, its important to understand how all this fitted within Dr Hahn’s overall program. Having addressed DKW’s budget offering, attention focused on Auto-Union’s mid-range car brand, Wanderer. Auto-Union had begun cross branding Wanderer and DKW products in the later 1930s. In 1936 Wanderer W24 sedan bodies were fitted with the unreliable DKW 4=8 engine and sold as the DKW ‘New’ Sonderklasse. The Sonderklasse received a different radiator grill and fittings were downgraded for the lower-mid range market, and despite the DKW’s inferior and troublesome engine, the new Sonderklasse still managed to outsell its Wanderer counterpart. Nevertheless, the Wanderer-Sonderklasse was always recognized as a stop gap until the new Auto-Union range hit the market in 1940.

Auto-Union’s new mid-range offering would be the Wanderer W4 (also known as W31), which was basically the new Hohnklasse body fitted with a four-cylinder Wanderer engine. A mock-up was prepared, followed by at least three prototypes for road testing, including a two door sedan, two door cabriolet and a four door sedan.



Thus, by the end of 1941, the new Auto-Union program for the post-war period was clear. At the top of the range would be the luxurious Horch 930S. The mid-range would be serviced by the Wanderer W4 (with the six cylinderW6 model as an upgrade option), and the lower mid-range would be serviced by the DKW F9 Hohnklasse. All other classes and models would be retired except the small engine 600cc F8 Reichklasse, which would remain as the sole budget offering until the Volkswagen entered full production when it too would be retired.

Initial sale price for the DKW F9 was forecast to be RM1750, but this was expected to be reduced to RM1180 when full production of 250 cars per day. However, in order to achieve this volume would require a comprehensive rationalization of Auto-Union's dysfunctional distributed manufacturing process. DKW bodywork was manufactured at Spandau, outside Berlin, while engines were manufactured at Zschopau in Saxony. Miscellaneous fittings were manufactured at the Framowerkes in Frankenburg or sourced from specialist companies across the country. All the parts were then shipped to Audi's Zwickau plant, where chassis were constructed, and final assembly took place. Even if there were exemplary logistical cooperation between all these plants, this arrangement could not achieve modern mass production. In 1936 Auto-Union had purchased the former Prestowerks plant in Chemnitz, taking over Presto's modern, new office buildings as their company headquarters. In 1938 Auto-Union began fitting out the vacant factory floor as an integrated mass production facility for the new Auto-Union range. All elements - engine, chassis, body and assembly - would be manufactured here on a modern assembly line. Once completed, the bodyshop at Spandau and the Wanderer plant at Seiglitz would be sold or converted to other purposes. By this consolidation and simplification of production, Auto-Union would remain a viable automobile manufacturer in a post-Volkswagen world.

But it was not to be. By 1944 Germany’s position was dire and all industrial resources were diverted to war production in a vain effort to stave off inevitable defeat. Despite this, at least one more F9 was built in late 1944 as the personal car for technical director William Werner. This car, the very last built, incorporated all of the improvements and modifications made to the pre-production series, but was fitted with a very early pre-production engine no. 429801-V, suggesting that it was retrieved from the testing bench.

Werner did not get to enjoy use of this car for very long as it was badly damaged during a bombing raid over Berlin in late February 1945. The car was transported to Chemnitz for repair and, as the car was not running, it was not evacuated with the other prototypes to Saupersdorf in April 1945, thereby escaping their unfortunate fate (see further below). As part of an attempt to evacuate Auto-Union technology, plans and tools out of the Soviet zone, the car was transferred to the Auto-Union branch in Hanover in May 1945. In 1946 the British Ministry of supply seized the car as part of the Allied program to confiscate and evaluate German technology and shipped it to the School of Tank Technology in Cobham, Surrey for evaluation. An article from July 1946 indicated that no detailed technical assessment was made although it was briefly mentioned in BIOS report 21. (‘The Motor Car Industry in Germany during the period 1939-1945’, pg. 21), which noted:

“the F9 car was developed solely to meet competition offered by the Volkswagen. The Volkswagen (subsidised) was cheaper than their F8 model and had more room and was faster. They reckoned that in producing the F9, which had a much better appearance than the Volkswagen and was about 15 kph faster, they would hold the market somewhere between the Volkswagen and higher priced cars.” (quoted from Karl Ludvigsen’s “Battle for the Beetle” page 373.

The seizure of Werner's F9 was reported in both British and German automotive magazines. This German copy of a British report (above) contains many inaccuracies caused by the confusion of the postwar period. 

"The only copy of a 3-cylinder DKW, a model developed in Germany during the war in the hope of better days, has recently been presented at an English exhibition. This model, which "Auto-Review" briefly reported in issue 23/1945, was recovered unfinished by British forces in the Soviet occupation zone and shipped to England. It was repaired by the English and then analyzed, its particularities requiring a thorough analysis. Its characteristics are as follows: 3-cylinder in-line, 2-stroke engine, front engine and transmission, 4-speed gearbox, radiator behind the engine, very large interior."

How thoroughly the car was repaired is questionable as it was soon handed to the Australians for assessment. The war had convinced the Australian government that the country needed to develop an indigenous automobile industry and in 1944 proposed that Australia begin manufacturing “a car similar to the German low priced two-stroke DKW.” However, by the time the vehicle arrived in Australia a deal with General Motors had been agreed for domestic vehicle manufacture by GM Holden. Additionally, the complex legal web of patent ownership that was soon to play out between East and West German successor companies was sufficient to dissuade the Australian government of any plans to build an Australian DKW. 

In September 1950 the car was sold by public auction of surplus military vehicles along with a twin cylinder DKW F8 and a V4 DKW Sonderklasse. DKW enthusiast, Steve O'Meager purchased the car but found that its engine was unserviceable, having broken pistons, a broken conrod and one third of the lower crankcase missing [probably the engine was run without oil until destruction - ed]. Being a creative mechanic, O'Meager fabricated replacement parts and got the engine running again. He also converted the car to left hand drive to meet Australian licensing requirements. The car provided him with years of reliable service, including several long trips interstate. Ill health forced him to sell the car in 1983 to Mr Leo Redfern, a fellow DKW enthusiast. By this stage the engine had failed and Leo assessed it as being beyond repair. To keep the car on the road, he acquired a 1953 DKW F89P and performed a body swap, transplanting the body onto the F89P running gear. The original bonnet and radiator screen was badly rusted out so was replaced with that of the F89P. Fortunately, Leo retained the engine and chassis.

The Werner F9 in the late 1980s when owned by Peter Thorogood.

In the late 1980s, the car was purchased by DKW enthusiast, Peter Thorogood. Peter also obtained the original chassis and engine (which had been dismantled and stored in a box) and planned to do a full restoration. However, when the economy turned bad in the early 1990s, he was forced to put the car up for sale. By this stage Audi AG had become aware of the car and were keen to obtain this important vehicle for their collection. Forty odd years after it had left Germany the prototype finally returned home. Audi Tradition sent the car to a restorer in Estonia who undertook a largely cosmetic restoration. This however involved a substantial amount of body repair. An early IFA F9 bonnet and grill replaced the missing original and the car was reverted to right hand drive. The engine however was not fully repairable. The car is now on display at Audi's Ingolstadt museum where it can be enjoyed by everyone.

The Werner car has been exhibited at many auto shows.

The car getting a thorough inspection at an exhibition at the Chemnitz Fahrzeugmuseum in 2015.
https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-werner-dkw-f9.html

The fate of the other cars:
Surviving photos of the cars allow some cross referencing of their registration numbers with their chassis numbers.

Chassis 7347 was originally registered as IA-230889 in Spandau before going to Chemnitz where it received the license number IV-73330.

As for 7350, despite the registration number IV-34564 appearing in the press photos, it was actually registered at the Audi factory in Zwickau as V-12126. The registration number IV-34564 appears on a number of different vehicles in a number of publicity shoots.

Chassis 7352 was owned by the Spandau testing department under registration number IA-228349. Chassis 7353 was registered in the district of Chemnitz as IV-4267.

Chassis 7358 was also registered in the same district as IV-4410.

The above car, chassis 7358, was presented to the Soviet Administration in Leipzig before being shipped to the USSR for evaluation in 1946 where it received the license number Proba 13-10. This very early car would be discovered in Estonia in 2016 and has since been shipped back to Germany for restoration. https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/06/a-second-dkw-f9-prototype-discovered.html

We do not know which chassis were hidden under the registrations IA-34561, IV-5188, IV-0630 and IA-225868.

The 4-door prototype along with all surviving F9s and pre-war endurance racers in Auto-Union possession were evacuated to a vacant mill in Saupersdorf for protection in March 1945. Unfortunately the mill and all the vehicles were destroyed during fighting there in April 1945, immediately prior to the end of the war. The remains of the 4-door car were transported to the DKW Spandauwerkes for assessment but was too badly damaged for restoration.

By 1946 neither the new Auto-Union in the west nor its East German counterpart had an F9 in their possession and it seemed that all the pre-war development was lost. It would take a miracle for this particular phoenix to rise from the ashes. Surprisingly, the F9 would be resurrected twice.

The resurrection of Auto-Union: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2020/05/collapse-and-reconstruction-history-of.html
The development of the DKW F89P: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/06/dkw-f89p-new-meisterklasse.html
The development of the IFA F9: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-development-of-ifa-f9.html

This post incorporates detailed information from the historians Ralf Friese and Frieder Bach published in German. Frieder Bach's books are available here: https://fahrzeugmuseum-chemnitz.de/das-museum/publikationen/